AUSTRALIA
Warning over Russia travel
Canberra yesterday warned its citizens about the risk of “anti-Western sentiment or harassment” while traveling in Russia, as the diplomatic fallout builds over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain. The warning comes less than three months before Australian fans are expected to follow the Socceroos soccer team to the World Cup in Russia. “Due to heightened political tensions, you should be aware of the possibility of anti-Western sentiment or harassment,” the travel advisory from the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
INDIA
Crash topples building
Ten people have died after a car crashed into a dilapidated building on Saturday evening in the city of Indore and brought down the nearly century-old structure, burying them beneath rubble, police said yesterday. The driver lost control of his vehicle and struck a pillar holding up the structure, police Deputy Inspector General Harinarayanchari Mishra said. “The impact was such that the entire building collapsed,” he said. “Rescue workers pulled out 12 people from the rubble, 10 of them were already dead. The other two are being treated in hospital.”
INDIA
Fighting triggers protests
Officials say at least eight rebels have been killed in fighting with troops in disputed Kashmir, triggering an intense protests and clashes in several parts of southern Kashmir. A civilian was also killed and four soldiers injured. Police say the battles in southern Kashmir began after government forces raided two villages in Shopian and Anantnag districts following a tip that rebels were hiding there and came under fire. The fighting was still raging in the Shopian area yesterday.
SOUTH KOREA
Warship deployed off Ghana
The government has deployed an anti-piracy warship to the sea off Ghana after three sailors were kidnapped by pirates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late on Saturday. The Marine 711 with about 40 Ghanaian and three South Korean sailors was boarded by unidentified pirates on Monday last week. The pirates seized the three South Koreans and escaped in a speedboat, and their current whereabouts unknown. The Marine 711, registered in Ghana, later arrived at a port at Ghana where the rest of the crew disembarked, the Yonhap news agency said. “We are closely coordinating with local countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin, as well as the US and the EU to locate our nationals and secure their release,” the ministry said.
CHINA
No colonization: Namibia
Namibian President Hage Geingob said Beijing is not colonizing Africa and that growing cooperation between the world’s No. 2 economy and Africa benefits both sides, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. Geingob, currently on a state visit to Beijing, said “comments smearing bilateral cooperation” are “doomed to fail... We are mature, we can choose our friends, we can choose what we want for, and what’s good for us.”
VENEZUELA
Five officials held over fire
Chief Prosecutor Tarek William Saab on Saturday said that five police officials are suspected of being responsible for a fire that killed 68 people on Wednesday. The five have been detained, Saab wrote on Twitter, without further details. The detained officials include the sub-director of the police station where the fire took place.
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
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