The US praised South Africa on Saturday for quickly identifying the new SARS-CoV-2 variant called Omicron, and for sharing this information with the world — a barely veiled criticism of China’s handling of the original COVID-19 outbreak. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, and they discussed cooperation on vaccinating people in Africa against COVID-19, the US Department of State said. “Secretary Blinken specifically praised South Africa’s scientists for the quick identification of the Omicron variant and South Africa’s government for its transparency in sharing this information, which should serve as a model for the world,” the statement said. First under former US president Donald Trump and now under US President Joe Biden, the US has repeatedly criticized China for not being forthcoming on the origins of COVID-19, which was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan before spreading around the world. It has now killed nearly 5.2 million people. In August of this year, the US intelligence community released a report in which it said it could not reach a firm conclusion on whether the virus originated among animals or in a research lab because China had not helped in the US probe. The US has also accused Beijing of waiting too long before sharing crucial information about the outbreak, saying that a more transparent handling could have helped halt the spread of the virus. After the US report was issued this summer, Biden accused Beijing of stonewalling. “The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them,” Biden said in a statement after that unclassified report came out. “Responsible nations do not shirk these kinds of responsibilities to the rest of the world,” he said. The pandemic is one of many sources of acute tension today in US-China relations, as the two great
WIDE REOPENING DISCOURAGED: A study from Peking University has suggested that lifting restrictions in the style of the US, UK and others would be catastrophic
China would face a “colossal outbreak” on a scale beyond anything any other country has yet seen if it were to reopen in a similar manner to the US. That is a prediction based on statistical modeling by researchers at Beijing’s Peking University. A switch from China’s current COVID-19 elimination strategy to a US-style approach with few restrictions would lead to as many as 637,155 infections per day, according to the study, which was published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. That would be the largest daily figure reported by any country since the start of the pandemic. The study also predicted a rise in China’s infections if it adopted the policies of the UK, Israel, Spain or France. Under the current containment effort, daily infections in China have rarely exceeded 100. The US recorded an average of about 150,000 daily cases during the period the study referenced for modeling. “Our findings have raised a clear warning that, for the time being, we are not ready to embrace ‘open-up’ strategies,” the researchers wrote in the study, which was partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They added that the approach of “certain Western countries” rested “solely on the hypothesis of herd immunity induced by vaccination.” The study reveals the challenge faced by the world’s most populous nation in breaking away from a “zero COVID-19” strategy of lockdowns, closed borders and other strict curbs. China has successfully beaten back three domestic waves of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, but struggled to contain the latest outbreak, its broadest since the virus first emerged in Wuhan. Authorities have enforced increasingly disruptive restrictions, such as snap lockdowns and domestic travel bans, but clusters of cases have continued to flare up, including in Shanghai. Other “zero COVID-19” adherents such as Singapore and Australia have begun
‘MERCENARY THUGS’: The local police chief blamed ‘counter-revolutionaries’ for the unrest, while the US said it was concerned about Iran’s ‘violent crackdown’
Riot police were deployed in force on Saturday in the Iranian city of Isfahan, a day after dozens were arrested in violent protests over the drying up of a lifeblood river. Security forces fired tear gas during the clashes with stone-throwers in the protest in the dry bed of the Zayadneh Rud that crosses the city, the Fars news agency and the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) said. “We have arrested 67 of the main actors and agitators behind the troubles,” police General Hassan Karami said on Saturday. He said between 2,000 and 3,000 “rioters” took part in the protest. On Saturday, the situation was “calm” and streets empty, with riot police deployed on the city’s Khadjou Bridge, an Isfahan resident said. US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said Washington was “deeply concerned about the violent crackdown against peaceful protestors.” He wrote on Twitter that “the people of Iran have a right to voice their frustrations and hold their government accountable.” The demonstration was the latest since protests started on Nov. 9 in Isfahan, about 340km south of Tehran, a tourist magnet due to its majestic mosques and heritage sites, including a historic bridge across the river. However, it was the first to turn violent. Between 30,000 and 40,000 farmers and city residents turned up for the gatherings last week, estimated Karami. The riverbed has been the rallying spot for farmers and other people from across Isfahan Province protesting the lack of water. Drought is a cause, but they also accuse the authorities of diverting water from the city to supply the neighboring province of Yazd, which is also desperately short on supplies. During the clashes on Friday, some people set fire to objects in the city, Fars and ISNA reported. “After the farmers left, the opportunists and counter-revolutionaries were left behind, which made it easy for the security apparatus, especially
