NEW ZEALAND
Swim with dolphins banned
The government has banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to save the struggling species. According to the Department of Conservation, research has shown that humans were “loving the dolphins too much” and human interaction was “having a significant impact on the populations resting and feeding behavior.” The ban applies to tour operators in the North Island’s Bay of Islands region.
CHINA
US port visits denied again
Beijing has denied a request for a US Navy warship to visit Qingdao, a US Department of Defense official said on Tuesday. This marks at least the second time this month that the governement has denied a request by the US, having earlier rejected a request for two US Navy ships to visit Hong Kong. The defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the destroyer was supposed to visit on Sunday, but Beijing denied the request prior to that.
IRAN
Cleric killer hanged
The government yesterday hanged in public a man convicted of murdering the leader of main weekly prayers in Kazeroun, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said. Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh was executed at the scene where he killed the cleric on May 29, IRNA quoted Fars Province Chief Justice Kazem Mousavi as saying. Mohammad Khorsand suffered fatal injuries when attacked while returning from a Ramadan ceremony, IRNA said. The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out after the cleric’s family decided not to spare the life of the killer, who refused to express regret, Fars news agency reported. Under the country’s laws, a murder victim’s family can spare a convict’s life by accepting blood money.
MALI
Protests strand 1,000 trucks
More than 1,000 trucks loaded with merchandise were blocked on Tuesday at the entrance to the capital on the fourth day of protests against the poor state of the country’s roads. Witnesses reported a line of trucks snaking about a dozen kilometers along the road that leads from the Kati toll station, about 15km outside Bamako. “Improving the state of transport infrastructure is among the government’s priorities,” Prime Minister Boubou Cisse’s office said in a statement, but protester Ben Sangare said on Tuesday: “The government gives the money, and the people in charge of constructing the roads botch the work and divert the money.”
UNITED STATES
Site draws Palestinian ire
The Department of State’s removal of the “Palestinian Territories” from the list of countries and areas on its Web site has triggered protests from Palestinian leaders. A State Department official played down the shift when asked on Tuesday. “The Web site is being updated. There has been no change to our policy,” she said. She did not say if the Web site would again include a separate entry for the territories. The Palestinian Authority’s Cabinet, after a meeting on Monday, said the move “confirms the American bias toward Israel.” The Palestinian Authority has said that it no longer considers the US an honest broker and has refused US President Donald Trump’s peace initiatives.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing