CHINA
Five boys die in Guizhou
Five boys left alone by their parents died of asphyxiation in a deserted house in Guizhou Province, in a case similar to one that sparked a national outcry in November last year. The boys, between the ages of four and six, had been burning straw in the house, which was once used for tobacco curing, Xinhua news agency reported. Their parents left them alone to go help arrange a wedding banquet, Xinhua said. In November, five boys were found dead inside a dumpster in Guizhou where they had taken shelter and burning charcoal for warmth.
CHINA
Arbitration bid rejected
The nation cannot accept a bid by the Philippines to seek international arbitration over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) told a briefing in Beijing yesterday. Beijing has returned a notice in which the Philippines said it had forwarded the dispute for international arbitration, Hong said. The Philippines sought UN arbitration last month over Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over waters in the sea.
SINGAPORE
High-speed rail planned
The city-state and Malaysia announced yesterday that they would build a high-speed rail link to Kuala Lumpur with a target to complete it around 2020. “This is a strategic development in bilateral relations that will dramatically improve the connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore,” said a statement issued after a meeting between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak. “It will usher in a new era of strong growth, prosperity and opportunities for both countries.”
SRI LANKA
Navy rescues 32 Burmese
The navy rescued 32 Burmese on Saturday whose wooden vessel began sinking while making a perilous journey to Australia. Those rescued are being treated for acute dehydration. The group of 31 adult males and a boy had been at sea without food for 21 days before being rescued. Survivors told local newspapers that there were 130 passengers at the beginning of the journey and 98 died on the way and their bodies were dumped to sea.
MALDIVES
MDP condemns arrest bid
The main opposition party yesterday condemned new moves to arrest its leader, former president Mohamed Nasheed, who has taken refuge in the Indian embassy in the capital, Male. The government on Monday announced that a new arrest warrant has been issued for Nasheed to face charges of abuse of power while president, after a previous warrant expired. The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) accused President Mohamed Waheed of defying the international community and pressing for a politically motivated trial that could disqualify Nasheed from September presidential polls. “Waheed hides behind so-called judicial independence, but his fingerprints are all over this trial,” MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said. Nasheed took refuge at the Indian embassy six days ago.
SOUTH KOREA
Lee warns North Korea
President Lee Myung-bak yesterday warned that North Korea has pushed itself further into a corner with its recent nuclear test. In his farewell address, Lee said the North would only face international sanctions and isolation if it hangs on to its nuclear and missile programs. Lee leaves office on Monday.
NETHERLANDS
Gbagbo to face ICC judges
Former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo was to face International Criminal Court (ICC) judges yesterday, who will decide whether there is enough evidence to try him over a bloody election standoff two years ago. Presiding judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi was to open the hearings at The Hague-based court’s headquarters at 2:30pm, with prosecutors expected to launch their case later in the afternoon. Gbagbo, 67, faces four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape for fomenting a wave of violence that swept Ivory Coast after he refused to concede defeat in November 2010 presidential polls. Prosecutors and the defense will argue their cases before a three-judge bench, who will then decide if he should be charged. Gbagbo is expected to speak on the final day, Feb. 28.
FRANCE
Divorced dad ends protest
A father demanding visiting rights with his son climbed down on Monday from his protest perch atop a crane, but said it would be a long time before divorced dads are seen as credible single parents and get the same rights as mothers. Serge Charnay halted his four-day protest on the crane in Nantes after Justice Minister Christiane Taubira met with SOS Papa, an activist group for divorced fathers. “It’s a start ... There’s lots of work to do,” he told TV cameras after reaching the ground. “These little ladies still think we can’t change the diapers of a kid and take care of him ... This must stop.”
MEXICO
Police chief missing
The police chief of the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo is missing, authorities said on Monday. Tamaulipas state prosecutors said they have opened an investigation into the whereabouts of Roberto Balmori Garza, police chief of the city across the border from Laredo, Texas. Local media reported that two of Balmori Garza’s brothers were found shot dead on Sunday inside the trunk of a car in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon. One of his brothers was a federal investigator, media reported.
RUSSIA
Lawmaker’s body found
The body of a local lawmaker has been found cemented in a barrel, and a former government official has been accused of ordering the killing over an US$80 million debt, officials said on Monday. Mikhail Pakhomov, 37, was a member of the legislature in Lipetsk, a city about 350km south of Moscow, and was last seen on Tuesday last week, when three unidentified men pushed him into a car outside a restaurant in Lipetsk and drove away. The Investigative Committee said several suspects had been detained, including Yevgeny Kharitonov, a former deputy minister for communal services in the Moscow region’s provincial government, who was suspected of ordering the killing.
BELGIUM
Animals win in boar hunt
At first it looked like no contest: 200 hunters versus 170 wild boars, but in the end, only one boar was slain. As hunter Jef Schrijvers said after a frustrating day: “The boars won. The hunters lost.” The town of Postel had organized the hunt because a sharp rise in the boar population had damaged farm fields and woods and caused traffic problems. In a coordinated swoop, the hunters sought to drive the boars together so that marksmen in high positions could shoot them, but the plan did not work. Schrijvers told VRT television that “the hunt was perfect, safe and correct. Only the result was disappointing.”
‘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