PHILIPPINES
Chinese boat runs into reef
A Chinese fishing boat has run aground on the World Heritage-listed Tubbataha Reef, authorities said yesterday. The vessel, with 12 crew members, was found stranded in the shallows of in the Sulu Sea just before midnight on Monday, coastguard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Arman Balilo told reporters. “This is a small fishing boat, but we are wondering how they strayed into Tubbataha. Apart from illegal entry, we are investigating them for possible poaching as well,” Balilo said. Balilo said the boat was to be pulled off the reef yesterday and then towed to Palawan, where the fishermen would be questioned. Balilo said Chinese fishermen frequently strayed into national waters, but this was the first time in recent years that they had been detected as far south as Tubbataha.
MALI
Internet domain name freed
The nation could become one of the world’s most popular Internet destinations after it became the first African country to give its domain away for free, despite its domain currently being ranked 177th in the world and only 4 percent of its population are online. The government announced that its little-known .ML domain — which is currently used by fewer than 50 active Web sites — will be free from July, in a move which it hopes will bring much-needed outside investment and give a boost to local businesses. The new scheme is being operated by Freedom Registry, the company which operates a similar .TK system for Tokelau — the tiny cluster of coral atolls in the South Pacific with a population of less than 2,000, but which is now the most popular domain name in the world, with more active domain name registrations than Russia and China combined. Interest in the .ML domain is expected to come from a number of countries or cities, including Manila, and Malaysia, attracted by the resemblance between the letters and their own names.
CHINA
Six sentenced for ‘gutter oil’
The Nanchang County People’s Court says it has sentenced six people to up to five years in prison for collecting used cooking oil and reselling it as new. The recycled oil is known as “gutter oil” and can contain carcinogens. It is typically bought from restaurants and the black-market trade of it has been a chronic problem across the nation. The court says three people in Jiangxi Province were found guilty of buying substandard cooking oil and selling 1,000 tonnes of it in 2011. The court statement says the effort made the sellers US$1 million. Three other people at a drinks manufacturer in Guangdong Province bought oil from the first group and sold it to cooking oil distributors. They were imprisoned for three to five years for selling poisonous food.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Dengue infects hundreds
An outbreak of dengue fever has killed three people, infected hundreds more and is straining the nation’s medical system. Health authorities in Honoria and Australia yesterday said that at least 1,700 people are suspected to have contracted the disease since the outbreak began in February. Australia and New Zealand are sending medical staff to the country to assist. Australia will lead a team of nine doctors, nurses and public health experts, while a second team of 10 remains on standby to deploy there if necessary.
‘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