INDONESIA
Papua death toll hits 26
At least 26 people have been killed in fresh unrest in the Papua region, authorities said yesterday, as thousands fled to shelters following a day of violence that saw victims burned alive in buildings set ablaze by protesters. About 22 people died in Wamena where hundreds had demonstrated and burned down a government office and other buildings on Monday, with some victims perishing in deliberately set fires, authorities said. “Some were burned, some were hacked to death ... some were trapped in fires,” local military commander Chandra Dianto said.
HAITI
Senator opens fire on protest
A senator trying to disperse protesters opened fire with a pistol outside the Haitian Parliament on Monday, a photojournalist who was wounded in the shooting said. Senator Jean-Marie Ralph Fethiere, a member of Haiti’s ruling party, said he acted in self-defense after opposition protesters burst into the parliament building in Port-au-Prince to disrupt a session of the Senate. “I defended myself. Legitimate defense is a sacred right,” Fethiere told local media. The Associated Press photographer suffered minor injury to his jaw from a bullet shard, according to a journalist who met with him.
GERMANY
Hangover ruled an illness
A court has ruled that a hangover is an illness, in a verdict against the distributor of a food supplement marketed as an “anti-hangover drink.” The state court in Frankfurt ruled in a verdict released on Monday that marketing by the defendant, which it did not identify, contravened a ban on attributing to food products the ability to prevent, treat or heal illnesses. It rejected an appeal against a lower court’s similar verdict.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK to repatriate 135,300
Emergency flights on Monday brought 14,700 people back to the UK after the collapse of travel firm Thomas Cook, and about 135,300 more are expected to be returned over the next 13 days, the Civil Aviation Authority said. “With 13 days remaining and approximately 135,300 passengers still to bring back to the UK, we are working around the clock, in conjunction with the government and the aviation industry,” the regulator said.
UNITED STATES
Gaming firms make pledges
The companies behind PlayStation, Xbox, Angry Birds, Minecraft, Twitch and other video games and platforms on Monday pledged on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City to level up efforts to fight climate change and get their throngs of users involved. The promises range from planting trees to reducing plastic packaging, from making game devices more energy efficient to incorporating environmental themes into the games themselves.
UNITED STATES
Officer collared children
A police officer in Orlando, Florida, was fired on Monday after arresting two six-year-olds last week for separate disciplinary incidents at their school, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon told a news conference. Dennis Turner arrested the children on Thursday while working as a resource officer at a charter school, charging them both with misdemeanor battery, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala told a separate news conference. “These very young children are to be protected, nurtured and disciplined in a manner that does not rely on the criminal justice system to do it,” Ayala said. “Systems are not designed to raise our children.”
‘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