KAZAKHSTAN
Mayor fired over school rape
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has dismissed the mayor of the southern city of Taraz after a 12-year-old student was raped in a school latrine earlier this month, prompting public outrage over officials’ negligence and poor education funding. The incident highlighted “systemic shortcomings” in the municipal government’s work, Tokayev said on Twitter late on Thursday, announcing his order to fire Kairat Dosayev, who had run the city of 360,000 since April. Police have detained a 38-year-old man who appeared on the school’s closed-circuit TV cameras and has been identified by the victim, but was apparently ignored by staff as he loitered at the school in broad daylight. Meanwhile, commentators criticized authorities for failing to ensure the school’s safety and to equip it with modern, indoor toilets — 30 percent of schools in the nation still use outdoor latrines.
NEW ZEALAND
Millane murderer convicted
A man was yesterday found guilty of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane last year after a jury rejected his defense that her death was accidental. Millane disappeared on the eve of her 22nd birthday in December last year, a few days after arriving in Auckland while on a year-long, around-the-world vacation after graduating from university. The 27-year-old accused, whose identity is suppressed by a court order, had pleaded not guilty to her murder. The court heard Millane and the killer met on the evening of her death through dating app Tinder. The defendant did not dispute that Millane died in his home and that he disposed of her body in rugged bushland outside Auckland, where it was found a week later. His defense team claimed that Millane died after encouraging him to choke her during consensual sex, then he disposed of the body and cleaned up the scene because he panicked. Prosecutors said that after Millane’s death, he took pictures of her, searched online for sites to dispose of the corpse, watched pornography and arranged another Tinder date for the following night.
VIETNAM
Authorities arrest journalist
State media yesterday said that a journalist has been arrested for “anti-state” activities. The official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said that Pham Chi Dung was on Thursday arrested for “producing, possessing and spreading anti-state information and documents.” Dung, 53, is a former army officer and Vietnamese Communist Party member. He had frequently conducted serious and unlawful activities that hurt social security and stability, VNA said. Voice of America Vietnamese published an article by Dung last week in which he criticized the EU for signing a free-trade agreement with Hanoi, despite its poor human rights record and urged the bloc to reconsider before ratifying it.
‘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