BANGLADESH
Secularist blogger murdered
Another secularist blogger was hacked to death by assailants using machetes yesterday, the third deadly attack in less than three months on a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation. Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four assailants in northeastern Sylhet District yesterday morning, senior police official Mohammad Rahamatullah said. Rahamatullah said Das was a 33-year-old banker who wrote posts for Mukto-Mona (“Free mind”), a Web site once moderated by Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in February.
UNITED STATES
Last-ditch death-row appeal
A Houston man facing execution in the death of his 15-year-old girlfriend, her mother and her grandfather 13 years ago is looking to the Supreme Court to stop his lethal injection. Derrick Dewayne Charles was set to die yesterday evening. The 32-year-old would be the seventh prisoner executed this year in Texas, the nation’s most active capital punishment state. His attorneys say that he is mentally incompetent for execution and that they need time and court-approved money for experts and investigators to pursue that claim. State attorneys say questions about his competency were rejected in earlier appeals and there is no evidence that he is incompetent. Charles in 2003 pleaded guilty to capital murder charges.
UNITED STATES
Body found in cargo
Authorities say workers in Philadelphia unloading cocoa beans from a freighter from west Africa have found the body of a presumed stowaway in the hold. Emergency crews were called to Pier 84 on the Delaware River just after noon on Monday. That is where Sian C was docked after arriving on Thursday last week from the Ivory Coast. Stephen Sapp of the Customs and Border Protection said the victim was not a crew member. Investigators presume the person stowed away, he said, but there are other possibilities, such as a worker trapped while loading sacks of beans. Customs officials are trying to identify the person and would work with the local coroner and the Department of State to return the body to relatives, Sapp said.
UNITED STATES
Picasso fetches US$179.4m
A vibrant painting from Pablo Picasso set a world record for artwork at auction, selling for US$179.4 million on Monday night, and a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti set a record for most expensive sculpture, at US$141.3 million. Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) and Giacometti’s life-size Pointing Man were among dozens of masterpieces from the 20th century that Christie’s offered in a curated sale titled “Looking Forward to the Past.” Overall, 34 of 35 lots sold for a total of US$706 million.
YEMEN
Strikes hit depot, kill 20
Airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia hit an arms depot outside Sana’a and at least 20 people were reported dead, a day before the kingdom has pledged to start implementing a ceasefire. The bombing sparked a massive fire and caused widespread damage, local residents said. Official news agency Saba, which is under the control of Shiite Houthi rebels, said initial estimates suggest that at least 20 people died and 150 were injured. More strikes yesterday hit weapons stores and military sites in Sana’a, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported.
‘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