VIETNAM
Same sex marriages mulled
The government is considering whether to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights, positioning it to become the first country in Asia to do so. The Ministry of Justice’s proposal to include same-sex couples in the country’s marriage law has surprised gay-rights activists. No one knows whether it will survive long enough to be debated by the National Assembly next year, but supporters say the fact that it is even being considered is a victory in a region where simply being gay can result in jail sentences or whippings with a rattan cane.
INDONESIA
Rescue effort saves whale
Rescuers and navy divers on Saturday helped a sperm whale return to the sea after it was stranded in shallow waters off the coast of West Java Province for four days. The 11m whale had been stuck near Pakis Jaya beach since Wednesday, attracting residents who paid US$0.50 each for boat rides close to the animal, thereby hampering rescue efforts. “We gradually pulled the whale into deeper waters with a tugboat. When it reached a depth of 20m we released it back into the sea,” Benvika from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network said.
CHINA
Serial killer to be executed
Xinhua news agency says a serial killer in Yunnan Province has been sentenced to death for murdering 11 people. A court in Kunming found Zhang Yongming (張永明), 56, guilty on Saturday of killing his victims between 2008 and this year. He showed no remorse in court. Xinhua said Zhang strangled his victims and used various methods, including dismembering and burning the bodies, to destroy evidence. It said he had been sentenced to death in 1979 for another homicide, but was released after his sentence was reduced. Xinhua earlier said authorities fired or disciplined 12 police officers for inadequately investigating the murders.
MYANMAR
Earthquake rattles country
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake yesterday shook an area near the Indian border. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 68.4km. The country’s meteorological and seismic agency put the magnitude at 5.8 with an official saying no casualties or damage had been reported. The quake occurred at 8:51am. The official said the epicenter was about 215km northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. The area affected is not densely populated.
UNITED STATES
Alleged scammer arraigned
A woman who lived for months with the corpse of a companion was arraigned on Friday on charges of cashing his pension and Social Security retirement checks. Linda Chase, 71, appeared in court three weeks after police found the remains of Charles Zigler in a chair in the living room of their Jackson house, 64km south of Lansing, in southern Michigan. Police entered the home on July 6 after Zigler’s relatives said they had not heard from him and could not get inside. Chase has said she did not want to part with the body and talked to it while watching stock car races on TV. Chase is not charged with any crimes related to Zigler’s death or her failure to report it. Police believe the 67-year-old died of natural causes in December 2010, although Chase said it was last year. Chase is charged with forgery for converting checks worth US$28,000 intended for Zigler. A judge released her after advising her to appear for all court dates.
UNITED STATES
Church rejects black couple
A Mississippi couple got the shock of their lives when the pastor at the church they attended told them the wedding they planned could not be held there because they are black, ABC television reported on Saturday. Pastor Stan Weatherford told the network there had never been a wedding for blacks at the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, since it was opened in 1883. He said some of the white congregation so virulently opposed the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, who are black, that they threatened to have him fired. “My nine-year-old was going to the church with us. How would you say to your nine-year-old daughter, ‘We cannot get married here because, guess what sweetie, we’re black,’” Charles Wilson told ABC’s affiliate WAPT-TV. The would-be groom told WAPT that the couple intended to join the church as members after their wedding, which was planned for July 20. Until they got the bad news that forced them to move their ceremony to another church, where it was held on July 21.
PERU
Mountaineers found dead
A pair of US mountaineers who went missing on a climb earlier this month have been found dead, authorities said on Saturday. Rescuers found the remains of Ben Horne, 32, and Gil Weiss, 29, beneath the 6,200m Palcaraju peak in Ancash, in the north, police said. The pair apparently died trying to climb to the peak, but the exact cause of their death was not immediately clear.
MEXICO
Huge pot haul in graveyard
Soldiers found more than 2 tonnes of marijuana hidden in graves in a cemetery in the northeast, the defense ministry said on Saturday. Soldiers on patrol in the village of Los Villa Nueva, just outside the border town of Ciudad Camargo, found 241 packages of marijuana hidden in two graves under stone slabs. The Mexican military said the total find weighed 2,241kg. The area surrounding Ciudad Camargo is one of the most violent districts in the country, as the remnants of the once powerful Gulf drug cartel battle the paramilitary Zetas gang for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US. Ciudad Camargo is about 775km north of Mexico City, just south of the Rio Grande, the river marking the border between the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and the US state of Texas.
‘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