China yesterday adopted a law to protect for the first time the rights of the mentally ill after years of accusations that psychiatric hospitals are used to lock up people against their will and silence dissidents. Human rights advocates called the hard-fought for law, which has been debated for more than two decades, significant, even though they say it still falls short of international standards as it allows for involuntary commitment without judicial review. “The most important thing that this law does is it will allow civil society to step in to monitor and press for improvement in the management of mental health in China, including ... pushing for greater transparency and progressive curtailment of police rights,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
? PHILIPPINES
Storm leaves six dead
Tropical Storm Son-Tinh has left six people dead and nine missing in the country and is heading toward Vietnam and southern China. Civil defense chief Benito Ramos said yesterday the fatalities included an 88-year-old woman who died of hypothermia and a 77-year-old man hit by a falling tree in central Philippines More than 30,000 people stranded at seaports and airports were expected to resume their journeys after storm warnings were lifted yesterday and floodwaters began subsiding.
? SOUTH KOREA
Gas leak delays launch
The nation was forced to postpone its third attempt to launch a satellite into space from its own soil because of a last-minute technical glitch. Space agency chief Kim Seung-jo said engineers found a gas leak in the link between the two-stage rocket and the launch pad just hours before yesterday’s planned lift-off. The South has tried unsuccessfully two other times to launch a satellite. In 2009, the rocket failed to deploy the satellite in orbit. In 2010, the rocket carrying the satellite exploded just two minutes after lift-off. Kim said it would take at least another three days to try again.
? PHILIPPINES
Reward for thief’s head
Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has offered a US$121,000 reward for the decapitated head of the alleged leader of a gang of car thieves. Duterte, known for being tough on criminals, told a news conference in Davao on Wednesday that he would give 2 million pesos (US$48,400) if suspect Ryan Yu is arrested and 4 million pesos if he’s killed. He said he would add another 1 million pesos if Yu’s decapitated head was delivered to him “in ice.” Davao police chief Ronald de la Rosa said yesterday that many interested parties had sent text messages wanting assurance they would receive the reward.
Agencies
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion