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.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the