CHINA
County sued over pollution
Prosecutors have successfully sued a county environmental agency for inadequately punishing a sewage firm that produced dye without appropriate safeguards, the first-such public interest case against a government department. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Monday said that prosecutors had proved that the environmental protection department in Shandong Province had committed “illegal acts” in its dealings with the Qingshun Chemical Technology Co in 2014. The case was filed in December last year in the Qingyun County court.
DR CONGO
Yellow fever is epidemic
The government on Monday declared a yellow fever epidemic in three provinces, including the capital, Kinshasa, after confirming 67 cases of the disease, with another 1,000 suspected cases being monitored. Minister of Health Felix Kabange said only seven of the proven cases were indigenous, while 58 were imported from Angola, where the outbreak began. A further two cases came from remote forested areas not linked to the current outbreak. Five people in total have died, Kabange said. Kinshasa is the primary concern for global health officials since it has a densely packed population of more than 12 million and poor healthcare infrastructure.
CHINA
Yulin holds dog meat event
The city of Yulin in Guanxi Province yesterday held its annual dog-meat eating festival despite heavy criticism and protests from animal-rights activists. Vendors slaughtered dogs and cooked their meat in dozens of restaurants across the city. Activists bought dogs from dealers, while local residents complained that outsiders were ruining what they consider a local tradition. As many as 10,000 dogs are believed to be killed during the event, which falls around the summer solstice. Promoters say eating dog meat during the summer helps ward off the heat and maintain a healthy metabolism.
MYANMAR
‘Rohingya’ to be avoided
Minister of Foreign Affairs Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday told UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Yanghee Lee that the government is going to avoid using the term “Rohingya” to describe a persecuted Muslim minority, an official said. “At their meeting here [Naypyidaw] this morning, our Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi explained our stance on this issue that the controversial terms should be avoided,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Aung Lin said. Also on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein issued a report saying the Rohingya have been deprived of nationality, undergone systematic discrimination and severe restrictions on movements as well as executions and torture that together might amount to crimes against humanity. Reversing such discrimination must be a priority for the government, Zeid said.
JAPAN
N Korea prompts alert
The military was on alert yesterday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch, a government source said, with media reporting that the navy and Patriot batteries have been told to shoot down any projectile heading for the nation. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, citing an unnamed government source, said the North appears to have moved an intermediate-range missile to its east coast, but there were no signs of an imminent launch.
FRANCE
Refugees clash with police
Hundreds of refugees on Monday clashed with police on the road near the infamous “Jungle” camp in Calais, blocking traffic to the northern port. Police fired tear gas to disperse the refugees, who tried to slow down traffic so they could jump onto lorries heading across the Channel to Britain. Several people managed to board trucks and tried to cut through the tarpaulin of the trailers to hide inside. No one was injured in the clashes, which involved between 200 and 300 migrants, police said, adding that at least one migrant had been arrested for “throwing a projectile.”
ICELAND
Theft-proof signs unveiled
So many visitors have been stealing road signs as souvenirs that the country has been forced to take remedial action. According to Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson, a bestselling crime fiction author and official at the national Road Traffic Directorate, the new generation of road signs have been made too heavy to carry and use bolts “that cannot be undone with an ordinary car toolkit.” He told state broadcaster RUV that the most popular targets were pictograms — often topped with an exclamation mark — alerting drivers to fords across rivers, single-lane bridges, blind rises with possible oncoming traffic and unmade roads.
CYPRUS
Firefighter dies in accident
A huge forest fire raging out of control for a third day in the mountains southwest of the capital, Nicosia, has claimed the life of a second firefighter. Authorities yesterday confirmed the death of Marios Aristotelous a day after another colleague died. Both firefighters were killed when their trucks overturned in separate accidents. Forestry Department spokesman Andreas Christou said three more planes, one from Italy and two from France, were expected later yesterday to join 16 other aircraft from Greece, Israel, Cyprus and British forces stationed on the island in battling the fire.
WEST BANK
Palestinian shot dead
Troops yesterday shot dead an alleged Palestinian assailant after fire bombs and rocks were thrown at Israeli vehicles in the occupied West Bank, injuring three people. The Palestinian was identified by the mayor of his village as a 15-year-old. The incident, in the early hours of the morning, occurred on a main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that traverses the West Bank, the military said. The military said in a statement that several Palestinians threw fire bombs and rocks at vehicles, injuring three civilians, two of whom were identified by Israeli media as foreign tourists. Troops nearby fired at the assailants, resulting in the death of one of them, the statement said.
COLOMBIA
Serial killer suspect probed
Authorities are investigating a suspected serial killer’s claims that he killed 20 people, including his wife and two young children, a prosecutor said on Monday. The suspect, Jaime Martinez, told police he killed his wife, their children, aged five and seven, as well as committing “16 or 17 other murders,” senior state prosecutor Luis Gonzalez told reporters. He was arrested in connection with the killing of a woman found dead in a house in a rural area near Medellin. Police investigating that killing traced him to his home and found “blood stains on the walls,” as well as clothes belonging to the victim, Gonzalez said. He said Martinez admitted killing the woman and also owned up to a series of other murders. Officials have found evidence of a series of other killings.
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