AUSTRALIA
Gas leak clears opera house
About 500 people yesterday were evacuated from the Sydney Opera House concourse and adjoining restaurants following a gas leak, firefighters said as they monitored the atmosphere for gas levels. Fire and Rescue New South Wales said on Twitter that gas company workers were fixing the problem. The leak happened when a low pressure gas main was hit during construction at the venue, the Australian newspaper reported.
PHILIPPINES
Quake hits day after first
A new powerful earthquake yesterday hit the center of the nation, a day after a magnitude 6.1 quake hit its north and killed at least 16 people. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of yesterday’s quake at 6.4, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said that it was a magnitude of 6.5. The quake was centered near the town of San Julian in Eastern Samar Province and prompted residents to dash out of houses and office workers to scamper to safety. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage from the new quake.
JAPAN
North Korea stance eases
The government yesterday dropped the push to apply “maximum pressure” on North Korea from its official foreign policy, an apparent softening of Tokyo’s position as major powers engage with Pyongyang. In last year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, published when tensions on the Korean Peninsula were soaring, the government said that it was coordinating efforts with its allies to “maximize pressure on North Korea by all available means.” “There have been major developments in the situation surrounding North Korea in light of events such as the US-North Korea summits in June last year and February,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
INDIA
Others to fill Iran oil loss
The government plans to get additional supplies from other major oil producing countries to compensate for the loss of Iranian oil, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said yesterday. The US on Monday demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by Wednesday next week or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers that had allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers to continue to import limited volumes. Pradhan said on Twitter that a robust plan is in place to supply crude oil to refineries. “Refineries are fully prepared to meet the national demand for petrol, diesel and other petroleum products,” he said.
ALGERIA
Richest man held for graft
The nation’s richest man, Issad Rebrab, has been placed in jail on the public prosecutor’s orders, the official Algeria Press Service (APS) reported yesterday, a day after his arrest as part of a corruption probe. Rebrab, the chief executive of the nation’s biggest privately owned conglomerate, Cevital, was placed in detention overnight, APS said. It comes in the wake of youth, which make up two-thirds of the population, initiating nationwide protests that earlier this month toppled the only leader they had ever known: former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power since 1999. “We are trying to make all the Algerian people follow us so that we can be unified to make a better Algeria,” said Sofiane Smain, a 23-year-old computing student.
AUSTRIA
Rat poem causes stir
The anti-migration Freedom Party has called “tasteless” a poem written by a local official that compared migrants with rats. The Town Rat appeared in a local party publication in Braunau. It warned against mixing cultures and drew strong criticism from the center-left opposition. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a conservative who governs with the party as his coalition partner, on Monday demanded that its branch in Upper Austria Province distance itself from the poem and said that “the choice of words is abhorrent, inhuman and deeply racist.”
BULGARIA
Jail for journalist killer
A court on Monday sentenced a man charged with the rape and murder of a television journalist to 30 years in prison. The 21-year-old Severin Krassmirov appeared handcuffed and under heavy guard before the regional court in Ruse, where he had pleaded guilty and had asked for swift sentencing. The body of Viktoria Marinova was found by the Danube River in Ruse on Oct. 6 last year. Investigators said she was raped, hit on the head and suffocated. Investigators concluded that Krassimirov acted alone. He was arrested in Germany, where he had fled, and extradited to Bulgaria a week after the murder. In entering a guilty plea, Krassimirov escaped the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
IRELAND
New IRA sorry for killing
The New IRA militant group has apologized for the killing of journalist Lyra McKee — its first acknowledgment that one of its members was involved, the Irish News reported yesterday. The organization called McKee’s death “tragic” and offered “full and sincere apologies” to her partner, family and friends in a statement that the newspaper said it received on Monday night. The 29-year-old was shot dead in Londonderry on Thursday last week as she watched young nationalists attack police officers following a raid. Police said that McKee was hit when a gunman opened fire in the direction of officers.
VENEZUELA
Two counterprotests called
The government on Monday announced two marches to counter the ones National Assembly President Juan Guaido has planned. The street demonstrations in favor of President Nicolas Maduro are to take place on Saturday and Wednesday next week, Labor Day. Saturday’s event are also to mark the nation’s official exit from the Organization of American States, two years after Maduro made the decision to leave the group, accusing it of being part of a US campaign to “intervene” in the nation. “We want to summon our members to two great demonstrations,” said Hector Rodriguez, a leader of Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
MEXICO
Border delay ‘hurts both’
The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs on Monday said that speeding up the flow of goods on the US border is a matter of urgency, and that slowdowns are detrimental to both economies, after bottlenecks have held up trade following a row over migration. Delays along the border began late last month after US border agents were moved to handle an influx of migrants, slowing the flow of goods and people. The staffing shortages came shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened to close the border if Mexico City did not halt a surge of people seeking asylum in the US.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in