THE NETHERLANDS
One dead after van incident
Dutch police on Monday arrested the driver of a delivery van that struck four people at the end of a three-day concert festival in the early hours of the morning, killing one and critically injuring three hours after Bruno Mars had performed. “The police found the white van that was involved in the incident and a suspect has been detained,” police said, adding that the driver was a 34-year-old male from the neighboring town of Heerlen. The incident took place at PinkPop, a popular annual festival held in Landgraaf in southern Limburg Province. An alert service sent by emergency authorities warned people to be alert for a Fiat Diablo. RTL News reported that a trauma helicopter, ambulances and a heavy police presence were at the scene.
FRANCE
Nation causing flight delays
Hindered by strikes and outdated equipment, the nation’s air traffic control is responsible for one-third of aviation delays in Europe, Le Parisien said yesterday, citing a French Senate finance committee report. Between 2004 and 2016, local air traffic controllers were on strike 254 days, while second-placed Greece only had 46 days of stoppages, Italy 37 and Germany four, the newspaper cited the report as saying. “Every day of a strike in France has a much bigger impact on European traffic than [strikes] in other European countries,” the report’s author, French Senator Vincent Capo-Canellas, said after six months of work, including numerous field visits. In addition to frequent industrial action, the country is also the champion for delays linked to obsolescent equipment, the report said. “Our country is responsible for 33 percent of delays due to air traffic control in Europe,” Capo-Canellas said, representing 300 million euros (US$347.34 million) in annual losses for airlines.
SPAIN
King’s brother-in-law jailed
King Felipe’s brother-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin, was yesterday jailed after losing an appeal against a graft conviction, prison authorities said. Urdangarin, the husband of Felipe’s sister Cristina, entered the prison in Brieva, about 100km north of Madrid at 8am, a spokesman for the facility said. The 50-year-old former Olympic handball player was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail in a case that caused uproar in the nation and tainted the royal family’s image. Urdangarin had been given until midnight to show at the prison, a small facility capable of housing up to 162 inmates, which is mainly used for women.
UNITED STATES
Five killed in car chase
At least five people were killed and several others hurt on Sunday as an SUV carrying more than a dozen people during a suspected “smuggling event” crashed while fleeing from US Border Patrol agents in south Texas, authorities said. The SUV carrying 14 people went out of control at more than 160kph and overturned on Texas Highway 85, ejecting most of the occupants, Dimmit County Sheriff Marion Boyd said. Four victims were dead at the scene, Boyd said. He said at least one and possibly two others died at a hospital. The border patrol said that two other vehicles had been traveling alongside the SUV earlier in the day. An agent suspected that they were conducting a “smuggling event,” it said. The agent stopped one of the vehicles and another agent stopped a second one. People from both vehicles were arrested. The third vehicle kept going and a sheriff’s deputy took over the chase prior to the fatal crash, the border patrol said.
PHILIPPINES
Nun wins reprieve
An Australian nun ordered to leave the nation after angering President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday won a reprieve from imminent deportation, but is still subject to proceedings to expel her. Sister Patricia Fox, 71, was briefly detained in April after Duterte ordered her arrest, accusing her of political activism that violated the rules of her visa. The immigration service canceled her visa and directed Fox to leave by yesterday, but the Department of Justice nullified the order as having no legal basis. “What the [immigration service] did in this case is beyond what the law provides, that is why it has to be struck down,” Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra said in a statement. The department also ordered the immigration authorities to hear a case on her visa’s cancelation along with pending deportation proceedings. Fox, who said she was relieved by the decision, said her visa was now valid until Sept. 9.
YEMEN
Rebels told to leave port
The United Arab Emirates, part of a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting in the nation, yesterday warned Houthi rebels to withdraw from the port city of Hodeida as pro-government forces advance. The “Hodeida port operation will continue unless rebels withdraw unconditionally,” Emirati Minister of State Anwar Gargash told a news conference in Dubai. He said the Arab coalition has kept the Hodeida-Sana’a road “open for the Houthi militias to withdraw.”
CAMBODIA
Prince sent to Bangkok
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who was injured on Sunday in a car crash that killed his wife and injured seven others, was flown early yesterday to a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The 74-year-old former prime minister was in a convoy along with senior members of his FUNCINPEC party heading toward Sihanoukville when a taxi traveling in the opposite direction slammed into his SUV, officials said. He was reportedly sent to Bangkok at the request of the Royal Palace. King Norodom Sihamoni is Ranariddh’s half-brother. “He was sent to Thailand as a precaution,” FUNCINPEC Secretary-General Yim Savy said, adding that the prince was in good condition and “speaking normally.”
VIETNAM
Eight arrested for protests
Police have arrested eight more people after protests earlier this month over a proposed law on special economic zones that protesters fear would fall in the hands of Chinese investors, state media reported yesterday. The men from the south-central province of Binh Thuan were accused of disturbing public order, opposing officials and damaging state property, state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Speaking to voters at his constituency in Hanoi on Sunday, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said sabotaging elements have distorted the truth about the law and abused people’s patriotism to instigate protests.
MYANMAR
Rains, floods cause damage
Flooding in the south has caused a landslide at a famed Buddhist pagoda, submerged homes, destroyed a monastery and displaced hundreds of people as monsoon rains batter the nation. Several parts of Mon state are facing flash floods due to heavy rains with no relief in sight, according to a report yesterday in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar. No casualties have been reported so far in the state, but rains continue to pound large areas of the nation.
‘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