TURKEY
More detained over coup
Authorities have issued detention warrants for 216 people suspected of having links to last year’s failed coup attempt, the state-run Anadolu news agency said yesterday. Seventeen former finance ministry personnel had been detained so far and another 65 were sought over alleged links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen’s network, Anadolu said. Authorities also carried out operations across 40 provinces targeting “private imams” believed to be recruiting members from the nation’s armed forces to the network of Gulen. Ankara has accused Gulen of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt last year and has repeatedly demanded the US extradite him.
INDONESIA
Stop virginity tests: HRW
The military and police continue to perform abusive virginity tests on female recruits three years after the WHO said they had no scientific validity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday. The group said that senior Indonesian police and military officers have told it that security forces still impose the “cruel and discriminatory tests,” which are carried out under the guise of psychological examinations for mental health and morality reasons. The group urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to order the national police chief and military commander to ban the practice. The testing includes the invasive “two-finger test” to determine whether female applicants’ hymens are intact.
UNITED STATES
Teen idol Cassidy dies
David Cassidy of The Partridge Family fame has died at age 67. Publicist JoAnn Geffen released a statement on Tuesday evening saying Cassidy had died “surrounded by those he loved.” No further details were immediately available, but Geffen on Saturday said that Cassidy was in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hospital suffering from organ failure. Cassidy starred in the 1970s sitcom and sold millions of records as the musical group’s lead singer.
AUSTRALIA
Euthanasia approval near
Victoria state yesterday took another step toward adopting a law allowing voluntary assisted dying for terminally ill patients. Any resident of the nation’s second-largest state over 18, with a terminal illness and with less than six months to live can request a lethal dose of medication under the new legislation. Assisted dying will remain illegal in the nation’s other five states. In a vote in Victoria’s upper house, 22 of 40 senators supported the legislation, which was amended to pass the upper house, including halving the time frame for eligible patients to access the scheme, reduced from 12 months to live to six months to live. The amendments must be approved by the lower house before becoming law. The legislation is not expected to be opposed.
INDONESIA
Singapore advisory nixed
Singapore’s travel advisory to avoid parts of the island of Bali following a minor eruption at Mount Agung volcano was “excessive,” the Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said. The eruption spouted ash clouds reaching up to 700m above Mount Agung’s crater, the agency said on its Web site. Singapore told its citizens to refrain from non-essential travel to affected areas of the island. “It’s excessive for Singapore to issue an advisory on Bali as only a radius of 6 to 7.5km around the crater of Mount Agung is considered dangerous,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a text message. “So the condition is safe. Flights are also safe.”
‘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