SPAIN
Migrants refused entry
Officials say about 1,000 migrants of sub-Saharan origin have failed in an attempt on Saturday to get over the nation’s three-tier barbed-wire border fence separating its North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco in a bid to enter Europe. A regional government statement said fewer than 10 persons managed to overcome the first barrier in the charge. They were taken away by Moroccan police. The statement says border guards detected the charge in an area known as “Villa Pilar” and deployed a helicopter to oversee operations. Madrid and Morocco stepped up border vigilance in February after 15 migrants drowned trying to reach Ceuta. The border was recently strengthened with a new type of mesh barrier.
SOUTH AFRICA
World’s largest gem found
A 122.52-carat blue diamond has been discovered in the mine where the world’s largest gem was unearthed more than a century ago. Petra Diamonds Cullinan said the “exceptional” jewel was found in the Cullinan mine east of Pretoria, which has supplied stones for Britain’s crown jewels. “The rarity of a blue diamond of this magnitude sets it apart as a truly significant find,” the company said in statement, adding that the gem has not yet been valued. London-listed Petra in January said it had unearthed a 29.6-carat vivid blue stone, described as being “in a class of its own.” Blue diamonds are some of the rarest jewels in nature, and Petra claims that its Cullinan mine is the “world’s most important source” for the precious stone. In 1905, the world’s biggest diamond — the 3,106-carat “Cullinan” — was discovered there, and later cut into two pieces to be included in the British crown jewels.
FRANCE
Mussolini’s car sold
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s official car, an Alfa Romeo convertible, has fetched 180,000 euros (US$240,000) at auction, the auctioneer said on Saturday. An unnamed Russian museum bought the car, which needs complete restoration, at a sale in Caen-Carpiquet. Originally fitted with a silver dashboard and handles, the car was custom-built in 1937 for King Victor Emmanuel III before becoming Mussolini’s official car, according to expert Xavier Aiolfi.
YEMEN
Gunmen attack nurse bus
Security officials say gunmen have attacked a bus carrying nurses from a military hospital in the southern city of Aden, killing eight people, including two women, and wounding about a dozen others. The attack yesterday saw militants open fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles, according to three security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The security officials say they suspect al-Qaeda’s powerful local affiliate was behind the attack. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula regularly targets local security forces, and has been linked to a number of failed attacks on the US.
SYRIA
Government retakes town
Government forces yesterday recaptured the strategic town of Kassab, near the only border crossing with Turkey in northwestern province of Latakia, state television reported. “Units from the army are reestablishing security in the province of Latakia after killing a large number of terrorists and destroying their weapons,” the television said, referring to rebels who had been in control of the town for more than two months.
MEXICO
Youth repatriations surge
More than 6,000 children and teens who crossed unaccompanied and illegally into the US were repatriated in the first four months of this year, officials said on Saturday. In nearly all cases, the children had already been arrested at least once, and some more than five times, in attempts to cross the US border. The children make the grueling journey to escape dire economic conditions and violence in their home countries, and to join relatives in the US. Of the total number, nearly 77 percent had been detained more than once in attempts to cross the border, and 21 percent had been previously been held more than five times.
BRAZIL
Aborigines occupy mine
Aboriginal Xikrin people are threatening to set fire to a mining project in the Amazon where they are detaining 50 workers. Vale SA said that 400 members of the tribe have been blocking since Thursday morning the main entrance to its Onca Puma nickel mine in Para State. The country’s biggest mining company said in a statement on Saturday that the Indians are seeking to modify an agreement to mitigate the mine’s impact on its community’s development. While Vale said it is open to discussing the tribe’s demands, it “repudiates the use of violence that puts employees’ security at risk.”
CUBA
Activists released
Dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, known as Antunez, and his wife, a fellow activist, were released on Friday after an “arbitrary” arrest, a group of exiles in Miami said. The Cuban Democratic Directorate said it had spoken with Antunez, who was reportedly treated badly while detained since Wednesday. Antunez and Yris Perez were released in the morning hours “after suffering a raid on [their] home and arbitrary detention with violence,” the group said in a statement. State security accused Antunez of being an obstacle to the “normalization” of relations between Cuba and the US, according to the Cuban exile group. Antunez also told the activists that officers had orders from the minister of the interior to “bust me up.” During his interrogation, a man tried to strangle Antunez, the activist said, adding that he lost consciousness twice. “Now more than ever I stand by my slogan: ‘I will not shut up, and I will not leave,’” Antunez said, as cited by the Cuban exile group. The Havana government does not legally recognize the opposition activists, saying they are “mercenaries” on US payrolls.
BOLIVIA
Castro urges help for ally
Cuban President Raul Castro told allies on Saturday that Havana’s closest ally, Venezuela, needed support amid fallout from deadly anti-government protests. “Venezuela today needs our staunchest support,” Castro, 83, said in a rare international speech at a Group 77+China meeting in Bolivia. “The oligarchs who could not get rid of President Hugo Chavez think the time has come to topple the Bolivarian revolution and President [Nicolas] Maduro,” Castro said, calling the elected socialist government in Caracas “the front line of independence, freedom and dignity.” G-77 host President Evo Morales, also an elected socialist, said that if the US meddles militarily in Venezuela, it will have a new Vietnam on its hands. “If Mr [Barack] Obama keeps assailing the people of Venezuela, I am convinced that, faced with provocation and aggression, Venezuela and Latin America will be a second Vietnam for the United States,” Morales said.
‘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
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