CHINA
Woman inks up Xi poster
A woman who live-streamed herself throwing ink onto a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has been detained, according to activists. The US-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders activist network said authorities have also taken the woman’s father and a Chinese artist into custody after they sought to publicize her plight on social media. The woman, who has been identified by activists as 28-year-old Dong Yaoqiong (董瑤瓊), went live on Twitter on July 4 in a video in which she accused the Chinese Communist Party of employing “oppressive brain control.”
BANGLADESH
Drug war death toll hits 200
The death toll from a contentious Philippines-style war on drugs since May has hit 200, a local rights group said yesterday. The crackdown was launched to smash the surging trade in yaba, a cheap methamphetamine and caffeine pill, which authorities say has spread to almost every village and town. “So many people have been killed in such a short period of time,” said Sheepa Hafiza, executive director of the Ain o Salish Kendra rights group. “We condemn these extrajudicial killings and want fair investigations into each of these killings,” she added. About 25,000 alleged drug dealers have been arrested, home ministry spokesman Sharif Mahmud Apu told reporters.
JORDAN
Prehistoric bread uncovered
Charred remains of a flatbread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace at a site in northeastern Jordan have shown researchers of a discovery detailed on Monday that hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean achieved the cultural milestone of bread-making far earlier than previously known, more than 4,000 years before plant cultivation took root. “We now have to assess whether there was a relationship between bread production and the origins of agriculture,” said Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, a University of Copenhagen postdoctoral researcher in archeobotany and lead author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
UNITED KINGDOM
Modifying baby genes backed
The creation of babies whose DNA has been altered to give them what parents perceive to be the best chances in life has received a cautious green light in a landmark report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. “It is our view that genome editing is not morally unacceptable in itself,” said Karen Yeung, chair of the Nuffield working group and professor of law, ethics and informatics at the University of Birmingham. “They acknowledge that this may worsen inequality and social division, but don’t believe that should stand in the way,” said Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society in California.
UNITED STATES
Volcano boat tours continue
Hawaiian tour boat operators plan to continue taking visitors to see lava, but will follow the US Coast Guard’s revised policy and stay farther away after an explosion caused molten rock to barrel through the roof of a vessel, injuring 23 people. The coast guard had allowed boat operators to apply for a special license to get within 50m from where the Kilauea volcano’s lava oozes into the sea, but on Monday changed the distance to 300m. “As we were exiting the zone, all of a sudden everything around us exploded,” said Shane Turpin, the owner and captain of the vessel that was hit by lava. “It was everywhere.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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