TURKEY
Three dead in collapse
One more person has been found dead in the rubble of a eight-story building in Istanbul that collapsed on Wednesday, raising the death toll to at least three, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said early yesterday. Rescue teams working overnight pulled 12 people out of the rubble with injuries, three of whom were in serious condition, he said. It is not clear how many people are still trapped in the debris of the building, which had 43 residents in 14 apartments. The cause of the collapse is under investigation, but authorities said the top three floors had been illegally built.
Photo: Reuters
PHILIPPINES
Outcry over new charges
Award-winning journalist Maria Ressa has been hit with another lawsuit following tax evasion charges brought against her in November last year. She now faces libel charges over an article published in 2012 allegedly containing “defamatory” content. The Department of Justice ordered the indictment her Rappler Web site, Ressa as chief executive editor, and former reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr, in a decision made public on Tuesday. The story uncovered businessman Wilfredo Keng’s alleged ties to a then-judge on the nation’s top court. Keng filed the complaint in October 2017. The charges carry up to 12 years’ jail. Reporters Without Borders condemned the “absurd charges,” while Amnesty International demanded an end to the “harassment of Maria Ressa.”
CHINA
Plasma tests negative
Tests on a batch of a plasma product feared to have been contaminated with HIV have turned up negative for the virus, the National Medical Products Administration said yesterday. A batch of 12,000 plasma products manufactured by Shanghai-based China Meheco Xinxing Pharma Co were tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C and all proved negative, it said. However, it demanded that Shanghai regulators conduct on-site inspections of the company and check products made from lots made before and after the suspect batch.
PHILIPPINES
Measles outbreak in Manila
The number of measles cases in Metro Manila has surged 10 times at the start of the year after jumping more than 900 percent last year. Fatalities from measles rose fivefold to 200 last year from 40 in 2017, Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo told ABS-CBN News Channel. From December to last month, there had been about 50 deaths, he said, blaming vaccination fears. Measles cases in the first three weeks of last month rose to 196 from only 20 cases a year ago, the department said. The government hit only 40 percent of its immunization target last year, Domingo said.
NEW ZEALAND
Suspect retains secrecy
The man accused of murdering British tourist Grace Millane will continue to keep his name secret while a judge decides whether he can be publicly identified. The 27-year-old man appeared yesterday in Auckland’s High Court. His lawyer argued his name should continue to be kept secret so he can get a fair trial, Radio New Zealand said. A judge said he would announce a decision later. The man’s trial is scheduled for November.
UNITED KINGDOM
Stansted 15 spared jail
Fifteen protesters who locked themselves together around a plane at London’s Stansted Airport to stop migrants being deported were yesterday spared prison sentences. The demonstrators, who have become known as the Stansted 15, cut through the airport’s perimeter fence on March 28, 2017, then used expanding foam, scaffolding poles and lock-box devices to secure themselves to the wheel and wing of a Boeing 767. The plane had been chartered by the government to repatriate passengers to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. The 15 were found guilty in December of breaching aviation security law after a prosecutor said they had put the “safety of the airport in a likelihood of danger.” Judge Christopher Morgan gave three protesters who had previous convictions suspended jail terms and sentenced the other 12 to community service..”
CANADA
Nation welcomes ex-slaves
The nation is to welcome about 750 former slaves from Libya as refugees, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said on Wednesday. The number of migrants traveling through Libya to reach Europe has increased 10-fold since the fall of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, according to the UN. “In 2017, the world was shocked to see the harrowing images of people being sold into slavery in Libya,” Hussen said in a statement. “Canada was one of the few countries to step up to work with the UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] to resettle these refugees directly from Libya and offer them a new home in Canada,” said Hussen, a former refugee from Somalia. Canada is “also taking action to resettle 100 refugees from Niger, rescued from Libyan migrant detention centers, including victims of human smuggling,” he said. “Some people have already begun to arrive in Canada.”
UNITED STATES
‘NYT’ editor denies charges
Former New York Times (NYT) executive editor Jill Abramson is facing allegations that she lifted material from other sources for her new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Fact. A Twitter thread posted on Wednesday by Vice News correspondent Michael Moynihan lists several examples of passages in the book that closely resemble material in The New Yorker, Time Out and other publications. Released this week, the book is a critique of the news business focused on two long-running newspapers, the Times and the Washington Post, along with Vice and BuzzFeed. Appearing on Wednesday night on Fox News, Abramson disputed the allegations, saying: “All I can tell you is I certainly didn’t plagiarize in my book and there’s 70 pages of footnotes showing where I got the information.”
UNITED STATES
Police killed by suspect
A 17-year police veteran was shot and killed on Wednesday as he served a warrant on the Milwaukee’s south side. Assistant Milwaukee Police Chief Michael Brunson told a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that the officer, who name was not released, was 35 years old. Brunson said the officer who died was “well beloved by everyone in the department.” The officer was part of a Tactical Enforcement Unit serving the warrant in a residential neighborhood on the city’s south side when the officers made contact with two subjects “and shots were fired,” said Brunson, who did not release details of the warrant being served. One officer was struck and was rushed to Froedtert Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
‘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