PHILIPPINES
Quake kills one, injures 25
A moderate earthquake of magnitude 5.9 yesterday hit the southern island of Mindanao, killing a woman and hurting 25 people, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The quake was an aftershock of a magnitude 6.7 quake that struck on Feb. 10, the institute said. Surigao del Norte Governor Sol Matugas said an elderly woman died of cardiac arrest while 25 people suffered minor injuries.
PHILIPPINES
Hostage’s remains found
Marines have found the remains of a German hostage who was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province late last month, officials said yesterday. The troops dug up the head and body of Juergen Gustav Kantner late on Saturday, regional military commander Major General Carlito Galvez Jr said. The 70-year-old Kantner was seized from his yacht off Malaysia’s Sabah state in November last year. His partner was fatally shot on the yacht. An intelligence report said the militants behind Kantner’s abduction and killing included Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan and his nephew, Mujil Yadah, who was also allegedly involved in the 2015 kidnappings of a Norwegian, a Filipina and two Canadians from a yacht club in the south.
NDONESIA
Jakarta race heads to run-off
The race for governor of Jakarta will be decided in a run-off, election authorities said on Saturday, after Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama failed to cross the 50 percent threshold. Purnama topped the first round with 43 percent and will go head-to-head with former minister of education Anies Baswedan, who came second with 40 percent. The run-off is to be held on April 19.
UNITED STATES
Sikh man shot near Seattle
Police in the Seattle suburb of Kent were looking for a gunman who shot a Sikh man in the arm and told him to “go back to your own country,” the Seattle Times reported. The 39-year-old victim told police that he was working in his driveway about 8pm on Friday when the unknown man with his face half masked came up to him, the newspaper reported. They argued and the suspect told him to go back to his homeland before shooting him, the victim said.
LIBYA
Clashes over oil terminals
Armed forces based in the east on Saturday launched more airstrikes against militias that seized oil terminals on Friday, a spokesman said, accusing troops from the country’s rival west of launching a war. Three strikes hit vehicles and targets in the area around the al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf terminals, where at least nine soldiers were killed in Friday’s attack that drove out the army troops despite earlier air strikes. The militias’ occupation of the terminals has stoked fears that the facilities could sustain serious damage if clashes escalate.
TURKEY
Syrian crash pilot found
A Syrian air force pilot who bailed out as his warplane crashed has been found by a rescue team and is being treated at a hospital in the Hatay region, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday. Dogan news agency said the pilot, who crashed yesterday, had been found about 40km from the wreckage. He was first taken to a gendarmerie base and then to hospital. The hospital spokeswoman gave no details of his condition. It was unclear why the aircraft had crashed, whether it had been attacked or suffered a mechanical failure.
‘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