PAKISTAN
Taliban attack kills six
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack yesterday on an army census team that killed at least six people and wounded 18 in Lahore. Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmed Khan said the blast, which hit an army vehicle taking part in the nation’s first census in nearly two decades, killed four soldiers and two civilians. TV footage showed security personnel blocking off the street around the site of the explosion, close to an elite police training school that was the site of a Pakistani Taliban attack in 2009. The army has been closely involved in the census, with soldiers accompanying civilian enumerators, a move authorities say is needed to prevent collectors being intimidated by local political figures trying to slant sensitive population data in their areas. Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said the census would be completed “at any cost.” Muhammad Khurassani, a spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, issued a statement claiming responsibility.
IRAN
Two killed in 6.1 quake
At least two people died when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near the holy city of Mashhad yesterday, local media reported. The quake struck at 10:39am about 80km southeast of the nation’s second-largest city, in an area called Sepidsang. Two people have been reported dead and four injured, local officials told state television, with four villages said to have been badly damaged. Rescue teams have been sent to affected areas, where about 20 aftershocks have been reported. “It was horrible. It made a lot of noise. Everything was shaking,” a Mashhad resident said by telephone. Iran lies on a major fault line and has frequent earthquakes.
AUSTRALIA
Record meth haul seized
Police have seized 903kg of crystal methamphetamine that was smuggled from China inside boxes of hollow floorboards — the largest ever haul of the illicit drug in the nation, officials said yesterday. Law enforcement agencies valued the seizure, mostly found in a Melbourne warehouse in February, at almost A$900 million (US$680 million). Two Australian men, aged 53 and 36, had been charged with commercial drug trafficking and face a potential life prison sentence if convicted, police said, adding that they are searching for another two suspects in Melbourne.
FINLAND
Xi Jinping visits Finland
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday met his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto, in Helsinki, saying there was “great potential” for future bilateral trade ties. Xi’s visit marks the first by a Chinese leader since 1995. “Over the past 67 years of diplomatic ties, the China-Finland relationship has enjoyed steady and sound growth despite the changing international landscape,” Xi said in a statement late on Tuesday after arriving in Helsinki. China is Finland’s fifth-largest trading partner and Xi said he saw “great space and potential for further economic cooperation and trade.” Ahead of Xi’s and Niinisto’s official encounter yesterday, Finns were hoping Xi would make Finland the next destination for Beijing’s famed “panda diplomacy.” Finnish and Chinese officials have been in lengthy talks over China leasing a pair of giant pandas to Ahtari zoo in central Finland, where the construction of a new panda cage costing more than 8 million euros (US$8.5 million) is well under way.
‘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