ISRAEL
Two citizens held in Gaza
Two citizens are being held in the Gaza Strip, at least one of them by the Hamas militant group, authorities said yesterday. Avraham Mangisto crossed the border fence into the Gaza Strip on Sept. 7 last year, the defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that “according to credible intelligence,” Mangisto is being held “against his will” by Hamas. It said “Israel has appealed [to] international and regional interlocutors to demand his immediate release and verify his well-being.” A Hamas spokesman, Salah Bardawil, declined comment, saying: “We don’t have any information about it. Even if is true, we don’t have instructions to talk about it.” It is unclear why COGAT decided to publicize the issue now, months after Mangisto’s detention.COGAT said the second citizen being held in Gaza is an Arab, but officials provided no further details.
UGANDA
Presidential rivals arrested
Police yesterday arrested two presidential hopefuls, including former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, who wants to challenge President Yoweri Museveni for the ruling party’s candidacy for next year’s elections. Mbabazi was picked up while he was on his way to meet supporters at a town near the border with Kenya. Police had banned him last month from holding meetings to promote his challenge, saying the ruling party had not yet nominated a candidate. Police also arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye as he left his house to go to a meeting with the US ambassador at the US embassy, said Francis Mwijukey, an aide to Besigye. Police ordered Besigye either to return home or be arrested, and when he refused to return home, he was detained, Mwijukye said.
MALAYSIA
‘Nothing suspicious’ in audit
An interim report by the government into debt-laden state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has found nothing suspicious after vetting its accounts, a parliamentary committee said yesterday. The bipartisan Public Accounts Committee said the report by the auditor-general revealed nothing out of the ordinary, but it criticized 1MDB for failing to fully cooperate in investigations. 1MDB, with debts of more than US$11 billion, is being probed by authorities for financial mismanagement and graft. The firm is an entity of the Ministry of Finance, and Prime Minister Najib Razak chairs its advisory board. The Wall Street Journal last week cited documents from a government probe in reporting that Najib had close to US$700 million in deposits from 1MDB wired into his personal account. Najib has denied taking money for his personal gain, while 1MDB said the allegations were “unsubstantiated.”
NEW ZEALAND
AC/DC’s Rudd gets detention
A judge yesterday sentenced AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd to eight months of home detention after he pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a man who used to work for him, along with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. The 61-year-old drummer was sentenced in Tauranga District Court on North Island. He had faced up to seven years in prison on the threatening to kill charge. Rudd pleaded guilty to the charges in April, saying in a court summary of facts that he had offered large amounts of cash, vehicles and a house to an associate after asking him to have the victim “taken out” and telling the victim that he was going to kill him.
‘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