BANGLADESH
Train strikes wedding party
At least 10 people were killed in a northwestern town after a train hit a wedding party van at an unguarded crossing, officials said on Monday. The Dhaka-bound train hit the van in Ullahpara, about 145km from the capital, as 14 people were returning home from a wedding ceremony, local Police Chief Koushik Ahmed said. The crash occurred as the van crossed without noticing the approaching train, leaving eight people dead, including the bride and groom. “Another two died in the hospital and the rest were injured,” he said.
AFGHANISTAN
Threats shut radio station
The head of a local radio station in eastern Ghazni Province said that it was forced to shut down after repeated threats from the area’s Taliban commander. Ramez Azimi, director of the Samaa station in the city of Ghazni, said that he received telephone calls as well as written warnings purportedly from the Taliban commander. Azimi said that the Taliban, who control several districts in the province, threatened them because three of the station’s 16 employees are women. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that the insurgents had threatened the station.
JAPAN
Cybersecurity lifts fund 37%
One of the country’s best-performing funds this year invests in upcoming US technology stocks at the forefront of fighting cybercrime. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management’s Cybersecurity Fund has returned 37 percent this year, beating almost all peers, after shares of top picks surged. The fund invests in everything from online identity-management firms to cloud-based security providers. “It’s been a real big hit,” company senior fund manager Ting Li said. “It’s an investment theme with the potential for very high returns.”
TURKEY
EU rebuke on Cyprus panned
EU decisions to curb contacts and funding for the country over its drilling for gas and oil off Cyprus would not affect its determination to continue energy activities in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that the EU’s failure to mention Turkish Cypriots in its decisions, taken on Monday, “showed how biased and partisan the EU is on the subject of Cyprus.” The EU suspended negotiations on the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and agreed not to hold the Association Council and further meetings of high-level dialogues for the time being. The government does not recognize Cyprus as a state and claims 44 percent of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone as its own, according to Cyprus government officials.
SUDAN
Scores decry civilian’s death
Scores of demonstrators yesterday night took to the streets in a Khartoum district to protest the killing of a civilian allegedly by paramilitary forces the previous day. Riot police looked on as a crowd waved national flags and chanted revolutionary slogans in the capital’s eastern district of Burri, a hotbed of protests since demonstrations first erupted in December, witnesses said. The civilian was killed in unrest when residents gathered in el-Souk to demand that members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces leave the town, according to residents and doctors close to the protest movement. The paramilitaries allegedly opened fired at the demonstrators.
GERMANY
Cocoa truck catches fire
A busy stretch of highway had to be shut down after a truck carrying 17 tonnes of cocoa caught fire, authorities said on Monday. The fire started when the truck was on the A14 autobahn near the town of Grabow, between Berlin and Hamburg, police said. The driver escaped unharmed, but all of the cocoa was destroyed in the flames, they said. The northbound lanes of the A14 were temporarily shut down, but photographs from the scene indicate hot chocolate did not spill onto the autobahn.
UNITED STATES
Trump digs in on tweets
Defiant in the face of widespread criticism, President Donald Trump renewed his belligerent call on Monday for four Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the country “right now,” cementing his position as the most willing leader in generations to stoke the discord that helped send him to the White House. “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump said at the White House. “A lot of people love it, by the way.” There was near unanimous condemnation from Democrats for Trump’s comments and a rumble of discontent from a subset of Republicans — but notably not from the party’s congressional leaders.
MEXICO
Poison mushrooms kill five
Authorities on Monday said five people have died and two more were sickened after gathering wild mushrooms and eating them. The health department in Chiapas State said the deaths occurred in two separate incidents. The first case killed three members of a family in the town of Huixtan, near the colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas, last week. Another relative survived and was being treated. Two members of another family died in the same area on Sunday, and one woman survived. State officials have issued warnings encouraging inexperienced mushroom gatherers to get advice before eating fungi.
UNITED STATES
‘Preppers’ accused of abuse
A Florida couple described as “doomsday preppers” has been accused of sexually and physically abusing adoptive twins who escaped and reported them. Mirko and Regina Ceska were on Friday arrested on charges including sexual assault and neglect. Wakulla County Sheriff officials said the couple had custody of the two women. The women told authorities they were forced to raise livestock, sheer sheep and use a loom. They said the couple had properties across the country stocked with food and weapons in case of disaster. According to a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office said the women were not allowed to talk in public, were beaten with a metal rod and fed little food.
PUERTO RICO
Governor urged to resign
Thousands of people on Monday demonstrated demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello following the leak of a group text chat, in which he and other officials made obscene, sexist and homophobic remarks about political opponents and others, including pop star Ricky Martin, local media reports said. At nightfall police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the capital San Juan who shouted “Ricky corrupto” in a third day of protests which also questioned Rossello’s handling of the Hurricane Maria emergency and the island’s financial crisis. “We want him arrested, him and his wife jailed for stealing money from the people of Puerto Rico,” protester Tatiana Gomez told the local newspaper Primera Hora.
‘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
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
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