KOREAS
North rethinking reunions
Pyongyang yesterday said it may reconsider plans to hold reunions between families in the North and the South if Washington and Seoul push ahead with planned annual military drills. In a rare confidence building move, the two Koreas agreed on Wednesday to allow families to meet for five days later this month for the first time since 2010. “At the time, when the agreement was made on reunions of separated families and relatives at Panmunjom, a formation of the US B-52 strategic bombers were carrying out nuclear strike practices all day, aiming us,” the North’s National Defense Commission policy department spokesman said on state-run TV. The South’s defense ministry said the joint drills would go ahead, and reiterated Seoul and Washington’s position that the exercises and the family reunions should not be linked.
VIETNAM
Second bird flu death
The nation has recorded its second death from bird flu this year, a health official said yesterday. A 60-year-old woman from southern Dong Thap Province died on Jan. 28 and tested positive for the H5N1 virus the following day, provincial medical department director Nguyen Ngoc An said. It follows the death of a 52-year-old man from the southern Binh Phuoc Province on Jan. 18. Demand for poultry tends to increase at the end of January, as families celebrate the Tet Lunar New Year festival.
MALAYSIA
Amnesty slams executions
Amnesty International yesterday said the nation was preparing to put a condemned man to death and called on the government to halt “yet another secretive execution.” The London-based human rights group said in a statement it had learned from relatives of the man that he is to be executed today for a murder committed more than a decade ago. It identified him only by the name “Chandran.” However, HINDRAF, a group that advocates for the rights of the ethnic Indian minority, said his name was Chandran Paskaran. HINDRAF also called for him to be spared. The government does not announce executions and is generally tight-lipped about its application of the death penalty.
ITALY
Over 1,000 migrants saved
The navy has rescued more than 1,100 migrants from nine large rafts in the waters south of Sicily, the latest arrivals from North Africa. Patrol helicopters identified the overcrowded rafts on Wednesday and four navy vessels participated in the rescue, which ended early yesterday, a statement said. The navy gave no details about the nationalities of the migrants. Italy is a major gateway into Europe for migrants, and sea arrivals more than tripled last year from the previous year, fueled by Syria’s civil war and strife in the Horn of Africa.
ITALY
Bullet sent to house speaker
Postal workers in Milan intercepted on Wednesday a threatening letter containing a bullet addressed to the lower house speaker after a fierce fallout in parliament over a controversial financial decree. The anonymous letter contained a handwritten note saying the authors knew where Speaker Laura Boldrini lived and threatened to throw acid in her face, media reports said, adding it was signed with a five-point star. Police said the author was unknown. Investigators said they ruled out the hand of the Red Brigades, a notorious extremist group formed in the 1970s, which used a five-point star logo.
TURKEY
Lawmakers pass Web bill
Parliament late on Wednesday approved changes to a law regulating use of the Internet, enabling authorities to block access to Web pages for violations of privacy that critics say will limit freedom of speech. Parliament voted in favor of the articles, which allow the telecommunications authority to block access to material within four hours without obtaining a prior court order. The move coincides with a graft inquiry, portrayed by Erdogan as a “judicial coup” plot, which has prompted the government to reassign thousands of police officers, and more than 200 prosecutors and judges. The articles are part of a package of laws that still have to be adopted as a whole. Once it has, the bill will be sent to President Abdullah Gul for his approval.
UNITED NATIONS
UN criticizes excavations
Illegal excavations are taking place at important archeological sites all over Syria that are “extremely dangerous” and “lethal” to the country’s cultural heritage, the UN cultural agency said on Wednesday. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Francesco Bandarin told a press conference that illegal digging has happened from the ancient Sumerian city of Mari to the ancient cities of Ebla, Palmyra and Apamea. “All of them have been subject to this phenomena, some of them to an extent that is unimaginable,” Bandarin said. “Apamea — it’s completely destroyed.” Bandarin said archeological material and cultural heritage objects are being trafficked through illegal systems into other countries and markets.
UNITED STATES
Arrests in Stradivarius case
Three people have been arrested in connection with the theft of a Stradivarius from a concert violinist in Wisconsin, but the multimillion-dollar instrument remains missing, police said on Wednesday. Investigators believe the suspects, two men and a woman, were acting on their own and that the 300-year-old violin is still in Milwaukee, Police Chief Edward Flynn told a press conference. “This is not something that can easily be disposed of at some future date,” Flynn said. “It’s not valuable for a thief. It’s only valuable to a collector.” The Stradivarius was stolen from violinist Frank Almond last week, when the culprits used a stun gun on the musician after a concert in suburban Milwaukee.
FRANCE
Wine gets rave reviews
The latest Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt sequel is being described as powerful and elegant with a “mouthwatering finish.” The raves do not appear in movie publications — they are from Decanter magazine’s review of the celebrity couple’s second vintage of rose wine produced at their French Provencal estate, Chateau Miraval. The Miraval goes on sale online today, and will be in shops and restaurants around the world next month.
UNITED STATES
Celebrities lobby Obama
A group of celebrities and activists want US President Barack Obama to refuse to sign an international trade agreement until Japan bans the capture and slaughter of dolphins in the fishing town of Taiji. Backing the effort are Oscar-winning performers Sean Penn, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron, as well as TV stars Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner. The Oscar-winning 2009 documentary The Cove chronicled the dolphin roundup in Taiji.
‘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