VENEZUELA
Homicide rate up: report
The nation’s homicide rate rose again this year, a non-governmental group said in a report on Monday. The Venezuelan Violence Observatory said that 24,980 killings occurred this year, raising the homicide rate to 82 per 100,000 inhabitants. That makes Venezuela the No. 2 country in the world for killings, after Honduras, it said. Last year, the observatory counted 79 killings per 100,000 people. In 1998, the rate was 19 per 100,000. The report is based on press reports, victim surveys and officials’ comments. Venezuelan authorities generally dispute the group’s findings and say the crime situation is improving. Victims include people in wealthy and poor neighborhoods, and armed guards and police.
UNITED STATES
Bishop linked to bike fatality
The first female Episcopal bishop in Maryland has been put on leave after she was involved in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist, her diocese said on Monday. Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook drove off after she struck 41-year-old Tom Palermo on a tree-lined residential street in Baltimore on Saturday. She returned to the scene about 20 minutes later “to take responsibility for her actions,” Bishop Eugene Sutton said in a statement. “Because the nature of the accident could result in criminal charges, I have placed Bishop Cook on administrative leave, effective immediately.” He urged the faithful to “please pray for Mr Palermo, his family and Bishop Cook during this most difficult time.”
BRAZIL
Four killed by lightning
At least four beachgoers have died after being struck by lightning on the Sao Paulo coast. Another four people were injured when a violent storm suddenly hit Praia Grande, near the port city of Santos, where the lightning strike happened on Monday. Police in Santos did not know the condition of those injured. Local media reported city firefighters saying that among the dead was a pregnant woman, her husband, her aunt and uncle. Violent storms have ravaged the southeast in recent days, with the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo being especially hit hard. In the early hours of Monday, a storm downed scores of trees across the area of 20 million, wreaking havoc on transit after more than 100 stoplights malfunctioned.
UNITED STATES
Wedding moved for Obama
A military couple getting married near President Barack Obama’s vacation spot in Hawaii learned the hard way that the big day rarely goes exactly as planned. Natalie Heimel and Edward Mallue Jr — both army captains stationed in Hawaii — were scheduled to tie the knot on Sunday at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, a military course with ocean views near Obama’s rented vacation home in Kailua. However, after their rehearsal on Saturday, they were told they would have to move their wedding away from the 16th hole because Obama and his friends planned to golf, said Heimel’s sister, Christie McConnell. The ceremony relocated to another part of the course that offered better views than the 16th hole, she said. After the ceremony was done, Mallue got a call from the wedding planner asking permission to give the president his cellphone number, McConnell said. Then, Obama called and Mallue put the call on speakerphone. Obama asked the couple how long they had been “going out,” chatted about golf and apologized for disrupting their plans. “He was really funny and nice on the phone,” McConnell said.
CHINA
More party in colleges: Xi
President Xi Jinping (習近平) has called for the Communist Party’s leadership over universities to be enhanced in a continuing tightening of ideological controls across a wide range of society. Xi said that higher learning institutions should publicize Marxism and enhance ideological guidance, Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday. “Enhancing [party] leadership and party-building in the higher-learning institutions is a fundamental guarantee for running socialist universities with Chinese features well,” Xi was quoted as saying. He issued the instruction at a two-day meeting on party-building in higher-learning institutions. Under Xi, the government has tightened controls on artists, churches and others, as well as ordered reporters to undergo training in Marxism to emphasize the party’s dominance.
PAKISTAN
At least 13 die in mall fire
A fire in a shopping mall in Lahore killed at least 13 people, media reported yesterday. The fire broke out at the oldest shopping center in the eastern city. Video footage shows rescuers escorting the wounded into ambulances on Monday as firefighters struggled to beat back the blaze with extinguishers. Mohammed Usman, a city government official on the scene, said the victims died of suffocation and burns. They included a woman and a child. Usman said the fire burned the main gate of the shopping center, where mostly watches and clothes are sold. He said there was no exit in the back part of the mall. Usman said the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the shops.
CHINA
Director sentenced over film
A court yesterday sentenced a director who made a documentary about constitutionalism to one year in prison for “illegal business activities,” his lawyer said, amid a severe crackdown on dissent. Shen Yongping’s (沈勇平) A Hundred Years of Constitutionalism (百年憲政) is about the history of failed attempts to establish the rule of constitutional law in the nation. DVDs of the film were distributed for free and Shen had planned to post it online as a free download, said his lawyer, Zhang Xuezhong (張雪忠). “This charge is ridiculous, he didn’t want to make any money from this film. If anything he lost money making it,” Zhang said. “But at least this sentence is shorter than most, mainly due to the fact that Shen was less defiant that others have been in the past.” Shen’s conviction comes less than a month after the country’s first Constitution Day and in the wake of a Communist Party decree that it is a “fundamental requirement” to ensure the rule of law. The constitution states: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.”
PAKISTAN
Attackers torch schools
Militants set fire to two primary schools in the country’s troubled northwest yesterday as authorities extended winter holidays amid threats of attacks, officials said. The incident comes two weeks after the massacre of 150 people at an army-run school in Peshawar, where 134 children were among the victims gunned down by heavily-armed Taliban militants. The pre-dawn arson attacks took place in two villages in the Kurram tribal district. Amjad Ali Khan, the district’s top administrative official, said the attackers had doused furniture with gasoline before setting it ablaze. All the wooden benches and desks along with school records were destroyed and buildings were damaged, Khan 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