NORTH KOREA
Party congress date set
The government has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next month that is expected to bolster leader Kim Jong-un’s grip on power. The ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday decided to open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on Friday next week, the official Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. It will be the first time the congress will be held since 1980.
THAILAND
Facebook critics charged
The election commission yesterday filed charges against a group for posting “foul and strong” comments online criticizing a military-backed draft constitution, the first case filed under a law that prohibits campaigning on the charter. Election commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn filed the charges against members of a Facebook group based in the northeastern Khon Kaen Province, but he did not disclose the group’s identity. “We want them to be an example,” he said. “From now on, people should talk about the constitution using reason.”
BANGLADESH
Two teachers jailed
A court has jailed two teachers for six months for making derogatory comments about Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, invoking a rare law from the British colonial era that makes insulting any religion a crime. The case began when students at Hijla High School in Bagerhat District complained that the assistant teacher of a science class on Sunday had dismissed the Koran as the word of Allah and said there was no heaven, Magistrate Anwar Parvez said on Tuesday. The high school’s head teacher backed up his colleague, and a mob of students, parents and villagers then attacked the teachers with sticks.
CAMBODIA
Truck crash injures 64
An overloaded truck carrying 75 garment workers yesterday swerved and flipped over after a tire exploded, leaving 64 passengers injured, including several in critical condition, authorities said. The accident occurred in northern Kampong Speu Province and the workers are employees of a Taiwanese-owned shoe-making factory.
MYANMAR
Tourists hurt by landmine
Two German travelers and their local guide were wounded by shrapnel from a landmine near Kyaukme township in Shan State, officials said yesterday. The pair, both 24, were taken to hospital in Mandalay late on Tuesday evening. The Germans were not seriously hurt, local officials said, but an army source said the guide suffered scattered shrapnel wounds to his legs.
CHINA
Obesity alert raised
Researchers yesterday raised the alarm about an obesity explosion among children in rural areas as a Western-style diet high in sugar and carbohydrates starts taking its toll. A 29-year survey of youngsters in Shandong Province found that 17 percent of boys younger than 19 were obese in 2014, and 9 percent of girls — up from under 1 percent for both genders in 1985. “This is extremely worrying,” the European Society of Cardiology’s Joep Perk said of the study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. “It is the worst explosion of childhood and adolescent obesity that I have ever seen.” The data came from six government surveys of about 28,000 students aged seven to 18. The findings had implications for the entire nation, where more than half the population lives in rural areas, researchers said.
SWITZERLAND
Geneva defends exhibit
Geneva authorities on Tuesday said they had rebuffed a request from the Turkish consulate to remove a photography installation critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from a public square in front of the UN site. The art installation by Demir Sonmez, a Kurdish-Armenian photographer who gave up his Turkish nationality in 2005, shows dozens of photographs of demonstrations that have taken place in front of the UN in Geneva over recent years. One photo shows a banner with the face of a boy who died after sustaining injuries at a protest against the government in Istanbul in 2013. The banner also shows a message blaming Erdogan and his orders to the police for the boy’s death.
UKRAINE
Host’s work permit revoked
The nation’s most prominent political talk show host was stripped of his work permit on Tuesday in what he described as a politically charged case. Savik Shuster — a 63-year-old Canadian citizen who was born in the former Soviet Union and had previously worked for the US-funded Radio Liberty station — accused Kiev’s pro-Western leaders of being thin-skinned and unwilling to support free speech. “The problem is that, as it turn out, this government does not tolerate any criticism,” he said on his 3S.tv satellite television channel. He later announced he was going on hunger strike “until the moment when my right to work in Ukraine is restored.”
GERMANY
Viruses found at power plant
A nuclear power plant has been found to be infected with computer viruses, but they appear not to have posed a threat to the facility’s operations because it is isolated from the Internet, the station’s operator said on Tuesday. The Gundremmingen plant, about 120km northwest of Munich, is run by RWE. The viruses, which include “W32.Ramnit” and “Conficker,” were discovered at Gundremmingen’s B unit in a computer system retrofitted in 2008 with data visualization software associated with equipment for moving nuclear fuel rods, RWE said. Malware was also found on 18 removable data drives. RWE said it had increased cybersecurity measures.
IRAN
Journalists imprisoned
A revolutionary court on Tuesday handed down long prison terms to four journalists supportive of the government of President Hassan Rouhani, news media reported. All four, who worked for reformist newspapers, were convicted on charges of having acted against national security. Prominent reporter and actress Afarin Chitsaz was sentenced to 10 years, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. Last year, she wrote an impassioned defense of the nuclear agreement between Tehran and major world powers in the daily Iran, a government newspaper. The three other journalists were sentenced to five and seven years.
UNITED STATES
Alba, Obama win awards
Actress turned entrepreneur Jessica Alba and US first lady Michelle Obama were among celebrities and technology titans honored on Tuesday with Webby Awards for “excellence on the Internet.” Alba won the first Webby Entrepreneur of the Year for her role as a cofounder of The Honest Co, which has developed into an empire selling household products made “without hurting people or the planet.” Obama won two awards in an Online Film and Video category for parts in Funny or Die and College-Humor videos. The awards will take place in New York City on May 16.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in