COLOMBIA
Sex-trafficking ring smashed
A sex-trafficking ring with links to China has been foiled after 11 people were arrested in simultaneous raids across the South American country, police said on Saturday. Investigators worked with Interpol and conducted operations in the cities of Bogota, Medellin and Armenia, arresting criminals responsible for trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering, a source said. In Bogota, four people were captured for being brokers of air tickets and visas to China, police said. In Medellin, police arrested a man and a woman who went by the alias “Dayana.” She was wanted by Interpol for sexual exploitation and was the head of the trafficking ring. In Armenia, another five people were picked up by police as part of the trafficking network, which exploited disadvantaged women to become sex workers.
HONDURAS
Illegal migrants detained
Police arrested a Syrian woman and two Pakistanis on Saturday after determining the three were traveling illegally and presumably en route to the US, a police official said. The three were detained in Choluteca at a highway checkpoint after having entered the country at a nearby border crossing with Nicaragua, the official added, declining to give his name because he was not authorized to talk about the arrests. “The three detainees were traveling illegally and were sent to the national migration institute offices,” he said. “There were presumably headed to the United States.” Police have identified the Syrian woman as 39-year-old Hanna Maissoun. The two Pakistanis are Muhammad Shafiq, 30, and Nassem Abbas, 21, police added. It was not immediately clear what kind of identification documents, if any, the three were carrying or how long they have been in the region.
UNITED STATES
Skydiving student killed
A skydiving student died and an instructor was injured in a tandem jump in Arizona, authorities said on Saturday. Pinal County Sheriff’s spokesman Mark Clark said a malfunction or failure occurred, leading to a hard-impact landing. Firefighters pronounced the 26-year-old female student dead. The 40-year-old male instructor was hospitalized with two broken legs and was expected to survive. They were taking part in a tandem jump in which two people, typically a certified skydiver or instructor and a student, are joined by a harness. In a post on their Facebook page, Skydive Phoenix said the student was conducting her second jump for their Accelerated Skydiving Program and a main parachute did not deploy. A reserve parachute was flying properly, but encountered turbulence during the landing. The student’s identity will not be released until her next of kin has been notified, Clark said.
UNITED STATES
Fire in Chicago skyscraper
A fire on Saturday broke out in the John Hancock Center, one of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers. The Fire Department’s media office tweeted that one person was injured, adding in an update that the fire was out. Flames and thick smoke poured out of a window on the 50th floor. Chicago police said they were getting calls reporting the blaze from people inside the building. It has offices, shops and residential units, along with an observation floor popular with tourists. A Fire Department spokesman could not immediately be reached to provide more details. The iconic 99-floor building was completed in 1970.
SUDAN
Envoy leads women’s swim
Dutch Ambassador Susan Blankhart on Saturday swam across the Nile in Khartoum in a stunt that began as a bet to win more “likes” for her embassy’s Facebook page. Clad in a bright orange swimsuit bearing the embassy logo, Blankhart swam several hundred meters across the Blue Nile with six Dutch women and seven Sudanese women, cheered on by dozens of supporters on the riverbank. “It was lovely, it was beautiful. I would recommend that everyone swims across the Nile,” Blankhart said laughing, back on dry land after the crossing. She had originally said that she would swim across the river if her embassy’s Facebook page received more than 10,000 likes. After she hit the target, the 63-year-old organized the swim with two charities to raise awareness about safe swimming in the Nile.
SOUTH KOREA
Former president dies
Former president Kim Young-sam, whose election pulled down the final curtain on more than 30 years of military rule, died yesterday, hospital officials said. He was 87. The pro-democracy activist, who served as president from 1993 to 1998 — the first to civilian to hold office since 1962 — was suffering from a serious blood infection and died shortly after midnight, several days after being hospitalized with a high fever, Seoul National University Hospital president Oh Byung-hee told reporters. President Park Geun-hye expressed “deep condolences,” her spokesman said. Seoul announced a state funeral for Kim, to be held on Thursday.
CHINA
More funds for MH370 hunt
Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) pledged an additional US$14.5 million to fund the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8 last year with 239 people aboard. Li made the announcement on Saturday during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Malaysia. The plane disappeared on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
CAMEROON
Teens turn suicide bombers
Four teenage girls on Saturday blew themselves up in a flashpoint area in the north, killing five people, including a traditional chief, the regional governor said. One of the girls set off her explosives in the house of the local chief in a village near Fotokol, a town close to the Nigerian border that is often targeted by Boko Haram Islamists. He and four members of his family were killed, Governor Midjiyawa Bakari said. Ten others were injured. The other girls blew themselves up, but did not kill anyone else. A security source said the bombers were about 15 years old. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
ZIMBABWE
Wheelchair for Mugabe
First lady Grace Mugabe on Saturday said she plans to get a “special” wheelchair for her 91-year-old husband so that he can continue to rule. In a televised speech from a political rally, she said that she would get a wheelchair for her husband, President Robert Mugabe, to use and to push it herself. She told supporters she would ensure her husband remains in power as long as he can still speak, taking a swipe at critics who say her 91-year-old husband is too old to govern.
‘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