TURKEY
Cops deny killing student
Four policemen on Monday denied beating to death a 19-year-old student in mass anti-government protests that rocked the country in June last year, as they went on trial amid heavy security. “I had my truncheon, but not a baseball bat, as claimed by the prosecution,” Savan Gekvunar, head of the police unit accused of killing Ali Ismail Korkmaz on June 2, told the court in Kayseri. “I took part in no arrest and I didn’t hit anyone... I wasn’t there when the events took place.” His colleague, Mevlut Saldogan, accused of administering a kick to the head that gave Korkmaz a brain hemorrhage, also denied the charges, as did two other policemen. However, baker Ebubekir Harlar, one of the four other defendants, told the court the officers had “beaten to death” the student.
GERMANY
Germans reject church bans
Responding to a worldwide Vatican survey, the country’s Catholic bishops on Monday said that many Church teachings on sexual morality were either unknown to the local faithful or rejected as unrealistic and heartless. They said that the survey showed that most local Catholics disputed Church bans on birth control, premarital or gay sex, and criticized rules barring the divorced from remarriage in church. A statement from the German Bishops’ Conference called the results “a sober inventory of what German Catholics appreciate about Church teaching on marriage and the family, and what they find offputting or unacceptable, either mostly or completely.” However, the bishops’ report said many Germans still respect the Church’s ideal of stable marriages and a happy family life.
LEBANON
Suicide bomber strikes bus
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a passenger van in Beirut’s Choueifat District on Monday, wounding at least six people, the state news agency said. The blast, which took place during the evening rush hour, appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks in the country linked to the civil war in Syria. TV stations broadcast video showing the charred, mangled wreckage of the minibus and pieces of flesh scattered on the street. One security official cited one of the wounded as saying a man blew himself up after boarding the minibus and confirming that it was heading to a predominantly Shiite area in southern Beirut.
LEBANON
Joan Mondale passes away
Joan Mondale, the wife of former vice president Walter Mondale and a champion of the arts, died on Monday, her family said in a statement. She was 83. Mondale died with her family members at her side, the statement released through the family’s church said. Mondale’s support for the arts spanned more than six decades, from her study and work in college through her promotion of arts programs and artists during and after her husband’s terms as a senator, vice president and ambassador.
CAR
Religious strife kills dozens
At least 70 people have been killed and dozens of houses torched in clashes between Muslim and Christian communities in the town of Boda, local police officials said on Monday. Elie Mbailao, police commissioner of Mbaiki, about 100km from the area around Boda, said that Christians attacked Muslims after the Seleka alliance of militias passed through. “The mayor [of Boda] has told me that there were more than 70 dead and over 30 houses burned,” Mbailao said of the violence that began late last week.
NORTH KOREA
Abe labeled ‘Asian Hitler’
Pyongyang yesterday denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as an “Asian Hitler” intent on amassing military power under the guise of ensuring regional stability. The attack in an editorial carried by KCNA news agency, entitled “Is this the emergence of an Asian Hitler?” said the Japanese leader was fueling fears of the nation’s missile and nuclear threats in order to justify Japan’s military expansion. “There is no difference between the fascist maniac Hitler, who waged battle against communists to justify another war, and the reckless Abe who is using confrontation with North Korea to justify Japan’s new militarist ambitions,” it said.
CHINA
Jealous husband arrested
Police yesterday said they captured a man accused of killing six people in a jealous rage on the eve of the Lunar New Year festival. A local government spokesman said Shao Zongqi was caught on Monday after four days on the run. The 38-year-old is suspected of killing two men he believed were having affairs with his wife, along with the men’s wives, two boys and an elderly man. The killings took place on Friday. The victims and killer were residents of Yunnan Province’s Tengcheng County.
CHINA
Navy concludes exercises
A three-ship navy squadron has concluded exercises in the Indian Ocean and sailed on to the western Pacific, showing off the growing reach of the country’s seagoing forces. State broadcaster CCTV yesterday said the squadron includes the nation’s largest amphibious landing ship, the Changbaishan, along with a pair of destroyers. It said they reached the Indian Ocean on Wednesday last week and carried out a series of drills.
‘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
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
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