INDIA
Submarine ready for trials
The nation’s first home-built nuclear submarine is ready for sea trials in open waters, a step before it becomes fully operational, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced yesterday. The nation unveiled the indigenous 6,000-tonne INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) in 2009 as part of a project to construct five nuclear armed vessels. Singh described the development as “a giant stride in the progress of our indigenous technological capabilities” and said he hoped to see the submarine commissioned soon. The navy inducted a Russian-leased nuclear submarine into service in April last year, joining China, France, the US, Britain and Russia in the elite club of countries with nuclear-powered vessels.
UNITED KINGDOM
Zimbabwe, Iran sign deal
Zimbabwe has signed a secret deal to supply Iran with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon, in breach of international sanctions, the Times reported yesterday. “I have seen [a memorandum of understanding] to export uranium to the Iranians,” Zimbabwean Deputy Mining Minister Gift Chimanikire told the newspaper. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has publicly backed Iran’s nuclear drive. During a visit by Iran’s then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Harare in April 2010, Mugabe said his guest should be assured of “Zimbabwe’s continuous support of Iran’s just cause on the nuclear issue.” Chimanikire is a member of Zimbabwe’s opposition and said the uranium deal had been made without his knowledge, and was only known to a handful of people at the top of the government. Despite the agreement, the Times reported analysts as saying that it was likely to be a long time before Zimbabwe’s uranium reserves were ready for export.
CHINA
Trafficking suspects held
Local authorities have detained nine people, including an obstetrician, on suspicion of baby trafficking at a hospital in northwestern China, state media reported. Three government officials and three hospital managers at Fuping County Maternal and Child Health Care in Shaanxi Province were also fired over the baby trafficking scandal, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. Among the detained suspects is Zhang Shuxia, an obstetrician at the hospital who abducted newborns by sometimes falsely claiming the infants were born with congenital problems, it said. Xinhua said police had received 55 reports of child abductions and that Zhang allegedly was involved in 26 of them. Despite severe legal punishments, including the death penalty, child trafficking is a big problem in China. It is very profitable for the traffickers, and demand is strong, driven partly by the traditional preference for male heirs, a strict one-child policy and ignorance of the law.
JAPAN
China’s ships in E China Sea
Four Chinese government ships entered disputed waters in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter row with Tokyo yesterday, the coast guard said. “We are telling them to leave the area,” an official spokesman said, after the ships sailed into waters around the Senkaku islands — known in Taiwan as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — shortly after 9am. The ships were among five vessels that have been sailing in and out of the disputed zone since last week. The foreign ministry summoned Beijing’s envoy on Thursday after the ships spent more than a day in Japanese territorial waters, marking their longest such incursion since the long-simmering dispute erupted again last year.
COSTA RICA
Child porn suspect arrested
The suspected head of an international child pornography ring was arrested on Friday as part of a probe coordinated with Spain and several Latin American countries, authorities said. Agents, both local and from the global police agency Interpol, arrested the man and seized computers during raids across the country, Judicial Investigation Organization spokeswoman Marisel Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said there was no indication as yet that pornographic material was produced in the country. Local broadcasters identified the suspect as a 45-year-old commercial airlines pilot, reporting he did not resist arrest. A San Jose criminal court decided to release him later in the day, but he is not allowed to leave the country. Rodriguez said the investigation began in April and was conducted in coordination with several countries, including Spain, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay. Brazilian authorities said on Friday they had arrested four people suspected of distributing child pornography online.
UNITED STATES
Police Taser, kill teen
The family of a teenage graffiti artist who died after being stunned with a Taser fired by police officers demanded a full investigation into the incident on Friday. Israel Hernandez, 18, died shortly after being zapped with a Taser when he fled from Miami police who had caught him spray-painting a boarded-up store front on Tuesday. His death has sent shockwaves through Miami Beach’s arts community. Hernandez, who was originally from Colombia, was a well-known graffiti artist whose work had been exhibited locally. “We want a thorough investigation to find out what happened,” his father, also called Israel Hernandez, said on Friday. The Hernandez family was to lead a vigil yesterday where he was caught. Police said officers shot Hernandez with the Taser after he refused to stop.
UNITED STATES
More than 1,600 fight blaze
More than 1,600 Californian firefighters are battling a blaze east of Los Angeles that has injured six people and forced hundreds to flee their homes, authorities said on Friday. The fire is estimated to cover 7,200 hectares, a figure that has nearly doubled since Thursday. Those injured include five firefighters and a civilian, the Riverside County Fire Department said. As of Friday, the fire had destroyed 29 buildings, mostly homes, and was only 40 percent contained. Two of the firefighters were overwhelmed by heat, and the condition of the other three has not been made public. Eight helicopters were being used to fight the fire, which on Thursday forced the evacuation of 1,800 people in several towns near Banning, 150km east of Los Angeles.
VENEZUELA
Maduro sleeps in mausoleum
President Nicolas Maduro is known for his devotion to late president Hugo Chavez and now he says that he sometimes sleeps in the mausoleum where his mentor’s remains are kept. Maduro was Chavez’s vice president and named by him as his successor before he died. During the campaign for the April 14 election he narrowly won, Maduro caused a furor when he said Chavez came to him in the form of a little bird that flew around his head. Venezuela’s president reopened the issue of his use of Chavez’s image on Thursday when, during an act at the former military museum where Chavez’s remains are kept, he said: “I sometimes come at night. At times, many times, I sleep here.” He said he sometimes comes with a retinue. “We enter at night and we stay to sleep. At night, we reflect on things here.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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