PHILIPPINES
Typhoon party canceled
Organizers of a dance party marking the anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan’s rampage yesterday said they had called the event off after complaints. The event, scheduled for today in Tacloban, the area most devastated by Haiyan, was supposed to be a celebration of the city’s recovery and the resilience of its residents, lead organizer Calai Cinco said. “We’ve already canceled it. We’ve had some complaints. There were a lot of negative vibes on the Facebook page,” she said. The event was intended to raise money for victims of the storm, but some people thought the party and its accompanying T-shirts made light of the tragedy.
MYANMAR
Body shows signs of torture
The body of freelance journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, who was shot by soldiers, showed signs that he was tortured before he died, his wife, Ma Thandar, said yesterday. The body, which was exhumed on Wednesday, had a broken skull, broken jaw and two penetration marks on the chest, while several ribs and an ankle appeared to have been broken, she said. The reporter was detained by the military while covering clashes between the army and ethnic Karen rebels in Mon state in September. The military said last week they shot him dead on Oct. 4 as he tried to reach for a soldier’s gun during an attempted escape.
SOUTH KOREA
CEO may face 15 years
Prosecutors yesterday demanded a 15-year jail term for the president of the firm which operated the Sewol ferry, holding him partly responsible for the April 16 disaster that killed more than 300 people. Chonghaejin Marine Co chief executive officer Kim Han-sik is on trial in Gwangju on charges of criminal negligence and embezzlement. Sentences of between four and six years were demanded for 10 others on trial alongside Kim on charges of criminal negligence.
BANGLADESH
Politician may hang soon
The government may hang a senior Muslim leader as early as next week after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for war crimes, Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Anisul Huq said yesterday. Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party would be the second senior Jamaat leader to hang for crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence. The 62-year-old has seven days to petition the president for a pardon, Huq said. Kamaruzzaman was found guilty in May last year of mass murder, torture and abductions.
PAKISTAN
Scores nabbed in mob kill
Police say they have arrested as many as 45 Muslims in connection with the killing of a Christian couple for allegedly desecrating the Koran. Local police officer Mohammad Iqbal said the arrests were made before dawn on Wednesday in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab Province. He said hundreds of Muslims took part in the attack on Tuesday, in which a mob killed the couple and burned their bodies in a brick kiln where the man and his wife worked. He said the attackers accused the couple of desecrating the Koran.
INDIA
Balloon guests land in jail
Two foreign tourists unwittingly landed in jail this week after strong winds blew their hot air balloon off course. The two sisters from the West Indies were enjoying a ride over the desert in the western state of Rajasthan on Tuesday when the balloon’s pilot lost control, forcing him to make an emergency landing. Local media said the balloon landed in the prison yard, to the consternation of officers. “When the operator saw that they were sailing over the Anasagar Lake, he got alarmed and tried to control the movement of the balloon,” the Indian Express quoted local police inspector Hanuman Vishnoi as saying. “The nearest landing was the police lines and even though he steered towards it, the strong winds made the balloon travel further up to Ajmer jail.” Authorities have canceled balloon rides over the area, reports said.
UGANDA
Officers probed over abuse
Fifteen senior military commanders have been suspended over their conduct in Somalia, including allegations of sexual exploitation, the army said yesterday. The action comes in the wake of a report by Human Rights Watch accusing troops with the internationally funded African Union force in Somalia of preying on vulnerable women and girls. “We are doing a general appraisal on performance of the force,” defense and army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said. “It’s not sexual harassment alone,” he said, but added the concerns were “one aspect we are looking at.”
EGYPT
Woman injured near palace
A bomb blast just 100m from a Cairo presidential palace wounded a female passer-by early yesterday, just hours after a train bomb killed three people, security officials said. The new bombing followed an attack on a train north of the capital late on Wednesday that killed two policemen and a civilian, the latest in a spate of attacks since the army ousted president Mohamed Morsi in July last year. The blast struck near a palace in the northeast of Cairo which is rarely used by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, whose main office is in another palace in the capital. The woman suffered only minor injuries from the crude bomb, which was planted under a bridge, interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Skyscraper’s bolts break
Engineers are inspecting the 47-story London tower known as the Cheesegrater after two steel bolts broke and part of one fell to the ground. An area around the base of the building on Leadenhall Street was cordoned off after the incident, which caused no injuries, building codeveloper British Land Co said in a statement yesterday. Each bolt is the size of a human arm, the Daily Telegraph reported. “There is no risk to the structural integrity of the building,” British Land said. Contractor Laing O’Rourke and structural engineers Arup Group are carrying out the investigation, British Land 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