CHINA
Visitors to be fingerprinted
The government is to begin taking fingerprints of all foreign visitors as it steps up security at borders, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday. The fingerprinting of foreigners is to be introduced at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport from today, and it would then be gradually rolled out at other entry points around the country, the ministry said in a statement. All foreign passport holders aged 14-70 would have to give their fingerprints, it said, without saying if other biometric data would also be collected. The ministry said the regulation would strengthen immigration controls and increase efficiency. Taiwan, the US, Japan and Cambodia, among others, have similar requirements. While Chinese border posts do not generally have overly onerous entry formalities, most visitors need a visa, although many cities have visa-free deals for visits of a few days as part of efforts to boost tourism.
CHINA
Faking data to be punished
Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗) has warned local government officials that they will be punished if they submit false economic data, the China Daily reported yesterday, following a scandal over statistics compiled in a rust belt province. There has long been skepticism about the reliability of the nation’s data, especially as the government has sought to reduce expectations of a protracted slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The newspaper quoted Zhang as saying that local governments, especially at the provincial level, must improve the credibility of statistics, as false data could mislead policymakers. Any officials found responsible for bogus statistics would face demerits, denying them promotion, Zhang said. Last month, the People’s Daily reported that the Liaoning Province government, in its annual work report, revealed it had misstated fiscal data from 2011 to 2014.
MALAYSIA
Ferry capsizes in rough seas
A boat ferrying about 15 people to Indonesia capsized in rough seas off the port of Tawau in Sabah State, Malaysia, with only two survivors found so far, maritime authorities said. The two survivors, a husband and wife, said the incident occurred on Tuesday night, but locals only reported it to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency a day later. The agency said in a statement late on Wednesday that it had launched a search and rescue operation, but that the 24 hour delay in being notified would make the search difficult. “It is feared that 13 victims, including the skipper and a baby, have drowned. Search-and-rescue efforts will be continued to find any survivors,” maritime territory director Mohd Zubil Mat Som said.
NEW ZEALAND
Gay crimes to be expunged
Gay men in New Zealand who were convicted of homosexuality more than three decades ago when it was considered a crime will soon be able to have their records cleared. Minister of Justice Amy Adams yesterday announced a scheme to wipe clean the criminal records of people convicted of indecency, sodomy or providing a place for homosexual acts. However, she said they would not receive any compensation. The scheme is broadly supported by lawmakers and is expected to be approved by parliament. Adams estimated that about 1,000 gay men would be eligible to have their convictions quashed. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1986. Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2013. Sex between women was never explicitly illegal under the nation’s law.
CHILE
Murder suspect summoned
The Supreme Court has issued a summons for a man suspected of killing a Japanese student in France in December, officials said on Wednesday. The suspect, 26-year-old Nicolas Zepeda Contreras, is “summoned to appear on Tuesday, February 14,” a court statement said. Zepeda has been identified as the main suspect in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki. Kurosaki, 21, disappeared in December last year in Besancon in eastern France, where she had been studying French since September. Investigators say she was killed, but have still not found her body. Zepeda was in Besancon the day she disappeared, according to French authorities, who suspect he murdered her and then fled home to Chile. The Supreme Court last week rejected France’s request to arrest Zepeda, saying French authorities had provided only “scarce information” on the case against him. However, it barred the Chilean teaching assistant from leaving the country pending a decision on France’s request to extradite him.
MEXICO
‘El Chapo’ sons attacked
A prominent journalist is reporting that the sons of Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman say they were attacked and wounded by a rival drug gang figure. Ciro Gomez Leyva reported that he received word about Saturday’s purported attack in a handwritten letter from Guzman’s sons. Gomez Leyva said late on Wednesday that the sons were apparently with Sinaloa boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada at the time of the purported attack by Damaso Lopez, another Sinaloa figure believed to be disputing control of the cartel. Guzman lawyer Jose Refugio confirmed to local media that the letter came from the sons. He told Radio Formula: “I know about that letter and I know they wrote that letter.”
PERU
Marijuana bill proposed
The government said that it would present to the opposition-dominated legislature a plan to legalize the medical use of marijuana “for the treatment of serious and terminal illnesses.” President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s administration on Wednesday said the plan was developed after police raided a house in a Lima neighborhood where a group of parents grew marijuana they said was to make oil to treat their children who have epilepsy and other diseases. Officials say that trafficking and use of marijuana for other purposes would remain a crime according to the proposal. Aida Farfan belongs to the parent group that was growing marijuana and said it has more than 80 members whose sick children benefited from purported medicinal properties of the plant. She said the group petitioned lawmakers for years trying to get those uses legalized.
UNITED STATES
Junior Gotti pleads guilty
Mobster John Gotti’s namesake grandson has pleaded guilty to selling oxycodone pills in Queens, New York. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said that the younger John Gotti would be sentenced to eight years in prison following his guilty plea on Wednesday to criminal sale of a controlled substance and other charges. Brown said that Gotti also has agreed to forfeit more than US$250,000 in seized drug proceeds. The 23-year-old Gotti was arrested in August last year at the Queens home where his late grandfather once lived. Prosecutors said undercover officers bought a total of more than US$46,000 worth of oxycodone from Gotti on 11 occasions. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2.
‘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