IRAN
Ali Larijani re-elected
Ali Larijani was re-elected yesterday as the temporary speaker of the new parliament, which is dominated by first-term deputies. Larijani, who had cooperated closely with the government of President Hassan Rouhani in approving the nation’s nuclear deal with world powers last year, won 173 votes in the 290-seat assembly, state media reported. A vote for a permanent speaker is due in the next few days, after the full house approves the credentials of individual members, as required by the constitution.
FIJI
Peacekeepers recalled
Nadi said it is to bring home about 65 of the 300-plus peacekeepers it has stationed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and has closed remote bases there as the security situation deteriorates. Commander Humphery Tawake, who heads the South Pacific nation’s foreign peacekeeping force, yesterday said that it was asked to scale down its presence by the leaders of the international peacekeeping force stationed in Egypt. Tawake said the US and Colombia are also planning to reduce troop numbers as the peacekeepers find themselves increasingly caught amid fighting between the Egyptian armed forces and militants. He said the decisions on troop numbers were made at the headquarters of the Multinational Force and Observers group. Tawake said five of its seven or eight remote Sinai outposts have been closed in the past couple of weeks.
NIGER
Boko Haram fighters killed
Security forces killed about 12 fighters of the Muslim militant group Boko Haram who launched an attack in the southeastern region of Bosso close to the border with Nigeria, according to an army statement on Saturday. Three members of the security forces were lightly wounded during Friday’s battle and government forces captured machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and mobile telephones, army spokesman Colonel Moustapha Ledru said. “The vigorous reaction of the Defense and Security Forces of Niger put the enemy to flight. Around a dozen terrorists were killed and several dozen others were wounded and carried away by the fleeing attackers,” he said on national radio.
CHINA
Advertiser apologizes
A laundry detergent maker apologized for any harm caused by the spread of an ad in which a black man “washed” by its product was transformed into a fair-skinned Asian man. Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co said it strongly shuns and condemns racial discrimination and blamed foreign media for amplifying the ad, which first appeared on local social media in March, but was halted after it drew protests last week following media reports. “We express regret that the ad should have caused a controversy, but we will not shun responsibility for controversial content,” the statement issued late on Saturday read. “We express our apology for the harm caused to the African people because of the spread of the ad and the over-amplification by the media. We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it.” The ad for Qiaobi laundry detergent drops showed a black man entering a room and attempting to flirt with an Asian woman. He is carrying a pail of paint, wears dirty clothes and has a soiled face. She feeds him a detergent drop and stuffs his body into a top-loading washer. When the cycle completes, a fair-skinned Asian man in a clean white T-shirt emerges.
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
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