HONG KONG
Joshua Wong attacked
Student leader Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), the face of the territory’s pro-democracy protests last year, was assaulted in the street with his girlfriend, late on Sunday as they left a movie theater near Mong Kok. A man punched Wong, 18, in the face and when he and his girlfriend gave chase both were assaulted, he said on his Facebook page. Police said they had yet to make an arrest, confirming that Wong had “suddenly been attacked” by a suspect in his 20s and had sustained injuries to his eyes and nose. “[The assault] implies activists are facing the danger of attacks in their daily lives, not only during protests. This is what sends a chill to my heart,” Wong wrote in an emotional Facebook post. “It’s not only a problem with universal suffrage — it’s about the limited freedom and legal system slowly being obliterated by these violent acts. The road ahead is long and tough, but we should retain our goal and keep walking on this bumpy road of democracy.”
CHINA
Rights activist arrested
Authorities have formally arrested and charged a prominent rights activist who had called for official accountability over what he said were miscarriages of justice, his lawyer said yesterday. Wu Gan (吳幹), a 43-year-old online free speech advocate, was charged with causing a disturbance, defamation and “inciting subversion of state power,” his lawyer Yan Wenxin (燕文薪) said. Wu, better known by his moniker “Super Vulgar Butcher,” was detained last month after he had called for official accountability after a police officer shot and killed a civilian in Heilongjiang Province.
JAPAN
Solar plane heads to Hawaii
Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg yesterday began an attempt to fly five days and nights in a single-man solar-powered plane after weather delays reduced the chances of achieving a multileg round-the-world flight this year. Borschberg took off in Solar Impulse from Nagoya at 3:03am for Hawaii. “The real moment of truth lies ahead,” Borschberg said in a statement. “We are now at the point in the round-the-world solar flight where everything comes together.” The attempt to fly around the world began in Abu Dhabi in March.
PHILIPPINES
NPA commander killed
The military has shot dead New People’s Army (NPA) commander Leonardo Pitao in a blow to one of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgencies, authorities said yesterday. Pitao was killed on Sunday in a mountainous hamlet near Davao by army special forces, the military said. “He’s an NPA idol, and now they will see how the long arm of the law finally caught up with their leader,” Major-General Eduardo Ano told reporters. “This is not only going to be a big setback; this is going to be what you call the fall of the NPA in the Davao region.”
SOUTH KOREA
No new MERS cases
The government yesterday reported no new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) or deaths from the virus for the first time in nine days, but officials said there was no indication yet that the outbreak had been brought under control. The number of those infected with MERS remained unchanged for two days in a row at 182, and he death toll remained unchanged from 32 on Sunday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. It is the first time that the country has reported no additional infections as well as no new deaths since June 20. A total of 2,682 people remain under quarantine.
ISRAEL
Activist to end hunger strike
A Palestinian held without charges for the past year is ending a 55-day hunger strike and in exchange is to be released in two weeks, his wife and an advocacy group for prisoners said yesterday. Rights groups have said that Khader Adnan, 36, a senior activist in the militant Islamic Jihad group, is near death. Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman confirmed that Adnan agreed to end his hunger strike as part of a deal, but had no details. It marked the second hunger strike for Adnan whose protests have trained a spotlight on so-called administrative detention, a practice under which Palestinians can be held without trial or charges. Under a deal reached late on Sunday, Adnan ends his hunger strike and is to be released on July 12, said Kadoura Fares of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.
FRANCE
Suspect admits killing boss
The suspected Muslim militant who attempted to blow up a chemical plant on Friday has admitted killing his manager beforehand, a source close to the investigation said on Sunday, as police linked the suspect to a militant now in Syria. Yassin Salhi, 35, told detectives he killed Herve Cornara in a parking area before arriving at the plant in Saint Quentin-Fallavier, 30km south of Lyon, where he tried in vain to cause a major explosion. Police found the 54-year-old victim’s decapitated body and head, framed by Islamic inscriptions, at the plant, which is owned by US firm Air Products. Flanked by heavily armed police in masks and flak jackets, Salhi on Sunday was taken to the car park where he said he had killed Cornara, before retracing the route he had followed to the chemical plant. He was then escorted to the apartment he shared with his wife and three children in the Lyon suburb of Saint-Priest, where further searches were carried out.
KUWAIT
Mosque security mulled
Authorities in Persian Gulf nations are weighing additional security measures after a suicide bomber killed 26 worshipers at Kuwait City’s Imam al-Sadeq Shiite mosque last week. The Cabinet is to discuss adding new security laws after Friday’s attack, state-run Kuna news agency reported yesterday, while Bahrain is studying installing security cameras at places of worship. Saudi officials are to install security cameras at “important mosques” in each region, Saudi newspaper Okaz reported on Sunday. Authorities have identified the suicide bomber as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Gabbaa, a Saudi national born in 1992. At least three suspects have been arrested, including the man who drove al-Gabbaa to the mosque and the owner of the house where the driver was staying, Kuwait’s Kuna news agency reported. The Ministry of the Interior said the man who drove the bomber to the mosque was an “illegal resident.”
UKRAINE
Rebels block Dutch officials
Pro-Russian separatist leaders in the eastern region of Luhansk have blocked access to Dutch law enforcement officials pursuing an investigation into the downing of a Malaysian jetliner nearly a year ago, the Dutch Public Prosecution Office said. The obstruction by separatist officials prompted the investigators, from the Dutch National Police and Ministry of Defense, to cut short their field work without conducting research into cellphone towers and cellular networks in the region, the public prosecution office said on Saturday.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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