AFGHANISTAN
Microphone bomb kills one
A bomb hidden in a microphone killed Logar Governor Arsala Jamal yesterday as he made a speech at a mosque after Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice) prayers, officials said. “At least 18 other people have been wounded, including civilians and government employees,” Logar provincial governor spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said. Jamal took up the Logar job in April after serving as governor of Khost. No group claimed immediate responsibility for the blast.
IRAQ
Kirkuk bombing kills eight
A bomb exploded near a mosque in Kirkuk yesterday, killing eight Sunni worshippers and wounding 15 after the first prayer of Eid al-Adha, police and medical sources said. “I was on my way home nearby when I heard the explosion. I ran back to see what had happened and there were many killed and wounded people,” said Ibrahim Mohammed. “There is drilling work on one of the mosque pillars and the bomb was placed there.”
CHINA
Xi’s father honored
The nation yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) father, a Communist war hero. Xi Zhongxun (習仲勛), who died in 2002, was a military leader in the northwest during the civil war and eventually rose to vice premier. He was purged in 1962 and spent 16 years in detention and under surveillance, but later returned to favor and became party secretary of Guangdong Province, where he spearheaded economic reforms. To commemorate his centenary, the government has issued a set of stamps, published a series of works by and about him, and is showing a six-part documentary on state broadcaster China Central Television that reportedly took three years to make.
AUSTRALIA
Tycoon donates to schools
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest yesterday promised to give A$65 million (US$62 million) to university education in his home state. The chairman of iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group said A$50 million will be used to establish the Forrest Foundation to fund scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships at all five universities in Western Australia. Another A$15 million will build a residence for rising star researchers called Forrest Hall at St George’s College at the University of Western Australia. Forrest, a 52-year-old who graduated from the school in 1983 with an economics degree, said the nation needed to develop a higher-profile philanthropic culture.
VIETNAM
Typhoon kills five
Typhoon Nari slammed into the center of the country early yesterday, killing five people, ripping roofs of homes and damaging roads, state media reported. Schools were closed in Danang, which bore the brunt of the typhoon when it hit packing winds of up to 133kph. More than 120,000 people were evacuated to makeshift shelters before the storm hit.
INDIA
Officials suspended
Twenty-one police and government officials have been suspended over a stampede near a temple in the central state of Madhya Pradesh that killed at least 115 people on Sunday, police said yesterday. “We have suspended the entire staff of the concerned police station, which includes two sub-inspectors and 15 other officers for not doing their duty of regulating the crowd and preventing the stampede,” Deputy Police Inspector General D. K. Arya said.
‘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