AUSTRALIA
UNESCO concerned over reef
A UN agency said it has “serious concerns” over coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef and urges the government to work faster to improve water quality in the region. UNESCO said in a draft report to the World Heritage Committee released yesterday on the state of conservation of World Heritage-listed properties that “climate change remains the most significant overall threat to the future” of the coral expanse. UNESCO was also critical of Australia, saying “progress toward achieving water quality targets has been slow.”
IRAN
Blast in Shiraz injures 37
An explosion in a supermarket in the southern city of Shiraz injured 37 people, Iran’s state media reported yesterday, saying the cause was still being investigated. The explosion occurred at 12:45am in the city’s Hypermarket center, the reports said. None of those injured was in critical condition, the head of the medical emergency center of Fars Province was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. The explosion was loud enough to be heard in most neighborhoods of Shiraz, IRNA reported, adding that walls of the supermarket had collapsed. The Shiraz fire department chief was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying that the building was evacuated and experts were investigating the cause of the incident.
Afghanistan
Protest enters second day
A demonstration in downtown Kabul that left several people dead has entered a second day. More than a thousand people on Friday demonstrated demanding more security in the capital following a powerful truck bomb attack in the city that killed 90 people and wounded more than 450. Scores of protesters passed the night under two big tents on a road near the presidential palace and the blast site. All roads toward the palace and diplomatic areas were yesterday being blocked by police and there was limited movement of vehicles and people.
MALTA
Elections tied to scandal
Voters are heading to the polls a year early after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat called snap elections following an investigation into allegations his wife owned a company related to the Panama Papers scandal. Surveys show Labour’s Muscat was likely to win a second, five-year term yesterday, but polls indicated one-fifth of voters were undecided, giving the Nationalist Force made up of the Nationalist Party and newly formed Democratic Party a slight chance. The Panama Papers scandal, which detailed offshore companies and other financial data of the rich and powerful, exposed the minister of energy and Muscat’s chief of staff as having acquired a company in Panama.
GUATEMALA
Man gets 23 years for killing
A court on Friday sentenced a man to 23 years in prison for the 2014 killing of journalist Felipe David Munguia Jimenez. Rolando Antonio Jimenez was sentenced to 15 years for the homicide and eight years for illegal weapons possession. Felipe David Munguia Jimenez was gunned down on a street in Santa Maria Xalapan. Prosecutor Hilda Pineda said that investigations continue into who ordered or planned the killing. She said Rolando Antonio Jimenez had refused to cooperate in the investigation. Pineda said that 20 journalists in Guatemala have complained of receiving threats so far this year.
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
‘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