INDIA
Bus crash search resumes
Rescuers yesterday resumed searching for seven people missing after a bus plunged into a river in the mountainous north, killing at least 17 Hindu pilgrims. Police officer Mahadev Uniyal said that rescuers recovered 16 bodies and one person died in hospital. Six people who were injured in the crash were still hospitalized. The search had been halted late on Tuesday, but resumed in the morning. The bus plunged nearly 150m into a river in Uttarakhand state, nearly 400km northeast of New Delhi. The cause was not known.
AUSTRALIA
Siege police too slow to act
Police have conceded they waited too long before storming a Sydney cafe to end a deadly siege in 2014. The concession by New South Wales police yesterday came after a coroner concluded that police should have entered the Lindt Cafe sooner, rather than waiting to act until the gunman had killed a hostage. The coroner’s findings came at the conclusion of a two-and-a-half-year inquiry into the hostage crisis. Two hostages were killed, along with gunman Man Monis. New South Wales Coroner Michael Barnes said police should have immediately stormed the cafe after Monis fired at a group of hostages who fled the building more than 16 hours into the crisis.
HONG KONG
Airport reopens runway
Hong Kong International Airport yesterday reopened a runway that was closed temporarily after heavy rains caused a China Eastern Airlines Corp jet to skid off the runway while landing. Operations on the north runway were restored at 12:40pm, the airport said in an e-mailed statement. The disabled aircraft, carrying 141 passengers and crew, was blocking the runway after the incident, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said in a statement earlier. Two passengers aboard China Eastern’s flight complained of discomfort and were sent to hospital for a check-up, the airport said.
SOUTH KOREA
Soldier charged over gay sex
A military court yesterday sentenced an army captain to a suspended prison term for having sex with a fellow male soldier in a ruling human rights groups criticized as regressive and intimidating. A lawyer for the captain said her client was being punished for having consensual sex with his partner in a private space. She said the captain was briefly treated at a hospital for shock following his conviction. “It’s a ridiculous ruling,” lawyer Kim In-sook said. She said the military penal code, which makes homosexual activity punishable by up to two years in prison, is unconstitutional because it tramples on basic human rights and dignity. The military did not immediately make a statement.
TURKEY
Hunger strikers arrested
A court has arrested on terror charges an academic and a teacher who have been on a hunger strike to protest against their dismissal in a purge after last year’s failed coup, reports said. Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca were remanded in custody ahead of trial by an Ankara court late on Tuesday on charges of “membership of a terror organization,” the NTV and CNN-Turk channels said. They had initially been detained on Monday. Both were sacked under the state of emergency imposed after the July 15 attempted coup seeking to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has seen tens of thousands of people lose their jobs.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in