NEW ZEALAND
Man charged with terrorism
The man accused of shooting dead 51 Muslim worshipers in the Christchurch mosque attacks was formally charged yesterday with terrorism for the first time, police said. In addition to the terror charge, Brenton Tarrant also faces 51 charges of murder and 40 of attempted murder over the March 15 attacks. “The charge will allege that a terrorist act was carried out in Christchurch,” police said in a statement. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has characterized the killings as a well-planned “terrorist attack” since the day that Tarrant, a self-described white supremacist, allegedly carried them out, but until now, the charges against him were less expansive, as the country’s Terrorism Suppression Act was only introduced in 2002 and is untested in the courts.
AUSTRALIA
Suicide bids follow election
At least four refugees in offshore Pacific camps have attempted suicide since the conservative government’s shock re-election on Saturday, according to refugees, advocates and police. Many refugees had prayed for a more lenient policy from the Labor Party, who had been strongly tipped to win, but an unexpected victory by Scott Morrison’s center-right coalition dashed hopes and set off a wave of self-harm, including several hospitalizations. Men fleeing violence or persecution in Sudan, Iraq and Iran have attempted to hang or set fire to themselves, said Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition. “Offshore detention is slowing strangling the life out of its victims,” he added.
JAPAN
FM’s ‘bacon’ tweets confuse
Bemused followers of Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono were left scratching their heads yesterday after a bizarre tweet about bacon. “Ah, bacon is in fact ^%?+*.!%....” he tweeted in Japanese to his 513,000 followers, prompting confusion and many times the number of retweets and likes than he usually gets. On Sunday, he tweeted that his son had greeted him by “screaming bacon with all his might” when he returned home in the early hours. By late yesterday, his account had reverted to the more mundane, with the minister announcing his attendance at a meeting of the OECD in Paris. There was no further comment on the bacon affair.
RUSSIA
IS fighters on border upsets
Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov is raising alarm about Islamic extremists massing on Afghanistan’s northern border. On a visit to Tajikistan yesterday, he said that about 5,000 fighters of an Islamic State (IS) group affiliate have gathered in areas bordering on former Soviet states in Central Asia. Bortnikov, in comments carried by Russian news agencies, called for tighter border control to prevent a spillover. Some experts have said that the Kremlin is exaggerating the number of extremists to justify the government’s outreach to the Taliban.
SAUDI ARABIA
Missiles headed off in Mecca
The government on Monday said that it intercepted two missiles in the province of Mecca fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who earlier denied having targeted Islam’s holiest site. The Houthis denied that their missiles were targeting Mecca. “The Saudi regime is trying, through these allegations, to rally support for its brutal aggression against our great Yemeni people,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Facebook. Many Muslims visit the city during the holy month of Ramadan, which is underway.
PORTUGAL
Police convicted of racism
Eight police officers on Monday were convicted of confining, assaulting and insulting six African youths in a suburban Lisbon police station more than four years ago. One officer was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison for a repeat offense, while the others received suspended sentences ranging from two months to five years. Nine more were acquitted, as the tribunal rejected accusations of torture and racist motivation, judge Ester Pacheco said. Local media said it was the first time so many officers had been convicted for in such a case. “It is unprecedented, but the penalties are a joke,” said Celso Lopes, one of two victims who attended the hearing in the court in Sintra.
FRANCE
Eiffel Tower climber nabbed
A man who sparked an evacuation of the Eiffel Tower on Monday was grabbed after clinging to the Paris landmark for more than six hours, officials said. Firemen who had rappelled down from the tower’s third-floor observation deck to near the black-clad climber managed to “talk the individual down,” they said. Managers said the tower would reopen yesterday as usual and promised to reimburse people with reserved tickets whose visits were thwarted. The abrupt closure of the tower on Monday had frustrated visitors. “We’re really disappointed, we’re only here for a week and this messes with our whole program,” said Sylvie and Celine Forcier from Quebec, Canada.
UNITED KINGDOM
Milkshake thrower charged
Northumbria Police yesterday charged a 32-year-old man with assault after pro-Brexit politician Nigel Farage was hit with a milkshake while campaigning for the European Parliament election. Paul Crowther was charged with common assault and criminal damage over the incident in Newcastle on Monday that left Farage with milkshake dripping down his suit during a walkabout in the city. Crowther said he threw the banana-and-salted caramel Five Guys shake to protest Farage’s “bile and racism.” Milkshakes have become an unlikely political weapon during the election campaign, with other right-wing candidates targeted.
CUBA
Think tank pressured to shut
One of the nation’s only independent think tanks on Monday said it would close due to pressure from what it described as powerful institutions, though it gave no details. Cuba Posible was founded in 2014 with the aim of publishing work by analysts and intellectuals who wanted gradual reform. It had been targeted by “all the mechanics and methods of powerful institutions, in Cuba, where we work, and off the island, where we’ve tried to guarantee the minimal conditions needed to allow our work,” the think tank said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Teen dies in border custody
A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died on Monday in Border Patrol custody in Texas, officials said, making him the fifth Guatemalan minor to die after being apprehended at the border with Mexico since December last year. Carlos Hernandez was caught on Monday last week after illegally crossing the border near Hidalgo, Texas. On Sunday morning, Hernandez told staff that he was not feeling well, and he was later diagnosed with the flu, officials said. “We absolutely need pediatric health experts at the border,” Julie Linton, cochair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Immigrant Health Special Interest Group, told reporters on Monday.
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