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.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the