GUATEMALA
Judge kills self: reports
Supreme Court Justice Cesar Barrientos, known for revoking dozens of death penalty sentences in a single year, reportedly committed suicide on Sunday by shooting himself in the head. Relatives said the incident occurred as Barrientos rode in the back of his car with two bodyguards, in the southwestern town of San Francisco Zapotitlan, media reports said. In 2012, the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber, led by Barrientos, revoked 53 death sentences on the ground that they violated prisoners’ “due process” and replaced them with 50-year prison terms, the maximum allowed in the country. Police and prosecutors are probing his death.
SYRIA
Spanish journalist freed
A Spanish journalist kidnapped by militants crossed the border into Turkey on Sunday, his newspaper, El Periodico, reported. The news of the Marc Marginedas’ freedom came as his captors, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fled areas near the Turkish border, leaving behind at least two mass graves, with one reportedly containing 17 bodies, activists said. Marginedas was abducted on Sept. 4 near the city of Hama by the fighters. He was “moved repeatedly” while in captivity and his captors accused him of being a spy before his release, the report said. The newspaper did not elaborate on how the reporter was released. It said he was undergoing medical tests in Turkey.
VENEZUELA
Activists continue marches
Thousands of antigovernment activists marched peacefully on Sunday to an upper-class Caracas district shaken by more than two weeks of unrest, trying to maintain the movement’s momentum during a long holiday break. Afterward, several hundred protesters erected barricades, burned tires and threw rocks and fireworks at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas in what has become an almost nightly ritual of clashes. Two people were wounded by shotguns, district Mayor Ramon Muchacho tweeted.
FRANCE
Filmmaker Resnais dies
Alain Resnais, the filmmaker whose cryptic Last Year at Marienbad extended its influence across generations, has died at 91. Resnais was editing drafts of his next project even from his hospital bed, said producer Jean-Louis Livi, who was working on the film with him. Resnais, who died on Saturday, was renowned for reinventing himself during each of his full-length films, which included the acclaimed Hiroshima Mon Amour in 1959 and most recently Life of Riley, which was honored at the Berlin Film Festival just weeks ago.
UNITED STATES
Iditarod launches in Alaska
Nearly 70 competitors from around the world set off from a frozen lake in Willow, 80km north of Anchorage, on Sunday to challenge reigning Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey at the true start of Alaska’s famed and grueling sled-dog race. The 1,569km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race symbolically began a day earlier when 69 mushers and their canine teams made a ceremonial jaunt through Anchorage. The race commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried diphtheria serum by sled-dog relay to the coastal community of Nome, which remains the final destination in the 42nd edition of the event. The mushers will travel in stages of between 29km and 137km as they guide teams of dogs from Willow northwest through 21 other villages on the road to Nome.
CHINA
Zhou’s brother detained
A brother of former security chief Zhou Yongkang (周永康) has been detained by investigators, the Beijing News reported yesterday, after a government spokesman declined to deny the retired political heavyweight was under investigation. Zhou Yuanqing (周元青) and his businesswoman wife, Zhou Lingying (周玲英) were taken away from their home in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 1 last year by “discipline investigators from Beijing,” the Beijing News said. The wife was a major investor in a multimillion-dollar Audi dealership and her success “had a lot to do” with Zhou Yongkang’s son, Zhou Bin (周濱), the newspaper added.
AUSTRALIA
Whalers attack ships: group
Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd yesterday said that Japanese whalers attacked its vessels in the Southern Ocean, and accused the government of “broken promises” to monitor whaling operations. Sea Shepherd said Japanese harpoon ships, the Yushin Maru and Yushin Maru 3, towed steel cables across the bow of its vessel the Bob Barker 11 times on Sunday in a bid to jam its propeller and rudder. It said that when the Bob Barker launched two small boats to defend the ship and cut the steel cables, a bamboo spear was thrown at crew members. Japan’s fisheries agency said its ships were dragging cables with buoys as a warning to Sea Shepherd to stay away.
AUSTRALIA
Snake eats crocodile
A huge snake won a life and death battle against a crocodile on Sunday, swallowing the animal whole after a lengthy struggle before amazed onlookers. Travis Corlis, who watched the fight at Queensland’s Lake Moondarra, near the mining town of Mount Isa, said the snake, thought to be a python, was about 3m long. The crocodile, which the snake coiled itself around, was about 1m in length, he said. “They had quite the struggle in the water,” he said. “It was an ongoing battle.” Corlis said several hours later, he saw the snake had pulled the dead crocodile onto the banks of the lake and released it. “About 10 minutes later, the crocodile was gone,” he said, referring to the creature being eaten.
PHILIPPINES
Rebel mines wound 16
Communist rebels using land mines have wounded 11 troops and five civilians in Davao del Sur province, military officials said yesterday. Army Colonel Marcos Norman Flores Jr condemned the attacks as a violation of international humanitarian law. New People’s Army guerrillas encountered troops on Sunday morning, triggering an hour-long clash. As troops maneuvered, the rebels exploded a land mine, wounding 11 soldiers, a military statement said. It quoted villagers as saying the rebels carried away four dead colleagues. The guerrillas later set off a land mine as three ambulances were heading to evacuate injured troops, wounding five civilian volunteers.
ISRAEL
Ultra-Orthodox Jews rally
Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied on Sunday in the streets of Jerusalem, blocking roads and paralyzing the city in a massive show of force against plans to require them to serve in the military. The ultra-Orthodox largely have been allowed to avoid military service, compulsory for most men. The government has been pushing for reforms that will require ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the army. Parliament is expected to vote on the conscription bill this month.
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
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