SYRIA
Airstrikes kill eight: group
Overnight airstrikes on Monday killed at least eight people in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The deaths were the first civilian casualties in the area — the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus — since a cessation of hostilities was declared on Saturday. The strikes, targeting the town of Arbin, wounded an additional 30 people, it said. The Civil Defense for rural Damascus, a rescue service operating in the area, said the dead included five children and two women. In a statement on its Facebook page, it put the number of wounded and missing at 50. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military on the report, and no mention of airstrikes by state media.
JAPAN
Woman dies after cat bite
A woman has died from a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world’s first animal-to-human transmission of the disease. The woman in her 50s died about 10 days after being bitten by the cat last year after she took the animal to a veterinary hospital. Authorities have since confirmed that she developed severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a disease transmitted by bites from a certain group of virus-carrying ticks. Human-to-human infections of the tick virus through blood contact have been reported, but ministry officials believe the woman’s death could be the first case of a human dying from the bite of an infected animal. “No reports on animal-to-human transmission cases have been made so far,” a health ministry official said yesterday. “It’s still not confirmed the virus came from the cat, but it’s possible that it’s the [world’s] first case.”
JAPAN
Cabinet aims to cut suicides
Aiming to cut suicides by 30 percent over 10 years, the Cabinet yesterday approved a plan that seeks to curb extreme work hours seen as contributing to one of the world’s highest suicide rates. Japan has the highest suicide rate among G7 countries and the government describes the situation as “critical” in a nation where more than 20,000 people kill themselves every year. The suicide rate — the ratio per 100,000 people — was 18.5 in 2015 and the government wants to reduce it below 13 in 2025. Suicides have fallen since peaking at 34,427 in 2003, with 21,897 taking their own lives last year. The government cited measures taken nationwide over that time as being behind the drop. The plan is reviewed every five years. The first one came in 2007. It says the government would push for measures against work-related suicides, saying that cutting extreme work hours and preventing harassment are necessary.
SWITZERLAND
Hunt on for attacker
A man suspected of wounding five people with a chainsaw was still on the loose yesterday, and a massive manhunt was taking place on the Swiss-German border. All-night searches for the suspect, 51-year-old Franz Wrousis, accused of attacking two employees of a health insurance firm in their office in Schaffhausen’s old town on Monday morning, were unsuccessful, police said in a statement. Two customers were treated for shock after they witnessed the attack and another person was slightly injured during the police operation. Four of the five injured have left the hospital; one company employee, who was severely injured, is still in the hospital, but not in life-threatening condition. Authorities said the suspect has previous convictions for weapons offenses and has no fixed residence.
‘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