BANGLADESH
Ten more dead in riots
Ten more people were killed yesterday in intensified riots and protests sparked by the execution of a top Islamist leader, as the prime minister warned of a crackdown on the violence. Police said Islamist supporters torched houses and fought running street battles with officers in towns and cities during a third day of unrest over the execution of Abdul Quader Molla for war crimes. Three people were killed yesterday in the northern town of Patgram and another seven elsewhere overnight, police said, as Islamist supporters enforced a nationwide strike over the execution of Molla, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Molla’s hanging on Thursday night triggered fresh unrest in the country, already reeling from political violence in the build-up to a divisive national election scheduled for Jan. 5.
CAMBODIA
Opposition demands poll
Thousands of opposition supporters yesterday staged a fresh demonstration against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s hotly disputed July election win, calling for a new poll to settle allegations of vote rigging. About 5,000 protesters, many waving flags and banners, massed in a park in the capital, Phnom Penh, early yesterday demanding the prime minister call a new election — the first time they have made the demand. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) party had previously asked for an independent probe into alleged vote rigging in July polls that extended Hun Sen’s nearly three-decade rule. The government has rejected a probe, prompting the opposition to call for elections. There was a light security presence at the lively, but peaceful rally — the largest since October, according to a reporter at the scene. Ho Vann, a senior opposition member, told the crowd that the government must call “a new election as soon as possible.”
YEMEN
Japanese envoy stabbed
A Japanese diplomat was stabbed by unknown assailants yesterday in Sana’a, where attacks on foreigners have intensified in the past few months. The consul and second secretary at the embassy was stabbed five times in the morning attack as he drove his car in the capital, an embassy spokesman said. The spokesman could not say if the attack was an attempt to kidnap the diplomat.
AUSTRALIA
Indonesia ‘unhelpful’: Abbott
Prime Minister Tony Abbott rounded on Indonesia yesterday, accusing it of being “singularly unhelpful” by suspending cooperation to combat people-smuggling due to a diplomatic row over wiretapping. Abbott called on Jakarta to resume collaboration on the stream of asylum seekers transiting through the Southeast Asian nation, in critical remarks little more than a week after a fence-mending visit to Indonesia by his foreign minister. Indonesia halted cooperation to stem people-smuggling last month after reports — based on leaks from US intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden — that the nation had tried to bug the phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and members of his inner circle in 2009. The revelation sparked one of the worst diplomatic crises between the strategic allies in years, with Indonesia recalling its ambassador and suspending military and immigration collaboration. “There’s no doubt that the suspension of cooperation by the Indonesian authorities has been unhelpful, it’s been singularly unhelpful,” Abbott told reporters at a press conference to mark his first 100 days in office.
VENEZUELA
Terror threat grounds flight
Authorities evacuated and searched an Air France flight late on Saturday after being tipped off by French authorities that a terrorist group might be planning to detonate an explosive device in midair. Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres told state TV that a team of more than 60 technicians and bomb experts were performing an exhaustive search of the aircraft that would take several hours before the flight could be reprogrammed. Passengers aboard Flight 385 to Paris scheduled to depart at 7:25pm on Saturday were evacuated after French authorities received information from a credible source that a terrorist group was seeking to place a bomb aboard an unspecified flight between the two cities.
MEXICO
Eleven bodies found in south
Ten charred bodies were found in a burned-out truck in the southern Oaxaca State on Saturday, the state’s prosecutor’s office said. Another corpse was found shot in the head a short distance away from the truck near the town of Santiago Juxtlahuaca, the office said in a statement. The town is about 150km west of state capital Oaxaca. The statement said none of the bodies had been identified and gave no indication as to a possible motive. President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to reduce the country’s high murder rate, but violent crime remains at similar levels to those under his predecessor.
BRAZIL
Passenger hid cash in sock
Police said on Saturday they had detained a man who tried to exit airport security in the capital, Brasilia, with US$300,000 hidden in his socks. Federal police said they intercepted the 41-year-old, who had flown in from Sao Paulo, and questioned him on suspicion of money laundering. He was found to have stashed US$280,000 in his socks along with about US$12,000 worth of reais. Under law, people wishing to bring more than 10,000 reais (US$4,300) in cash into the country in any currency must make a formal declaration to customs.
UNITED STATES
Snowstorm brings danger
A winter storm blanketed a wide swath of the US northeast with a picturesque white layer on Saturday and gave ski resorts a boost, but caused dangerous travel conditions and complicated shopping plans less than two weeks before Christmas. Multiple accidents were reported on roadways throughout the midwest and northeast, while airports reported hundreds of cancelations. Airlines canceled nearly 1,200 flights because of the storm, including almost 375 flights into and out of Newark, New Jersey, and 189 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. “It’s a pretty bad day for Newark,” said Mark Duell, a spokesman for FlightAware, a Web site that tracks commercial airlines. More than 40 percent of Newark’s 900 flights were cut, he said. The weather contributed to four deadly crashes on Missouri roads on Friday and Saturday and drivers in states throughout the path of the storm were warned of slick road conditions from snow and ice. Parts of New England were expected to see up to a 30.5cm early yesterday when the front was due to pull out and usher in high winds that could be a hazard of their own. Up to 35cm could fall in coastal towns in Maine. The storm dropped more than 15cm on parts of interior Pennsylvania on Saturday and speed limits were reduced on major interstates.
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