AUSTRALIA
Detainee’s family seeks help
The family of an Australian man who has been detained in Egypt for more than a year has called on Canberra to help get him out of the country. Brisbane resident Hazem Hamouda was arrested in Cairo in January last year after arriving there with his family for a holiday. Egyptian police accused him of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood and of spreading falsities online — allegations his family denies. While Hamouda was freed from jail in February, Egyptian authorities stopped him boarding a Brisbane-bound flight last month. Hamouda’s daughter, Lamisse, yesterday urged Canberra to ask for her father to be released, saying her family fears “he could be rearrested at any point.”
IRELAND
PM writes Minogue fan mail
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar used official letterhead to write a fan letter to Kylie Minogue, freedom of information documents reveal. Varadkar sent a handwritten message saying he was a “huge fan” of the Australian pop star, offering to meet her in person ahead of her Dublin concert in October last year. “Dear Kylie,” he wrote. “Just wanted to drop you a short note in advance of the concert in Dublin. I am really looking forward to it. Am a huge fan!” The department of the Taoiseach twice blocked the freedom of information request from publication Extra.ie, before Varadkar consented to the information being made public. Minogue had to cancel the October concert due to a throat infection, but she personally called Varadkar to apologize and finally met with the leader at a rescheduled concert in December.
CHINA
Thirty firefighters killed
Firefighters have contained a blaze high in the rugged forested mountains in the west that claimed the lives of 30 of their colleagues. State media said that open flames had been extinguished and only a few areas continued to emit smoke as of yesterday, with no further threat of the fire spreading. The bodies of the dead firefighters were taken to the town of Xichang in Sichuan Province, while three helicopters had brought in reinforcements to extinguish the blaze for good. Changing winds on Sunday apparently trapped the 27 firefighters and three helpers.
UNITED STATES
Jagger to have heart surgery
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is to undergo surgery to replace a heart valve, with the band postponing the North American leg of a tour as a result, a report said on Monday. The iconic British band had on Saturday announced that it was delaying the “No Filter” tour for the 75-year-old rocker to receive an unspecified medical treatment. Leading industry magazine Rolling Stone reported on Monday the cause was heart valve surgery, following an earlier report from Drudge Report, which added the procedure would take place on Friday in New York.
MOZAMBIQUE
Cholera cases top 1,000
The Ministry of Health has confirmed more than 1,000 cases of cholera as an outbreak of the water-borne disease spreads following a tropical cyclone last month that killed at least 598 people. The number of cholera infections rose from 246 on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. President Filipe Nyusi last week announced a campaign to vaccinate 800,000 people against the disease, which causes diarrhea and dehydration, and can kill if untreated. One person has so far died from it. The nation has suffered cholera outbreaks in each of the past six years, the WHO said.
CANADA
Warming tops global pace
The nation is experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with the effects most pronounced in the north, according to a new government report cited by local media on Monday. Average temperatures have risen by 1.7°C since 1948, or about double the global average of 0.8°C, and “will warm further in the future, driven by human influence,” said an Environment and Climate Change Canada report, which was yesterday to be made public. In the north, approaching the Arctic Circle, temperatures rose an average of 2.3°C over the same period. The countrywide figure could reach as high as 6°C by the end of the century, scientific projections showed. “Scenarios with limited warming will only occur if Canada and the rest of the world reduce carbon emissions to near zero early in the second half of the century,” the report said.
UNITED STATES
Trump vows justice reform
President Donald Trump on Monday said that he wants to follow up on criminal justice reform with efforts that help federal inmates find jobs after they leave prison. Congress passed legislation last year called the First Step Act that gives judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders and boosts prisoner rehabilitation efforts. The effort drew strong support from Republicans and Democrats worried that mandatory minimum laws had generated unfair sentences in many drug-related cases. Americans with criminal backgrounds are unemployed at rates up to five times the national average, which stood at 3.8 percent in February, Trump said. A “Second Step Act” would focus on “successful re-entry and reduced unemployment for Americans with past criminal records,” he said. The president was short on details about what future legislation would include, but the White House said that Trump’s budget for the next fiscal year proposes more than US$500 million to help prisoners succeed after their release.
EL SALVADOR
Mixco reaches plea deal
Former first lady Ana Ligia Mixco de Saca has reached a deal to plead guilty to corruption charges related to her role in the laundering of US$25 million of public money. Her husband, former president Tony Saca, is already serving a 10-year sentence for the diversion of US$300 million of public funds to his companies and other people tied to him. Mixco’s deal would give her an abbreviated legal process and community service instead of three years in prison. The deal was discussed during a court hearing on Monday.
URUGUAY
Vazquez fires head of army
President Tabare Vazquez on Monday removed the commander of the army for covering up that a retired member of the military committed a crime during the 1973 to 1985 dictatorship. Vazquez dismissed General Jose Gonzalez and five other generals. Gonzalez had been on the job for just two weeks and had replaced General Guido Manini Rios. Vazquez last month removed Manini Rios after he questioned how local courts have handled cases involving members of the military accused of dictatorship-era human rights abuses. The latest crisis broke out after reports showed that in an army court of honor, a retired military member admitted to throwing the body of a leftist Tupamaru guerrilla into a river in 1973. Gonzalez and other members of the tribunal did not inform the army or prosecutors. More than 40 service members have been investigated after being accused of human rights crimes.
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