MYANMAR
Landslide kills at least 13
At least 13 people died in a landslide in a remote jade mining region of the north with many more feared missing, authorities said yesterday. At least 50 others were injured. Locals and officials are searching for bodies after a wall of unstable earth collapsed during a downpour on Monday night in the town of Hpakant in Kachin state, the war-torn area that feeds a huge demand for the precious stones from China. “We have found a total of 13 bodies while 14 injured have come to the hospital for treatment,” said Naw Li, a volunteer rescue worker.
INDIA
HRW urges repeal of laws
The government routinely uses outdated and loosely worded laws to crack down on dissent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday, urging New Delhi to repeal or amend legislation used to stifle free speech. A new report from the group details the use of colonial-era laws such as sedition and criminal defamation to clamp down on government critics. “India’s abusive laws are the hallmark of a repressive society, not a vibrant democracy,” HRW South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said in a statement. “Putting critics in prison or even forcing them to defend themselves in lengthy and expensive court proceedings undermines the government’s efforts to present India as a modern country in the Internet age committed to free speech and the rule of law.”
CAMBODIA
Team to interview refugees
The government yesterday said it will send a team to a South Pacific detention center next month to interview two refugees who have volunteered to be resettled, reviving an agreement with Australia that seemed on the verge of collapse. Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers sailing from Indonesia and Sri Lanka and landing on its shores, instead intercepting boats at sea and holding those on board in camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Phnom Penh agreed with Australia in 2014 to take in refugees from Nauru in exchange for A$40 million (US$28.56 million at current exchange rates) in aid, but it later threatened to withdraw from the agreement.
IRAN
Hardliner to head assembly
A powerful anti-Western cleric was yesterday chosen as the head of the new Assembly of Experts, in a sign that hardliners are still in firm control of the body in charge of choosing the next supreme leader. Ahmad Jannati, 90, is a an outspoken critic of President Hassan Rouhani and his attempts to end Tehran’s global isolation by normalizing ties with the West. The 88-member assembly, consisting mostly of older clerics, is expected to choose the successor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 77 and rumored to be in frail health. Jannati is also the chairman of the Guardian Council, a hardline vetting body that disqualified the majority of prominent reformist and many moderate candidates from running in the February elections.
JAPAN
Singer in coma after attack
A part-time pop singer remains in a coma after being stabbed about 20 times on Saturday last week by a fan near a concert site, police said on Monday. The suspect, Tomohiro Iwazaki, told police he was was angry because the singer had returned a gift that he had given her. Tomita, who is a college student, had reported to police that she was being harassed by Iwazaki on social media.
UNITED STATES
Murder conviction overturned
The Supreme Court on Monday effectively overturned a black man’s 1987 conviction for murdering a white woman, rebuking Georgia prosecutors for unlawfully excluding black potential jurors in picking an all-white jury that condemned him to death. The 7-1 ruling handed a major victory to Timothy Foster, who is 48 now and was 18 at the time of the 1986 killing of Queen Madge White, a 79-year-old retired schoolteacher, in Rome, Georgia. Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecution notes introduced into evidence that shed light on the jury selection “plainly belie the state’s claim that it exercised its strikes in a ‘color blind’ manner. The sheer number of references to race in that file is arresting.”
UNITED STATES
Hawaii plane crash kills five
Five people died after a skydiving tour plane crashed and caught fire in Hawaii, one of two plane crashes reported on Monday in the islands. It happened about 9:30am on Kauai, the county fire department said. The pilot, two skydive instructors and two tandem jumpers were believed to be on the plane. Four of them were pronounced dead at the crash site, while the other was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
SPAIN
Model tried for murder
A Slovakian model on trial in the fatal shooting of her British millionaire ex-boyfriend tearfully testified on Monday that he pulled out a pistol and it went off while they struggled for it. Prosecutors say Maria Kukucova shot Andrew Bush twice in the head and once in the shoulder at his home in Estepona on April 5, 2014, and are seeking a 20-year prison term. Kukucova, 26, testified she did not know how many shots were fired because the first one was so loud that she went temporarily deaf, hearing nothing just after it.
PORTUGAL
‘Spies’ arrested in Rome
A senior intelligence officer has been arrested in Rome, along with an alleged Russian intelligence agent at the request of Lisbon, which suspects them of spying, the Lusa news agency reported on Monday. The state prosecutor said the arrest of the officer and “a foreigner linked to an intelligence agency” followed a probe “into suspicions concerning the transmission of information in exchange for money.” A source close to the case said the secrets allegedly passed on concerned the EU and NATO.
SWITZERLAND
N Korea spurns Trump
US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s proposal to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a “kind of propaganda or advertisement” in his campaign, North Korean Ambassador to the UN in Geneva So Se-pyo said on Monday. “It is up to the decision of my Supreme Leader whether he decides to meet or not, but I think his [Trump’s] idea or talk is nonsense,” So said. “There is no meaning, no sincerity.”
UNITED STATES
Jolie made visiting professor
Oscar-winning actress and activist Angelina Jolie has been appointed a visiting professor at London School of Economics. The school on Monday announced that Jolie will be working with students studying for a master’s degree in Women, Peace and Security. Among others appointed to teach the course is former Foreign Secretary William Hague.
‘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