HAITI
Voodoo leader dies
Max Gesner Beauvoir, the supreme leader of the voodoo religion, died on Saturday at the age of 79 in Port-au-Prince, his relatives have announced. Beauvoir, a biochemist by training, in 2008 was named the “National Ati,” or spiritual guide for voodoo practitioners. The title was created to defend the nation’s historic religion from increased attacks from some Protestant churches and Evangelical preachers. Beauvoir worked hard to counter negative stereotypes of the religion and explain voodoo to foreigners, and even opened the religion’s temple to the public during important religious ceremonies.
HONDURAS
Call for UN-led probe
An opposition group says it rejects creation of a national commission using foreign judges and prosecutors to investigate corruption, and only an international commission would be acceptable. The group calling itself the “Indignant Opposition” on Saturday said that allegations of social security fraud should be investigated by a commission like the one the UN heads in Guatemala. The “Indignant Opposition” says it opposes an Organization of American States proposal to have foreign judges and prosecutors help investigate official wrongdoing because the effort would still be under national government control.
UNITED KINGDOM
Training bunker planned
Police officers, security guards and soldiers will be trained to combat domestic terrorist attacks in an underground bunker simulating everything from hostage rescues to raids on airports, hotels and schools. The National Firearms and Tactical Training Centre, to be built on the site of a subterranean reservoir for £20 million (US$31 million), will feature mocked-up houses that trainees will storm, a Taser-training area and five live-firing ranges. The complex is to have 2m-thick walls to ensure safety and sound proofing. Rooms furnished with couches and cupboards will recreate real-world search-and-rescue scenarios, while the largest 100m range is big enough to teach vehicle interception techniques. The privately funded center should open in 2017.
GREECE
Meimarakis seeks support
Conservative leader Evangelos Meimarakis on Saturday called on Greeks to give him the chance to form a government with his New Democracy party at “its core” and undo the damage from seven months of a left-led coalition. Meimarakis told an audience of party supporters and local business people at the Thessaloniki International Fair that “voters cannot gamble away” the “last chance” in next Sunday’s election to save the country from the policies of the leftist SYRIZA government. He promised business-friendly policies that would bring jobs, growth and, eventually lower taxes, instead of the state-driven economy he accused his opponent, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, of promoting.
SOUTH AFRICA
School teacher beatified
About 30,000 people yesterday gathered in the small northern village of Tshitanini for a ceremony beatifying a school teacher who was bludgeoned to death for resisting witchcraft. Benedict Daswa was killed by fellow villagers on Feb. 2, 1990, after he refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end destructive storms hammering the region. Pope France in January said that Daswa would be beatified, the first to undergo the key step toward Catholic sainthood in southern Africa.
‘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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in