COLOMBIA
Mora’s daughter freed
President Juan Manuel Santos says the kidnapped daughter of a high-profile security official has been freed after two days in captivity. Santos told reporters that the 11-year-old girl is in “stable condition” and back with her parents. Her father is Diego Mora, director of the National Protection Unit, which is in charge of protecting high-profile public figures, including ministers and members of congress. Santos credited pressure from public security forces for her liberation. The girl was kidnapped on Thursday in the city of Cucuta. Police found her on Saturday on the road from Zulia to El Cornejo in Norte de Santander, 400km northeast of Bogota, Cututa Mayor Donamaris Ramirez said.
UNITED STATES
Teen manages clean sweep
A high-school senior in southern California achieved a surprising academic clean sweep — he was accepted to every Ivy League school. Fernando Rojas, 17, the son of Mexican immigrants whose schooling stopped in the eighth grade, is planning on attending Yale University in the fall. The national speech and debate champion from Fullerton High School told the Orange County Register in Saturday’s editions that he applied to all the elite schools hoping he might be accepted to one. However, they all wanted him. He told the newspaper he was “excited and scared” after realizing he would have to choose among them. Rojas attributed his success to hard work and guidance from his siblings.
UNITED STATES
Strip club eyes graduates
Advertisements outside the Little Darlings strip club in Las Vegas encourage recent high-school graduates to apply, promoting stripping as a way to earn money for college. KVVU-TV reported that Little Darlings manager Rick Marzullo said the ads fit in with the character of Las Vegas. The signs have slogans like “Now auditioning the class of 2015” and “Pay your way through college.” Marzullo said he is offering a way for young women 18 and older to make good money in a struggling economy. He said entertainers at his club make up to US$1,000 per night and he has noticed more and more women turning to stripping to help with rising college costs.
COLOMBIA
FARC rebels destroy plant
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels blew up a water plant in the southwest, military officials said on Saturday, in the latest alleged attack by the guerrilla movement on the nation’s infrastructure. Fighters with FARC “detonated a high-power explosive device” that destroyed the facility in the town of Algeciras, disrupting service to about 13,000 people, a military statement said. The attack follows two others over the past week on Colombian utilities, both on electrical plants, which led to major power outages. Presumed FARC rebels on Tuesday blew up an electrical tower, plunging the southwestern town of Tumaco into darkness.
CHINA
Girl dies in freak accident
A three-year-old girl has died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air in southern China on Thursday evening. The Xinhua news agency reported that the girl was playing in the inflatable castle outside a supermarket when a freak gale blew it away. It quoted Li Zhongji, of the county’s work safety bureau, as saying the castle was an unlicensed business. An official on duty from the Tianyang County government in Guangxi confirmed the incident.
‘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