SERBIA
Airline honors tennis star
The new national airline, Air Serbia, began flying on Saturday with a plane named after favorite son Novak Djokovic, the men’s tennis world No. 2. The Airbus A319, emblazoned with a double-headed eagle and the national red, blue and white colors, took off for Abu Dhabi. Air Serbia said all its future planes would be named after prominent Serb figures. The airline was formed in August, when the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways acquired 49 percent of the country’s sole air carrier JAT.
REUNION
Shark bites off surfer’s leg
A 24-year-old surfer was fighting for his life in hospital after a shark attack off the French Indian Ocean island on Saturday, authorities said. “The body boarder’s right leg was severed at the thigh,” the territory’s local administration said in a statement. The incident took place around 20m from the beach. The two other shark attacks reported off the island this year were deadly. The authorities said the latest victim, a local man, was outside the protected perimeter. They urged beachgoers to exercise the utmost caution. Some argue that the growing amounts of wastewater poured into the sea attract sharks while others blame a marine reserve where fishing is banned for the spike in attacks in recent years.
IRAN
Anti-US posters removed
Tehran city officials have ordered the removal of some posters featuring anti-US slogans, a sign that the nation is seeking better relations with the US as the two sides hold talks over its nuclear program. A Tehran municipal official said some anti-US billboards had been put up illegally and that the city had taken them down, state news agency IRNA said on Saturday. “In an arbitrary move, without the knowledge or confirmation of the municipality, one of the cultural institutes installed advertising billboards,” said Hadi Ayyazi, spokesman for the municipality, according to IRNA. Ayyazi did not specify which posters had been taken down. According to IRNA, new anti-US posters questioning the US’ honesty had been put up near busy Tehran thoroughfares since last week, ahead of next Monday’s anniversary of the taking of hostages in the US embassy in 1979. One such poster depicted an Iranian negotiator sitting at a table with a US official who is wearing a suit jacket, but also army trousers and boots, with a caption that reads, “American Honesty.” It is unclear who was behind the posters, but hardliners have expressed skepticism of President Hassan Rouhani’s efforts to engage with the West and the US. Anti-US graffiti and posters in prominent areas of Tehran and other major cities are common. The site of the former US embassy, for instance, depicts the Statue of Liberty with a skull for a face.
SYRIA
Damascus submits plan
The government handed over a detailed plan to destroy its chemical stockpile on time, the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said yesterday. “On 24 October 2013, the Syrian Arab Republic submitted to the OPCW its formal initial declaration covering its chemical weapons programme,” the international watchdog said in a statement, adding that Damascus had had until yesterday to do so. Damascus was required to submit the destruction plan under a US-Russian deal agreed last month that headed off military strikes on the country. The accord also gives the government until the middle of next year to destroy its chemical arsenal.
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
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