PHILIPPINES
Fugitive general captured
Security forces arrested a fugitive army general turned lawmaker over the disappearance of two students in 2006, ending a three-year manhunt for a person rights groups accuse of massive violations. Jovito Palparan, 63, a two-star general and a one-term congressman, was found hiding in Metro Manila’s Santa Mesa District by government agents and soldiers. There was a 5 million peso (US$114,000) bounty for his arrest. Palparan was escorted to the National Bureau of Investigation while awaiting a court order to put him in jail. Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima said Palparan would face charges of kidnapping the two university students, who were never found. Palparan said the evidence against him was manufactured. The Karapatan rights group blames Palparan for some of about 800 cases of disappearances and extrajudicial killings in 2006.
SOUTH KOREA
Two soldiers found dead
The military yesterday said two conscripts have been found dead in apparent suicides, the latest in a series of incidents fueling concern over young soldiers in isolated front-line units. The two corporals, both in their early 20s, were found hanged at one of their homes while on leave, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said. Both were in the 28th Infantry Division serving near the border with North Korea and had been placed on a list of soldiers requiring special monitoring of their mental stability, he said. One was deemed unfit to serve last year, but continued at the request of his mother, the spokesman said. The soldier attempted suicide last year, Yonhap News Agency said. Investigations are underway to see if the two were targets of bullying. Five soldiers in the same division were arrested last month on manslaughter charges over the death of a 23-year-old private who died during a beating. An enquiry showed the private had been regularly bullied and abused.
CHINA
Xi starts Shanghai graft purge
President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) anti-graft campaign is turning its focus to the power base of his predecessor, former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), with Shanghai prosecutors announcing a former official’s arrest for corruption. Businessman Wang Zongnan (王宗南) was put under investigation two weeks ago for suspected embezzlement of public funds and bribe-taking when he headed two state-controlled retail chains, prosecutors said in a statement on Monday. Authorities approved his arrest that day, it said. Wang was once an aide to former Chinese Communist Party boss in Shanghai Chen Liangyu (陳良宇), who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2008 for bribery and abuse of power. Chen was considered a close ally of Jiang, as was security chief Zhou Yongkang (周永康), who is under investigation. State media have announced a two-month probe of Shanghai by party watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
MYANMAR
Kerry visit above board: US
Washington says US Secretary of State John Kerry did not break any rules when he stayed at the glitzy Lake Garden Hotel in Naypyitaw last week, which is owned by the Max Myanmar group belonging to blacklisted tycoon Zaw Zaw. The owner is blacklisted over ties to the former military regime. US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday that Kerry did nothing wrong, adding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act dealing with blacklisted individual “includes an exemption for activities related to travel.”
HAITI
Hundreds escape prison
An intense search is under way after 329 prisoners escaped from an overcrowded prison on the outskirts of the capital in an attack apparently aimed at freeing Clifford Brandt, the son of a prominent businessman held on kidnapping charges. Authorities increased security along the border and appealed for help from officials in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, fearing some of the escapees had already fled the country. Witnesses said about 15 gunmen in two SUVs showed up at the prison in Croix-des-Bouquets before noon on Sunday and opened fire on guards, wounding two. The government offered a reward equivalent to about US$25,000 for information leading to Brandt’s capture. Police Chief Godson Orleus said 10 of the 329 prisoners have been recaptured.
VENEZUELA
Troops to target smuggling
The government on Monday said that it has deployed 17,000 troops along the Colombian border to combat gasoline smuggling, as it prepared to seal the 2,200km frontier nightly to stanch billions of dollars in annual losses. The oil-rich nation has some of the world’s cheapest gasoline, as well as price controls that can make food and commodities up to 10 times less expensive than in Colombia. That has led to an outward flood of contraband and officials have vowed to crack down, starting on Monday by closing the border at night from 10pm to 5am. Operation commander General Vladimir Padrino Lopez said officials would test the program for 30 days and then evaluate the results. Private vehicles are to be barred from crossing after 10pm, and commercial trucks after 6pm. The government estimates that 40 percent of the country’s basic commodities are smuggled across the border with Colombia, plus 100,000 barrels of oil, equivalent to annual losses of US$3.7 billion.
GERMANY
Autobahn spree trial opens
A truck driver accused of a five-year shooting spree on motorways to teach other road users a “lesson” went on trial on Monday. Prosecutors say the man, identified as Michael Harry K., was a “frustrated loner” and claim he fired more than 700 times at trucks and cars, leaving several people injured, until his arrest in June last year. The 58-year-old faces five counts of attempted murder, as well as other charges, and could face a lengthy prison term if found guilty by the district court in Wuerzburg. The charges relate to 171 different incidents. The accused had wanted to teach other truck drivers a “lesson” over their road behavior, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency quoted senior prosecutor Boris Raufeisen as saying. The defense has rejected the attempted murder charges.
FRANCE
Paris in love lockdown
Parisian authorities, desperately trying to save the city’s bridges, including the world-famous Pont des Arts, from damage from the thousands of padlocks left there by lovers, are urging couples to take selfies instead. Since 2008, thousands of couples have visited the bridge to attach a lock carrying their names to its railing and throw the key in the Seine River. Authorities are worried about potential damage from the locks amid fears that a bridge could suffer structural harm. Beginning today, red heart-shaped notices in English, Spanish and French are to be put up on bridges encouraging lovers to take selfies and upload them to a special site or tweet them with the hashtag #lovewithoutlocks. “Our bridges can no longer withstand your gestures of love, no more love locks,” the notices will read.
‘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