RUSSIA
Kremlin to fund Abkhazia
President Vladimir Putin has approved a government proposal to bankroll the modernization of the armed forces in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, a government document published online showed yesterday. Georgia lost control of the Black Sea region of Abkhazia after an inter-ethnic conflict which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin is one of only a handful of governments to recognize Abkhazia’s independence.
GREECE
Migrant ‘sport team’ nabbed
Police have arrested 10 undocumented Syrian migrants who were disguised as a Ukrainian volleyball team. The migrants were on Sunday arrested at Athens International Airport, after police found that the Ukrainian passports they were carrying had been reported stolen or lost. The men were dressed in identical athletic uniforms, and carried identical sports bags, as well as two volleyballs, police said. They were planning to travel to another EU country, police said. They did not name the country.
ITALY
Hunter shoots father
A man on Sunday shot and killed his father during a hunting expedition after mistaking him for a wild boar, according to media reports. Martino Gaudioso, 55, was shot in the stomach by his 34-year-old son as they stalked their prey separately through thick foliage in Sicignano degli Alburni, near Salerno, in a national park area off-limits to hunters, the reports said. Animalist Movement leader Michela Vittoria Brambilla slammed the transformation of the nation’s woods and countryside into a “wild west,” and called for harsher punishment for manslaughter by hunters.
FRANCE
Drug firm on trail for deaths
Les Laboratoires Servier stood trial in Paris yesterday charged with offenses including corporate manslaughter, following as many as 2,000 deaths allegedly linked to the sale of its Mediator drug for diabetes. Paris judges have carved out more than half a year of courtroom time to scrutinize the scandal over the diabetes treatment that was widely used as an appetite suppressant and sold for 33 years.
FRANCE
Police hold 158 for violence
Police detained 158 people over the violence surrounding the weekend’s “yellow vest” and climate crisis protests in Paris — including an off-duty officer arrested for insulting his colleagues, prosecutors said. The officer, a police captain who works for the interior ministry, was among 19 due in court yesterday. He faced a charge of public outrage and rebellion. This weekend’s number of arrests is the highest since the violence that marred the May Day protests in Paris, when 315 people were detained.
UNITED KINGDOM
Party targets private schools
The Labour Party has agreed it wants to abolish private schools, a move for which finance policy chief John McDonnell yesterday said the party would begin drawing up proposals. At its annual conference in Brighton, the party passed a motion supported by leftist groups to abolish private schools and integrate them into the state sector to help dismantle “the privilege of a tiny.” Labour is introducing new policies at its conference, hoping to present itself as a government in waiting in an election widely expected to come before the end of the year.
PHILIPPINES
Duterte ‘remembers ban’
President Rodrigo Duterte has suspended any negotiations over loans or grants from 18 countries that backed a UN human rights resolution calling for an inquiry into human rights conditions in the Philippines, spokesman Salvador Panelo said yesterday. Duterte asked his executive secretary last month to issue a confidential memo ordering the suspension of talks on any loans and grants that might be offered by the 18 countries, Panelo said. Panelo last week denied that Duterte had issued such an order, but then said the president later remembered he had done so when he was shown a copy of the Aug. 27 memo signed by his executive secretary. The 18 countries supported an Iceland-initiated resolution in July that asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into human rights conditions in the Philippines under Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown.
KENYA
School collapse kills seven
A school collapsed yesterday morning in Nairobi, and officials said at least seven children were killed. Hundreds of people gathered as emergency workers picked through debris of The Precious Talent Top School. It was not clear whether anyone was trapped underneath. Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said 57 students had been taken to hospital. Local media reported that most were in stable condition. More than 800 students are enrolled at the school, officials said.
JAPAN
Tracking failures alleged
The government failed to track the paths of a new type of short-range North Korean missile on several occasions since May, Kyodo News reported yesterday, citing unidentified sources. Some of the projectiles, which flew at a low altitude and had irregular paths, could have potentially reached Japanese territory, the agency said. North Korea’s technological development has alarmed the Japanese government, given the possibility that the new missile appears to be able to break through current defense measures, Kyodo said. The South Korean military appears to have succeeded in tracking the missiles, Kyodo said, which could raise concerns about South Korea’s withdrawal from an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo and the impact on national security.
INDONESIA
Oil leak stopped
State oil and gas company PT Pertamina yesterday said that it had stopped an underwater leak from an oil well off West Java over the weekend after more than two months of spillages. It aims to permanently plug the leak next week, but the clean-up effort for beaches nearby is expected to last until at least March next year. The spill started on July 12 and was declared an emergency three days later. An environmental group said the spill has affected at least 13 villages, threatening the livelihoods and health of thousands of people.
INDIA
Australian arrested for drugs
An Australian man was arrested on Sunday allegedly attempting to smuggle US$2.9 million worth of amphetamines from New Delhi to Melbourne, officials said. Mohamed Umar Turay was detained by authorities carrying 7kg of the stimulant at Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Central Industrial Security Force tweeted. He was due to board an Air India flight to Melbourne, a senior official said. The drugs were found in a false bottom of his bag after officers took him aside for looking “suspicious,” the official said.
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