MALAYSIA
Kuala Lumpur joins ICC
Minister of Human Resources M. Kula Segaran yesterday confirmed that the nation has become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah signed the court’s founding treaty on Monday, making the nation the 124th member of the tribunal. “By joining the ICC, Kuala Lumpur can now play an important role in issues related to crimes against humanity,” Segaran said.
VIETNAM
Call to arms over pig threat
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phu on Monday called for “drastic measures” from “the whole political system” to fight the spread of African swine fever, the state-run Vietnam News Service reported yesterday. “We should combat the epidemic as if we are fighting against the enemy,” he said in a meeting with regional officials. Cases have been found in 202 households since Feb. 1 in seven northern cities or provinces, including Hanoi, and more than 4,300 infected pigs have been destroyed, the government’s Web site said.
COOK ISLANDS
Nation mulling new name
The nation is considering changing its name to something that reflects its Polynesian culture, rather than honoring the British explorer James Cook. The government in January established a committee to find an indigenous name for the 15-island group. Initially the idea was to have the indigenous moniker feature alongside the existing name, but committee chairman Danny Mataroa on Monday said that once discussions began it was clear there was support for dropping the current name altogether in favor of local one. The new name should reflect the country’s heritage, its people and its Christian belief, he said.
IRAN
Zarif quits over al-Assad trip
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s trip to Tehran last week and that was a reason why he submitted his resignation, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported yesterday. President Hassan Rouhani rejected Zarif’s resignation on Wednesday last week, bolstering a moderate ally who has long been targeted by hardliners in factional struggles over the 2015 nuclear deal with the West. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have information at any level [about the trip] and this lack of information was maintained until the end of the trip,” ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to ISNA.
AUSTRALIA
Second detainee dies
A man has died at a Sydney immigration remand center, the second death in less than two months, raising concerns about conditions in the nation’s onshore detention network. The man was believed to be an Iraqi asylum seeker who took his own life at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre late on Monday, refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said. Immigration officials yesterday confirmed his death, but did not release further details, saying only that the matter was under investigation by government agencies and the state coroner. “People [inside Villawood] said he had been quite depressed and hadn’t been coming out of his room,” Rintoul said. The latest death came six weeks after a male detainee, reportedly from Sierra Leone, died at Villawood. Rintoul said he was also an asylum seeker and was believed to have committed suicide.
AUSTRALIA
Wildfire threat expands
More homes were yesterday being threatened by wildfires that have burnt dozens of homes and buildings in the rural southeast. Emergency Management Commissioner for Victoria Andrew Crisp said that emergency warnings were issued for the towns of Dargo and Licola as flames approached homes. Since Friday last week, 38 fires have razed more than 40,000 hectares (of forest and farmland across the state, destroying nine homes, damaging another house and damaging or destroying 23 outbuildings. “We have literally got hundreds and hundreds of firefighters working on the ground, doing their absolute best to keep our communities safe,” Crisp told reporters. The fires were also being fought from the air with 75 airplanes and helicopters dumping water.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prodigy’s Flint dies at 49
Keith Flint, lead singer of dance-electronic band The Prodigy, has been found dead at his home near London. He was 49. Flint was the stage persona of the band, whose hits Firestarter and Breathe fused techno, breakbeat and acid house music. The band sold 30 million records, taking rave music from an insular community of party-goers and bringing it to a global audience. The energetic frontman was also known for his distinctive look: black eyeliner and hair spiked into two horns. “A true pioneer, innovator and legend,” the band said in a statement confirming his death. “He will be forever missed.” Born Keith Charles Flint on Sept. 17, 1969, in London, he moved to Braintree, Essex, as a child, where he met cofounder Liam Howlett at a nightclub. The band was known as much for their overt anti-establishment stance as much for their music. They were vocal critics of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which banned the raves popularized in the late-1980s during the so-called Second Summer of Love.
EL SALVADOR
Accused judge removed
Congress on Monday voted to temporarily remove a Supreme Court judge from his post pending a trial, after he was accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. Lawmakers also voted to strip Judge Eduardo Jaime Escalante Diaz, 51, of his immunity against prosecution in a nearly unanimous vote of the Congress. “An important precedent is being set to prevent this type of event from repeating, especially with regard to officials with such a high position,” lawmaker Patricia Valdivieso said. Escalante Diaz is accused of fondling the girl on Feb. 18, and then fleeing after he was surprised by neighbors and the girl’s mother.
UNITED STATES
Pompeo bullish on N Korea
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said that he was hopeful about sending a delegation to North Korea in the coming weeks, after talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended with no agreement. The leaders’ second summit in Hanoi collapsed last week without any agreement or immediate plan for a third meeting between them or their delegations. “I am hopeful, although I have no commitment yet, that we will be back at it, that I’ll have a team in Pyongyang in the next couple weeks,” Pompeo said. “I’m continuing to work to find those places where there’s a shared interest.”
UNITED STATES
Clinton rules out campaign
Hillary Rodham Clinton has for the first time ruled out running for president in 2020. “I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working, and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton said on Monday in an interview with News 12 in New York. Clinton was the frontrunner in 2016, but ended up losing to President Donald Trump. “I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out,” Clinton said. “I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country, the kinds of things that are happening right now, are deeply troubling to me.” Clinton has held meetings with some of the Democrats who are now vying for the party nomination or considering a run. “I’ve told every one of them, don’t take anything for granted, even though we have a long list of real problems and broken promises from this administration that need to be highlighted,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Barr not recusing himself
Attorney General William Barr is not recusing himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Moscow, a Department of Justice spokeswoman said on Monday. “Following General Barr’s confirmation, senior career ethics officials advised that General Barr should not recuse himself from the special counsel’s investigation. Consistent with that advice, General Barr has decided not to recuse,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
UNITED STATES
Luke Perry dies aged 52
Actor Luke Perry, who rose to fame as a heartthrob in the hit 1990s TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, died on Monday at the age of 52 after suffering a massive stroke, his agent said. Perry, who was hospitalized in the Los Angeles area last week, died surrounded by his children, Jack and Sophie, his fiancee and ex-wife, his parents, siblings and other close family and friends, his agent Arnold Robinson said. “The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world,” Robinson added.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
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