INDIA
Tainted liquor kills 33
More than 30 people have died after drinking tainted liquor in Mumbai, police said yesterday. Praveen Satpal, a local police constable, said 18 people died on Thursday night, hours after they drank the cheap liquor in a Mumbai slum. Dozens of others fell ill and the death toll had climbed to 33 by yesterday, he said. More than two dozen others were being treated in hospitals in the Malad suburb of Mumbai. Police have detained one man and were questioning him about illegally brewing and selling the toxic drink to poor workers in the slum. Deaths from drinking illegally brewed alcohol are common in India because the poor cannot afford licensed liquor.
INDIA
Hotel fire kills at least 10
A massive fire raced through a hotel in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh state, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others, police said yesterday. The fire broke out early yesterday in a restaurant and spread to the hotel next door, Superintendent Balikaran Singh Yadav said. Most of the hotel guests were asleep when the fire started at 3am. Yadav said the cause of the fire was a short circuit. “The fire spread through the hotel before people could raise an alarm,” Yadav said. “Most guests were asleep and they could not escape.”
VIETNAM
Visas waived for EU nations
The government is waiving the need for tourist visas for five more European nations in a bid to boost its ailing tourism industry. Under a decision by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that was posted on the government’s Web site late on Wednesday, visitors from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain will not need a visa to visit the nation starting next month if they only stay up to 15 days. The decision was welcomed by tour operators. Last year, nearly 8 million foreigners visited. The nation gives reciprocal visa exemptions to nine countries in ASEAN and unilaterally waives visas for visitors from the four Nordic countries, Russia, Belarus, Japan and South Korea.
CHINA
Visa procedures unveiled
Britain and Belgium yesterday announced new streamlined visa procedures for Chinese aiming to visit both Britain and the wider Schengen area. The two EU nations said the pilot scheme would allow Chinese tourists and businesspeople to apply for visas for Britain and Belgium — which is a member of the Schengen area — through a single visit to application centers in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. The new scheme is to launch on July 1. Under the Schengen system, visitors who obtain a Belgian visa can also visit any of the other 25 nations in the area. “This scheme will create a one-stop shop for Chinese visitors to the UK and Europe, whether they are coming here for business or leisure,” British Home Secretary Theresa May said in a statement.
AUSTRIA
Worker uncovers grenades
A construction worker knew he had struck metal with the shovel of his excavator, but it took police to determine what he had unearthed — nearly 400 live World War II grenades. The discovery in the Tyrolean city of Innsbruck on Thursday led to the evacuation of apartments closest to the find, while bomb disposal experts defused some of the ordnance and blew up the rest. No one was injured. Police believe the grenades were part of an underground ammunition depot.
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
‘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
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