NEW ZEALAND
Victims’ families can stay
The government yesterday opened a two-year window for people directly affected by the Christchurch terror attacks to apply to stay permanently in the country. The special visa category “recognizes the impact of the tragedy on the lives of those most affected, and gives people currently on temporary and resident visas some certainty” about their status, the immigration agency said in a statement. Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand president Mustafa Farouk said it was a generous gesture. “We are very happy,” he said, adding that he expected that everyone eligible would apply.
PHILIPPINES
Canada vilified over garbage
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday berated Canada over the waste it exports to the nation, threatening to sail the garbage back to Canada. Manila has filed several diplomatic protests with Ottawa over tonnes of waste shipped there from 2013 to 2014. Canada has said that the shipment was a commercial transaction and not backed by its government. “For Canada’s garbage, I want a boat prepared,” Duterte told officials after being briefed on an earthquake that struck on Monday. “They better pull that thing out, or I will set sail to Canada and dump their garbage there.”
MYANMAR
Landslide covers miners
More than 50 people are feared dead after a landslide in the north engulfed jade miners while they were sleeping, local police said on Tuesday — the latest deadly accident in a notoriously dangerous industry. Local police described a freak accident in Kachin State on Monday night so big that it created a “mud lake” that buried the miners as well as about 40 vehicles. “Fifty-four people are missing in the mud,” a Hpakant township police officer said. “There’s no way they [the missing] could have survived.” Only two bodies had been recovered so far.
CHINA
Navy chief pans US patrols
Freedom of navigation should not be used to infringe upon the rights of other countries, People’s Liberation Army Navy Commander Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong (沈金龍) yesterday said in Qingdao, taking a dig at the US and its allies who have sailed close to disputed South China Sea islets. “Respect for the rules is the cornerstone of maritime good order,” Shen said. “Freedom of navigation is a concept widely recognised by the international community. However it should not be used as an excuse to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of littoral states.” The US sent a low-level delegation to the navy anniversary events, but unlike its close allies Australia, Japan and South Korea, it did not send a ship to take part in Tuesday’s naval parade.
ISRAEL
Town to be named ‘Trump’
The government on Tuesday said it would name a new community on the Golan Heights after US President Donald Trump as an expression of gratitude for his recognition of its claim of sovereignty over the strategic plateau. “All Israelis were deeply moved when President Trump made his historic decision,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement. Trump’s Golan move followed his decision in December 2017 to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The government said separately that in appreciation of Trump, it intends to name a proposed train station near Jerusalem’s Western Wall after him.
ITALY
Allergy sparks bean ban
A mayor has banned the cultivation of broad beans within a 300m radius of the home of a child who has a rare allergy. Sesto Fiorentino Mayor Lorenzo Falchi introduced the ban at the request of the mother of the child, who has favism, a genetic disorder that triggers anemia if broad beans are eaten or their pollen is inhaled. People growing the bean, which is popular in the national cuisine, near the child’s home must stop within the next seven days. Local reports said that the ban, which would remain in place indefinitely, affects an “ample” area. The local authority initially rejected the mother’s request, but the mayor was moved to act after the child received a long period of care last year at a top children’s hospital as a result of acute hemolytic anemia.
COLOMBIA
Landslide death toll rises
The death toll in a devastating landslide that flowed over homes in a small community in the southwest has risen to 30. National disaster response agency director Eduardo Gonzalez said that workers initially recovered the bodies of 17 people following the slide early on Sunday in Las Rosas, a town about 630km from Bogota. Rescue workers have since found the lifeless remains of 13 more people. Heavy rains have been pounding much of the nation, swelling rivers, ruining crops and triggering mudslides destroying homes. More than 150 rescue workers from the Red Cross and other agencies have been digging through the debris in search of survivors.
BOLIVIA
Bus crash kills at least 25
A bus fell 200m into a ravine, leaving 25 people dead after a collision involving two trucks, police said on Monday. The bus was attempting to overtake a truck on Sunday night when it crashed head-on into another to the north of La Paz, police chief Yuri Calderon said. “That’s why the vehicle lost control and went over the cliff [falling] 200m,” he said. Rescuers descended the precipice on a rope and brought up the victims and survivors one by one, television images on the Unitel channel showed. The destroyed bus could be seen at the bottom of the ravine.
UNITED STATES
Porn leads to prison
A 69-year-old Pine Bluff, Arkansas, woman on Tuesday was convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her husband after he ordered a pornography channel for their satellite television services. The jury found Patricia Hill guilty after she testified that she was not thinking when she killed Frank Hill in July last year. She said she did not know that shooting at his feet could kill him as he bent over. She said she only meant for the shooting to get his attention. According to testimony, she had canceled the pornography channel, but shot her husband twice after seeing a bill that showed the channel had been added again.
UNITED STATES
Derby attracts traffickers
Human traffickers are likely to prey on vulnerable young women and children at this year’s Kentucky Derby, state and local officials said on Monday, and urged spectators to be alert to people with matching tattoos or branding marks. Law enforcement officials and anti-human trafficking activists told a news conference that like most major sporting events, the world-famous race also attracts predators looking for victims and buyers of sex. “By raising awareness with partners, our community will be better prepared to stop traffickers at this Derby,” Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said in a written statement.
‘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