MALAYSIA
Church slams dinner raid
Christian officials have accused Islamic authorities of unlawfully entering a church and harassing guests at a community dinner. The incident could re-ignite criticism that authorities in the Muslim-majority country persistently fail to respect the rights of religious minorities. Pastor Daniel Ho says at least 20 officers from central Selangor state’s Islamic affairs department and police entered a Methodist church’s hall without a warrant on Wednesday and took photographs of a dinner attended by more than 100 people. Ho said yesterday the officers recorded details of several Muslim guests at the dinner.
INDIA
Crew saved as ship sinks
An official said that navy and coast-guard helicopters and ships have rescued 30 crew members of a merchant ship off the coast of Mumbai hours after it sent out a distress signal. Navy spokesman Manohar Nambiar said the MV Rak sent out a distress signal early yesterday morning. The navy and coast guard immediately began rescue operations. The entire crew was rescued. The sailors, from Indonesia, Jordan and Romania, were taken to the naval base in Mumbai. The vessel was carrying a cargo of coal and was traveling from Indonesia to the western state of Gujarat. Nambiar said the ship was being monitored by the coast guard to estimate the rate at which it was sinking and to check for a possible oil spill.
VIETNAM
Submarine fleet planned
The nation will have a submarine fleet within six years, the defense minister confirmed in reports yesterday, as China’s increasing maritime assertiveness causes regional concern. Russian media reported in December 2009 that Hanoi had agreed to buy half a dozen diesel-electric submarines for about US$2 billion, but Hanoi had not previously commented on the deal. “In the coming five to six years, we will have a submarine brigade with six Kilo 636-Class subs,” Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper. Thanh said the fleet was “definitely not meant as a menace to regional nations,” according to yesterday’s report. “Buying submarines, missiles, fighter jets and other equipment is for self-defense,” he was quoted as saying, without specifying how Hanoi was paying for the naval investment.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban kill NDS agent
A bomb attack killed an intelligence agent and wounded three girls in the country’s north yesterday, a provincial spokesman said, with the Taliban claiming responsibility. Payenda Mohammad, a junior official in the Kunduz branch of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), died when the blast destroyed his car near his home, provincial spokesman Mahboobullah Sayedi said. Three young girls were also injured, he added. The Taliban said in a text message that the bombing was aimed at senior security officials.
HONG KONG
First prisoner job fair held
A prison has held the territory’s first job fair for inmates in a bid to help them find work before they are released, officials said. Companies willing to hire an inmate “can help rehabilitated offenders to turn over a new leaf,” the Correctional Services Department said. The fair at Pik Uk Prison, a minimum-security institution, kicked off on Wednesday with nearly 250 jobs on offer, in industries including retail, food, construction and mechanical engineering.
UNITED STATES
Obama not a know-it-all
President Barack Obama faces demands for his attention on a vast range of issues at home and abroad, but diplomacy toward divided Cyprus may not be at the top of his list. On a visit on Wednesday to Chicago to rally his base ahead of next year’s presidential election, Obama defended the right not to be a know-it-all and cited Cyprus as an example. “Sometimes it’s not so bad to say, ‘I don’t know,’” Obama told a supporter who asked a general question about the campaign. “If somebody asks you something about where does the president stand on Cyprus, and you say I’m not sure, but here is what — I promise you I’ll find out an answer and we’ll make sure to call you back.”
URUGUAY
Iranian envoy’s ouster sought
The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Montevideo on Wednesday to expel an Iranian diplomat over his alleged denial of the Holocaust, the US-based Jewish group said in a statement. The group accused Iranian commercial attache Hojjatollah Soltani of denying that 6 million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide during World War II, in a statement issued from the group’s regional office in Buenos Aires. It quoted Soltani as saying: “The Nazis killed 2 million, 4, 6 ... There are different figures. They call it Holocaust ... Maybe thousands of Jews were killed, but millions ... That is a lie.”
UNITED STATES
Bunny suit man cautioned
Police in Idaho Falls, Idaho, told a man to stop wearing a bunny suit in public after people complained he had been frightening children. Residents in the city of 54,000 people also reported William Falkingham, 34, occasionally wears a tutu with the bunny suit, police said in a statement on Tuesday. Police warned Falkingham about his behavior after a woman said she saw him dressed in the costume, peeking at her young son from behind a tree and pointing his finger like a gun. Falkingham told officers he “enjoys wearing the suit,” but understands the concerns and that he could be cited as a public nuisance, police spokeswoman Joelyn Hansen said.
YEMEN
Two killed in clashes
Two civilians were killed and three others injured overnight during clashes with police in a village in Hadramawt governorate, witnesses and medics said yesterday. The violence broke out after hundreds of people took to the streets of Shahr village on Wednesday night to protest after a policeman killed a young villager last week, the witnesses said. Security forces intervened to disperse the protesters and police killed “two vendors” and wounded three other people, they said. A medical official confirmed the toll.
UKRAINE
Drinking bears to be saved
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Mykola Zlochevsky vowed on Wednesday to free all bears kept in restaurants for entertainment purposes and often forced to drink alcohol, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday. Captured and tamed bears were often used for entertainment in the Russian empire, which included Ukraine. “On television, they keep showing bears suffering in restaurants and roadside hotels,” Interfax quoted Zlochevsky as saying. “How long can we tolerate animal torture in restaurants where drunken guests make bears drink vodka for laughs?”
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump