CYPRUS
Migratory birds massacred
More than 2 million migratory birds were killed last autumn to feed an illicit taste for the delicacy on the island, a conservationist group said yesterday. The survey by Birdlife Cyprus was carried out in the key season between September and October last year and estimates the number of birds indiscriminately trapped in nets or with limesticks. The group said its surveillance showed “a dramatic situation of this illegal activity sadly taking place,” with the number of mist nets used almost doubling in last year from the year before. It found about 16km of net supports active during autumn and more than 6,000 limesticks were reported from enforcement agencies and other non-governmental organizations. Limesticks are twigs covered in a sticky substance that instantly trap birds that alight onto them.
COLOMBIA
Captain under house arrest
A judge has ordered house arrest for the Chinese captain of a freighter stopped in port on Feb. 28 for carrying unregistered Cuba-bound weapons and materiel, a prosecutor said on Sunday. The captain will remain in Cartagena, monitored by authorities, while waiting for the investigation into the cargo to be completed, the prosecutor said. The Hong Kong-registered Da Dan Xia was loaded with undeclared military equipment, including about 100 tonnes of gunpowder, 99 projectile bases and 3,000 artillery cartridge cases, authorities said. The ship’s records said it was carrying grain products. Prosecutors said the captain will be charged with weapons trafficking.
UNITED STATES
Stowaway Chihuahua found
Transportation Security Administration officers say a woman’s seven-year-old Chihuahua sneaked into her suitcase and triggered a luggage screening alert at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport last week. Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein says the black, hard-sided suitcase was in a checked-baggage area on Tuesday when an unknown-contents alarm indicated an officer should inspect the case. Those unknown contents proved to be her beige and tan Chihuahua. The agency says the owner had no idea that her dog had crawled in and curled up while she was packing for a flight to Los Angeles. The woman’s husband came to the airport and took the dog home.
TANZANIA
Albino boy loses hand
A six-year-old albino boy has had his right hand hacked off in the latest of a string of attacks against albinos, police said on Sunday. Baraka Cosmas was sleeping at home with his mother in the village of Kipenda, in the Rukwa region, when a gang of assailants stormed in late on Saturday, regional police commander Jacob Mruanda said. President Jakaya Kikwete last week blasted the wave of killings and attacks against albinos, whose body parts are used for witchcraft, as a “disgusting and big embarrassment for the nation.”
FRANCE
Greenpeace stunt halted
Police in Paris yesterday broke up a stunt by five Greenpeace activists who dangled from a bridge and unfurled banners on the Seine River that call for cuts in nuclear power. The stunt comes ahead of a parliamentary debate this week about the nation’s use of nuclear power. The banners showed a picture of President Francois Hollande and his campaign-trail pledge to reduce dependency on nuclear power from more than two-thirds of the nation’s energy production today.
‘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