BRAZIL
Temer undergoes surgery
President Michel Temer was spending the weekend recuperating in the hospital after undergoing angioplasty in three blocked coronary arteries, doctors said on Saturday. Temer, 77, late on Friday had the procedure to widen obstructed arteries and have at least one stent implanted at the heart unit of the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo. “The procedure was a success and the president is recuperating,” doctor Fernando Ganem, the medical supervisor, said in a statement. Temer is to be released today and therefore had to put off a planned visit that day by Bolivian President Evo Morales, the presidency said.
HONDURAS
President seeks re-election
The nation’s 6 million voters yesterday were to cast ballots in a controversial election in which President Juan Orlando Hernandez is seeking a second mandate despite a constitutional one-term limit. His conservative National Party — which controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches — contends that a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allows Hernandez’s re-election. However, the opposition has denounced his bid, saying the court does not have the power to overrule the 1982 constitution. The nation has one of the highest murder rates in the world, although that metric has fallen under Hernandez’s last four years in office.
NIGERIA
Militants seize Borno town
Suspected members of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram on Saturday took over a town in the state of Borno, residents said. “We hurriedly took our families to the bushes before they could get us. Almost every resident is hiding here,” said Wakil Bulama, one of two residents who spoke to reporters by telephone. Residents said attackers entered Magumeri, around 50km from Borno state capital Maiduguri, at around 7pm. They said the insurgents shot sporadically and threw explosive devices, prompting locals to flee to a forest. A military source who did not want to be identified said that Magumeri had been attacked, but could not confirm whether it had been seized.
IRAN
Longer missile range warned
The deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards told Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the guards would increase the range of missiles to more than 2,000km, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday. France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2,000km, it’s not due to lack of technology... We are following a strategic doctrine,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, according to Fars. “So far we have felt that Europe is not a threat, so we did not increase the range of our missiles, but if Europe wants to turn into a threat, we will increase the range of our missiles.”
YEMEN
Drone strike kills seven
A drone strike has killed seven suspected members of al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, a security official said yesterday. The US is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen. “A drone likely to be American” killed all seven overnight as they were aboard three vehicles on the road from the southern province of Shabwa to the central province of Bayda, the official said. Washington considers the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group’s most dangerous branch.
‘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