INDONESIA
Boy dies of bird flu
A 12-year-old boy on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has died from bird flu on Tuesday, the fourth human death from the virus this year, an official said yesterday. The boy developed fever on Feb. 11 and was admitted to hospital five days later, said Rita Kusriastuti, head of the Indonesian ministry of health’s animal-borne infectious disease control department. “He suffered shortness of breath and eventually died on Feb. 21. Laboratory tests confirmed he died from the H5N1 virus,” she added.
PAKISTAN
US efforts failing: cable
The US ambassador to Afghanistan sent a top-secret cable to Washington last month warning that the existence of enemy havens in Pakistan was placing the US strategy in Afghanistan in jeopardy, the Washington Post reported late on Friday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said that the cable, written by ambassador Ryan Crocker, amounted to an admission that US efforts to curtail activities in Pakistan by the Haqqani network, a key Taliban ally, were failing.
ITALY
Church property to get taxed
Italy’s government announced measures on Friday to end tax exemptions on commercial property owned by the Catholic Church, a move expected to add as much as 600 million euros (US$805 million) to state coffers each year. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who is a practising Catholic, tacked the measure — which also affects other non-profit organizations — onto a larger deregulation package currently going through parliament. The Church owns many private clinics, hotels and guesthouses that enjoy tax-exempt status, because parts of them are also occupied by priests or nuns, or have a chapel. The new law closes this loophole. The income it makes from the measure will go towards cutting taxes, the government said.
KAZAKHSTAN
Opposition leaders arrested
Kazakh police arrested three leading opposition members yesterday as hundreds of protesters braved a much stronger security presence to rally against strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s rule. About 1,000 protesters had gathered on the main Palace of the Republic square in the financial capital Alamty to express outrage at the energy-rich state’s rights record under the veteran leader. Police raided the homes of three top members of the unregistered Azat (Freedom) party before the event began and hauled them off to a central police station for questioning, a party spokesman said by telephone.
NORTH KOREA
Talks no closer: diplomat
A US diplomat said yesterday that talks with North Korea aimed at restarting six-party negotiations on the country’s nuclear programs are unlikely to produce a breakthrough in the near future. Glyn Davies, coordinator for US policy on North Korea, said there was still a “long way” to go before the six-party talks could resume. Davies was speaking in Seoul, where he arrived yesterday to brief South Korean officials on two days of discussions with North Korean diplomats in Beijing. In the Chinese capital he had said he had seen “a little bit of progress,” but no breakthrough. Asked about the prospect of the six-party talks resuming, Davies was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying: “We are so long away from anything like that.”
VENEZUELA
Chavez back in Cuba
President Hugo Chavez arrived in Cuba for urgent cancer surgery following an emotional departure in which he vowed to win the presidential election in October despite his illness. The socialist leader said he was greeted at the airport by Cuban President Raul Castro and that he planned to meet with Cuban doctors for medical tests scheduled for yesterday. “I have faith that everything will go well,” Chavez told state television by telephone late on Friday. Chavez, who is seeking his fourth term as president, has said the tumor that doctors will try to remove is probably malignant.
UNITED STATES
UK businessman faces trial
A retired British businessman accused of plotting to sell missile components to Iran arrived in the country late on Friday to face charges after failing to overturn an extradition order. Christopher Tappin faces charges in El Paso, Texas, that he tried in 2006 to buy specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for US$25,000 from undercover agents with the intention of exporting them to Iran. His first court appearance is scheduled for tomorrow. The 65-year-old Tappin faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted. He fought extradition for two years until last month when he was denied a petition to take the case to Britain’s Supreme Court. A subsequent appeal to the European Human Rights Court was also rejected.
UNITED STATES
Bout removed from solitary
A judge on Friday ordered Viktor Bout, a Russian convicted of arms trafficking, to be removed from solitary confinement and put into a regular facility, saying that to continue his 15-month ordeal violated the constitution. Bout was convicted in November last year in New York federal court. Since his extradition Bout has been kept in severely restrictive conditions in the special housing unit of the metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan. While there, he has been confined to a tiny cell with just one hour of exercise in another small room, where he is also alone.
SPAIN
Treasure heads back home
Tonnes of gold and silver from a Spanish ship that sunk in 1804 and was discovered by a US deep sea exploration company was on its way home on Friday aboard two military transport planes. The transfer ends a five-year legal battle between Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc and Madrid over treasure from the sunken frigate Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, the most valuable sunken treasure discovery in history. “The total was 49,000lbs, much more than the 17 tonnes thought at first, because the first quantity the company announced was not correct,” Ministry of Defense press spokesperson Miguel Morer said. he added that the treasure was believed to be worth about US$500 million.
RUSSIA
Anti-Putin protests continue
Alexei Navalny vowed to lead 10,000 people through the streets of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s native city yesterday in protest against his likely return to the Kremlin in March 4 polls. The event was called a day before thousands more hoped to link hands around Moscow in a poignant show of frustration with the former KGB spy’s decision to seek a third presidential term after dominating politics for 12 years. “The head of the party of swindlers and thieves has to be crushed [in Saint Petersburg] on March 4,” Navalny wrote in his blog.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese