ISRAEL
Inmates go on hunger strike
Hundreds of incarcerated Palestinians yesterday launched a hunger strike following a call from Palestinian Legislator and prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian National Authority official said. Authority prisoners affairs head Issa Qaraqe said that “about 1,300 Palestinian prisoners” were participating in the hunger strike and the number could rise.” Barghouti is serving a life sentence over his role in the violent Second Intifada. The strike was called in connection with Palestinian Prisoners Day, which is observed annually.
COLOMBIA
Grenade in club injures 36
At least 36 people were injured on Saturday after a grenade detonated inside a nightclub in the town of San Pedro, officials said. Two of the injured were hospitalized at an intensive care unit in the town, which is located in Valle del Cauca State. Police said the attack might have targeted the owners of the establishment, but they are also investigating if it was provoked by a rivalry between warring drug traffickers in the area.
UNITED KINGDOM
Al-Assad to lose citizenship
Lawmakers on Sunday called on the government to strip Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife, Asma al-Assad, of her British citizenship, for supporting her husband’s regime during the country’s ongoing war. The Liberal Democrats’ Foreign Affairs Spokesman Tom Brake accused Asma al-Assad of using her international profile to defend “a barbarous regime. [Secretary for Foreign Affairs] Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma al-Assad — either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship.” The 41-year-old, who is believed to hold joint British-Syrian nationality, has stood by her husband’s side in his rare public appearances.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bodies of archbishops found
A London museum on Sunday revealed that the remains of five archbishops of Canterbury were discovered inside a secret tomb beneath its building. The Garden Museum posted a statement and video revealing the find, which was made more than a year ago. The museum sits on a site that used to house the former St Mary-at-Lambeth church and is located next to the archbishop of Canterbury’s London residence. The remains were found while builders were renovating the building. Museum director Christopher Woodward said five archbishops were buried in the tomb, including Richard Bancroft, who became archbishop in 1604 and played a major role in production of the King James Bible.
FRANCE
Hundreds protest Le Pen
Hundreds of demonstrators on Sunday marched to protest far-right National Front leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, saying that basic freedoms would disappear if she were elected. Some protesters threw firebombs at police during the march from suburban Aubervilliers to a Paris neighborhood where Le Pen was scheduled to hold a rally yesterday. Officers responded with tear gas during the small skirmishes. Protester Fernanda Marrucchelli said Le Pen’s anti-immigration party “is fighting our essential freedoms, our rights, no matter if we are French or immigrant.” A banner at the front of the march read “Paris-Suburbs Against the National Front.”
AUSTRALIA
Missing crocodile found
A young freshwater crocodile found sunbathing on a riverbank in suburban Sydney by a family on their Sunday stroll has been returned to the zoo from where it was stolen. The weary-looking crocodile put up little resistance when grabbed behind the neck, Aaron Hughes told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Basically it did look a bit malnourished and we weren’t sure what to do,” he said. Police said the young crocodile was one of two, named Snap and Crackle, who were stolen from the Get Wild Animal Experiences travelling zoo last month. “We are so very pleased to announce today we had one of our missing crocodiles returned,” the zoo said in a Facebook post on Sunday. “He is very cold, thin and lethargic, but we are hoping with some TLC [tender loving care] he will be back to normal in no time.”
SRI LANKA
Families evacuated
More than 400 families have been moved to temporary shelters as soldiers continue their search for survivors or victims of the collapse of a trash mountain onto a slum area near Colombo on Friday afternoon. The death toll now stands at 29. About 145 homes were destroyed when the 90m rubbish mountain came crashing down. Police say many more buildings were damaged and could collapse at any time. “We are keeping up the search, but we are not very hopeful of finding anyone alive in these conditions,” military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said yesterday.
PHILIPPINES
Security pledge for ASEAN
Officials yesterday said that more than 200 ASEAN delegates will meet in a central resort province this week despite a foiled attack nearby by Abu Sayyaf militants last week. Acting Interior Secretary Catalino Cuy yesterday said that Panglao Island in Bohol province could be considered “the most secure place in the country right now.” The two-day ASEAN meeting, which is to focus on a free-trade agreement between ASEAN and Hong Kong, starts tomorrow. The foiled attack and ensuing battle with government forces occurred in a village about 80km away and left four militants, two villagers, three soldiers and a policeman dead. “Our objective is zero incident up to the final ASEAN meeting,” said Cuy, who oversees security for more than 140 meetings that the nation is to host this year as it chairs the regional group.
CHINA
Senior inspector inspected
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection yesterday said it was investigating one of its own former senior inspectors. A vice-ministerial level inspector from the Central Inspection Team, Zhang Huawei, is under investigation for suspected “serious disciplinary violations” — a common euphemism for graft — it said on its Web site. The commission has in recent months made efforts to show it is serious about tackling corruption within its own ranks, which it refers to as “darkness hiding beneath the light.”
CHINA
Bus crash kills 10
Ten people have died and five were injured yesterday morning after a bus veered off a highway and fell into a river in Guizhou Province. Xinhua news agency reported that four people were reported missing. The agency says the 19-seat bus was travelling from Kaiyang County to the Qiannan Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture when the accident occurred. Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
‘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