THAILAND
Junta delays elections
The ruling junta yesterday confirmed that elections will not be held until September next year, dealing a further blow to hopes that the kingdom’s generals will swiftly hand power back to a civilian government. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government has revoked two passports belonging to ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after he gave an interview that posed a risk to national security and the country’s reputation. Thaksin lives in exile in Dubai to avoid a jail sentence handed down for graft in 2008.
NIGERIA
Payout to end fuel crisis
The government has agreed to pay a debt of US$800 million to resolve a months-long fuel crisis crippling the economy days before the inauguration of a new president, oil suppliers said yesterday. Chaos reigned on Tuesday at airports where most flights were canceled and foreign airlines flew to nearby countries to refuel. Vehicles formed lines two and three deep blocking roads for more than 2km outside of gas stations, while cellphone companies said they would be forced to shut down their service countrywide for lack of diesel to fuel generators. President-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s party accused President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration of sabotage to ensure it inherits “a nation in crisis.”
MADAGASCAR
Lawmakers fire president
The parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to dismiss President Hery Rajaonarimanpianina for alleged constitutional violations and general incompetence. The motion was backed by 121 of the 125 lawmakers who voted. The constitutional court will now decide whether the decision can be enacted. One lawmaker who refused to take part, Lydia Raharimalala, said there had only been about 70 lawmakers in parliament when they were called to vote. “There’s something wrong, there was cheating,” she said, and promised to take her claims to the constitutional court.
PAKISTAN
Diploma mill boss arrested
Investigators yesterday arrested the head of a firm accused of running a global fake degree empire and conducted fresh raids at the company’s Karachi headquarters where they discovered thousands of blank diplomas. Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, the chief executive of software house Axact, revealed the location of the blank degrees that were ready for printing as well as fake student ID cards during the course of an interrogation, magistrate Javed Malik told reporters. Shaikh is currently in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency and was expected to appear in court later yesterday to be formally charged. Shaikh and six company directors could reportedly be charged with fraud, money laundering and illegal electronic money transfer.
CHINA
Road rage pushes SUV sales
Concern for personal safety amid rising road rage is among the reasons SUV registrations surged 48 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to a research note Sanford Bernstein released yesterday. SUVs accounted for 27 percent of vehicles registered in the period, nearly twice the rate three years earlier, analysts led by Hong Kong-based Robin Zhu said. Road violence is growing along with the nation’s 10-fold surge in vehicle ownership over the past decade. “The angry ones are scaring the sane ones into buying SUVs for self-defense,” Zhu said in an e-mail.
DENMARK
Rabbit ‘killed’ on air
A radio station has faced a storm of angry protests after two of its hosts claimed they clubbed a young rabbit to death on air with a bicycle pump. Cohost Kristoffer Eriksen from public broadcaster Radio24syv said the Monday morning show stunt was aimed at initiating a debate about “the vast hypocrisy surrounding our relationship with animals.” The other host of the show, Asger Juhl, said on air that the rabbit twitched several times before quietly dying. In a video posted by the radio channel on its Facebook page, Juhl is seen picking up a smooth, grey-haired rabbit from a cardboard box next to the microphone table, caressing it and saying he is about to kill it. The video did not show the killing. Radio24syv later posted a video on Facebook allegedly showing the cooking of a rabbit.
DR CONGO
Greenpeace calls for probe
Greenpeace on Tuesday called on the US, Europe and China to launch probes into companies selling lumber as illegal logging damages the country’s forests. “Authorities must use every route open to them, including human rights and labor laws as well as conventions ... to stop illegal and destructive trade,” the environmental group said in a new report on the timber trade in the resource-rich country. The report is the result of a two-year Greenpeace investigation into the logging concessions operated by Lebanese-owned firm Cotrefor, as well as the ports around the world where the wood is exported and sold.
ICELAND
Mass protest at parliament
Thousands of people on Tuesday protested outside the parliament as police sealed off the building with steel fencing to protect lawmakers trying to finish the winter session and suspend for the summer break. Police estimate that about 2,000 people gathered outside the Reykjavik-based legislature late on Tuesday, waving banners and demanding that the government step down. “I’m protesting against an abysmal government and an unfair division of wealth in Iceland,” 44-year-old salesman Baldvin Jonsson said. “Most people are living on the wrong side of the average figures. A few, however, are enjoying the good life.”
FRANCE
Truffle hunter killer on trial
A farmer went on trial on Tuesday for shooting dead a man he thought was stealing his truffles. Laurent Rambaud, 37, had grown increasingly frustrated with a spate of thefts in the southeastern region of Drome, and on the night of Dec. 20, 2010, headed out into his fields armed with a shotgun. He came across 43-year-old Ernest Pardo, who was known as a truffle hunter and had previous indictments for theft, who was walking with his dog. Taking him for a thief and believing him to be armed, Rambaud fired two shots on Pardo, killing him almost immediately. The charge against Rambaud has been reduced from murder to manslaughter after the court decided the killing was not premeditated, but he faces 30 years in prison if convicted.
UNITED STATES
Tax information stolen
More than 100,000 taxpayers have had their personal tax information stolen from an Internal Revenue Service Web site as part of an elaborate scheme to claim fraudulent tax refunds. The information was stolen from an online system called “Get Transcript,” where taxpayers can get tax returns and other tax filings from previous years. The thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including social security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address, the IRS said.
‘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