UNITED STATES
US, India to target economy
President Barack Obama spoke by telephone on Thursday with Indian Premier Manmohan Singh and agreed to work to strengthen the global economy to cope with shocks from the eurozone. Obama and Singh will meet next week at the G20 summit in Mexico that is likely to be dominated by the crisis in Europe, which — combined with slowing growth in China and India —poses a threat to the world economy. “The leaders agreed on the importance of steps to strengthen the resilience of the global economy in response to persistent risks in the eurozone and elsewhere and on focusing on measures to boost global growth,” a White House statement said.
MEXICO
Pena Nieto widens lead
Support for the country’s presidential frontrunner, Enrique Pena Nieto, edged higher and his lead over leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador widened after a weekend presidential debate, a new opinion poll showed on Thursday. The latest voter survey for the July 1 election by Consulta Mitofsky showed support for Pena Nieto, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), at 37.8 percent, while support for 2006 runner-up Lopez Obrador, who has risen in polls in recent weeks during a series of youth-led protests against the PRI candidate, fell to 24 percent. The poll linked the fall to Lopez Obrador’s debate performance.
CANADA
Air base killer in legal spat
The former commander of the country’s largest air force base, who was convicted of murder and sexual assault, is denying that a woman he sexually assaulted is entitled to compensation from him for pain and suffering. Former Colonel Russell Williams filed a statement of defense on Thursday in response to a US$7 million lawsuit launched by Laurie Massicotte, who says Williams’ attack on her in 2009 left her fearful and suicidal. She says she and her three daughters require extensive therapy.
Williams was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two sexual assaults and 82 counts of breaking-and-entering, during which he stole undergarments from women and girls.
UNITED STATES
Surgeon target of manhunt
Police say they have issued a nationwide alert to law enforcement agencies for a trauma surgeon sought after his former girlfriend was shot dead in a hospital in New York state. Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Thursday that authorities do not believe 49-year-old Timothy Jorden crossed the border into Canada. The search for the former army weapons specialist began on Wednesday morning when 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski was found dead in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center, where she and Jorden worked.
MEXICO
Zeta cartel slays journalist
The Zeta drug cartel kidnapped and killed a newspaper journalist in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, authorities said on Thursday. Reporter Victor Manuel Baez Chino covered the crime beat in Xalapa, the state’s capital, for the local edition of the national newspaper Milenio as well as for a news Web site called Police Reporters. Veracruz state spokeswoman Gina Dominguez said Chino was reported kidnapped outside the offices of the Web site in Xalapa as he left work late on Wednesday. His body was found dumped on a street in the city early on Thursday.
‘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