CHINA
Child traffickers arrested
Ministry of Public Security says police have arrested 802 people on suspicion of child trafficking and rescued 181 children in a major operation spanning 15 provinces. The ministry said the operation broke up two trafficking rings and that the ringleaders were arrested. It says the national operation was set up earlier this year after police spotted trafficking signs, including frequent appearances of out-of-town pregnant women in a clinic in Hebei Province.
CHINA
Protest detainees freed
Police have released three people detained earlier this week for throwing flowerpots, bricks and stones at officers during a protest against an alloy copper plant project in Shifang, Sichuan Province. City officials also announced late on Thursday that an official was appointed as the city’s first party chief, a leadership change that may indicate further investigation into the protest. Thousands of people — concerned over the project’s environmental and public health risks — started gathered in front of the city government building and in a public square on Sunday. The protest turned violent when riot police moved to break up the rally on Monday.
UNITED KINGDOM
London’s Shard unveiled
Europe’s tallest building has been officially unveiled in London, but its tenure as the continent’s highest skyscraper will be brief. The Shard, a 95-story tower that stands at 310m, was officially named on Thursday as the highest tower in Europe, in a ceremony carried out by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. However, it is expected to be surpassed by Russia’s planned 332m Mercury City Tower.
HONG KONG
Record drug seizure made
Customs officers yesterday said they had made the territory’s largest cocaine bust, after finding almost 650kg of the drug — with a street value of about US$98 million — in a shipping container. The officers, acting on a tip-off from US counterparts, seized the haul from a container from Ecuador as it was being transported to an industrial area in the New Territories on Wednesday. Three men were arrested.
AUSTRALIA
Police flee rowdy hens
Police narrowly escaped an undressing after stumbling into a rowdy hens’ night in Darwin where they were mistaken for strippers by the bride-to-be and her friends. The male officers went to Humpty Doo Tavern after reports of a disturbance and were greeted by an enthusiastic group of women who shouted that the strippers had arrived. Northern Watch Commander Louise Jorgensen said the men “nearly had their shirts torn off, but they managed to escape with their dignity intact.”
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in