PHILIPPINES
Trip wire injures troops
The military said troops on a jungle patrol hit a trip wire planted by Muslim militants. It wounded 22 soldiers, five of them critically. The bomb exploded on southern Basilan Island yesterday near a camp of Abu Sayyaf rebels that troops captured during fighting last month. Military commander Colonel Ricardo Visaya said the soldiers were clearing the camp of leftover explosives when they walked into the trip wire hidden in thick vegetation.
PHILIPPINES
Urban forest gets reprieve
A court has halted extension work on a mall amid a public outcry over plans to cut down almost 200 trees in a popular urban forest. The court in northern Baguio yesterday issued a temporary environmental protection order stopping SM malls, one of the country’s biggest chains, from uprooting the trees in downtown Baguio, known as the city of pines and the country’s summer capital. SM Prime Holdings had previously secured permission to expand the existing mall and promised to replant the towering Alnus trees in another location to make room for a new multilevel development. Environmentalists objected and took to the site at midnight when workers began clearing the land.
AUSTRALIA
Gang leader gets 28 years
A motorcycle gang leader has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for murdering a brother of a rival gang member during a brawl at Sydney Airport. Comanchero national president Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was found guilty by a New South Wales state Supreme Court jury in November last year of the March 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas. Justice Robert Allan Hulme yesterday set a non-parole period of 21 years for the 31-year-old and a maximum of 28 years for the murder. A rolling brawl between rival gangs erupted in the country’s busiest airport after a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne.
PAKISTAN
Sectarian attack kills six
Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Shiite Muslims in the country’s southwest on Monday, killing six in an apparent sectarian attack, police said. Three other Shiites were wounded in the attack on a shoe store in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, police officer Hamid Shakil said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years.
INDIA
Amitabh to have CT scan
The country’s favorite film star, Amitabh Bachchan, was preparing for a medical scan yesterday after suffering from “horrendous” pain less than two months after undergoing abdominal surgery. The 69-year-old Bollywood legend said on his blog that he had been struck down on Sunday night. “I rose from my desk to get to bed, but excruciating pain, stopped me in my tracks and I found it difficult to walk to stand to sit to lie down. Quite horrendous!” he wrote. “This was not there post operation even ... so what really is the reason for it two months down the line? I have no answer. But tomorrow [Tuesday] there should be one as I prepare for a CT Scan.” Bachchan, who still acts in several films every year, was discharged from a Mumbai hospital late in February after undergoing surgery twice for an abdominal problem.
SPAIN
King’s grandson shot in foot
A teenaged grandson of King Juan Carlos accidentally shot himself in the foot with a rifle while doing target practice outside a family home north of Madrid, the royal palace said by telephone yesterday. Felipe Juan Froilan, the 13-year-old son of the king’s eldest daughter, Infanta Elena, was with his father, Jaime de Marichalar, on Monday evening on the patio of a house in the town of Soria, when he misfired a shot at his right foot. Felipe, the king’s eldest grandchild, was treated at Santa Barbara Hospital in Soria before being transferred to the Quiron clinic in the capital for further treatment, the palace added.
GREECE
Sailors go on strike
Sailors yesterday began a two-day strike against government reforms, halting ferry connections to the islands ahead of the Orthodox Easter holidays and disrupting the export of agricultural produce. The sailors’ union Pno said no ferries would leave Piraeus and the neighboring ports of Lavrion and Rafina, all near Athens, three weeks after a previous work stoppage. Greek Orthodox Easter this year falls on Sunday. “Our hand was forced by the government’s callous policies,” Antonis Dalakogiorgos, head of the Pno-affiliated union of merchant marine sailors, told Flash Radio.
TURKEY
Leader lambasts Syria
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Syria of infringing its border and says his country is considering what steps to take in response, including measures “we don’t want to think about.” Erdogan was speaking to reporters during a visit to China yesterday, a day after Syrian forces opened fire across the border, killing two people in a refugee camp. The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying Ankara would assess the situation and take steps accordingly.
