IRAQ
Protesters block roads
Anti-government protesters yesterday blocked roads with burning tires in parts of the center and south of the country, halting traffic and paralyzing work following a call for a national strike. In the port city of Basra and in cities like Nasiriyah, Amara and Kut, protesters set tires ablaze to close off roads, keeping employees from reaching their work places. Schools, universities and other institutions closed for the day. In parts of Baghdad, particularly the sprawling Sadr City neighborhood, protesters sat in the middle of the streets to prevent employees from getting to their workplaces. They also blocked roads with motorcycles and tuk-tuks, snarling traffic. “There will be no offices open until the last corrupt person is removed,” one protester said, declining to be identified for security reasons.
CHINA
New plague case reported
Inner Mongolia yesterday reported a fresh, confirmed case of bubonic plague, despite an earlier declaration by health officials that the risk of an outbreak was minimal. A 55-year-old man was diagnosed with the disease after he ate wild rabbit meat on Nov. 5. His case follows two that were confirmed earlier this month in Beijing in patients from Inner Mongolia. The Inner Mongolia health commission said it found no evidence so far to link the latest case to those in Beijing. The patient was isolated and treated at a hospital in Ulanqab, while 28 people who had close contact with him were under observation, it said.
BANGLADESH
Gas explosion kills seven
At least seven people were killed and 25 injured after a gas pipeline exploded at Patharghata area in Chittagong yesterday, police said. The explosion collapsed portions of a boundary wall of a nearby building, local police chief Mohammed Mohsin said. At least 25 people were hospitalized. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
MALAYSIA
Ruling coalition loses vote
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition on Saturday lost its fourth electoral contest since coming to power in May last year. The opposition secured a majority of over 15,000 votes to wrest the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat in Johor State. The coalition had already been grappling with plummeting public approval over its management of the country. Discontent within the coalition over Mahathir’s reticence on when he would hand over power to rival-turned-ally Anwar Ibrahim surfaced even before the results were officially announced. “This is a referendum on the PH led by Tun Dr M,” Syed Husin Ali, a former senior leader with Anwar’s People’s Justice Party, said on Twitter, referring to Mahathir by his honorific. “The decision is clear. The people are disappointed and want to teach PH and especially Tun Dr M.”
MYANMAR
ICC probe rejected
The government rejected the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to allow prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Government spokesman Zaw Htay said at a Friday night news conference that the government stood by its position that the Netherlands-based court has no jurisdiction over its actions. The government has already set up its own independent commission of inquiry, which was making progress in its investigations, while the military had established a court of inquiry, he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Johnson met ex-KGB agent
Prime Minister Boris Johnson met an ex-KGB agent during a highly controversial trip in April last year to attend a party two days after attending a high-level NATO summit that focused on Russia, the Observer reported yesterday. Johnson, who was foreign secretary at the time, met Russian billionaire businessman Alexander Lebedev, whose family owns the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers, following a summit in Brussels in the wake of the poisoning of ex-Russian agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Johnson, in what appears to be a highly unusual break with protocol, apparently left behind his personal security detail and flew to a lavish party at a palazzo near Perugia hosted by Lebedev’s son, Evgeny. While the meeting with Evgeny Lebedev was confirmed to the Guardian in September, Alexander Lebedev denied meeting Johnson. However a spokesman has now acknowledged that the meeting did take place, but insisted there was nothing was out of the ordinary.
BELARUS
Voters go to the polls
The nation went to the polls yesterday in parliamentary elections that are being closely watched by the West to see how much leeway President Alexander Lukashenko will allow opposition candidates while keeping his grip on power. In the 2016 elections, he allowed two opposition candidates to win seats in the 110-member parliament for the first time in two decades, although both were barred from standing this time. About 300 opposition candidates are contesting the election, although others were not allowed to register.
UNITED STATES
Edwards wins in Louisiana
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has stunned Republicans again, narrowly winning a second term on Saturday as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor and handing President Donald Trump another gubernatorial loss this year. He defeated Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, getting about 51 percent of the vote. Trump had made the runoff election between Edwards and Rispone a test of his own popularity and political prowess.
SWITZERLAND
Activists block private jets
Dozens of climate activists on Saturday blocked access to the private jet terminal at Geneva Airport, demanding a halt to the “absurd” mode of luxury transportation. About 100 people took part, organized by pressure group Extinction Rebellion, large groups sitting in front of three entrances to block access to the building for several hours. As musicians played, protesters wearing armbands with the Extinction Rebellion logo sang songs and danced around with white, cloud-shaped placards and banners with slogans like “Be part of the solution, not pollution.” A large number of police monitored the unauthorized protest, but kept their distance.
UNITED STATES
Child brings heroin to class
A Massachusetts man has pleaded not guilty to drug charges after his five-year-old son brought heroin to school and told his teacher that when he tastes the powder he becomes Spider-Man. Benny Garcia, 29, was arraigned on Friday in Holyoke District Court on charges of drug possession and reckless endangerment of a child. Prosecutors say Garcia’s son on Thursday brought a plastic bag decorated with Spider-Man to kindergarten and put it in his mouth. Police searching Garcia’s home say they found more than 200 bags of heroin and cocaine.
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
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