RUSSIA
Hospital fire claims 21
A fire at a psychiatric hospital killed 21 people, the nation’s emergencies ministry said yesterday. “Nineteen bodies were found at the site of the fire, two other people succumbed to their wounds at the hospital,” a ministry spokesman told reporters. The hospital building, made of wood, was destroyed by the fire, the spokesman said. A further 20 people were injured. The fire broke out at the hospital in the village of Alferovka, which lies in the region of Voronezh in the nation’s south. It was not immediately clear what triggered the blaze.
SAUDI ARABIA
Woman wins Mecca seat
A woman won a seat on Mecca’s municipal council in the nation’s first-ever elections open to female voters and candidates, the election commission said yesterday. Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected to the council of Madrakah, a region in the city of Mecca, the SPA news agency reported, citing election commission president Osama al-Bar. She was running against seven men and two women, he added. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women, including a ban on driving. It was the last country to allow only men to vote, and polling stations were segregated during Saturday’s vote. Among the 6,440 candidates were more than 900 women, who overcame a number of obstacles to participate in the landmark poll. Female candidates could not directly meet any male voters during their campaigns.
CHINA
Official killed in Xinjiang
A senior ethnic Uighur security official was killed in a police raid on a “nest of terrorists,” state media reported, giving details on a previously unannounced operation in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang. Hundreds of people have been killed in the past few years in the region, which is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people in violence blamed by the government on Islamist militants seeking an independent state. The People’s Daily, in a report late on Saturday, named the dead official as Maimaitijiang Tuohuniyazi, a deputy head of public security in Aksu, a vast part of western Xinjiang that borders Kyrgyzstan. It said domestic head of security Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱), who is currently in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, offered condolences to Tuohuniyazi’s widow, praising him as a brave and selfless man. “In order to rescue a herder who had been kidnapped by terrorists, he threw himself into the breach, charged into the nest of terrorists and unfortunately heroically sacrificed himself,” the paper said, without giving other details.
GERMANY
Protesters clash with police
More than 50 police officers and several demonstrators were injured in clashes in the city of Leipzig on Saturday as protesters rallied against a neo-Nazi rally, police said. In all, 56 police and several demonstrators were hurt, a police spokeswoman said, without giving details of the injuries. About 30 police vehicles were also damaged, she added. Security forces also made more than two dozen arrests, the spokeswoman said. The clashes erupted on the sidelines of a protest, attended by about 1,000 people, held against a neo-Nazi rally, which was attended by about 150 people. The protesters from the larger rally clashed with police in several areas of Leipzig, throwing stones, setting off firecrackers, and blocking roads by burning trash. They also attacked firefighters. Police responded by firing water cannon and tear gas.
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