IRAQ
Vice president visits Turkey
Fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has flown to Turkey, his third stop in what he has called an “official visit” to regional countries. A statement issued late on Monday by al-Hashemi’s office says he will meet Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to discuss the developments in the region. Al-Hashemi is sought by the Shiite-dominated government on terror charges for allegedly running death squads against Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces.
UNITED STATES
Fewer new teenage moms
The number of new teenage mothers in the country is at its lowest level in nearly 70 years, but remains the highest of any major developed country, according to official figures released yesterday. The current rate of 34.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 is down 44 percent from a peak in 1991, and is 64 percent lower than the record set during the 1957 “baby boom” of 96.3 births per 1,000. In 2010 just under 368,000 babies were born to women aged 15 to 19, in addition to 4,500 born to girls aged 10 to 14, according to the figures released by the National Center for Health Statistics. In one year, between 2009 and 2010, the rate plunged by 9 percent, a “phenomenal” decline, said Brady Hamilton, an author of the study. He attributed the “good news” of the report to both the general decline in fertility among all age groups — except women aged 40 to 45 — and to “numerous programs” aimed at preventing teen pregnancy.
ARGENTINA
Thousands still in the dark
Thousands of homes in Buenos Aires and nearby areas were still without electricity on Monday, five days after a violent storm that toppled trees and power lines, damaged homes and left 17 people dead. Last Wednesday’s storm initially knocked out power to about 600,000 customers, Planning Minister Julio de Vido said at a news conference. Some of those who were left without power or water service have held road-blocking protests, burning tires in the streets to demand that services be restored. De Vido said about 29,900 customers were without electricity on Monday.
PERU
Skanska workers kidnapped
Suspected Shining Path rebels abducted 30 employees of the Swedish construction company Skanska on Monday at a natural gas plant in the Amazon jungle and later released all but seven, police said. The insurgents raided the Skanska camp in the Camisea natural gas field in Kepashiato before dawn, breaking down doors and robbing workers, before taking away the hostages, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Skanska spokesperson Edvard Lind in Sweden said all the abducted employees were Peruvians. He said he did know whether the kidnappers were rebels or whether they were seeking ransom.
CHILE
Film crew rescued at sea
Four Brazilians filming a documentary off the Antarctic coast were rescued by the navy after their ship became stuck in the ice, the media said on Monday. Officials told the daily El Mercurio that the four Brazilians were safe and sound after their vessel Mar Sem Fim was trapped in icy, windy conditions near the Antarctic naval base. The boat capsized in 100kph winds on Saturday near the base, about 1,200km south of tip of South America, said the head of base in Antarctica, Eduardo Rubilar. The Brazilians were filming on a documentary about navigation and the landscape of Antarctica.
MEXICO
Missing official arrested
Authorities have captured a former government executive who is said to have accepted millions of US dollars in bribes and whose flight after an initial arrest and release last year exposed the inefficiencies of the nation’s justice system. The Attorney General’s Office says federal police have arrested Nestor Moreno, a former operations director for the Federal Electricity Commission who US executives said received kickbacks in exchange for contracts. Monday’s statement says he was booked into a Mexico City jail on embezzlement charges. Moreno was first arrested in August last year, but a judge said there was lack of sufficient evidence and set him free in September with the condition he appear in future hearings.
UNITED STATES
Sex bust disclosure angers
A Los Angeles gay rights group said Manhattan Beach police were wrong to release to the media the names and photographs of 18 men arrested in an undercover sex sting last week. The LA Gay & Lesbian Center told the Los Angeles Times that release of the information could lead to public humiliation and one of the men arrested attempted suicide after results of the sting were made public. Various local media published the identifying information. The sting occurred after lifeguards told police the Marine Avenue beach bathroom was popular for sexual encounters. Undercover officers posing as men seeking sex arrested the men.
‘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