UNITED KINGDOM
Assange warrant upheld
A judge in London on Tuesday upheld an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange, but delayed until next week her decision on a further application by his lawyers to cancel it. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 to dodge a European arrest warrant and extradition to Sweden over a 2010 probe there into rape and sexual assault allegations against him. Sweden dropped its investigation last year. However, local police are still seeking to arrest Assange for failing to surrender to a court after violating his bail terms during his unsuccessful battle against extradition. “I’m not persuaded that the warrant should be withdrawn,” Judge Emma Arbuthnot said, adding that Assange had breached his bail conditions in 2012. However, she said she would rule separately on another application from Assange’s lawyers asking her to consider whether it would be in the “public interest” to keep the warrant in place.
UNITED KINGDOM
Suffragette pardons mulled
The government will consider pardons for suffragettes convicted during the struggle for women’s right to vote, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Tuesday, a century to the day since some women won the right to go to the polls. Rudd said she would “take a look at” the cases of women who were prosecuted during the pro-suffrage campaign more than 100 years ago. Speaking on the BBC, Rudd said that “it is complicated, because if you’re going to give a legal pardon for things like arson and violence, it’s not as straightforward as people think it might be.” Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said that if elected, he would pardon the suffragettes “and give an official apology for the miscarriages of justice and wider persecution they suffered.”
ARGENTINA
Lesbians kiss in protest
Lesbian couples on Tuesday puckered up for a collective kiss in front of a Buenos Aires courthouse to protest the prosecution of a woman in a case activists say is homophobic. Mariana Gomez was arrested in October last year and charged with contempt of law enforcement. She said police apprehended her for smoking in an unauthorized area as a cover to accost her and her spouse for kissing in public. Her wife, Rocio Girat, said the pair were saying goodbye before work when police approached. “Yes, we were embracing,” she told reporters. “It’s the first time they have arrested a person for smoking, which is in any case an infraction punishable by fine.” She said her partner was cuffed for three hours and even though she told police they were married, Gomez’s status was listed as single.
UNITED STATES
Woman finds lizard in salad
A Maine woman who prepared a salad said she realized after a couple of bites that her fork was stuck in a 7.5cm lizard, minus the tail. After vomiting and getting over her shock, Michelle Carr, a nurse from Kittery, said she feared she could have ingested harmful bacteria. A biologist friend believes she found a blue-bellied lizard from California. Carr said she bought a bag of store-brand romaine lettuce at a supermarket in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Jan. 26. The lettuce was distributed by a California company. A supermarket spokeswoman said it notified the supplier. Carr also called the state Health Department. A spokesman said because the lettuce was packaged and shipped from another state, any investigation would be conducted by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
‘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