UNITED STATES
Sessions clarifies testimony
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday clarified his confirmation hearing testimony to acknowledge having spoken with the Russian ambassador twice last year. The filing amends testimony Sessions gave under oath in January, when he said he did not have communication with Russians. Sessions last week reversed course and acknowledged that he had spoken with the ambassador once at the Republican National Convention in July and again at a meeting in his Senate office in September last year in the presence of his staff. On Monday, in a three-page filing with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, he defended his response as honest given the context of the question.
IRELAND
Probe to expand if needed
The government is to widen an inquiry into former Catholic Church-run homes for unmarried mothers if needed, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Monday, calling the discovery of long-dead babies at one home “truly appalling.” The remains of babies, ranging from newborn to three years old, were found in the sewers of one of the “mother-and-baby homes,” government-appointed investigators said on Friday last week, following an excavation they described as “shocking.” Opposition lawmakers and advocacy groups have urged the government to excavate more sites. The commission is investigating 17 other church-run homes, but advocacy groups have said there were many more and that little is known of what went on, including burial practices and grave locations.
PERU
Envoy to Venezuela recalled
President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Monday recalled his ambassador to Venezuela for consultations to protest a barrage of attacks by Venezuela’s socialist government. The move followed statements by Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy Rodriguez, in which she called Kuczynski a “coward” and “friendly dog” working in the interests of the US. Kuczynski has been an outspoken critic of Venezuela’s government and he discussed the need for joint action to contain the country’s economic and political problems during a meeting last month with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
ARGENTINA
Teachers strike over wages
A teachers’ strike for higher pay on Monday forced the suspension of classes at the start of the new school term, in a challenge to President Mauricio Macri. Thousands of teachers dressed in white marched in Buenos Aires to mark the start of the two-day stoppage. They have demanded a hike in wages greater than the 17 percent estimated inflation rate this year. The government has refused to open wage negotiations with teachers; it wants to limit pay raises to the same level as inflation for all professions. Three major labor unions had called for demonstrations yesterday.
RUSSIA
Lawmaker slams Disney film
A lawmaker who was the driving force behind a measure that banned the distribution of “homosexual propaganda” to minors on Monday said it should apply to a new Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, even while acknowledging that he had not yet seen the movie. Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov relied on news media reports and complaints from parents that the film includes a gay character who participates in a “sexually deviated scene,” spokesman Ilya Yevstigneyev said, an apparent reference to a seconds-long glimpse of a gay character near the end of the movie dancing with the object of his affections.
INDIA
Curfews due to ‘hormones’
Female students need curfews to protect them from their own “hormonal outbursts,” Minster of Women and Child Development Manekha Gandhi said on Monday, sparking ridicule on social media. Asked about the curfews that many universities impose on their female students while allowing their male students freedom to stay out at night, Gandhi told a television talk show that said it was necessary to protect young women from their own hormones. “You can make it [the curfew] six, seven or eight, that depends on college to college, but it really is for your own safety,” she told the studio audience of college students during a special show to mark International Women’s Day today. She also said a similar deadline should be put in place for male students.
MALAYSIA
Suspects linked to royal plot
Suspected militants from Yemen arrested late last month ahead of a visit by Saudi King Salman were planning an attack on “Arab royalties,” police said yesterday. A senior police source said the four Yemenis belonged to an insurgency group that has been fighting Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition for two years. The king arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 26 with a 600-strong delegation for a four-day visit, at the start of a month-long Asia tour. The Yemenis were arrested in Serdang and Cyberjaya — near Kuala Lumpur, police said on Sunday.
ISRAEL
Police quiz Netanyahu
Police on Monday grilled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his official home in Jerusalem for more than four hours in a long-running investigation into corruption suspicions, media reports said. Public radio said national fraud squad detectives arrived at the house shortly before 5pm. Other media reported them leaving at least four hours later and said that at one point Netanyahu called for a break in questioning to take a telephone call from US President Donald Trump. Media had said that investigators were expected to interrogate Netanyahu over suspicions of unlawfully receiving gifts from wealthy supporters, including Australian billionaire James Packer. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
KENYA
Giant tusker killed
One of Africa’s oldest and largest elephants was killed by poachers in Kenya on Monday, according to a conservation group that protects the dwindling group of giant “tuskers.” Richard Moller of the Tsavo Trust said that Satao II was found dead on Monday and was believed to have been shot with a poisoned arrow, but this had not been confirmed. “Luckily, through the work we do with the Kenyan Wildlife Service, we were able to find the carcass before the poachers could recover the ivory,” he said. Satao II, believed to be about 50 years old, was beloved by visitors to the Tsavo National Park. Not long after his carcass was spotted in routine aerial reconnaissance of the park, two poachers believed to be responsible for the killing were apprehended.
GUINEA
Wildlife trafficker nabbed
Authorities on Monday arrested Abdoul Salam Sidibe, a senior member of a wildlife trafficking network accused of selling thousands of live animals for more than 30 years, according to a law enforcement nongovernmental organization. Eco Activists for Governance and Law Enforcement (EAGLE) first began tracking Sidibe in 2013 when they learned he was seeking to sell a live manatee.
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
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