GUATEMALA
President’s relatives jailed
Prosecutors on Wednesday detained the brother and son of President Jimmy Morales in a case of alleged corruption. A UN anti-graft commission said they are suspected of submitting about US$23,000 worth of false receipts in an alleged tax fraud. The president’s brother, Samuel, told reporters at the courthouse that he is cooperating with the investigation and said he is innocent. Attorney General Thelma Aldana said she also sought a warrant for the president’s son, Jose Manuel Morales Marroquin, 23, but he appeared voluntarily for questioning. National Civil Police spokesman Jorge Aguilar later said that Morales Marroquin “was arrested and put at the disposition of a judge” after presenting himself to prosecutors. A judge ordered the men held while prosecutors investigate. The president stuck to his daily schedule. “As family, all support,” Jimmy Morales told reporters at the inauguration of a school in the south. “And all support for the law as a citizen president.” Prosecutors backed by the UN commission have brought a string of anti-corruption cases, most notably against former president Otto Perez Molina.
UNITED STATES
Corley remains imprisoned
A South Carolina lawmaker on Wednesday remained jailed on the state’s most serious domestic violence charge as prosecutors disclosed new details of an alleged attack, saying he bit his wife’s nose and took her cellphone so she could not call for help. A lawyer for now-suspended state Representative Chris Corley said at a hearing that prosecutors were pushing the case far beyond what Corley’s wife wanted in connection with the lawmaker’s arrest at the couple’s home on Dec. 26 last year. According to authorities, Corley’s wife said her husband attacked her when she confronted him with a text message that appeared to indicate he was cheating on her. The lawmaker was originally charged with first-degree criminal domestic violence, but a grand jury indicted him on an upgraded charge of criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature. The charge is the most serious for domestic violence in South Carolina short of a murder charge and carries up to 20 years in prison. State Assistant Attorney General Kinli Abee said Corley threw his wife on their bed and began hitting her on the head, once even biting her nose as their young children stood in the doorway. Corley also took away his wife’s cellphone to keep her from summoning help, Abee said, but added that she managed to call 911 on her Apple Watch. The attack ended with Corley pointing a gun at his wife and then going to a bathroom, which allowed her to run with her children to her mother’s house across the street, Abee said.
CANADA
Drug overdose deaths spike
British Columbia reached a new peak of 914 illicit drug overdose deaths last year with the arrival of the deadly opioid fentanyl. The figure was almost 80 percent higher than the province’s 510 overdose deaths due to illicit drugs in 2015. The British Columbia Coroners Service on Wednesday said that last month was the worst month at 142 deaths — the highest ever recorded in a month. Chief Coroner Lisa LaPointe said 51 people died last month in Vancouver alone. Officials called the situation a crisis and epidemic. British Columbia Minister of Health Terry Lake said the federal government should declare a public health emergency on the overdose crisis, saying it is not just a provincial problem. The province’s government declared its own public health emergency in April last year.
‘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