CAMBODIA
Hun Sen has COVID-19
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday wrote on Facebook that he has COVID-19 and is canceling his events at the G20 meetings in Bali, just days after hosting many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, for a summit in Phnom Penh. Hun Sen said he was returning to his country and was canceling his meetings at the G20 and the APEC forum in Bangkok. He said it was lucky that he arrived in Bali late on Monday and was unable to join a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders. The White House said Biden tested negative yesterday morning and is not considered a close contact as defined by the US CDC. Cambodia was the host of the ASEAN summit that ended on Sunday, and Hun Sen met with many leaders who attended one-on-one.
INDONESIA
111 Rohingya land in Aceh
A boat carrying 111 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, yesterday landed on the shores of Aceh, authorities said, the latest among an annual exodus from northwest Myanmar. The Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority, have for years sailed to countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia between November and April when the seas are calmer. Hundreds have reached Aceh in the past few years, many having been at sea for months. North Aceh government spokesperson Hamdani said all 111 aboard the boat, which include 27 women and 18 children, were in good health. “They are on land already. They have been treated well,” he said, adding that they were staying in a nearby village. Authorities were to meet yesterday to decide what to do with the group, he said.
MALDIVES
14 arrested in bomb plot
Police have arrested 14 people allegedly working with foreign Islamic State extremists to carry out a bombing in the tiny archipelago state. The suspects had been working with the Islamic State group and apparently planning an attack with the intent of killing many people, national counterterrorism head Uswath Ahmed told reporters on Monday night without elaborating. He said the suspects were arrested on Friday in three locations and 13 homes were raided. The nation is known for its pristine beaches and expensive island resorts, but there has been a rise in religious extremism in recent years. The Sunni Muslim nation of 500,000 people had the highest number of people per capita fighting in foreign wars. Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed was critically injured in a bike bomb attack near his home last year. Nasheed is known to be a liberal, pro-West politician.
VIETNAM
Ancient seal returned
The government successfully negotiated the return of a 19th-century Vietnamese imperial seal from the French auction house Millon, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in a statement posted on its Web site. It is to purchase the seal from Millon, state media reported, without stating the negotiated price. The 11kg seal, with a large flying dragon sculpture on top, was valued at as much as 3 million euros (US$3 million), according to a description page of the item which has since been taken down. It was made in 1823 and owned by Emperor Minh Mang, who ruled Vietnam from 1820 to 1841, the statement said. “Returning the gold seal to Vietnam not only supplements the collection of lost artifacts, treasures and cultural heritages that ‘bleed’ overseas, but also reinforces the state’s viewpoint of preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage,” the statement said.
CAR
UN extends mission
The UN Security Council on Monday extended the nearly 17,500-strong UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republican (CAR) for a year, with Russia, China and Gabon abstaining. The French-drafted resolution maintains the robust mandate of the mission, focusing on protecting civilians, and encourages President Faustin-Archange Touadera and his government to promote lasting peace and stability through a reinvigorated political and peace process. The vote was 12-0 with the three abstentions. The mineral-rich, but impoverished nation has faced deadly intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-president Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias later fought back. Untold thousands were killed, and most of the capital’s Muslims fled in fear. The resolution urges all parties to respect a ceasefire, demands a halt to attacks on civilians, and calls on the nation and its neighbors to investigate transnational criminal networks and armed groups involved in arms trafficking and illegally exploiting natural resources.
UNITED STATES
Paper names female editor
The Boston Globe on Monday named Nancy Barnes as its next editor, elevating a woman to serve in the top job for the first time in the newspaper’s 150-year history. Barnes has worked as the chief news executive at NPR and has run major newspapers. She announced in September that she would be leaving NPR. Barnes is to be the paper’s 13th editor. Boston Globe Media Partners chief executive officer Linda Henry said that Barnes is “renowned for her commitment to high-quality journalism, her excellent leadership skills, and her passion for innovation.” Barnes is to start on Feb. 1.
UNITED STATES
Jay Leno burned, but ‘OK’
Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno sustained “serious burns,” but said on Monday that he was doing OK, according to reports. “I got some serious burns from a gasoline fire,” Leno said in a statement. “I am OK. Just need a week or two to get back on my feet.” The cause and time of the fire was not immediately clear. Leno is known for his car collection, which is housed at a garage in Burbank, California. Leno, 72, had been set to appear at a financial conference in Las Vegas on Sunday, but canceled because of a “serious medical emergency,” People magazine reported earlier on Monday, citing an e-mail sent to those attending the conference.
UNITED STATES
Haggis ordered to pay
A New York jury on Monday ordered Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis to pay US$2.5 million in civil punitive damages for raping a publicist in his apartment in 2013, for a combined verdict of US$10 million in the case. The verdict came after the same jury on Thursday found Haggis liable for sexual assault in the civil case and ordered him to pay plaintiff Haleigh Breest US$7.5 million in compensatory damages. Breest alleged in her 2017 lawsuit that Haggis lured her to his apartment after a film premiere and raped her. Breest was one of four women who publicly accused Haggis of sexual misconduct in 2017 and 2018. Haggis denied the allegations and was never criminally charged in the US. Breest’s lawyer, Ilann Maazel, told reporters outside the New York City courtroom that justice had been done. Haggis said the case has ruined him financially, but vowed to appeal.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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