SINGAPORE
Cybersecurity deal signed
The city-state has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea to enhance cooperation and information-sharing on cybersecurity, according to a statement from the city-state’s government. Singapore has signed similar agreements with New Zealand, Canada, India, Australia, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. The city-state, a trade-reliant nation with a rapidly aging population, is trying to restructure its economy to make it a global center of innovation. As a hyper-connected financial hub, it has also been a target for hackers.
IRAQ
Four killed in protests
Security forces clashed with anti-government protesters on a historic Baghdad street near a key bridge for the second day on Friday, killing four and bringing the death toll from the fierce outburst of fighting to 14, security and medical officials said. Separately, a Katyusha rocket landed near the fortified Green Zone, Iraq’s seat of government, police officials said. There were no casualties from the incident. Last week, two rockets landed in Tigris River and a stadium, both near the Green Zone. In all, at least 340 protesters have been killed and thousands have been wounded since unrest began on Oct. 1, when demonstrators took to the streets in Baghdad and across Iraq’s mainly Shiite south to decry rampant government corruption and lack of basic services despite Iraq’s oil wealth.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Pirates attack Exxon vessel
The government says seven people of various nationalities have been kidnapped by pirates off its coast in the Gulf of Guinea. A statement by the country’s information office says pirates attacked the supply vessel for Exxon Mobil early on Wednesday near the Zafiro oil field. It says the navy later boarded the vessel to find its remaining eight crew members in hiding. The statement says the 15 crew members come from South Africa, the Philippines, Serbia and Cameroon. The International Maritime Bureau last month said the Gulf of Guinea now accounts for about 82 percent of crew kidnappings in the world.
IVORY COAST
Murder suspects in custody
Authorities say they have arrested two of Europe’s most wanted criminals who were sentenced to life for the murder of a British national in Belgium in 1996. The national gendarmerie in a statement said Jean-Claude Lacote, a French national, and Hilde van Acker, a Belgian, were arrested in Abidjan on Wednesday and Thursday. They were previously arrested in Belgium after the murder of businessman Marcus Mitchell, but were initially released because of a lack of evidence and fled to South Africa. The two were sentenced in absentia in 2011 to life in prison and placed on Belgium’s most wanted list. Ivory Coast says they had changed their identities.
SOUTH AFRICA
Farm dog takes up Jazz
A dog has befriended a baby giraffe that was abandoned at birth, rescued and taken to a local orphanage. Jazz the giraffe arrived at The Rhino Orphanage just days after birth. A farmer found him in the wild, weak and dehydrated, and called the center for help. Resident watchdog Hunter quickly began to care for the newcomer. Caretaker Janie van Heerden says they bonded immediately. She says the baby giraffe had been given IV fluids and is doing much better. He is being fed milk and is trying to eat leaves. “Possibly soon he will be able to go home,” she said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Singer’s jewelry stolen
Fancy singer Iggy Azalea and her rapper boyfriend, Playboi Carti, reported that a burglar stole more than US$366,000 in jewelry from their Atlanta, Georgia, home, police said on Friday. Iggy, 29, whose legal name is Amethyst Kelly, told police a thief carried off items ranging from diamond eternity band rings valued at US$70,000 to a US$57,000 Audemars Piquet diamond-encrusted gold watch and a diamond engagement ring, a police report said. Kelly, who grew up in Australia and rose to fame after moving to the US at age 16, told police she was alone in the basement of the rented home on Nov. 15 when she heard footsteps in the second floor dining room. It was a rainy night and she thought it was Playboi, 23, whose legal name is Jordan Carter, after she left the back door unlocked for him.
UNITED STATES
Group urges ban on teacher
A Latino civil rights group on Friday called for a Texas teacher to be banned from instructing students after she was shown on video appearing to tell a Latino high-school student to “speak English, we’re in America.” The video, which was posted online by local TV, shows a white, female substitute teacher at the predominantly Latino Socorro High School near El Paso, Texas, making the comment on Tuesday as she asks the male student to hand over his mobile phone in a classroom. The League of United Latin American Citizens said the comment harked back to last century when, until 1969, Texas law banned Spanish from being spoken in public schools. “It is abominable that this institutionalized racism against the Hispanic community in Texas hasn’t ended,” said league national president Domingo Garcia in a statement calling for the teacher to be banned.
UNITED STATES
Dog takes car for spin
Florida authorities said they responded to a rogue vehicle spinning in reverse around a suburban cul-de-sac with a lone occupant inside: a black Labrador. News outlets reported residents called police on Thursday after seeing the dog trapped and clambering around in the car as it spun in circles in a Port Saint Lucie neighborhood. Police said they think the dog’s owner stepped away from the running car and that was when the pet knocked it into reverse. Neighbor Anne Sabol said she watched the furry speed racer take out a mailbox and a trash can. She said the dog was in high spirits after being rescued, adding that it “jumped out of the car, wagging his tail.” Police stopped the joyride by punching a passcode into the driver’s door. No one was hurt.
‘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