TURKEY
Soldiers ordered arrested
Authorities have ordered the detention of 191 military personnel over suspected links to a network Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in July 2016, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported yesterday. Authorities have carried out a sustained crackdown on alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen since the coup attempt, when 250 people were killed. Gulen has denied any involvement. The former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. The police operation was coordinated from the western city of Izmir and targeted people in 22 provinces, Anadolu said. Police have already detained 145 of the suspects, it said.
UNITED STATES
General Lee statue to remain
A judge in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday issued a 10-day injunction against Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from the city, the Washington Post reported. Northam last week said that the statue should be taken down from its pedestal “as soon as possible” amid nationwide protests demanding racial equality following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
UNITED STATES
KKK leader charged
An “admitted” Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader who drove a vehicle into a peaceful crowd of George Floyd protesters in Virginia is being investigated for possible hate crimes, a county attorney said on Monday. The man has been charged with several offenses after he “recklessly” drove into the crowd on Sunday, Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor said on Twitter. Local media reported that one protester was injured in the incident near Richmond. The person was checked at the scene by emergency responders and refused further treatment.
GUATEMALA
Healer’s killing condemned
The killing of an indigenous Maya healer, who was set ablaze by a mob in a rural region after he was accused of being a witch, was strongly condemned on Monday by the country’s president and human rights organizations. Domingo Choc, a 56-year-old practitioner of traditional Maya medicine, died on Saturday after several members of his own Q’eqchi’ community accused him of using witchcraft to kill a man who had died in a local hospital several days earlier, the national police said in a statement. President Alejandro Giammattei, a medical doctor, wrote on Twitter that he was asking prosecutors to bring those responsible for Choc’s “murder” to justice.
UNITED STATES
Officer, protesters scuffle
A police officer in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, who has met with and walked with demonstrators a number of times, was on Monday involved in a scuffle with protesters a day after he had another tense interaction. Video showed Captain Brad Koch surrounded by chanting protesters in front of the local government center before a white male protester approaches and shoves him. After being pushed, Koch takes the man to the ground as more protesters are seen piling on. He was the only officer in the immediate vicinity. No injuries were reported, but in a tweet, the police department said that Koch was “assaulted in broad daylight” and it was asking for the public’s help to identify those involved.
Virus Outbreak:
IRAN
CIA agent to be executed
An Iranian citizen who provided information to US and Israeli intelligence services on the whereabouts of slain Iranian top commander Qassem Soleimani is to executed soon, the judiciary said yesterday. A US drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3 killed Soleimani, the head of Tehran’s elite Quds Force. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US forces in the region. “Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for CIA and Mossad has been sentenced to death. He gave the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised news conference.
PHILIPPINES
Asian peace prize canceled
The Ramon Magsaysay Awards have been canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marking only the third disruption in six decades for the annual prize regarded as an Asian Nobel. The Manila-based foundation that hands out the annual awards yesterday said that it has no choice “with the COVID-19 pandemic practically immobilizing the world.” The awards were also canceled due to a financial crisis in 1970 and a disastrous earthquake in 1990. They are named after a popular Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash and honor “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” The five recipients of last year’s awards included a South Korean who helped fight suicide and bullying; a Thai woman who became a human rights defender after losing her husband to violence in southern Thailand; journalists from India and Myanmar; and a musician credited with helping to shape modern Philippine musical culture.
TANZANIA
Opposition leader attacked
Chadema Chairman Freeman Mbowe was attacked by unidentified people as he entered his home late at night, his party said yesterday, the latest misfortune to befall the opposition ahead of a general election in October. “Unknown people surrounded him and assaulted him before he started taking the stairs. Though these people had carried firearms, they didn’t use them,” Chadema Secretary-General John Mnyika said. Mbowe, who along with other opposition lawmakers was found guilty of sedition in March, was rushed to a hospital in Dodoma, where he was receiving treatment, Mnyika said, without giving more details. Dodoma’s police commander Gilesi Muroto was not immediately available for comment. There was also no immediate comment from the government.
FRANCE
Family urges rally for justice
The family of a black Frenchman who died in police custody in circumstances similar to the killing of George Floyd in the US said they had spurned an offer of talks with the justice minister and called for a nationwide protest instead. Adama Traore was celebrating his 24th birthday on July 19, 2016, when three police officers used their weight to restrain him. By the time he arrived at the police station, he was unconscious and could not be revived. Medical experts differ on whether Traore died because of the restraint or because of an underlying medical condition. His family and their supporters have demanded that the officers involved be held to account. No one has been charged. They called for a mass protest in central Paris on Saturday. It said the offer of talks with the minister was received through its lawyer.
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RELATIONS: Cultural spats, such as China’s claims over the origins of kimchi, have soured public opinion in South Korea against Beijing over the past few years Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday met South Korean counterpart Lee Jae-myung, after taking center stage at an Asian summit in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s departure. The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came the final day of Xi’s first trip to South Korea in more than a decade, and a day after his meeting with the Canadian prime minister that was a reset of the nations’ damaged ties. Trump had flown to South Korea for the summit, but promptly jetted home on Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, with the two
RSS