CHINA
Transgender hearing held
An arbitration panel has held a hearing in what is believed to be the country’s first transgender employment discrimination case. Lawyer Huang Sha said yesterday he was told a ruling would be issued later in the case of his client, who has identified himself only as Mr C. C sued for compensation and an apology after being fired from his job at a medical services company because, although born a woman, he dressed like a man. The case comes amid growing awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in the nation, where society and the government have generally frowned on non-traditional expressions of gender and sexuality.
CAMBODIA
Facebook stirrer jailed
An opposition member of parliament has been arrested for posting a map on Facebook professing to show that the government had ceded territory to Vietnam to whip up opposition, a government spokesman said yesterday. Cambodia National Rescue Party member Um Sam An was arrested on Sunday in the province of Siem Reap after arriving from overseas, a party colleague and fellow lawmaker said. “He created a fake border map and used it as an incitement to overthrow the government,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said. Formal charges would be filed when he appeared before a court.
PAKISTAN
Powerful earthquake hits
At least six Pakistanis were killed when a powerful earthquake rocked parts of South Asia on Sunday, officials said. Five people died in various remote regions of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement and at least 20 homes were damaged. One man was killed in the mountainous northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan when he was hit by falling rocks in the town of Chilas, an official said. The magnitude 6.6 quake struck neighboring northeast Afghanistan at a depth of 21km at 2:58pm on Sunday. It was felt in Kabul 282km to the south of the epicenter and in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, where some residents evacuated apartment blocks after tremors shook ceiling fans and furniture.
CHINA
‘Uncivilized’ flyers banned
The nation has banned three passengers from major airlines for “uncivilized behavior,” state media reported yesterday, as the nation seeks to instil manners in its increasingly well-traveled populace. The three were blacklisted for hitting a checkpoint security officer with a can of milk, attacking airline personnel over a flight delay, and refusing to switch off a tablet PC during a landing, the China Daily report said. They are the first to be included in a system rolled out by the China Air Transport Association in February, and would be unable to book flights with five of China’s biggest airlines for up to two years, the report said. Chinese authorities last year declared 11 types of action “strictly prohibited” on flights and at terminals, including damaging airport security facilities and assaulting crew members, the report said. In January last year, 25 passengers were held by police for questioning after they fought with crew members over a bad weather delay and opened the emergency exits. In 2013, an official who missed two flights lost his temper at the boarding counter and went on a rampage, violently destroying two computers and attempting to smash a window with a signboard.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion