THAILAND
Cabbie arrested for murder
Police yesterday said they have arrested a Bangkok taxi driver accused of stabbing US man to death in an argument over a 51 baht (US$1.60) fare. The 32-year-old driver reportedly confessed that he pulled a machete from his trunk and repeatedly slashed Troy Lee Pilkington, who allegedly refused to pay the fare. Surveillance camera footage captured part of the altercation on Sukhumvit Road on Saturday. The suspect, Chidchai Utmacha, told investigators that Pilkington accused him of rigging the taxi’s meter and then stormed out of the cab while they sat in traffic. He claimed Pilkington threw a cup of coffee at him when he asked for the money, after which he pulled the knife from his trunk and chased after him. Police identified the driver from the video footage.
INDIA
Hotel collapse kills 12
A two-story hotel collapsed yesterday morning in a suburb of the city of Hyderabad, killing at least 12 people and injuring 16 others. Police say more people are feared trapped in the debris of the City Light hotel, while 20 people have been rescued from the building. About 25 people were working at the hotel, located on a busy road in Secunderabad, when a kitchen wall gave way, triggering a larger collapse and burying staff under debris, a local police official said. It was unclear how many people were still trapped.
JAPAN
Elderly shoplifters rising
The number of elderly people caught shoplifting in Tokyo has outstripped that of teenagers for the first time, the Mainichi Shimbun reported yesterday. A quarter of the people charged with shoplifting in Tokyo last year were at least 65. “Even though the total number of arrests for shoplifting has been declining, the ratio of elderly people are on the rise,” a police spokesman said. “Our survey shows that elderly shoplifters tend to be lonely, having no one to talk to and having no hobby to enjoy.”
FIJI
More troops for Golan
The government yesterday announced it will send 380 more troops to join a UN peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights, raising its contribution to 562. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said the additional soldiers would leave for the tense border between Syria and Israel in the next few weeks, the Fiji Sun reported. The move comes after several countries withdrew from the peacekeeping force due to escalating violence stemming from the Syrian conflict.
MYANMAR
Two sentenced for rioting
A district court in Meiktila has sentenced two Buddhist men to seven years in prison for murders during religious violence in March that left at least 44 people dead. A local official said the men were convicted after separate trials for their part in deadly rioting in the town, which mainly targeted Muslims. One man, aged 24, was sentenced on June 28, becoming the first Buddhist known to be sentenced for a serious offence over the rioting. The second suspect, aged 21, was sentenced on Friday.
INDIA
One held over blasts
Investigators have detained one man and prepared sketches of two others as they investigate a series of blasts on Sunday at some of Buddhism’s holiest sites in Bodhgaya. Two people were wounded in the eight blasts. A senior police officer yesterday said police had detained a man whose identification documents had been found at one of the sites.
UNITED STATES
Heinz Kerry hospitalized
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, was hospitalized late on Sunday with an unknown illness after reportedly being rushed by ambulance for treatment in a “critical condition.” She “was taken by ambulance to Nantucket Cottage Hospital accompanied by her husband” late on Sunday afternoon, Kerry’s personal spokesman Glen Johnson said in a statement. Johnson said Heinz Kerry, 74, was later transferred to “Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston... The family is grateful for the outpouring of support it has received and aware of the interest in her condition, but they ask for privacy at this time.” The family had been celebrating the July 4 national holiday weekend at their home on Nantucket Island.
NIGERIA
Governor closes schools
Yobe Governor Ibrahim Gaidam on Sunday ordered all schools in the state closed to avoid more attacks by Islamic militants who have killed dozens of students and teachers. Gaidam issued the order after visiting students with burn and gunshot wounds from Saturday’s attack on a boarding school outside Potiskum, the state’s second-largest town. Extremists set a dormitory ablaze, burning some students alive. At least 29 students and one teacher were killed. Gaidam said such attacks could be averted if the military would resume cellphone service cut to three northeastern states since the government declared a state of emergency on May 14.
ZIMBABWE
Opposition ready for vote
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says his party is ready to contest elections on July 31 despite worries that the poll is taking place before democratic reforms can be completed. Speaking at a gathering on Sunday to start his party’s three-week campaign, Tsvangirai said he has had to bow to pressure for an early vote. It was the former opposition leader’s first official acceptance of the date set by President Robert Mugabe.
UNITED KINGDOM
Anglicans sorry over abuse
The Church of England has formally apologized for past child abuse by Anglican priests and for its own failure to prevent it. The church’s governing body, the General Synod, voted unanimously to make the apology at a meeting in York and said it would now tighten its procedures. “We failed big time,” Paul Butler, the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, said as he opened the meeting on Sunday. “We cannot do anything other than own up to our failures. We were wrong. Our failures were sin just as much as the perpetrators sinned.”
CUBA
Bad behavior condemned
President Raul Castro spent the lion’s share of a prominent speech on Sunday scolding his countrymen for all kinds of bad behavior, everything from corruption and theft to public urination and the odoriferous practice of raising pigs in cities. Speaking before legislators at one of parliament’s twice-annual sessions, he railed against decaying morals, a deteriorating sense of civic responsibility and vanishing values like honor, decency and decorum. He had a list of complaints about illegal activities, including unauthorized home construction, logging, slaughter of livestock and taking bribes, and “social indiscipline” — shouting and swearing in the streets, public drinking, drunk driving, dumping trash on the roadside and showing up late to work.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was