AFGHANISTAN
Foreign journalist shot dead
A man dressed as a policeman yesterday shot two foreign journalists in a remote small town on the nation’s border with Pakistan, killing one and critically wounding the other, police, a doctor and a local official said. A spokesman for the governor of Khost province suggested that the assailant was actually a policeman. “Naqibullah, a policeman in Tani District of Khost, opened fire on two foreign journalists. One was killed and one was wounded,” Mobariz Zadran said.
TURKEY
Erdogan blasts Twitter ruling
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that he had to comply with the high court ruling this week to unblock Twitter, but he does not respect it. The government blocked access to the social media Web site two weeks ago after some users posted links suggesting official corruption. Erdogan had vowed to “rip out the roots” of Twitter for allowing the postings. The government lifted the ban on Thursday, a day after the court ruling. “I don’t have to respect it. I don’t respect it,” Erdogan said of the court ruling. He said the court was protecting a tool of foreign influence, “the product of an American company.” He added: “All of our moral values are being set aside.”
CHINA
Monks form anti-terror team
Nervous about a repeat of last month’s deadly knife attack at a train station, the 1,700-year-old Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou City has drafted some of its monks into a new “anti-terrorist” squad, state media said on Thursday. The team is made up of 20 monks and more than 20 security guards, Xinhua news agency quoted the temple’s Buddhist Master Jueheng as saying. The squad’s members are equipped with shields, pepper spray and batons. “The squad members practice Buddhism in the day and take part in training exercises at night,” Jueheng said, adding police helped with the training. “We set up the squad to guard against violence and terrorist attacks in a bid to protect the safety of visitors and Buddhism believers.”
AUSTRALIA
Victim’s cap, goggles found
The swimming cap and goggles of a woman taken by a shark have been found, police said yesterday, as her husband accepted that she had been “consumed completely.” Christine Armstrong, 63, was with a group of people on their regular morning swim between Tathra Wharf and Tathra Beach about 350km south of Sydney on Thursday when she disappeared. Her husband Rob and others in the group said they saw a shark close by. “The cap and goggles were found late yesterday with a quantity of organic matter,” New South Wales police said. “These remains have been identified as human and they will undergo forensic testing.” Rob Armstrong said he was convinced his wife suffered a quick death. As a regular swimmer who knew the risks, he added she would not have blamed the species for the attack.
MEXICO
Garcia Marquez in hospital
Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been hospitalized in Mexico City with lung and urinary tract infections that are responding to treatment, federal health officials and the author’s son said on Thursday. The 87-year-old Nobel laureate entered the hospital on Monday suffering from infection and dehydration, the Secretary of Health said in a written statement. “The patient has responded to treatment. Once he’s completed his course of antibiotics his discharge from the hospital will be evaluated,” the statement said. The author’s son, Gonzalo, said there had been no medical emergency and he expected his father to leave the hospital early next week. Garcia Marquez has lived in Mexico City for more than three decades, and has limited his public appearances in recent years.
UNITED KINGDOM
Queen gives pope whiskey
Queen Elizabeth II met Pope Francis for the first time on Thursday and gave a bemused pontiff culinary delights from the royal estates, including a dozen eggs and a bottle of whisky. “I’ve also brought something from all our estates, which is for you personally,” said the queen, wearing a lavender dress and a purple hat, as she handed Francis a wicker basket full of food at the end of a 17-minute private meeting in the Vatican. The 18 items from Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral also included two types of honey, Coronation Best Bitter, “Grandad’s chutney” and Sandringham-handmade aromatherapy soaps. The queen is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which split from Rome in 1534. Francis gave the queen a gift for her eight-month-old great-grandson, Prince George of Cambridge. It was a sphere made of lapis lazuli, a deep blue semi-precious stone, topped with the silver cross of Saint Edward. “He will be thrilled by it,” the queen told the pope. Then she paused and added: “When he is a little older.”
RUSSIA
Factory milk bathers probed
A criminal investigation was yesterday launched into breaches of hygiene at a cheese factory after footage of bare-chested workers bathing in vats of milk went viral on the Internet. “It has already been established that the liquid that the factory workers were bathing in was the raw milk that was used for making the cheese,” the investigators said in a statement. The scandal broke after a worker at the Omsk Cheeses factory posted the photographs on a social networking site with the caption: “Actually our work is pretty boring.” One photograph shows six workers posing in a vat, several wearing only shorts, and raising victory signs. Russia’s food watchdog banned the factory’s cheese late last month and a court on Thursday closed down the factory for 40 days. The factory had sold more than 49 tonnes of its cheese this year in 14 cities, the Investigative Committee said. It specialises in string cheese.
UNITED STATES
Letterman to retire
Late-night TV host David Letterman is retiring next year as host of Late Show. During a taping of Thursday’s show, Letterman said he has informed CBS that he will step down in 2015, when his current contract expires. Letterman turns 67 next week. He has the longest tenure of any late-night talk show host in US television history, already marking 32 years since he created Late Night at NBC in 1982.
‘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