GUATEMALA
Police attacked, two dead
Two policemen were killed on Monday night and eight wounded in attacks on police across the nation, authorities said, hours after a bloody riot in a juvenile detention center was put down. A civilian was also injured in the attacks, authorities said. Eight attacks were carried out against police stations and patrol cars in the capital, Guatemala City, while another assault occurred in western Quetzaltenango department, authorities said. The assaults in Guatemala City appeared to have been carried out by the Barrio 18 gang, one of two powerful rival gangs, a police spokesman said. Seven gang members were detained, the spokesman said.
UNITED STATES
Rich want tax hike
Some of the wealthiest New Yorkers are asking the state to raise their taxes. Eighty people, including financier George Soros and Steven Rockefeller, wrote to lawmakers and Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo saying they and other top earners should pay more to support schools, roads, bridges and programs to help poor and homeless residents of the state. “Now is the time to invest in the long-term economic viability of New York,” the letter reads. “We need to invest in pathways out of poverty and up the economic ladder for all of our fellow citizens, including strong public education from pre-K to college. And, we need to invest in the fragile bridges, tunnels, waterlines, public buildings, and roads that we all depend on.” The letter endorses a plan that would create new, higher income tax brackets for top earners to raise a projected US$2 billion. A similar letter last year was largely ignored by lawmakers.
CUBA
Dissident given three years
A dissident described by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience has been sentenced to three years in prison on an assault charge that his backers describe as fabricated, his wife said on Monday. Eduardo Cardet, a physician who heads the Christian Liberation Movement, was found guilty of attacking a police officer, Cardet’s wife, Yaimary Vecino, said. Vecino said Cardet would appeal the sentence. Vecino said her husband was arrested a day after returning from a trip to the US. She said security agents accused him of assaulting one of them. Amnesty says five witnesses said Cardet was pushed off his bicycle and detained by five agents as he returned home from visiting his mother on Nov. 30.
UNITED STATES
Man sentenced for theft
A North Dakota man was sentenced on Monday to nearly three years in prison for his role in the theft of copper wire from Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. Federal prosecutors say 41-year-old Benjamin Guidry was convicted of theft of government property. In February 2013, Guidry was working for an Afghan company when he solicited two civilian contractors to obtain materials for him in exchange for cash. The contractors reported him to Army Criminal Investigations Command, which set up a sting operation.
MOZAMBIQUE
Hammond hurt in crash
TV presenter Richard Hammond has reportedly been injured after falling off a motorbike while filming for Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour. Copresenter Jeremy Clarkson told the Sun newspaper: “He really did hurt himself quite badly.” The crash happened in the past two weeks and Hammond has since made a full recovery. Asked if Hammond had been taken to hospital, Clarkson said: “We don’t do hospitals.”
SOMALIA
Hunger kills at least 26
At least 26 people died from hunger in the semi-autonomous region of Jubbaland in just a day and a half, the federal government radio said on its Web site. The nation is facing a devastating drought that has killed livestock, cut harvests and left 6.2 million people, about half its population, in need of food aid. The acute hunger gripping Jubbaland caused an exodus of hundreds of families into the capital, Mogadishu, seeking help. The Web site quoted Jubbaland Assistant Minister of the Interior Mohamed Hussein as saying severe drought had killed the people over a span of 36 hours to Monday, all in various towns in middle Jubba and Gedo areas. “The people in those areas need emergency assistance,” he said in the report.
UAE
Rights activist arrested
Emirati authorities have arrested an award-winning human rights activist pending an investigation for allegedly publishing “false information” and “sowing sedition and sectarianism” online, state media said. Cybercrime prosecutors on Sunday ordered the arrest of Ahmed Mansoor “over documented electronic proof,” the official WAM news agency reported late on Monday. Mansoor was accused of using social media platforms to “publish false information and rumors, and spread tendentious ideas that would sow sedition, sectarianism and hatred and harm national unity and social peace, as well as harming the state’s reputation and inciting disobedience,” WAM said. The Gulf Center for Human Rights said his arrest may be linked to posts on his Twitter account calling for the release of Emirati human rights activist Osama al-Najjar. Mansoor won in 2015 the Martin Ennals award, named after the former secretary general of Amnesty International. Amnesty International slammed Mansoor’s arrest.
VIETNAM
Drunk pals cause flood
A boozy prank that saw three men open the floodgates of a reservoir resulted in crops being destroyed and may lead to hot-season water shortages, officials said yesterday. The men were detained after their drunken high jinks in south-central Phu Yen province on Wednesday last week unleashed 2 million cubic meters of water, equivalent to about 800 Olympic-size swimming pools. Officials said several hectares of sugarcane fields were washed away and thousands of tonnes of crops destroyed in two nearby hamlets on account of the men’s antics. Local police said the incident could cause water shortages and drought as the hot season approaches. “Police are investigating the incident to estimate the total amount of damage, so we could find a way to help affected residents,” Son Hoa district government office vice president Pham Dinh Phung said.
THAILAND
Good luck turtle dies
A 25-year-old sea turtle yesterday died from blood poisoning, never recovering from an operation to remove 915 coins from her stomach, thrown into her pool for good luck, veterinarians said. The green turtle named Omsin, “piggy bank” in Thai, underwent a seven-hour-long operation this month to remove 5kg of coins that she had mistaken for food. Omsin, who lived at a conservation center in Chonburi, was rushed into intensive care on Sunday night, breathing too slowly. She received an emergency operation on Monday, after which she went into a coma. The gap in Omsin’s stomach left by the removal of the coins caused her intestine to become strangled, blocking blood flow, the vets said. Acute infection in the intestine then caused blood infection.
‘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