JAPAN
Deal reached on eel fry
Tokyo has agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the agreement with Taiwan, China and South Korea, reached on Wednesday, calls for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November. The countries also agreed to take other measures to try to save the species and limit eel catches, including setting up an organization to coordinate management of the industry. The Japanese eel was put on the international conservation “red list” earlier this year, indicating it faces a very high risk of extinction due to overfishing.
HONG KONG
Would-be thieves nabbed
Five would-be diamond thieves have been arrested this week for trying to steal gems worth US$880,000 at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair, police said yesterday. The spate of attempted thefts at may have been the work of a gang from China, the South China Morning Post reported. The latest arrest on Wednesday happened when a 41-year-old man posing as a buyer tried to switch a five-carat stone worth HK$3 million (US$387,000) with a fake, the newspaper reported. When he was challenged by a staff member, he dropped the real diamond and was arrested by police. All five suspects are Chinese.
CHINA
Four sentenced for terrorism
The Intermediate People’s Court in Yunnan Province’s Honghe Prefecture on Wednesday sentenced four people to between 10 and 20 years in prison on terror-related charges, state media reported. The four were found guilty of “participating in terrorist organizations, illegally manufacturing explosives, harboring suspects and financing terror activities,” according to a report on Yunnan Net, a Yunnan provincial government news Web site. The names of the four suggest they are Uighurs.
AFGHANISTAN
Radio reporter murdered
Radio reporter Palwasha Tokhi has become the seventh journalist killed in the nation so far this year, a local media group said on Wednesday. Tokhi, who worked for Bayan Radio in Mazar-i-Sharif, was called out of her home purportedly to receive a wedding invitation from a visitor on Tuesday night. She was then stabbed to death by the visitor, who fled, according to Hafizullah Majidi, the head of the radio station. Tokhi had just returned home after earning a master’s degree in Thailand. Tokhi was the fifth local journalist killed this year, in addition to two foreign ones, according to data compiled by Nai, which trains and supports local journalists.
BANGLADESH
Lawmakers gain new power
Parliament now has the authority to impeach Supreme Court judges after lawmakers voted late on Wednesday to approve a much-debated amendment to the constitution. The amendment passed unanimously in a voice vote of 327-0, with support coming from the ruling Awami League. Critics said the amendment was a thinly veiled way for the ruling party to keep the judiciary under control. However, Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Anisul Hoque, who proposed the change, said the amendment allows parliament to impeach judges on grounds of “misbehavior or incapacity.” Previously a council of senior judges led by the chief justice was assigned to deal with any case of misconduct by judges.
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