INDIA
Militants storm army camp
At least three heavily armed militants yesterday stormed an army camp in the nation’s portion of Kashmir, wounding an officer and a civilian worker as intense firing set barracks and a vehicle on fire, the army said. The fighting raged close to the heavily militarized line of control dividing Kashmir with Pakistan, said an army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. He said the militants used grenades and gunfire to attack the camp, located about 150km northwest of the area’s main city of Srinagar. The camp houses the army’s headquarters in the frontier region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident. No rebel group fighting the government immediately issued any statement.
JAPAN
UN urges over refugees
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres yesterday said that Tokyo should be doing more to help with the global catastrophe of asylum seekers. Guterres said that he hoped Japan could admit more refugees, especially Syrians, on a “humanitarian basis.” He said the nation also needs to improve its asylum system and do a better job of integrating the refugees it accepts into its society. Guterres spoke at an event where Japanese apparel company Fast Retailing announced a partnership with the commission to expand the firm’s support for refugees, which includes internships, and donations of funds and of recycled clothing.
AFGHANISTAN
Rescue operation launched
Security forces yesterday launched an operation to rescue 18 people who Taliban insurgents captured after their helicopter made an emergency landing in territory under militant control, the Ministry of Defense said. The Taliban said they had shot the helicopter down and captured 15 people. The MI-17 helicopter owned by a private foreign company made an emergency landing in the northern province of Faryab on Tuesday after it developed a technical problem, the ministry said. “The insurgents then attacked and as a result two soldiers and one member of the crew were killed ... 18 people were captured,” the ministry said in a statement. “Security forces have started a clearance operation to free the captives.”
VATICAN CITY
Pope leaves for Africa
Pope Francis yesterday flew out of Rome bound for Kenya on the first leg of a landmark trip to Africa that is fraught with security risks. The 78-year-old pontiff, the third pope to visit the continent, is also to visit Uganda and the troubled Central African Republic (CAR) on a six-day trip. The final leg of the tour, in the CAR, could yet be curtailed or canceled depending on security conditions in a nation that has been wracked by sectarian conflict in recent years. A densely packed schedule will see the pope visit, among others, a shanty town in Kenya, a major Catholic shrine to Christian martyrs in Uganda and both a mosque and a refugee camp in the CAR. Officials say a last-minute change of program will only happen if Francis is made aware of a precise threat that could endanger the thousands of believers expected to come and see him, many of whom will be traveling long distances from neighbouring countries. The pope is due to be welcomed in Kenya by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. In a speech at the presidential residence State House, Francis is expected to address questions of corruption.
UNITED STATES
Baby found in a manger
A newborn with his umbilical cord still attached was found lying in a manger at a New York City church on Monday, police said on Tuesday. The custodian at Holy Child Jesus Church in Queens found the crying infant wrapped in towels in the indoor nativity scene he had set up just before his lunch break, a police spokesman said. Father Christopher Ryan Heanue said he and others placed a clean towel around the baby while waiting for paramedics to show up. “The beautiful thing is that this woman found in this church — which is supposed to be a home for those in need — this home for her child,” Heanue said, referring to the person he assumed left the baby there. Paramedics took the healthy baby to Jamaica Hospital and police are investigating the incident, the police spokesman said.
FRANCE
Hostage-taker killed
Police on Tuesday killed one man after his heavily armed group took the family of a bank manager hostage the northern town of Roubaix, officials said, adding that there was no terrorist link to the incident. A group of heavily armed men wielding Kalashnikovs tried to seize the manager of a local bank branch to make him open the safe, local prosecutor Frederic Fevre said. When police arrived, the manager escaped and the assailants holed up in his house, taking his wife, their daughter and their 11-month-old baby hostage. One of the suspects opened fire at police, prompting security forces to return fire, Fevre said. After two hours, a specialist police unit launched an assault on the house, freeing the captives, killing one of the suspects and arresting a second in the back garden, Fevre said. The other suspects escaped.
BRAZIL
Olympic contracts probed
Police investigating corruption around state-run oil firm Petrobras also plan to probe more than US$10 billion of construction contracts for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, a lead investigator said. Some of the big engineering firms caught up in the Petrobras probe “very probably” broke laws against price-fixing and bribery on contracts to build Olympic venues, said Igor Romario, a Federal Police chief and key figure in the investigation. “In every situation where there has been an investigation into contracts with these companies, this model of corruption was repeated,” Romario said. However, he said that there is no evidence so far proving any crimes around Olympic bidding.
PERU
Two quakes rock nation
A pair of major magnitude7.6 earthquakes jolted the nation near its border with Brazil on Tuesday, and were felt across several South American nations, but authorities had no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The first quake, which struck at 5:45pm, was 601km deep, according to the US Geological Survey. It was located about 169km west-northwest of Iberia and 688km east-northeast of Lima. Five minutes later, a second temblor of the same strength rocked the same area, but with a different epicenter. Three aftershocks were also reported.
MEXICO
Hurricane forms off coast
Hurricane Sandra formed off the Pacific coast on Tuesday, with the storm expected to strengthen as it heads toward the country’s northwest coast, the US National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday. “Sandra could become a major hurricane by Thursday,” the center said. “Interests in southern portions of the Baja California peninsula should monitor” Sandra’s progress.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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