CHINA
Rights lawyer detained
A human rights lawyer has been detained amid a clampdown on lawyers, journalists and academics ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Tang Jingling’s (唐荊陵) wife, Wang Yanfang (汪豔芳), said police took him away yesterday from their home in the southern city of Guangzhou and said he was suspected of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. Tang has represented clients complaining of corruption, land seizures and other grievances. A man who answered the phone at the district police office that issued the detention notice said he knew nothing about the case. He refused to give his name.
SOUTH KOREA
Ferry owner’s arrest sought
Prosecutors yesterday said they were seeking a warrant for the arrest of Yoo Byung-un, the head of the family that owns the operator of a ferry that capsized last month. Prosecutors accused Yoo of embezzling funds from ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine, which they see as one of the factors that hampered its safety management, and led to the sinking that killed hundreds of schoolchildren. Prosecutors are hunting for Yoo and his children, visiting the home of his elder son and a religious compound where Yoo is believed to have holed up. They have already sought the arrest of Yoo’s second son and a daughter who stay overseas, but no one has been found yet.
NORTH KOREA
Ships raise sanctions doubts
Satellite images have picked out two new North Korean warships — the largest it has constructed in 25 years and an important “wake-up call” on the effectiveness of sanctions, a US think tank said yesterday. Recent commercial satellite pictures showed two new helicopter-carrying frigates separately berthed at shipyards in Nampo in the west and Najin in the far northeast. While it might still take several years to fully integrate the frigates, launched between 2011 and 2012, into fleet operations, their introduction suggested an “evolutionary step” in the North’s naval strategy to include helicopter anti-submarine operations, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said in an analysis on its Web site 38 North. It added that the construction of the two warships and other new naval classes had been achieved during a period of prolonged international economic sanctions, and may be an important wakeup call about the overall effectiveness of sanctions.
NIGERIA
President skips Chibok visit
President Goodluck Jonathan has canceled his first visit to the village from which more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by rebels a month ago due to security fears, a senior government source said yesterday. Jonathan was to fly yesterday from Abuja to Paris for a regional summit to discuss the Boko Haram insurgency and wider insecurity, and will not now make a stop in the village of Chibok, the source said.
RUSSIA
Satellite rocket fails
A Russian Proton rocket carrying a European-built satellite fell back to Earth yesterday shortly after liftoff, in the latest accident to hit the country’s space industry. Russian space officials said the rocket’s control engine failed 545 seconds after it took off from the Baikonur space center that Moscow leases in Kazakhstan. State television showed the rocket and its Express-AM4P communication satellite reported to be worth US$29 billion burning up in the upper layers of the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean. Channel One said the satellite — built for Russia by Airbus Group’s Astrium corporation — was meant to provide Internet access to far-flung Russian territories with poor access to communication.
AUSTRIA
Iran nuclear talks proceed
Nuclear discussions between Iran and six world powers are advancing in a good atmosphere, but progress is “slow and difficult,” a senior Iranian diplomat has said. The remarks from Abbas Araqchi, a leading member of Iran’s negotiating team at talks being held in Vienna, were carried yesterday by the ISNA news agency. The talks, aimed at securing a permanent deal on the extent of Iran’s nuclear activities, started on Wednesday. The parties want to get a deal by July 20, when a November interim deal under which Iran froze certain activities in return for some relief from crippling Western sanctions expires.
GUATEMALA
‘Drug trafficker’ arrested
A suspected drug trafficker with ties to the infamous Mexican cartel Los Zetas was arrested by police on Thursday evening after a shootout that left three dead, authorities said. Jairo Orellana, known as “El Pelon,” or the “bald one,” was arrested in his hometown of Dona Maria Gualan about 144km east of Guatemala City, Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz told reporters. Two of his security guards and one police officer were killed in the clash. Orellana faces extradition to the US.
UNITED STATES
Friends return found cash
For all the screaming and carrying on, their neighbors thought they had won the lottery, but it was a lumpy old sofa stuffed with US$40,000 in cash that had three young roommates raising a ruckus. And then they returned the money to the 91-year-old widow whose couch had been given away. “We just pulled out envelopes and envelopes,” said Cally Guasti, a social worker with Family of Woodstock, who shares an apartment with two friends in New Paltz, 120km north of New York. Guasti said on Thursday that she and her friends had bought the beat-up couch and a chair for US$55 at a Salvation Army thrift shop in March. After finding the cash, Guasti found a deposit slip with a woman’s name on it. Werkhoven called her the next morning. “She said: ‘I have a lot of money in that couch and I really need it,’” Guasti said. They drove to the home of the woman, who cried in gratitude when they gave her the cash.
UNITED STATES
Mom killed son, daughter
A 53-year-old former military mother was convicted on Thursday of first-degree murder, with jurors rejecting the argument that she was legally insane when she shot and killed her 13-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter more than three years ago. Julie Schenecker faces a mandatory life sentence. Defense attorneys said Schenecker is so affected by bipolar disorder and depression that she does not know right from wrong.
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
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