NEPAL
Tibet protesters arrested
Police arrested 11 people in Kathmandu on suspicion of “anti-China activities” yesterday morning, the anniversary of the 1959 rebellion against China’s rule of Tibet. “Some of the people we arrested were Tibetan but we have not interrogated all of them yet,” police spokesman Uttam Subedi told reporters. Nepal, home to about 20,000 Tibetans, is under intense pressure from Beijing over the exiles. In the lead-up to yesterday’s 54th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, the Nepalese government re-exerted its security efforts. Nepalese Ministry of Home affairs spokesman Shanker Koirala told local journalists last week that the government was making “necessary security arrangements in areas deemed sensitive, to foil any untoward incidents.” Tibetan anger at Beijing’s control erupted into violent riots against Chinese rule in the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa and adjacent areas in March 2008. Speaking with reporters last week, Tibetan activists in Kathmandu said they had planned subdued protests this year, citing an increased security presence around their community.
CHINA
City finds dead pigs in river
Officials say they have fished out 900 dead pigs from a Shanghai river that is a water source for city residents. Officials are investigating where the pigs came from. A statement posted on Saturday on the city’s Agriculture Committee’s Web site says they have not found any evidence that the pigs were dumped into the river or of any animal epidemic. The statement said the city and the Songjiang district government started retrieving the pigs on Friday. By Saturday afternoon they had recovered and disposed of more than 900. The statement said the water and environmental protection bureaus are ramping up monitoring of the river’s water quality.
UNITED KINGDOM
Project unearths Van Dyck
A filthy oil painting locked away in a museum in the northeast of England was on Saturday revealed to be an original masterpiece by Van Dyck. The portrait was spotted when it was photographed for an ambitious project to catalogue every single one of Britain’s oil paintings in public ownership in an online museum. Depicting Olivia Boteler Porter, lady-in-waiting to Henrietta Maria, the wife of English king Charles I, the 17th-century painting had been listed as “a copy after Sir Anthony Van Dyck.” However, when experts took a closer look, they realized that the oval portrait, housed in The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in County Durham, was an original. “To find a portrait by Van Dyck is rare enough, but to find one of his ‘friendship portraits’ like this, of the wife of his best friend in England [Endymion Porter], is extraordinarily lucky,” said Bendor Grosvenor, an art historian and dealer. He said the painting had been in such a bad state that it would have likely only fetched up to £5,000 (US$7,500) at auction as a Van Dyck copy, but now, it could be valued at up to £1 million.
BRAZIL
Protesting cyclists bare all
Scores of nude cyclists rolled through Sao Paulo on Saturday to call attention to the bare facts: The city is dangerous for bikers, and short on dedicated bike lanes. Some demonstrators did a “Full Monty” ride while others opted for a relatively demure topless protest that was carried out in some other Brazilian cities, like Porto Alegre, and in Peru’s capital, Lima. “When we take it all off, we are showing just how vulnerable we are when we are not in a car,” one demonstrator told local media. In Lima, protesters were demanding bike lanes and better traffic lighting. They said they also were trying to raise awareness of cycling as a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transport.
SPAIN
King leaves hospital
King Juan Carlos has left a hospital six days after successfully undergoing surgery for herniated discs in his lower spine. The 75-year-old monarch thanked waiting journalists for their patience and said “I’m very well, my back doesn’t hurt or anything,” from the front passenger seat as he was driven home on Saturday. The operation was the head of state’s fourth in 12 months, and the 12th time he has undergone surgery during his lifetime. Juan Carlos had hip surgery in November and has had other health issues in the last two years, including needing knee surgery and the removal of a benign lung tumor.
GUATEMALA
Genocide trial suspended
An appeals court has suspended the trial date for retired General Efrain Rios Montt, a former dictator accused of genocide. Court officials said on Saturday that the temporary injunction delays the proceedings scheduled to begin on March 19. It would be the first genocide case against a former head of state in Latin America. The injunction was requested by military lawyers challenging Judge Miguel Angel Galvez’s decision to exclude expert witnesses in Rios Montt’s defense. Rios Montt is accused of overseeing the slaughter of at least 1,771 indigenous people between March 23, 1982, and Aug. 8, 1983, while serving as de facto president during the country’s civil war. Defense attorney Moses Galindo calls the judge’s ruling a “gross violation of constitutional rights.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of