EGYPT
Arab League gives PA funds
The Arab League has pledged to pay US$100 million a month to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to plug the gap left when Israel blocked tax transfers in February. “We confirm that Arab countries will support the Palestinian state’s budget... (to) resist the political and financial pressure it faces,” the league said on Sunday following a meeting in Cairo. Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, but is witholding US$138 million in transfers over Palestinian payments to political prisoners jailed for attacks against Israelis.
CHINA
Demand for trio’s release
About 100 workers suffering from a work-related disease have signed a petition demanding the release of three activists in Shenzhen. Wei Zhili (危志力) and Ke Chengbing (柯成冰), editors of a labor rights news site that reported on the workers’ cases, were arrested last month for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” while Yang Zhengjun (楊鄭君), editor-in-chief of the iLabour news site, has been in police detention since January. Hundreds of migrant workers last year protested for compensation in Shenzhen after contracting the lung disease silicosis.
NIGERIA
Two dead in resort attack
Two people were killed and four tourists abducted in an attack by armed gunmen on a Kajuru Castle resort in northwestern Kaduna state on Friday night, police said on Sunday. Briton Faye Mooney, who worked for the aid agency Mercy Corps, and a Nigerian man believed to be her partner, were gunned down by the attackers, police said. They were part of a tour group from Lagos.
CYPRUS
Police probe killings link
Police are probing a possible serial killer after two women were found murdered and dumped in a mine shaft and a six-year-old child is still missing. The victims were discovered in the space of a week at an abandoned mine about 30km west of Nicosia. One has been identified as a 39-year-old woman from the Philippines who disappeared in May last year along with her six-year-old daughter. A second victim, found late on Saturday, is thought to be a 28-year-old from the Philippines who was also reported missing last year. Both women were working on the island. A 35-year-old army officer is in custody on suspicion of killing all three.
AUSTRALIA
Father, son die in rescue
A father and son lifesaving team drowned on Sunday while trying to save a tourist swept out to sea near the Twelve Apostles, a set of 12 limestone stacks off the Victoria state coast, officials said yesterday. Ross Powell, 71, and his son Andrew, 32, died after their lifesaving boat overturned in high swells during the rescue of a 30-year-old man. He was winched from the water alongside a third lifesaver from the boat, who was seriously injured, by a rescue helicopter and taken to hospital, Victoria Police said.
PHILIPPINES
Earthquake kills at least five
Five people were killed when at least two buildings collapsed as magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocked areas around Manila yesterday afternoon, Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda told ABS-CBN television. Three bodies have been pulled out of a collapsed building in the town of Porac, while an old woman and her grandchild were crushed to death by another building in the town of Lubao, she said. The quake sent thousands of office workers dashing out of buildings in Manila.
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