CHINA
Ex-CCP secretary jailed
A court in Beijing yesterday sentenced former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary for Urumqi Yang Gang (楊剛) to 12 years in jail after finding him guilty of corruption. Yang was indicted last year for accepting bribes. Yang served as CCP secretary in Xinjiang’s capital between 1999 and 2006. The Beijing court said in a statement that Yang abused his power while working in Xinjiang by providing “assistance” to others in promotions and winning contracts. He also took 13.79 million yuan (US$2.10 million) in bribes that were channeled via his wife and son, the court said. Yang confessed his crimes and gave help in the investigation into him, meaning he received a lighter sentence, it added.
NORTH KOREA
‘Hangover-free’ liquor touted
The nation has created a hangover-free liquor that is between 30 percent and 40 percent alcohol, but leaves you clear-headed in the morning, according to state media. A recent edition of the Pyongyang Times said the drink, Koryo Liquor, uses a combination of six-year-old, top-quality ginseng and “scorched glutinous rice.” The resulting tipple is a subtle blend of sweet and savory that is “highly appreciated by experts and lovers, as it is suave and causes no hangover,” the Times said. The wonder-drink has already been garlanded with prizes, including top spot at last year’s national liquor show, the article added.
ISRAEL
Price-fixing ring busted
Investigators have busted a ring of travel agency officials they say are suspected of price-fixing for school trips to Nazi death camp sites in Poland, police said. Nine people were arrested from various travel agencies suspected of colluding during a government tender to fix prices to prevent competition for Poland trips. Spokeswoman Luba Samri said on Tuesday About 30,000 high-school students go on organized week-long trips to Poland every year, according to the Ministry of Education, where they visit old Nazi death camps, remnants of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust and other sites. The ministry sees the trips as a way of preserving the memory of the Holocaust among young generations.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Men in Internet video wanted
Prosecutors have filed an arrest warrant for two men who wore military uniforms and danced in an Internet video. The state-run WAM news agency on Tuesday announced that prosecutors had filed a warrant for the pair. It described the video as showing “two men donning military uniforms and making outrageous physical movements that did not respect the uniform, the morale and the value of national service.”
BRAZIL
Cabbies given new rules
Taxi drivers in Sao Paulo have been banned from wearing shorts — or trying to engage their fares in banter about soccer. The rules that took effect on Monday aim to whip the city’s cabbies into shape. In addition to outlawing shorts and flip-flops, the rules slap fines of about US$9 on drivers who show up unshaved or with untidy hair. Cabbies are required to wear shirts with dark jeans or dress trousers, as well as a belt. The restrictions also require cabbies to mind what they say, “avoiding polemics” about soccer, politics and religion, and presenting an “optimistic and upbeat” attitude.
‘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