SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela group slams Trump
The Nelson Mandela Foundation criticized reported remarks by US President Donald Trump that denigrated the nation’s former leader. The Washington Post on Sunday reported that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, alleged in a new book that Trump did not think that Mandela was a real leader and that the country had deteriorated under his rule. The Post said that Trump praised the country’s apartheid-era rule. On its Web site, the foundation cited a quote by Mandela on leadership: “A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial and uninformed,” adding: “We would recommend these words to Mr Trump for consideration.”
GERMANY
Navalny out of coma
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was reportedly poisoned by a weapons-grade Novichok nerve agent, is out of a medically induced coma and reacting to speech, the Berlin hospital treating him said on Monday. The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a domestic flight last month and was treated in a Siberian hospital before being evacuated to Berlin. “He is responding to verbal stimuli,” Charite Hospital said in a statement, reporting that his condition “has improved.” Navalny is being weaned off mechanical ventilation, but the hospital said that it was too early to determine the long-term effects of the poisoning.
MEXICO
Groups protest for missing
Feminist advocates and family members of the missing on Monday launched a protest at the main offices of the National Human Rights Commission, after occupying the building last week to draw attention to kidnapped persons and attacks targeting women. The advocates, mostly masked women, had defaced office signs with hammers, pinned up banners and painted slogans on walls. Their anger intensified on Monday after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador chided them for defacing images of assassinated former president Francisco Madero, revered as a hero of the country’s 1910-1920 revolution. One advocate denounced Lopez Obrador for what she described as his misplaced sense of outrage. “How can you get outraged about this picture, but not about how my own daughter was abused?” she said.
TURKEY
Man gets 40 life sentences
A court on Monday jailed for life an Uzbek gunman who killed 39 people in an attack on an Istanbul nightclub minutes into New Year’s Day in 2017. The Istanbul Criminal Court handed Abdulkadir Masharipov 40 life sentences — one for each of the victims and one for the massacre itself — for “deliberate murder” and “violating the constitution,” Anadolu news agency said. Masharipov received a separate sentence of an additional 1,368 years for attempted murder and breach of a firearm law. The court sentenced fellow convict Ilyas Mamasaripov to 1,432 years in prison for helping plot the attack, the report said. The attack killed 27 foreigners, including people from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco. Masharipov was caught after a concerted hunt on Jan. 17, 2017.
SRI LANKA
Murderer sworn in
A politician sentenced to death for murder was escorted out of prison yesterday to become the first convict to be sworn in as a member of parliament, to heckles from opposition lawmakers. Premalal Jayasekara from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Party was last month convicted of murdering an opposition activist after opening fire at an election rally in 2015. However, the 45-year-old’s conviction and sentence came after nominations for the Aug. 5 poll, meaning he could still run for re-election and take his seat if he won. Jayasekara was a no-show when the new parliament held its first session on Aug. 20 after prison authorities refused to let him out. However, he petitioned the Court of Appeal, which on Monday ruled that he should be escorted from prison to exercise his rights as a lawmaker. Opposition lawmakers wearing black shawls in protest heckled Jayasekara as he took the oath and several staged a walkout. He has been a lawmaker since 2001.
THAILAND
Protest leaders released
Two top leaders of the pro-democracy protest movement were released from jail on Monday after police agreed they no longer needed to be detained for investigation. The Bangkok Criminal Court on Thursday last week ordered Arnon Nampha and Panupong Jadnok to be held in Bangkok Remand Prison after police alleged they had breached their bail conditions. Both men have remained defiant, and on Monday said they would continue their public protest activities. “We will go on with our movement as previously planned, it will be moving forward to some other issues,” Arnon told reporters in front of the prison after his release. “And we will definitely join in the protest on Sept. 19 and others.” They face several charges, including sedition, arising from a protest rally in Bangkok in July.
JAPAN
Marine search resumes
Coast guard ships yesterday resumed the search for a livestock ship and its 40 crew members that sank in the East China Sea on Wednesday last week as a typhoon passed through the region. Two survivors from the Gulf Livestock 1 were rescued and the body of a third crew member was found before a second typhoon on Sunday forced a halt the search-and-rescue effort. Rescuers have seen dozens of cow carcasses, an empty raft, a life vest carrying the ship’s name and a bundle of rope floating in the area.
INDIA
Taj Mahal reopening set
The Taj Mahal is set to reopen more than six months after it was shut as part of disease-prevention measures, officials said yesterday. “The Taj Mahal will reopen on September 21. All COVID-19 protocols, like physical distancing, masks will be followed,” Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department Deputy Director Amit Srivastava said. Visitors would be limited to 5,000 a day, down from the usual daily average of 20,000, he added.
AUSTRALIA
Man dies after shark attack
A shark fatally mauled a man yesterday off the coast of the Gold Coast city tourist strip, an official said. The man was brought to shore by surfers at Greenmount Beach with critical injuries, Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Darren Brown said. Paramedics determined the man was already dead on the beach, Brown said. The death is only the second fatal shark attack on the Gold Coast since the city’s 85 beaches were first protected by shark nets and drum lines in 1962.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
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