NEW ZEALAND
Student lay dead for months
Concerns about student welfare have been raised after a first-year student at the University of Canterbury is believed to have lain dead in his room for close to two months before the alarm was raised. The male student was found on Monday night at the Sonoda Residence on campus in Christchurch after other students noticed a smell and alerted police, according to local media reports. He has not been named. According to the Christchurch Press newspaper, his father also contacted police after failing to locate him through his friends. The student’s death is being examined by the coroner and no cause of death has yet been identified. Minister of Education Chris Hipkins said the death was deeply troubling. “My thoughts are with the family and friends of the victim. This must be an incredibly distressing time for them,” he said in a statement.
SOUTH KOREA
African swine fever spreads
The government yesterday said it was intensifying efforts to clean farms around the country as it scrambles to contain the spread of African swine fever that has ravaged farms near its border with North Korea. Lab tests on Tuesday night confirmed the country’s fifth case since last week from a farm in Ganghwa, raising fears that the country is losing a battle to halt the spread of the illness. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said that hundreds of officials have been deployed to inspect disinfection efforts at pig farms, slaughterhouses and feed mills nationwide, which came under a government-imposed 48-hour standstill as of noon on Tuesday.
SAUDI ARABIA
Military retaliation mulled
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Tuesday said that Riyadh would consider all options in its response to an attack on its oil facilities, including a military one, once a probe into who was responsible is completed. Jubeir, who was speaking at a conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said that Saudi Arabia believed Iran was behind the attacks, but added that the UN was helping it identify the launch site. “We want to mobilize international support and we want to look at all options — diplomatic options, economic options and military options — and then make the decision,” he said.
TURKEY
Bomb explodes in south
Five people on a police bus were injured yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded in the southern Turkish province of Adana, state media reported. The blast was either an “improvised explosive device or a different type of bomb,” Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtas told the Anadolu news agency. One of those hurt was a police officer, but the casualties did not suffer serious injuries, he said.
FRANCE
US-Iran talks ready: Macron
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he believed that the conditions for the leaders of the US and Iran to meet were in place, but that it was still up to them to decide whether to move forward. “I believe that the conditions in this context for a rapid return to negotiations have been created,” Macron told reporters after meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and US President Donald Trump earlier on Tuesday. “There is a common intent to progress and to not just find the terms of a de-escalation, but build a long-term accord,” he said. “But it depends on the will of both sides.”
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in