JAPAN
November snow hits Tokyo
Tokyo was yesterday hit by its first November snow in 54 years, slowing rush hour trains as residents slogged to work wearing heavy coats and boots in a city far more accustomed to earthquakes than to snow. The snow, which began as sleet at about dawn, but turned to snow soon after, was sparked by an unusual cold front spreading over the Tokyo area that sent temperatures down near 0°C. Though Tokyo does see snow at least once a year, it usually falls in January or February and rarely accumulates for long. Train and subway services were temporarily suspended or delayed, affecting thousands of commuters during the morning rush hour. However, the snow proved ephemeral, turning to rain and quickly melting in central Tokyo, but not before at least 47 people were injured in the capital and its environs.
CHINA
Activist for lawyers missing
The wife of one of the nation’s most prominent human rights campaigners yesterday said that he had disappeared during a trip to visit relatives of a detained rights lawyer. Jiang Tianyong (江天勇), a legal activist, has not been heard from since Monday, when he was due to board a train to return to Beijing, said his wife, Jin Bianling (金變玲). Jiang’s defense work involved some of the nation’s most politically sensitive figures, including dissident lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) and blind activist Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠). Jiang was disbarred in 2009, but has continued his activism, recently helping to publicize the plight of nearly two dozen lawyers arrested as part of a sweeping government crackdown last year. Jiang met with relatives of one of the jailed lawyers in Changsha shortly before going missing. Speaking by telephone from California, Jin said her husband’s family sought to file a missing person report in his city of registered residence, Zhengzhou, but police turned them away and told to seek information in Beijing instead. The Ministry of Public Security in Beijing did not immediately respond to a fax requesting comment about Jiang’s whereabouts.
CHINA
Scaffolding collapse kills 40
At least 40 people were killed in a scaffolding collapse yesterday morning at a construction site in Jiangxi Province, Xinhua news agency reported. A work platform at a power plant cooling tower being built in the city of Fengcheng came tumbling down at about 7:30am, an official with the local Work Safety Administration said by telephone. He put the confirmed death toll at 22, but Xinhua said that figure had risen to at least 40 by midday. Xinhua did not cite its source for the information and calls to local government information offices rang unanswered. An unknown number of others were still trapped in the debris, it said.
INDONESIA
Teen cleared of drugs
An Australian teenager detained on suspicion of illicit drug possession was released from custody late on Wednesday after police said tests showed that a satchel of powder be bought on the street was a legal painkiller. Security staff found a small plastic package of white powder in Jamie Murphy’s bag while he was at a nightclub in Kuta just after midnight on Tuesday. The 18-year-old was celebrating with fellow graduates from their high school in Perth, Australia. “All drug tests against him came to be negative, so he should be released immediately,” Bali police chief Sugeng Priyanto said. The powder was a paracetamol mixture, and tests of his hair and urine were also negative for illicit drugs, said Koesnadi, the police forensic lab chief in Bali.
MEXICO
Twelve bodies found
As many as 12 bodies have been uncovered in hidden graves in Guerrero State, the state government has said, and authorities were to continue to investigate yesterday. Cartels are battling over drug trafficking routes in the southwestern state, home to the beach resort of Acapulco. Five bodies were found on Wednesday and seven on Tuesday, the state government said on its Web site, all located in hidden graves in Zitlala municipality. Nine corpses with signs of torture were also found on Monday in the state.
GERMANY
Turkeys to be culled
A case of H5N8 bird flu has been confirmed in Lower Saxony and about 16,000 turkeys on the farm would be culled, authorities said yesterday. The case was confirmed in Cloppenburg and is the first farm-based case in Lower Saxony, one of Europe’s largest poultry production regions, the state’s agriculture ministry said. Several European countries and Israel have found cases of H5N8 bird flu in the past few weeks and some have ordered that poultry flocks be kept indoors to avoid the disease spreading.
VENEZUELA
Vatican-brokered talks frozen
The opposition on Wednesday said that talks with the government were “frozen” after officials failed to attend meetings the previous day, throwing cold water on Vatican-brokered attempts to bridge the country’s deep political crisis. “The government, in an irresponsible manner, froze the dialogue process by not showing up to two technical meetings last night,” said Jesus Torrealba, the leader of the opposition coalition. Opposition activists suggested the government of President Nicolas Maduro backed away from the talks after the National Assembly on Tuesday held a heated session in which they slammed the socialist leader over a drug scandal involving his wife’s nephews.
AUSTRALIA
Man in briefs helps police
Daniel McConnell said he was lying in bed at home in the Brisbane suburb of Hendra at 2am when a car slammed into the front of a neighboring fish-and-chips shop. McConnell said he saw the driver run away and gave chase. “All I had was me undies on and he started to take off up the street ... and I started following him,” McConnell said. McConnell said he returned home to grab his keys then gave chase again in his car. Police arrived and McConnell flashed his headlights to grab their attention. Queensland state Police acknowledged that McConnell had directed them to the street where the 35-year-old driver was arrested.
UNITED STATES
Molasses disaster explained
Harvard University researchers said they have solved the mystery behind one of Boston’s most peculiar disasters — the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Twenty-one people were killed, 150 others were injured and entire buildings were flattened when a giant storage tank ruptured on Jan. 15, 1919. It sent a sticky tsunami of molasses sweeping through a crowded North End neighborhood. The scientists said they have determined why the loss of life was so great. They said the tank had just been topped off with warm molasses from the balmy Caribbean and it had not yet cooled to Boston winter temperatures when the tank gave way. Once the molasses made contact with the chilly air, it rapidly thickened, complicating attempts to rescue people trapped in the goop, they said.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in