FRANCE
Nanny jailed for murder
A Paris court on Friday handed a 20-year jail term to a Chinese nanny for murdering and chopping up her employers after their two-month-old baby died in her care. The woman, 34-year-old Hui Zhang (張慧), had admitted killing a couple, Ying Wang (王瑩) and Xui Liangsi (薛良思), during a violent row at her home after they learned their little boy had died. The judge followed the prosecutor’s recommendation of 20 years behind bars for Hui, who had claimed she acted in self-defense when the parents of the dead child attacked her and her boyfriend, Te Lu (陸鋱), 34, with a butcher’s knife. Te, who was a co-defendant in the macabre case, was acquitted. In his closing arguments, Julien Eyraud had told the court: “When I learned of this case, I was overcome by the horror of what happened, imagining the smell of blood, this butchery in the bathroom, this violence.”
UNITED STATES
The Edge mansions panned
The Sierra Club is suing the California Coastal Commission in an effort to halt approval of U2 guitarist The Edge’s plans to build five mansions on a Malibu ridge. The Los Angeles Times reported that the action filed on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court said the commission did not properly evaluate the project before granting approval last month. Among other things, the Sierra Club maintains the commission did not consider the impact that putting homes in Malibu’s pristine Sweetwater Mesa area would have on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. The Edge has been attempting to get the project approved since 2011. The plans the commission approved last month were a scaled-down version of his original proposal. Commission spokeswoman Noaki Schwartz on Friday said her agency had not yet reviewed the lawsuit and could not comment.
ZIMBABWE
Mugabe returns home
President Robert Mugabe returned home late on Friday after a month-long holiday in the Far East, a little more than a week after the presidency dismissed rumors that Africa’s oldest president had suffered a heart attack and collapsed. Mugabe, who turns 92 on Feb. 21, is the only leader that the Southern African nation has ever known, and his health is being closely watched in and outside his ruling party, ZANU-PF. The party is deeply divided over who is to eventually succeed him. The president was shown on state television network ZBC arriving with his wife, Grace, and several security aides at Harare International Airport, where he was met by one of his vice presidents, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Cabinet ministers and security chiefs. Mugabe did not speak to journalists from ZBC or the state-owned media. Reports about the declining health of Mugabe, who is showing signs of his advancing age, are common, but he likes to describe himself as “fit as a fiddle.”
UNITED STATES
Bruce Davis parole rejected
California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday said he has rejected parole for a follower of cult leader Charles Manson 46 years after a series of bloody murders rocked Southern California. Bruce Davis was convicted of the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea. He was not involved in the more notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. Brown said the 73-year-old Davis remains a danger to public safety. Brown blocked Davis’ parole twice before.
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
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