AFGHANISTAN
Taliban meets with US envoy
The Taliban have held three days of talks with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar, where the group has a political office. A Taliban official and a person close to the group confirmed the talks, which are aimed at renewing the peace process. They spoke on condition of anonymity. Yesterday, they said that Khairullah Khairkhwa, the former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mohammed Fazl, a former Taliban deputy defense minister, attended the talks. Both were former inmates at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.
INDIA
Cyclone death toll hits 33
The death toll from Cyclone Gaja, which battered the east coast, has reached 33, a disaster official said yesterday. Gaja, which packed winds of up to 120kph, barreled into Tamil Nadu State after hitting the coast on Friday. “So far 20 men, 11 women and two children have died due to the cyclone,” a state disaster official said on condition of anonymity. “As of now 177,500 people are housed in over 351 camps. Thousands of trees have been uprooted and livestock has also been badly affected,” the official said. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami said most deaths were caused by flooding, house collapses and electrocution.
SOUTH AFRICA
President confirms payment
President Cyril Ramaphosa said his campaign to become leader of the African National Congress (ANC) last year received a payment from a firm with links to his son and that he previously and inadvertently gave incorrect information about it to parliament. The donation is being returned. Ramaphosa’s son, Andile, had a contract with African Global Operations, previously known as Bosasa, for the provision of consultancy services in a number of countries, the presidency said in a statement on Friday. The opposition Democratic Alliance had questioned a 500,000 rand (US$35,702) payment from Bosasa, which was made on behalf of Bosasa chief executive officer Gavin Watson into a trust account that was used to raise funds for the ANC leadership campaign.
AUSTRALIA
Stingray, sharks attack
A swimmer died after a rare suspected stingray attack, while two people were mauled in separate shark encounters over the weekend. A 42-year-old man was in waters off Tasmania’s Lauderdale Beach on Saturday when he “sustained a puncture wound to his lower abdomen ... possibly inflicted by a marine animal,” police said. He was brought onto the beach by friends, but had a heart attack and was unable to be resuscitated, police said. Meanwhile, a teenage boy was bitten on his arm and leg yesterday in the Northern Territory and a 24-year-old man was hurt after an encounter with a shark on the east coast.
PHILIPPINES
uterte skips APEC dinner
President Rodrigo Duterte passed on the APEC gala dinner in Papua New Guinea on Saturday. Duterte sent his secretary of trade and industry instead to pose with heads of state. His office had initially said that he would cut short his trip to Port Moresby even before the main meetings began, but yesterday he did show up at the convention center. “This after I loudly and naggingly insisted he stay just one day. ONE DAY, I stressed,” Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin tweeted yesterday. Asked about Saturday’s dinner, a official said that Duterte “feels constrained by formalities and finds them unproductive and a slight waste of time.”
UNITED KINGDOM
May sees ‘no alternative’
Prime Minister Theresa May says she sees no alternative to the Brexit deal she presented last week, amid reports that some of her senior ministers want her to renegotiate the draft before her next meeting with EU leaders. “There is no alternative plan on the table. There is no different approach that we could agree with the EU,” May wrote in an article for the Sun on Sunday. “If MPs reject the deal, they will simply take us back to square one. It would mean more division, more uncertainty and a failure to deliver on the vote of the British people.” Andrea Leadsom, the minister in charge of government business in parliament, on Saturday told the BBC that she was supporting May, but was not fully happy with the deal. “I think there’s still the potential to improve on the clarification and on some of the measures within it,” she said.
FRANCE
Injuries during protests
More than 220 people were injured on Saturday as tens of thousands of people blocked roads in a “yellow vest” protest against high fuel prices, which has channeled anger at stagnant spending under President Emmanuel Macron. Nearly 283,000 people were estimated to have taken part in more than 2,000 protests at roundabouts and on major highways and thoroughfares across the country, the Ministry of the Interior said. About 227 people were injured — seven seriously, including a police officer — and 117 detained, with 73 then taken into custody.
GREECE
Clashes after march
A march to the US embassy in Athens on Saturday for the anniversary of a fatally suppressed 1973 student uprising was mostly peaceful, while police officers and anarchists clashed in the capital and the next two next-largest cities long after dark. Police said a group of about 300 agitators in Athens erected barricades and threw firebombs and rocks at officers, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. In Thessaloniki, officers faced off with about 200 anarchists who threw an intense barrage of firebombs. At least 10 people were detained. Another five people were detained in Patras after an unknown number of assailants attacked officers, police said.
UNITED STATES
Last California seat decided
Democrat Gil Cisneros on Saturday captured a Republican-held House of Representatives seat in southern California, capping a Democratic rout in which the party picked up six congressional seats in the state. In what had been the last undecided House contest in California, Cisneros beat Republican Young Kim for the state’s 39th District seat. With other gains — Republicans also lost a seat in the Central Valley — Democrats will hold a 45-8 edge in California’s House seats next year.
MALTA
‘Masterminds’ identified
Investigators have identified a group of at least three locals who they believe masterminded the killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia 13 months ago, the Sunday Times of Malta reported. It did not reveal their names, but quoted high-ranking officers leading the probe as saying that their investigation was at a “very advanced stage.” The motive for the carbombing of Caruana Galizia on Oct. 16 last year remains unknown, with the paper saying the investigators believe the masterminds had different motives and came together to contract the three men who have been arrested and accused in the case.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was