CHINA
Four judges suspended
Shanghai has suspended four judges over allegations that they patronized prostitutes, reports and officials said yesterday in the latest salacious scandal to result from online accusations. An inquiry was opened after an anonymous blogger, identified by state media only as being surnamed Ni, posted footage online last week alleging that five officials hired prostitutes at a resort in June. The Shanghai Higher People’s Court said on Tencent Weibo that Chen Xueming (陳雪明), the chief judge of its No.1 Civil Tribunal, and three other officials had been suspended. The court had previously said Zhao Minghua (趙明華), deputy chief judge of the tribunal, was among those named on Ni’s blog. Ni said Zhao intervened in a civil case in 2009 that caused him a huge financial loss, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported yesterday. Ni spent a year following Zhao, it said, “and discovered that he frequently went to nightclubs, owned several properties and had extramarital affairs.”
JAPAN
New warning over plant
Radioactive groundwater at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has likely risen above an underground barrier meant to contain it, presenting an “emergency” that the plant’s operator is not sufficiently addressing, a Nuclear Regulatory Authority official said yesterday. This contaminated groundwater is likely seeping into the sea, exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, and a workaround planned by Tokyo Electric Power Co will only forestall the growing problem temporarily, said Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force.
UNITED STATES
Police kill armed 14-year-old
A rookie New York City police officer shot and killed a 14-year-old boy on a street early on Sunday after he refused to drop his gun and pointed it in the direction of officers, authorities said. Shaaliver Douse died of a single gunshot to his jaw after the confrontation in the Bronx. Two officers were on foot patrol when they heard gunfire at about 3am local time. The officers responded to the scene and found the boy with a 9mm handgun firing shots at a fleeing man, authorities said. Douse had been in trouble with the law before. He was charged in May with attempted murder after a 15-year-old boy was shot the neighborhood where Douse lived.
CHILE
Rescued miners’ mine sold
The mine that was the scene of a spectacular rescue of 33 trapped miners three years ago is being sold, a newspaper said on Sunday. The sale of the San Jose mine in northern Atacama was agreed by the board of creditors of the San Esteban Mining Co, which declared bankruptcy immediately after the mine disaster. A collapse inside the gold and copper mine on Aug. 5, 2010, trapped 33 miners, who underwent a 69-day ordeal deep underground before they could be rescued.
UNITED KINGDOM
Capaldi is new Doctor Who
Scottish actor Peter Capaldi was on Sunday named as the new eponymous star of cult TV series Doctor Who. The BBC unveiled the 55-year-old Glaswegian as the 12th Time Lord during a live program on Sunday evening. “Being asked to play the Doctor is an amazing privilege. Like the Doctor himself, I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can’t wait to get started,” said Capaldi, who will replace outgoing Doctor, Matt Smith.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in