CHINA
Rocket launchers installed
Beijing has installed rocket launchers on a disputed reef in the South China Sea to ward off Vietnamese military combat divers, the state-run Defense Times newspaper reported on Tuesday. Norinco CS/AR-1 55mm anti-frogman rocket launcher defense systems with the capability to discover, identify and attack enemy combat divers had been installed on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑島) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), the paper said on its WeChat account. The reef is administered by China, but also claimed by Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam. The report did not say when the defense system was installed, but said it was part of a response that began in May 2014, when Vietnamese divers installed large numbers of fishing nets in the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島).
AUSTRALIA
Backpacker attacker jailed
A man who brutally attacked two female backpackers on a remote beach is to spend at least 17 years in jail, with a judge yesterday accusing him of damaging the nation’s reputation as a safe destination. Roman Heinze was found guilty of six offenses in March over the harrowing ordeal in which the 61-year-old tied up and sexually assaulted a Brazilian woman and beat her German friend with a hammer when she tried to intervene. “You have violent and obsessive sexual preoccupations for which you have amply demonstrated you’re capable of acting out,” Justice Trish Kelly said, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported from the South Australian Supreme Court. Heinze was sentenced to 22 years and four months jail with a non-parole period of 17 years.
INDONESIA
Gay couple to be caned
An Islamic court has sentenced two men to 85 lashes of the cane for having sex together, Aceh Province judges said, ignoring pleas for clemency from human rights groups. The public caning handed down by a panel of judges is the first time laws against homosexuality, introduced in the province in 2014, have been used. The sentence was more severe than the 80 lashes requested by the prosecutor. “The defendants are proven to have committed sodomy and are found guilty,” presiding judge Khairil Jamal said in a statement. The two men had opted to represent themselves in court and said they would not appeal the verdict. Human Rights Watch had called on the government to release the men who were detained in March after vigilantes reported them to religious police for allegedly engaging in gay sex.
AUSTRALIA
Luxe boomerang criticized
French fashion house Chanel has triggered an uproar by selling a luxury monogrammed boomerang with a price tag of nearly US$1,500, with critics saying the accessory is an insult to the nation’s Aborigines. Chanel is accused of turning the hunting weapon, an important part of Aboriginal heritage, into a status symbol by offering a black wood and resin boomerang for sale in its spring-summer collection. “When I think about Aboriginal culture, I think @chanel,” Aboriginal activist Nayuka Gorrie tweeted sarcastically. “Have decided to save for the next three years so I can connect with my culture via @CHANEL.” He told the Guardian Australia: “Having a luxury brand swoop in, appropriate, sell our technologies and profit from our cultures for an absurd amount of money is ridiculous and hurtful.” Chanel released a statement saying it was “extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regrets that some may have felt offended.”
UNITED STATES
Tornadoes kill two people
Two people have died and dozens were injured after tornadoes flattened a mobile home park in Wisconsin and a housing subdivision in Oklahoma during powerful spring storms that battered an area from the South Plains of Texas to the Great Lakes. The storms hit late in the afternoon on Tuesday and into the evening, leveling the Prairie Lake Estate Mobile Park near Chetek, Wisconsin. In Oklahoma, another tornado damaged much of a subdivision on the southern fringe of Elk City. Fire Chaplain Danny Ringer told reporters at the scene that one person was known to be dead.
UNITED STATES
White House eyes Guilfoyle
Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle is in conversations with the administration of President Donald Trump about replacing Sean Spicer as White House press secretary. The former first lady of San Francisco told the Mercury News in San Jose, California, on Monday that taking that job or having another press role at the White House has been “raised by a number of people” in the Trump administration. “I’m a patriot and it would be an honor to serve the country,” Guilfoyle said. “I think it’d be a fascinating job.”
UNITED STATES
Georgia executes murderer
Georgia yesterday carried out its first execution this year, putting to death a man convicted of killing his 73-year-old neighbor 25 years ago. J.W. Ledford’s time of death was 1:17am, after an injection of compounded barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. Ledford, 45, was convicted of murder in the January 1992 stabbing death of Harry Johnston in Murray County. When given a chance to make a final statement, Ledford appeared to quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach,” he said. “I am not the failure. You are the failure to communicate. You can kiss my white trash ass.”
UNITED STATES
Transgender man rejected
The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday rejected the appointment of Drew Phoenix, a transgender man, to serve on the state’s human rights commission. The vote came near the end of an hours-long joint session called to consider Alaska Governor Bill Walker’s nominees to boards, commissions and administration posts. Phoenix was the only nominee to be voted down. In a telephone interview, Phoenix said he was “incredibly upset and disheartened” by the vote. “I just find it so ironic that somebody like myself, with so much years’ experience personally and professional working on behalf of human rights, that they would not confirm me to the commission on human rights,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Caffeine overdose kills teen
A coffee, a caffeinated drink and an energy soda proved a deadly combination for a South Carolina teenager who died within two hours of consuming them, triggering warnings about the risks of caffeine overdose. Davis Cripe died on April 26 from a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia,” the Richland County coroner’s office wrote in a statement. Two hours before he collapsed, Cripe drank a cafe latte, a large Diet Mountain Dew and an energy drink. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts noted that such occurrences are “highly unusual.” “It was mainly due to the time period that he ingested a rapid amount of caffeine that affected his heart,” Watts told the Post and Courier.
‘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