CHINA
Party to check declarations
The Chinese Communist Party will be conducting spot checks this year on assets and other personal information reported by officials and those with hidden wealth will be punished, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Officials are required to submit a broad range of information each January, including personal income, family assets and relatives’ emigration records. The party’s organization and personnel departments will conduct random sampling of the information submitted, Xinhua said.
JAPAN
Bullet train travel disrupted
A fire near a central Tokyo station yesterday threw parts of the nation’s bullet train system into chaos, as tens of thousands of passengers tried to return home from New Year holidays. The early-morning fire sent plumes of black smoke over Yurakucho station — gateway to the Ginza shopping area. No casualties were reported, but the blaze at commercial buildings next to railway tracks near the station forced the suspension of all bullet trains departing from Tokyo to Nagoya and Osaka and from Osaka to Tokyo. It also stopped major commuter lines in Tokyo. The blaze was reported around 6:30am and possibly started in a games arcade, according to Tokyo Fire Department, which sent more than 40 fire engines to the scene.
LEBANON
Car bombing kills four
A car bomb killed four people in south Beirut on Thursday, the fourth attack to hit the Hezbollah bastion since the Shiite group announced its intervention in Syria last year, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said. He said four people had been killed, 77 wounded, and the remains of a fifth person had also been found. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said it may have been a suicide bombing. The army said 20kg of explosives had been planted inside a four-by-four vehicle.
CHINA
Axe murderer sentenced
A man who killed three children and injured 13 others in an axe attack at an elementary school in September 2012 has been sentenced to death, the China News Service said on Thursday. Wu Yechang was condemned to die by the Intermediate People’s Court in Guigang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He was also ordered to pay the victims’ families a total of 19,316 yuan (US$3,200), it said, citing a local court in Pingnan County. The sentence must be confirmed by the supreme court.
CHINA
Uighur transfer condemned
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday criticized the US for sending the last three Uighur Chinese inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Slovakia. Spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said the three were members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement and “not only threaten China’s security, they will threaten the security of the country that receives them.”
CANADA
Ford to run for another term
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has put his name on the ballot to run for another term, defying repeated calls for him to step down after admitting he smoked crack “in a drunken stupor.” Ford was the first candidate to show up at Toronto City Hall when registration opened on Thursday for the city’s municipal election on Oct. 27. He promised “Ford more years” and also called himself “the best mayor this city has ever had.” The conservative mayor of the nation’s largest city has said he would run again, even after the revelations last year about his drug use pushed him into the international media spotlight. Ford has faced intense pressure to resign over that and other erratic behavior that has embarrassed many residents. In the weeks since the revelations, Ford said he has quit drinking and adopted a healthier lifestyle.
LIBYA
Two bodies found on beach
Troops on Thursday found the bodies of a British man and a New Zealand woman shot dead southwest of Tripoli, a security source said. “The bodies of a British man and a New Zealand woman, who had been killed by bullets, were found on the beach in Mellitah on Thursday afternoon,” the source said. The bodies had been moved to Tripoli, the source added, without giving any details on the circumstances of the deaths. The Mellitah area houses a major gas complex run by Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint enterprise of Italy’s ENI and Libya’s state-owned National Oil Co, which exports natural gas to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline.
ITALY
Berlusconi files an appeal
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi filed an appeal on Thursday against his conviction for paying for sex with a minor and abuse of office over former teenage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, legal sources said on Thursday. Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in jail and banned from holding public office after being found guilty of paying for sex with El Mahroug, better known as “Ruby the Heartstealer,” when she was a minor. He was also found guilty of abusing his powers as prime minister to have her released from police custody over separate theft allegations.
GERMANY
Critics slam new Pets Deli
The nation’s first restaurant for dogs and cats opened in Berlin over the holidays, drawing charges the luxury eatery for furry friends is “decadent.” “Does Berlin really need a gourmet restaurant for dogs?” asked the top-selling Bild daily. Pets Deli offers its tasty treats for domestic animals in the upscale neighborhood of Grunewald, with meals priced from about US$4. They are sold to go in plastic trays or can be consumed on-site in metal bowls set before homey wooden logs, while their owners have a coffee. “A store this decadent gives the impression that we do more for animals than for children,” said Wolfgang Buescher, of the Ark charity, which works with disadvantaged minors.
UNITED STATES
Fire damages consulate
A fire set intentionally at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials said. The fire was ignited at the front of the building, leading to an arson investigation and calls from the Chinese government for better protection of diplomats in the US, the FBI said. “An incendiary device fueled by gas was detonated at the consulate,” FBI special agent David Johnson said at a press conference on Thursday.
‘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