CHINA
Actor Wang Xuebing detained
Beijing police detained movie actor Wang Xuebing (王學兵) on a suspected drug offense, adding to a number of celebrities who have been caught in anti-drug actions, state media reported late on Tuesday. Xinhua news agency said the star of the Golden Bear award-winning film Black Coal, Thin Ice was detained along with another person on Monday. The report did not specify the nature of the offense. Xinhua said Wang was an anti-drug ambassador in 2006. Xinhua said police also detained TV actor Zhang Bo (張博) on suspected methamphetamine offenses in a separate action, but the report did not say when the detention occurred.
THAILAND
Parents of ex-princess jailed
The elderly parents of a former princess were both jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday after pleading guilty to defaming the monarchy, an institution protected by one of the world’s toughest lese majeste laws. Apiruj Suwadee, 72, and his 66-year-old wife Wanthanee are the latest close relatives of former princess Srirasmi to face legal proceedings after a corruption scandal involving her family erupted late last year. Both had pleaded guilty to insulting the royal family, lodging a malicious claim and asking officials to file false charges against a woman in 2003.
SOUTH KOREA
‘Nut rage’ lawsuit launched
A flight attendant targeted by a former Korean Air vice president during a now infamous “nut rage” tantrum has filed a civil lawsuit against the jailed executive and the airline. Kim Do-hee’s lawyers said the suit filed on Tuesday in New York sought compensation for the verbal and physical attack unleashed on their client by Cho Hyun-ah, also known as Heather Cho. Cho, who is the daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, was sentenced to one year in jail last month after being found guilty of safety breaches and assaulting cabin staff.
CHINA
Bomb threat on HK jet
A bomb threat to a Hong Kong-bound flight with nearly 300 people on board forced the jet to make an emergency landing in Wuhan on Tuesday, Hong Kong Airlines said. “Hong Kong Airlines was notified of a suspected bomb threat onboard its flight HX337 from Beijing to Hong Kong, after the plane had taken off,” a spokeswoman from the airline said. The captain of the Airbus A330-200 decided to divert “in order to ensure the safety and security of the passengers and crew” and landed the plane at about 2:30pm in Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, she said.
MYANMAR
Protest crackdown probed
State media yesterday announced an inquiry into a Yangon protest crackdown, the first of two recent violent confrontations with student demonstrators that sparked international alarm and raised fears of a return to junta-era repression. Both protests are demanding for reforms in the country’s controversial education law and are spearheaded by the students, who have long been at the forefront of political action in the former military-run nation’s turbulent history. The investigation will probe “whether security forces acted properly in dispersing the protesters” who gathered downtown on March 5 in the former capital, the Global New Light of Myanmar said. The official statement comes a day after baton-wielding police beat student activists and arrested 127 people at a second student protest site in the central town of Letpadan. The US, EU and UK have all raised their concerns over the crackdown.
LEBANON
IS video shows teen killing
A video posted online by Islamic State (IS) militants on Tuesday showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab accused by the group of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel’s intelligence service. The video, published by the group’s Furqan media outlet, showed Musallam, 19, sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit, talking about how he had been recruited and trained by Mossad. He said his father and elder brother had encouraged him. After that, it showed Musallam being escorted to a field and then being shot in the head by a boy, described by an older, French-speaking fighter as one of the “cubs of the caliphate.” Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, which also appeared on Twitter feeds used by IS supporters. Israeli security officials said they were aware of the video, but could not confirm that it was authentic.
ARGENTINA
French experts probe crash
French air investigators yesterday headed to Buenos Aires to probe a collision between two helicopters which killed 10 people, including three of France’s best-known sports personalities, as they took part in a reality TV show. The two French officials will join local investigators who are already combing through the wreckage, looking for clues as to what caused the helicopters to smash into each other shortly after takeoff in the rugged mountains of La Rioja Province. The crash on Monday killed Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, yachtswoman Florence Arthaud and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine, as well as five French TV crew members and two local pilots. Emergency workers removed the victims’ remains from the wreckage near the small northwestern town of Villa Castelli on Tuesday and took them to the morgue in the provincial capital, about 300km from the crash site.
MEXICO
Gang leaders arrested
Authorities have arrested the suspected leaders of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, one of the drug gangs responsible for the Pacific resort’s deadly violence, officials said on Tuesday. Victor Aguirre, alias “El Gordo” (The Fat One), was detained by federal forces in the eastern city of Merida, authorities said. It was the latest in a series of high-profile arrests for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto in recent weeks. Minister of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Radio Formula that Aguirre “led everything” in the gang’s operations in Acapulco. Officials did not give more details about the arrest.
UNITED KINGDOM
Sculpture of defeats sold
A granite monument with every defeat ever suffered by the England soccer team over 124 years engraved on it sold for US$646,000 on Tuesday. The gloomy sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold to an anonymous French-speaking bidder at a Sotheby’s auction in London. “Carved into it are all the defeats of England’s national football team. I guess it’s a piece which talks about pride, missed opportunities and death,” Cattelan said. Its list of defeats begins with England’s 1874 2-1 defeat to Scotland and spans infamous games such as the 1986 2-1 loss to Argentina, remembered for Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal. Carved in 1999, the untitled artwork ends with Romania’s 2-1 victory at the 1998 World Cup. Its sale comes in the wake of one of England’s worst-ever performances in a World Cup last year, in which the team lost to Italy and Uruguay and crashed out without a single win.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in