NICARAGUA
Amnesty bill approved
Lawmakers allied to President Daniel Ortega on Saturday approved an amnesty bill for crimes related to last year’s anti-government protests, despite criticism from the opposition. Critics say it would forgive abuses committed by police and pro-government civilian militias during a deadly crackdown on demonstrators who were demanding that Ortega leave office. The ruling Sandinista bloc said the law seeks “reconciliation” and a “stable and lasting peace.” Ortega’s allies consider the student-led protests a “failed coup d’etat.” Azahalea Solis of the Civic Alliance opposition group told reporters that the amnesty “attempts to disguise impunity for those who ordered, directed or participated in murders of citizens.”
INDIA
Reward offered in plane hunt
Authorities on Saturday offered a cash reward to boost a desperate hunt for a military transport plane missing for nearly a week and feared to have crashed in a remote northeastern state. The air force and the Arunachal Pradesh state government announced the 550,000 rupee (US$8,000) reward to get village leaders to organize search parties for the AN-32 that disappeared from radars on Monday last week carrying 13 people. The Soviet-built air force plane went missing near the border with China and air searches, satellite surveys and efforts to pick up signals from the plane have all failed. In addition to using Indian Space Research Organization satellites and other high-tech means, ground teams have been scouring the Mechuka jungle region for the plane. The air force said it would give 500,000 rupees and the state government offered 50,000 rupees for “credible information” leading to the discovery of the plane.
KAZAKHSTAN
Presidential election begins
People went to the polls yesterday to elect their first new leader in 30 years following the departure of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev with his handpicked successor set for victory. Career diplomat and interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 66, is running for the country’s ruling party with backing from Nazarbayev, who stepped down from the presidency in March. The 78-year-old’s departure shocked voters, who had lived under his rule since Soviet times, but he is still expected to call the shots in the oil-rich Central Asian state of 18 million people. Tokayev has six rivals in the polls, including one low-key opposition figure, but none are widely known in the Muslim-majority nation. Tokayev, by contrast, has won endorsements from pop stars and film actors, and appears to have the weight of the state machine behind him.
RUSSIA
Journalist given house arrest
Investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was placed under two months’ house arrest in Moscow on Saturday while he is investigated for drug peddling, as a court rejected a request from investigators to hold him in custody. Golunov, 36, was on his way to a meeting with a source on Thursday when he was detained in central Moscow and illegal drugs were found in his rucksack, according to police and his employer, Latvia-based online news portal Meduza. A lawyer for Golunov, who is known for investigating alleged corruption among Moscow city officials, said he believed police had planted the drugs on his client to frame him and that Golunov had been beaten. Golunov denies the charges.
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
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