CHINA
Protests halt incinerator
For the second time in a week, a city has announced it would halt plans for a garbage incinerator project following angry protests by residents that underscore growing concern over threats to public health. The government of Nanxian in Hunan Province yesterday said that it would cease all work related to the project and would not start up again without public support. Hundreds of Nanxian residents took to the street on Monday and Tuesday to protest the project, citing pollution concerns, overseas Chinese-language news sites reported. A notice from the local government also urged residents not to take extreme measures or spread rumors.
INDIA
Hindus halt church wedding
A group of hardline Hindu activists and police stormed a church in Madhya Pradesh state and stopped a wedding midway after accusing the pastor of forcefully converting the bride to Christianity, a church official said yesterday. Men belonging to the fringe Bajrang Dal group barged in accompanied by police, who arrested 10 people, church spokesman Mariyosh Josep said. “They said it is a matter of forceful conversion and arrested the bride, the groom, their parents as well pastors of two churches,” he said. “How can you storm into a religious place and stop a ceremony like this? You will never see such a thing happening at a temple or a mosque.” The area police superintendent said the wedding was stopped because the girl was a Hindu and not yet 18, the legal age for women to marry.
IRAQ
Al-Jazeera license revoked
Authorities have revoked the operating license of the pan-Arab satellite network al-Jazeera and closed its offices in Baghdad, accusing it of violating government guidelines issued in 2014 to regulate media “during the war on terror.” Qatar-based al-Jazeera said it was dismayed by the action. “We remain committed to broadcasting news on Iraq to Iraqi people, our viewers in the Arab world and across the world,” the channel said.
SWITZERLAND
Tohti shortlisted for prize
Uighur academic Ilham Tohti, who is serving a life sentence for separatism in a Chinese prison, on Wednesday was named as a finalist for a human rights award for trying to promote dialogue in Xinjiang. He was chosen by the Martin Ennals Foundation, named after the founder of Amnesty International, as one of three candidates for its annual prize recognizing the work of human rights defenders. The other two are Razan Zaitouneh, a Syrian lawyer, and a group of rights advocates in Ethiopia.
RUSSIA
Rocket finally launched
The Roscosmos space agency yesterday successfully launched the first rocket from its new space facility after a last-minute delay the day before. The Soyuz 2.1a booster blasted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the early hours yesterday. The agency said in a statement that the three satellites the rocket was carrying orbited several hours later. The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was called off one-and-a-half minutes before the planned liftoff.
ITALY
Refugees to be fingerprinted
The government is to introduce the fingerprinting of refugees crossing the Mediterranean as soon as they are picked up by rescue boats, officials said. The move follows talks on Wednesday between Minister of the Interior Angelo Alfano and EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in Sicily, where most migrants arrive and are processed at “hotspot” reception centers. The move could help to reduce mounting tensions between Italy and its EU partners over the large numbers of refugees who arrive in Italy, but are not registered there and then travel on to northern Europe.
UNITED STATES
Toddler shoots mother dead
A Wisconsin toddler riding in the back of a car accidentally shot dead his mother with a gun that slid out from under the driver’s seat, US police said on Wednesday. The 26-year-old victim, Patrice Price, was pronounced dead at the scene following Tuesday’s incident in Milwaukee, the local sheriff’s office said. The child, aged two and a half and identified by local media as a boy, fired the 40-caliber gun through the driver’s seat where his mother was at the wheel. The weapon apparently belonged to the victim’s security guard boyfriend, with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper reporting that she was driving his car because hers had been stolen days earlier.
UNITED STATES
Three friars to stand trial
Three Franciscan friars must stand trial on charges linked to their role in supervising a religious brother accused of molesting more than 100 children, nearly all of them at one Pennsylvania high school, a judge ruled on Wednesday. The Reverends Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli are charged with child endangerment and conspiracy. Their preliminary hearing concluded on Wednesday with testimony from two FBI agents who organized a chart of Brother Stephen Baker’s alleged victims. More than 90 former Bishop McCort Catholic High School students in Johnstown have settled lawsuits for more than US$8 million claiming Baker molested them. Baker fatally stabbed himself in the heart at the Franciscan’s St Bernardine monastery near Hollidaysburg in early 2013.
MEXICO
Police face torture charges
Three federal police officers and two soldiers are to face trial on torture charges after a video surfaced showing a woman being nearly suffocated with a bag, authorities said on Wednesday. The video, which circulated on social media, shows a policewoman placing a bag over the woman’s head while she is being interrogated. A female soldier also points the muzzle of her assault rifle at the head of the woman, who sobs as she sits barefoot on a dirt floor. Officials said the video captures an incident that took place in February last year in the town of Ajuchitlan del Progreso, Guerrero.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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