CHINA
Beijing tops car ownership
Beijing, which is building a 940km highway circling the city, led household vehicle ownership in the country last year as the nation added a record number of new private cars to its roads. The capital city had 63 passenger vehicles for every 100 households, more than double the national average of 25 cars, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on Tuesday. Beijing and Shanghai were among 10 municipalities that had more than 2 million vehicles on their roads, while 35 cities had more than 1 million automobiles each. Vehicle ownership has surged with increasing incomes and as cities expand to house their growing populations, adding to traffic congestion and air pollution. Shenzhen last month became the eighth city in the nation to cap new vehicle registrations. The number of passenger vehicles rose to a record 154 million last year, making the motorcar the primary mode of transportation in the nation, replacing the motorcycle. More women are becoming drivers, making up 23 percent of new license holders last year, up 1.7 percentage points from 2013, the ministry said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Murderers’ parole pending
Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha is to announce his decision on the parole applications of Eugene De Kock and Ferdinand Barnard, and the medical parole for Clive Derby-Lewis tomorrow. The ministry made the announcement in an e-mailed statement. De Kock, Derby-Lewis and Barnard were jailed for life after being convicted for the murders of anti-apartheid activists, including South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani.
VIETNAM
Huey crash kills four
A US-built helicopter once used in the Vietnam War crashed yesterday during a training mission, killing all four soldiers aboard, the military said. Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan said the Huey chopper disappeared from radar about eight minutes after taking off from an air base in Ho Chi Minh City. It is unclear what caused the chopper to go down, but the crash site was later discovered on a farm on the city’s outskirts. Tuan said the aircraft had originally belonged to US forces, but it was seized by communist forces after the war ended in 1975. State media have reported the military took control of about 50 US-made Hueys after the war, and many of them are still in use for military training missions and in search and rescue operations. In July last year, a Russian-made helicopter on a training mission crashed near Hanoi, killing 20 people on board. One soldier survived with severe burns.
SPAIN
Priests charged with abuse
A judge in the southern city of Granada has indicted 10 priests and two Catholic lay workers in a sex abuse case that prompted Pope Francis to call one of the alleged victims. According to the indictment filed on Tuesday, the 12 are suspected of abusing four teenage boys in a priest’s parochial home between 2004 and 2007. They are free on bail pending trial. Francis in November last year told reporters he received a letter documenting the abuse from one of the alleged victims and then called him, telling him to report it in person at the Granada diocese. Francis also said he wrote to the bishop and pressed him to launch an investigation. The suspects face possible jail time of more than 20 years each.
‘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