CHINA
Pastor sentenced to 12 years
A pastor of a state-sanctioned church has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, his lawyer and an overseas rights group said yesterday, accusing authorities of “fabricated charges.” Zhang Shaojie (張少傑) was detained with about 20 other members of the Nanle County Christian Church in Henan Province in November last year. “Nanle District People’s Court sentenced pastor Zhang to 12 years in prison for fraud and gathering crowds to disturb public order,” his lawyer said. Zhang was reported to have been involved in a land dispute with local authorities, but details remain unclear.
CHINA
Activists charged
Police have charged seven activists who held a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, rights groups yesterday. The activists were formally accused on Thursday of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in Henan Province, the US-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement citing relatives. Photographs of the Henan memorial ceremony posted online show a handful of people in a field with funeral wreaths laid next to an image of Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the liberal Chinese Communist Party boss who was purged following the crackdown. Those arrested include former Tiananmen student leaders Chen Wei (陳衛) and her husband Yu Shiwen (于世文), and lawyers Ji Laisong (姬來松) and Chang Boyang (常伯陽), who represented a local disability rights organization, the US-based Human Rights in China group said.
PHILIPPINES
Clash over US pact
Protesters clashed yesterday with police near the US embassy in Manila, where about 100 of them marched to mark Philippine-American Friendship day with a call to junk a new defense pact allowing thousands of US troops to be temporarily based in the country. A policeman and a protester were slightly hurt as demonstrators pushed their way toward the embassy and riot police shoved them back with truncheons and shields. Vencer Crisostomo, chairman of Anakbayan youth group, said the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by the two allies in April was an “unequal agreement” that is a “sellout of our national sovereignty.”
PHILIPPINES
Senator Enrile arrested
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, one of the nation’s most powerful politicians, was arrested yesterday over a massive corruption scandal that has shocked the country.
The 90-year-old former defense secretary and senate president surrendered to police to stand trial on charges of taking nearly US$4 million in kickbacks from illegally
diverted state funds. “We’re just hoping for the best... Hopefully they will be able to provide for the needs of a 90-year-old,” his son, Jack Enrile, told ABS-CBN television. Juan Ponce Enrile is the third member of the 24-seat Senate to be arrested in a case.
ITALY
Refugee surge continues
The nation, which is staggering under a massive inflow of would-be refugees, yesterday took in another 800 after they were rescued by its navy off Malta. Authorities said three boatloads of migrants were found drifting in the Mediterranean and were taken to the southern port of Reggio Calabria for processing. Dozens of women and children were among them. Since the beginning of this year, more than 66,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the nation.
BRAZIL
Highway crash kills two
An unfinished highway overpass being built for the World Cup collapsed on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, which is due to hold a semi-final match, killing at least two people and injuring 19. Globo television footage showed the front of a yellow bus crushed under a large stretch of the fallen highway, which is about 5km from the southeastern city’s World Cup stadium. One of the fatalities was the bus driver. Three other vehicles, two trucks and a car, were also hit.
UNITED STATES
Bridal plan nets terror arrest
A woman who agreed to marry a fighter from the militant network that is threatening to overrun Iraq has been arrested and charged with trying to help a foreign terror group. Registered nurse Shannon Maureen Conley, 19, was arrested on April 8 at Denver airport, as she prepared to fly to Turkey to join the jihadist, who was fighting in Syria, according to court documents unsealed this week.
FRANCE
Headbanging hemorrhages
A heavy metal fan was found to have bleeding in the brain a month after a night of headbanging at a Motorhead concert, doctors in Germany said yesterday. After the concert, the unnamed 50-year-old fan had worsening headaches. Neurosurgeons at the Hanover Medical School found a small area of bleeding on the right side of his brain called a chronic subdural hematoma. The Lancet, which reported the January 2013 case, said the assumption is that headbanging caused high acceleration and deceleration of brain tissue, leading tiny blood vessels in the brain to burst.
UNITED NATIONS
Caribbean coral reefs at risk
Most Caribbean coral reefs will disappear within the next 20 years, primarily due to the decline of grazers such as sea urchins and parrotfish, a new report said. A comprehensive analysis by 90 experts of more than 35,000 surveys conducted at nearly 100 Caribbean locations since 1970 shows that the region’s corals have declined by more than 50 percent. However, restoring key fish populations and improving protection from overfishing and pollution could help the reefs recover and make them more resilient, according to the study from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the UN Environment Program.
UNITED STATES
WWII hero, Olympian dies
An Olympic distance runner and World War II veteran who survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prsison camps, has died. Louis Zamperini, 97, died on Wednesday, Universal Pictures studio spokesman Michael Moses said. Zamperini’s story was told in Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-seller, and is the subject of an Angelina Jolie-directed film by the same name being released in December.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of