HONG KONG
Police hunt kidnappers
Police yesterday were hunting for a gang of men who kidnapped a woman, then reportedly fled with millions in ransom after their hostage was rescued. Roadblocks were erected on major highways and in tunnels after police rescued the unidentified 29-year-old woman, as local media said her relatives paid HK$28 million (US$3.61 million) for her release. Authorities said the kidnapping took place on Saturday, along with the theft of about HK$2 million worth of valuables from a residence in the Tseung Kwan O area of the New Territories. “The woman ... was not injured,” police said yesterday. The suspects had demanded up to HK$50 million for the woman’s release, but settled on HK$28 million, with the money handed over late on Tuesday, the South China Morning Post reported. Police said four of the suspects are Chinese, but there were no details of the other two.
CAMBODIA
Hun Sen to run again
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced he plans to run for another term, saying only his re-election in 2018 would keep the country from civil war. The 63-year-old, self-styled “strongman” has previously promised to stay in power until he is 74 and has also predicted a descent to the dark days of conflict without him at the helm. “Hun Sen will win again, that’s because the victory is with peace like this. People don’t have to flee and crawl,” Hun Sen said in a speech, making his customary reference to himself in the third person. He has been prime minister for 30 years.
YEMEN
Probe of figures ordered
The country’s Houthi rulers have launched an investigation against dozens of public figures, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakul Karman, state news agency Saba said late on Tuesday, following a complaint that could amount to treason. A non-governmental organization, the Legal Center for Rights and Development, had filed a complaint with the public prosecutor claiming that 39 prominent figures, including many living in exile, had compromised the country’s independence, unity and territorial integrity, Saba said. The organization suggested on its Facebook page that the complaint was linked to Saudi-led air strikes on the nation, citing attacks on private and public transportation, storage houses and public facilities.
SAUDI ARABIA
Ministry announces arrests
The government has arrested 93 people accused of plotting terrorist attacks since December last year, including a group described as having sought to strike the US embassy with a car bomb, the Ministry of the Interior said on Tuesday. The suspects have been accused of recruiting and training new members; testing explosives; gathering firearms; and plotting to attack residential areas and security facilities, the ministry said. They were arrested in six groups, most had ties to the Islamic State, nearly all were Saudi citizens and one is a woman, the ministry said.
TOGO
Gnassingbe wins third term
President Faure Gnassingbe has won a third term with 58.75 percent of the vote in the elections held on Saturday last week, with his main rival, Jean-Pierre Fabre, taking 34.95 percent. “The National Electoral Commission states that Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe has been elected based on provisional results, which are subject to confirmation by the Constitutional Court,” commission head Taffa Tabiou said on late Tuesday.
UKRAINE
Forest fire under control
Firefighters on Tuesday brought a forest fire under control that spread within 20km of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Authorities suspect it was an arson attack, because the blaze, which spread over 400 hectares, came from several sources, Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov said. Firefighting aircraft dropped water to battle the fire, which was being fueled by strong winds. “We haven’t seen such a fire since 1992,” Avakov said in a statement on Facebook. “It got to 20km of the reactor and 5km from buried nuclear waste.”
PORTUGAL
Policeman to pay for libel
A former police officer who headed the investigation into the 2007 disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann was ordered to pay 500,000 euros (US$549,925) to her parents in a libel case, according to a ruling made public on Tuesday. Kate and Gerry McCann sued Goncalo Amaral, the former head of the investigation, over his 2008 book The Truth of the Lie, in which he accused the couple of concealing the body of their daughter after she died accidentally. Madeleine disappeared from her room on May 3, 2007, just days before her fourth birthday, in the small seaside resort of Praia da Luz where she was on vacation with her family.
UNITED STATES
Cuba travel plans opposed
Republicans in the House of Representatives unveiled legislation on Tuesday to sharply curb moves by the administration of President Barack Obama to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba. The provision by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American from Florida, would block new flights and cruise ship travel to Cuba. The provision was attached to a must-pass transportation spending bill that the House is to consider next month. Diaz-Balart’s move comes in response to new rules issued by the administration in January that would significantly ease travel restrictions to Cuba and permit regularly scheduled flights.
RUSSIA
Party loses authorization
The government has removed the opposition Progress Party led by Alexei Navalny from the list of authorized parties, the Ministry of Justice announced on Tuesday. The decision came 10 days after the announcement of the creation of a new opposition movement, the Democratic Coalition, which includes the Progress Party and RPR-Parnas, the party of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. The ministry said the Progress Party had failed to comply with the law and did not register all of its local offices within six months.
MEXICO
Police arrest smuggler
Frogmen swam through a sewage canal to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the US, the army said on Tuesday. The route was discovered on Monday in the city of Mexicali, an army official said. A tunnel that began in the garage of a house led to a sewage canal. Traffickers would swim through the muck, then climb down into another tunnel that led to a house on the US side, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. On the Mexican side, police arrested a man in frogman gear with 25 packages of a synthetic drug, the official said, without specifying what the substance was. Several sets of scuba diving gear were also found.
‘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