CHINA
Tiananmen moms vow fight
Mothers of some of those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre are condemning the government for failing to account for their children’s deaths and vowing to continue pushing for the truth ahead of this weekend’s 27th anniversary of the events. Published by the advocacy group Human Rights in China, the letter signed by 131 mothers said victims’ families continue to suffer from harassment and intimidation by security services for pursuing their quest for justice for their loved ones. The letter accuses Beijing of ignoring pleas by family members and wiping out public memories of the movement and the bloody crackdown.
CHINA
Tiananmen liquor arrest
Nearly 27 years later, the carnage of June 4, 1989, remains a raw political scar. So raw that a man has been detained on subversion charges, his supporters say, because he shared pictures of liquor bottles labeled to mark the day soldiers extinguished democracy protests based in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The man, Fu Hailu, an itinerant worker in Chengdu, was formally detained by the police Sunday on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” according to human rights Web sites. The images included a beer bottle with a label showing a man sitting in front of a column of tanks — echoing an iconic image of public defiance of the armed crackdown in 1989.
THAILAND
Dead tigers found in temple
Wildlife authorities found 40 tiger cub carcasses in a freezer in the infamous Tiger Temple yesterday as they removed live animals in response to international pressure over suspected trafficking and abuse. The temple had become a tourist destination where visitors snapped selfies with bottle-fed cubs. The 40 dead tiger cubs were found in a freezer in a kitchen area, said Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks. Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
AUSTRALIA
Shark bites off surfer’s leg
A surfer was in critical condition yesterday after a shark ripped off his leg in an attack in the west, with witnesses recounting how “all hell broke loose” as his board was snapped in half. The attack happened at Falcon Beach, a suburb south of Perth, late on Tuesday not long after Surf Life Saving WA, a volunteer non-profit organization, tweeted that a shark, believed to be a great white, had been sighted in the area. The West Australian newspaper reported that Ben Gerring, 29, was with a group of other surfers when he was hit by the shark, which it said severed his right leg above the knee. Fellow surfers dragged the heavily bleeding man to shore as he lost consciousness.
UAE
Chinese stowaway on flight
A teenage boy sneaked into the cargo hold of an Emirates passenger plane in China and made it all the way to the emirate before being apprehended, the airline and Chinese media said on Tuesday. The airline said the stowaway was found in the cargo hold of Flight EK303 from Shanghai on Friday. It did not give any details on the identity or condition of the stowaway, though Xinhua news agency said he was a 16-year-old boy it identified only by his surname, Xu. He tried to make the risky journey because he had heard that beggars in Dubai could earn hundreds of thousands of yuan annually, the news agency reported.
UNITED STATES
Gorilla killing sparks probe
Police are investigating possible criminal charges in a Cincinnati Zoo incident in which a gorilla was killed in order to rescue a four-year-old boy who had fallen into its enclosure, a prosecutor said on Tuesday. An animal rights activist group on Tuesday said that it had filed a federal negligence complaint with the Department of Agriculture against the zoo, seeking the maximum penalty of US$10,000 following the killing of the ape named Harambe on Saturday last week. “The failure of the Cincinnati Zoo to adequately construct this enclosure to protect both the public and the animal held prisoner there is a clear and fatal violation of the Animal Welfare Act,” Stop Animal Exploitation Now said in its complaint letter to the department.
UNITED STATES
Court rules on location data
Police do not need a warrant to obtain mobile phone location data for a criminal investigation, a US appeals court ruled on Tuesday in a case closely watched for privacy implications. The case decided by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia is among several pending in the courts on “location privacy,” or whether using the digital data violates constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches. The case, which could still be appealed to the Supreme Court, represents a setback for a coalition of groups fighting for a right to location privacy, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Gun Owners of America and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
SWEDEN
Police urge safe car sex
Couples bent on getting cozy in their car must not forget to put the handbrake on, Swedish police warned on Tuesday after one passionate pair’s van crashed after rolling down a hill. To hammer home the point, officers in Stockholm’s Sodermalm District published pictures of the silver minivan at the bottom of a steep hill. “On Tanto Mount, the handbrake was left off when the couple’s desire for each other got too much. Safety first. On all levels,” the police wrote on Twitter. The department’s officers are known for their humorous social media posts, attracting more than 65,000 subscribers on Twitter. Sodermalm’s police contingent last month mocked a youngster who was caught with a fake driving license. “It’s not good to try to deceive someone with a fake license. It’s downright stupid if the license also says that you’re born on February 30,” they wrote.
UNITED STATES
Shark bite wound described
The semi-circular shark bite stretched from Maria Korcsmaros’ shoulder to her pelvis, with teeth marks visible in the shredded flesh of her arm and torso. Korcsmaros was training for a half-triathlon over the weekend off the coast of Newport Beach, California, when she “felt something hit her,” said Phillip Rotter from the Orange County Global Medical Center, where she was treated after the attack. Surgeons repaired the massive wound with a shape that Rotter described as “obviously a mouth.” “You could see individual marks from individual teeth,” he said. Korcsmaros, 52, also suffered fractured ribs, lung lesions and damage to the muscles and skin of her upper arm and abdomen. She was expected to survive, but it was too early to know whether she would regain full use of her arm. The bite likely came from a large great white shark, said marine biologist Chris Lowe, director of Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.
‘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