PHILIPPINES
Rebels attack city mayor
Officials say communist rebels ambushed the convoy of Ginoog City Mayor Ruth Guingona, the wife of former vice president Teofisto Guingona Jr, killing two of her aides and wounding a police escort on Saturday. National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo yesterday said that Ruth Guingona suffered abrasions from the attack and that she and the wounded policeman were out of danger. A regional police report said she was hit in her lower right knee. The report said the group was traveling in a hinterland village of Ginoog after attending a beauty pageant when rebels manning a road block fired at her vehicle, causing it to overturn.
ISRAEL
Gaza militants strike south
Militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fired a projectile that hit the south of the country overnight, without causing any casualties or damage, police said yesterday. “Late last night — after midnight — sirens sounded in the Eshkol region,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told reporters. “One rocket landed in an open area, causing no injuries or damage.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Since late February, there have been more than five other cases of rocket fire on the country, most recently overnight on Thursday, including ones claimed by hardline Salafist militants to which the nation has responded with air strikes on Gaza.
JORDAN
Syrian refugees arrested
A security official says eight Syrians have been arrested on suspicion of inciting riots at a refugee camp near the border with Syria. On Friday, 100 Syrian refugees threw stones at police for preventing some of them of sneaking out of their desert camp. Ten police officers were wounded, including two who remain in critical condition. The security official, who requested anonymity in line with regulations, said a military prosecutor was to question the eight suspects later yesterday. If convicted, they face up to three years in jail. The Zaatari camp houses 150,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war. Another 350,000 Syrians have found shelter in Jordanian communities. Conditions in the overcrowded camp have worsened since it opened in July last year, and there have been several riots.
IVORY COAST
Voting in local polls begins
Citizens yesterday voted in local elections seen as a trial run for presidential elections in 2015 amid high tensions as the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo boycotted the poll. Voting began Abidjan’s working-class Koumassi District about half an hour after the official 7am starting time, with longer delays reported elsewhere in the west African country’s main city and other urban centers. The country is still recovering from years of unrest, which came to a head when Gbagbo refused to admit defeat in the 2010 presidential election. About 3,000 people died in the ensuing conflict before he was captured. President Alassane Ouattara’s government is hoping the municipal and regional polls will set the foundations for a fresh political start. However, the final days of the campaign, which ended on Friday, were marred by physical clashes and invective. Moreover, the Ivorian Popular Front, which backed Gbagbo during his 10-year rule and after his arrest in April 2011, has dismissed the polls as a sham.
‘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