AFGHANISTAN
Gunmen attack police HQ
Three male suicide attackers wearing burqas yesterday attacked a police headquarters close to Kabul, officials said, killing one policeman as concerns rise over security ahead of the presidential election in April. The militants were shot dead when they stormed the police base in Sarobi District, 50km east of Kabul, after another suicide attacker died when he exploded a vehicle bomb outside the entrance. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the two-hour attack, which occurred in the same district where presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s convoy came under gunfire on Wednesday.
PHILIPPINES
Police kill 7 drug suspects
Authorities have killed at least seven alleged drug traffickers and arrested more than a dozen others in a raid in a southern city. Benjamin Magalong, head of the national police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said that police and Drug Enforcement Agency agents were met by gunfire when they raided hideouts of suspected drug traffickers in Davao early yesterday. He said seven suspects died in the ensuing firefight. Authorities recovered assorted firearms, components for home-made bombs and an undetermined amount of crystal methamphetamine.
TUNISIA
Libya plane crash kills 11
A Libyan army medical plane crashed south of Tunis early yesterday, killing all 11 people on board, emergency services said. “The plane crashed at 1:30am... with 11 people on board — three doctors, two patients and six crew members,” spokesman Mongi El Kadhi said. He said there were no survivors from the accident in the Grombalia area, 40km from the capital. “The whole plane was completely burnt out. The emergency services went to the crash site and recovered the charred bodies.”
MYANMAR
Huge jade boulder found
Soldiers have been sent to the resource-rich Kachin State in the north to protect an enormous jade boulder that could weigh up to 45 tonnes. Kachin Minister Lajun Ngan Seng said the raw jade was discovered in the mining region known as Hpakant just more than a week ago. Still half buried, it is difficult to know its exact size, but he said authorities believe it may be 5.5m high and weigh up to 45 tonnes.
NICARAGUA
Banana suit puzzles lawyers
A court’s decision to hold three men for trial on April 23 for the attempted theft of two bananas is drawing surprise and ridicule from lawyers. The bananas stolen are valued at US$0.32, while the trial is expected to cost at least US$600. Prosecutors said in preliminary proceedings on Thursday the three men tried to steal the bananas from a fruit vendor in December. Two of the suspects are being held at a local jail, and a third is under a form of house arrest. Lawyer Ivan Morales is not defending any of the men, but says the decision to prosecute is inexplicable.
GERMANY
UN wants more CAR troops
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appealed to the international community to urgently send another 3,000 troops and police to Central African Republic (CAR) to stop violence between Christians and Muslims that threatens to spiral in genocide. The security requirements far exceed the capability of the international troops now deployed,” Ban told the UN Security Council. A further 3,000 troops and police would increase the international force to about 12,000.
UNITED KINGDOM
Iran’s mission reopens
Iran’s diplomatic mission partly reopened its doors on Thursday for the first time in two years as part of a wider agreement on the thawing of tensions between the countries. Diplomats in London said that only the Iranian embassy’s consular section, which handles visas and commercial affairs, resumed operations on Thursday, while its political section remained closed. Nonetheless, the move represented another welcome sign of progress. The move is part of an agreement to end both countries’ reliance on formal “protecting power” arrangements. Under that system in force since 2011, Sweden’s embassy in Tehran had handled the consular needs of British citizens in Iran, while Oman did the same for Iran in London.
GERMANY
Suspected guards arrested
Three suspected former guards of the Auschwitz death camp run by the Nazis during World War II have been arrested, the public prosecutor’s office in Stuttgart said on Thursday. The three accused, aged 88, 92 and 94 years old, are believed to have been involved in the murder of prisoners at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland. They were arrested after police searched six homes in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg using information released to several states in autumn last year by the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.
SUDAN
Gang rape victim fined
A pregnant teenager who was gang-raped and ignored when she tried to report the crime has been convicted of “indecent acts” by a court. The victim, an Ethiopian migrant, was sentenced to one month in prison, which has been suspended, and fined 5,000 Sudanese pounds (US$878). The verdict was condemned by activists who said it would discourage rape victims from speaking out and entrench “a culture of impunity” for perpetrators. The 18-year-old victim was searching for a new home when she was lured to an empty property in the capital, Khartoum, attacked by seven men and gang-raped. The incident was filmed by the perpetrators and distributed through social media six months later, triggering the arrests of everyone involved.
AUSTRALIA
Iranian’s body to go home
The body of an asylum seeker who was killed in a violent breakout from a detention camp on Papua New Guinea is to be repatriated to his family in Iran. Reza Barati sustained fatal head injuries on Monday night as hundreds of asylum seekers pushed down a perimeter fence to escape from the camp on Manus Island, off the Papua New Guinea coast, during an angry protest. Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday that the country will repatriate the 23-year-old’s body to Iran at his family’s request, but the body would first be sent to the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, for an autopsy.
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