SWITZERLAND
Commission slams Eritrea
Eritrea’s government is responsible for systematic and widespread human rights abuses on an almost unprecedented scale, driving about 5,000 Eritreans to flee every month, a UN commission yesterday said in Geneva. Wrapping up a year-long investigation, the three-member UN commission of inquiry described a nightmare-like society in the authoritarian Horn of Africa state. Its nearly 500-page report details how the country, under President Isaias Afwerki’s regime for the past 22 years, has created a repressive system in which people are routinely arrested at whim, detained, tortured, killed or go missing. A system of indefinite conscription of all citizens also forces many to toil in slave-like conditions in the military and other state jobs, sometimes for decades. The commission, which includes the UN’s top expert on the rights situation in Eritrea, Sheila Keetharuth, said in a statement the violations in the country were occurring on a “scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere.” The investigators are to present their findings to the UN Human Rights Council on June 23.
JAPAN
More pleas for an apology
Nearly 200 academics, including experts on Japanese and Korean history, yesterday urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to renew apologies for the country’s imperialist past and offer to compensate victims of its wartime brothel system. The statement, also signed by dozens of journalists, lawyers and rights activists, said Abe “must reaffirm that invasion and colonial control caused harm and pain to neighbor countries ... and it must express renewed sentiments of regret and apology.” The signatories said Tokyo must face up to its responsibility for the sexual enslavement of thousands of women.
CHINA
Drones fights exam cheats
The latest weapon in the fight against cheating for the nation’s all-important college entrance exam is a six-propeller drone. It flew over two testing centers in Luoyang City in Henan Province to scan for any unusual signals being sent to devices smuggled by students taking the annual test. A provincial news Web site says no such signals were detected on Sunday, the first test day.
IRAN
Reporter’s trial resumes
The trial of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian on charges of spying yesterday resumed behind closed doors in Tehran, a news agency linked to the judiciary reported. MizanOnline gave no details of the new hearing before Branch 15 of the Tehran revolutionary court. Rezaian, a 39-year-old Iranian-American, has been in custody since July last year. Prosecutors have accused him of “collecting confidential information,” “cooperating with hostile governments” and “propaganda against the regime.” His family says the charges are “laughable.”
UNITED STATES
Yak bull flees, cows defiant
When a curious brown bear showed up at a farm near Anchorage, Alaska, the cows in a small yak herd there defiantly surrounded the calves. However, the lone bull, Stormy, sprinted away. KTUU-TV reports that Stormy ran through Eagle Peaks Farm, hopped the fence and kept going. Angie Johnson, who owns the farm with her husband, says the female yaks are “fierce.” The bull has broken loose two other times, but he has now earned the nickname “Wimpy” for his last escape.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of