MALAYSIA
Kuala Lumpur joins ICC
Minister of Human Resources M. Kula Segaran yesterday confirmed that the nation has become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah signed the court’s founding treaty on Monday, making the nation the 124th member of the tribunal. “By joining the ICC, Kuala Lumpur can now play an important role in issues related to crimes against humanity,” Segaran said.
VIETNAM
Call to arms over pig threat
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phu on Monday called for “drastic measures” from “the whole political system” to fight the spread of African swine fever, the state-run Vietnam News Service reported yesterday. “We should combat the epidemic as if we are fighting against the enemy,” he said in a meeting with regional officials. Cases have been found in 202 households since Feb. 1 in seven northern cities or provinces, including Hanoi, and more than 4,300 infected pigs have been destroyed, the government’s Web site said.
COOK ISLANDS
Nation mulling new name
The nation is considering changing its name to something that reflects its Polynesian culture, rather than honoring the British explorer James Cook. The government in January established a committee to find an indigenous name for the 15-island group. Initially the idea was to have the indigenous moniker feature alongside the existing name, but committee chairman Danny Mataroa on Monday said that once discussions began it was clear there was support for dropping the current name altogether in favor of local one. The new name should reflect the country’s heritage, its people and its Christian belief, he said.
IRAN
Zarif quits over al-Assad trip
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s trip to Tehran last week and that was a reason why he submitted his resignation, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported yesterday. President Hassan Rouhani rejected Zarif’s resignation on Wednesday last week, bolstering a moderate ally who has long been targeted by hardliners in factional struggles over the 2015 nuclear deal with the West. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have information at any level [about the trip] and this lack of information was maintained until the end of the trip,” ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to ISNA.
AUSTRALIA
Second detainee dies
A man has died at a Sydney immigration remand center, the second death in less than two months, raising concerns about conditions in the nation’s onshore detention network. The man was believed to be an Iraqi asylum seeker who took his own life at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre late on Monday, refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said. Immigration officials yesterday confirmed his death, but did not release further details, saying only that the matter was under investigation by government agencies and the state coroner. “People [inside Villawood] said he had been quite depressed and hadn’t been coming out of his room,” Rintoul said. The latest death came six weeks after a male detainee, reportedly from Sierra Leone, died at Villawood. Rintoul said he was also an asylum seeker and was believed to have committed suicide.
AUSTRALIA
Wildfire threat expands
More homes were yesterday being threatened by wildfires that have burnt dozens of homes and buildings in the rural southeast. Emergency Management Commissioner for Victoria Andrew Crisp said that emergency warnings were issued for the towns of Dargo and Licola as flames approached homes. Since Friday last week, 38 fires have razed more than 40,000 hectares (of forest and farmland across the state, destroying nine homes, damaging another house and damaging or destroying 23 outbuildings. “We have literally got hundreds and hundreds of firefighters working on the ground, doing their absolute best to keep our communities safe,” Crisp told reporters. The fires were also being fought from the air with 75 airplanes and helicopters dumping water.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prodigy’s Flint dies at 49
Keith Flint, lead singer of dance-electronic band The Prodigy, has been found dead at his home near London. He was 49. Flint was the stage persona of the band, whose hits Firestarter and Breathe fused techno, breakbeat and acid house music. The band sold 30 million records, taking rave music from an insular community of party-goers and bringing it to a global audience. The energetic frontman was also known for his distinctive look: black eyeliner and hair spiked into two horns. “A true pioneer, innovator and legend,” the band said in a statement confirming his death. “He will be forever missed.” Born Keith Charles Flint on Sept. 17, 1969, in London, he moved to Braintree, Essex, as a child, where he met cofounder Liam Howlett at a nightclub. The band was known as much for their overt anti-establishment stance as much for their music. They were vocal critics of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which banned the raves popularized in the late-1980s during the so-called Second Summer of Love.
EL SALVADOR
Accused judge removed
Congress on Monday voted to temporarily remove a Supreme Court judge from his post pending a trial, after he was accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. Lawmakers also voted to strip Judge Eduardo Jaime Escalante Diaz, 51, of his immunity against prosecution in a nearly unanimous vote of the Congress. “An important precedent is being set to prevent this type of event from repeating, especially with regard to officials with such a high position,” lawmaker Patricia Valdivieso said. Escalante Diaz is accused of fondling the girl on Feb. 18, and then fleeing after he was surprised by neighbors and the girl’s mother.
UNITED STATES
Pompeo bullish on N Korea
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said that he was hopeful about sending a delegation to North Korea in the coming weeks, after talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended with no agreement. The leaders’ second summit in Hanoi collapsed last week without any agreement or immediate plan for a third meeting between them or their delegations. “I am hopeful, although I have no commitment yet, that we will be back at it, that I’ll have a team in Pyongyang in the next couple weeks,” Pompeo said. “I’m continuing to work to find those places where there’s a shared interest.”
UNITED STATES
Clinton rules out campaign
Hillary Rodham Clinton has for the first time ruled out running for president in 2020. “I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working, and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton said on Monday in an interview with News 12 in New York. Clinton was the frontrunner in 2016, but ended up losing to President Donald Trump. “I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out,” Clinton said. “I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country, the kinds of things that are happening right now, are deeply troubling to me.” Clinton has held meetings with some of the Democrats who are now vying for the party nomination or considering a run. “I’ve told every one of them, don’t take anything for granted, even though we have a long list of real problems and broken promises from this administration that need to be highlighted,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Barr not recusing himself
Attorney General William Barr is not recusing himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Moscow, a Department of Justice spokeswoman said on Monday. “Following General Barr’s confirmation, senior career ethics officials advised that General Barr should not recuse himself from the special counsel’s investigation. Consistent with that advice, General Barr has decided not to recuse,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
UNITED STATES
Luke Perry dies aged 52
Actor Luke Perry, who rose to fame as a heartthrob in the hit 1990s TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, died on Monday at the age of 52 after suffering a massive stroke, his agent said. Perry, who was hospitalized in the Los Angeles area last week, died surrounded by his children, Jack and Sophie, his fiancee and ex-wife, his parents, siblings and other close family and friends, his agent Arnold Robinson said. “The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world,” Robinson added.
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
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