VIETNAM
Capital crimes cut
The government has abolished the death penalty for eight crimes, state media reported yesterday. The number of offenses facing capital punishment would be almost halved from an original 18 to 10 from next month, according to the penal code approved by the National Assembly, the official Bao Chinh Phu news portal reported. According to the amended law, the crimes no longer punishable by death are: attempting to overthrow the administration, sabotaging state facilities, production and trade of counterfeit medicine, illegal transportation of narcotics, sabotaging peace and waging war, espionage, property embezzlement and bribe-taking. Convicts would instead be given the maximum sentence of life in prison. Following the announcement, a property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totaling US$27 billion no longer faces execution, her lawyer said. Property developer Truong My Lan’s lawyer Giang Hong Thanh told reporters that her death penalty “will be converted to life imprisonment... I informed Ms Lan this morning, she is very happy.”
Photo: AFP
CHINA
Floods hit Guizhou
Flooding in Guizhou Province has forced more than 80,000 people to flee their homes, state media reported yesterday. Rescue teams had been sent to two Guizhou counties, where the flood control emergency response had been raised to its highest level, state news agency Xinhua reported. A soccer field in Rongjiang county was “submerged under 3m of water,” the news agency said. Resident Long Tian told Xinhua: “The water rose very quickly.”
SWITZERLAND
Human remains found
Human remains were found near the village of Blatten, which was wiped out by a glacier collapse last month, local police said on Tuesday. Searchers have been looking for a missing 64-year-old man ever since a flood of earth, rock and ice smothered the Alpine village on May 29, crushing most of its houses. On Tuesday, “during a targeted search in a predefined area of the floodplain, human remains were located and recovered,” the Valais cantonal police said in a statement. The remains were in the process of being identified.
UNITED STATES
Migrant facility work starts
Florida on Tuesday began construction of a temporary migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its remote location in the Everglades, a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons. Footage aired by a local NBC affiliate showed the start of construction on the site, which is to have large tents to house migrants and trailers for staff. The facility would have minimal security due to the natural barriers provided by the surrounding inhospitable marshy grasslands, a Florida official said last week.
MEXICO
Police unveil armed drones
Police in Chiapas state on Tuesday unveiled a fleet of armed drones that they say would better position them against drug cartels vying for control of the border with Guatemala. The drones could be equipped to carry guns or to fight fires, Chiapas Security Secretary Oscar Aparicio Avendano said. He did not explain what the rules of engagement would be for police using an armed drone.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
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