GREECE
Blast rocks court complex
A powerful explosion yesterday damaged a court complex in central Athens, hours after parliament voted to crack down on anti-bailout protesters, who gather regularly at the building. Police said the blast occurred before dawn, following warning telephone calls to the offices of a newspaper and a Web site. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. It occurred hours after parliament approved measures to impose penalties against demonstrators who gather regularly at the court to try and disrupt weekly auctions of foreclosed homes. The auctions have put pressure on the government, which has abandoned tougher protection measures for distressed mortgage holders as part of negotiations with bailout lenders. After years of recession and financial crisis, roughly half of loans in the nation are considered non-performing — the highest level in the EU. Police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos said a court security guard reported seeing two men, presumed to be the attackers, leave a bag outside the entrance of the court. “This type of attack usually has a symbolic significance,” he told state-run television.
MEXICO
Controversial law enacted
A law giving the military a legal framework to operate as police is being enacted over widespread objections from human rights groups. The Interior Security Law took effect yesterday following its publication in the nation’s official gazette on Thursday. It was passed by Congress last week and went to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s desk. Pena Nieto said he is aware the bill is “especially sensitive” and would hold off on decreeing military deployments under the law until the Supreme Court decides on its constitutionality. Proponents argue the military is needed to fight powerful drug cartels that have not been brought to heel by civilian policing. Critics say the law was rammed through Congress without discussion and does not provide sufficient human rights guarantees.
TURKEY
Officers ordered arrested
Authorities yesterday ordered the arrest of seven colonels and nine lieutenant colonels in an investigation into the network of a US-based cleric whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating last year’s attempted coup, the Hurriyet Web site said. It said the investigation, focused on the capital Ankara and spread across nine provinces, targeted serving officers in the gendarmerie, which maintains security in rural areas. Other media carried similar reports. More than 50,000 people, including security personnel and civil servants, have been jailed pending trial in the aftermath of the failed coup, which the government blames on Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied involvement. About 150,000 people have also been suspended or dismissed in a crackdown which rights groups say has been used as a pretext to muzzle dissent, but which the government says has been necessary due to the security threats the nation faces.
UNITED STATES
Ear-biter gets three years
A New York woman has been sentenced to three years in prison for biting off a man’s ear. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says Chris Orgovan, of Buffalo, got into an argument with the man on June 11. He said she bit his right ear, detaching part of it. When police arrived at the home, an officer found the ear and members of the Buffalo Fire Department preserved it. The ear was later reattached by surgeons. Orgovan pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in August.
‘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