A new US$6 billion Chinese-built railway line opens in Laos this week, bringing hopes of an economic boost to the reclusive nation, but experts are questioning the benefits of a project that has seen thousands of farmers evicted from their land. The 414km route, due to open on Friday, took five years to construct under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which funds infrastructure projects aimed at increasing Beijing’s clout globally. Struggling strawberry farmer Anouphon Phomhacsar is hoping the new railway will get his business back on track. His farm usually produces up to 2 tonnes of the red heart-shaped fruits a year, but the COVID-19 pandemic has hit this year’s harvest hard. It takes Phomhacsar three to four hours to send his strawberries to Vientiane by road, but he hopes the new railway will cut this delivery time in half. He says it would also be easier for tourists to travel to camp under the stars and pick berries. “In the future, foreign tourists coming to the farm could be in the tens of thousands,” he told reporters. The train route is to connect the Chinese city of Kunming to the Laotian capital, with grand plans for high-speed rail to ultimately snake down through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore. Infrastructure-poor Laos, a reclusive communist-run country of 7.2 million people, previously had only 4km of railway tracks. However, now, sleek red-blue-and-white bullet trains are to speed along the new line at up to 160kph, passing through 75 tunnels and across 167 bridges, stopping at 10 passenger stations. Despite registering only dozens of COVID-19 cases until April, Laos’ economy took a pandemic battering — economic growth declined to 0.4 percent this year, the lowest level in three decades, according to the World Bank. Hopes for a rebound this year were dashed — Laos locked down as it clocked up about 70,000 infections in
ODD EVENT: The president had been expected to make the announcement on Friday, but tested positive for COVID-19, so he made it from behind a plastic barrier yesterday
Right-winger Petr Fiala was yesterday named the Czech Republic’s new prime minister in an unusual ceremony, with wheelchair-bound Czech President Milos Zeman speaking from behind a plastic barrier because he has COVID-19. Fiala, a bearded, bespectacled former political scientist, is to face the urgent task of grappling with one of the world’s highest COVID-19 infection rates, including a case of the new Omicron variant. “I am convinced we will soon have a strong and stable government,” Fiala said at the ceremony. Zeman said he aimed to wrap up meetings with possible ministers by Dec. 13, “and we can then prepare the appointment of the government.” Fiala teamed up his Civic Democratic Party with two smaller parties to form the Together alliance, which came first in last month’s general election. The grouping, which includes the centrist Christian Democrats and the center-right TOP 09 parties, narrowly beat the ANO movement of outgoing populist billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. The alliance has since forged a coalition with two centrist parties — the Mayors and Independents, and the Pirate Party — to secure a majority of 108 votes in the 200-seat parliament. The five parties have agreed on the composition of the future government and on a policy statement. Post-election talks were held without the 77-year-old president, who was taken to hospital by ambulance on Oct. 10, a day after the election, to be treated for liver problems. Zeman, a left-winger with a soft spot for Russia and China, had been expected to name Fiala as prime minister on Friday, a day after he was released from Prague’s military hospital, but he was rushed back on the same day after testing positive for COVID-19. Zeman was discharged again on Saturday. Under the Czech constitution, Zeman also has to name the government. Fiala has said that Zeman should name the government by mid-December as the EU
A polar bear chases a reindeer into the water, drags it ashore and devours it, in a striking scene caught on film for the first time. With sea ice melting, the king of the Arctic might be changing its diet. The dramatic spectacle played out in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on Aug. 21 last year. In summer, the sea ice retreats and takes with it the seals that make up the polar bear’s main source of food. A research team from a nearby Polish scientific station watched it happen and caught for the first time on camera a polar bear hunting a reindeer. The video shows a young female chasing a male reindeer into the icy waters, catching and drowning it, then pulling it to shore and making a meal of it. “The whole situation was so amazing that it was like watching a documentary,” said Izabela Kulaszewicz, a biologist at the University of Gdansk. “You could almost hear the voice of a narrator in the background saying that you absolutely have to watch this event because we will most likely never see anything like it again,” she said. The scene was so unusual that she cowrote a report published in Polar Biology with two other researchers. In it, they said that the incident was one of a series of observations that suggest polar bears are increasingly preying on terrestrial animals to make up for their limited access to seals. In Svalbard, just more than 1,000km from the North Pole and where signposts warn of the danger of polar bears, about 300 sedentary bears live alongside about 20,000 reindeer. There are indications that polar bears have been hunting reindeer more frequently in the past few decades, the report’s authors say. They say that two factors are at play: The retreating sea ice is stranding the bears on land for longer periods,
EXPOSED: Testimonies from an unprecedented 58 mafia informants have exposed atrocities by ’Ndrangheta members and the group’s influence at all levels of society
A dead dolphin on a doormat and windows smashed with sledgehammers. Weapons stored in cemetery chapels. Bribes to judges for acquittals and bogus medical certificates letting convicted killers dodge prison. These are the stories recounted since January by dozens of ’Ndrangheta members turned state witnesses in Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades, covering everything from intimidation to vote-buying and drug trafficking to murder. “They waited for them in Piazza Morelli, invited them to eat ricotta at the farm ... and then they killed, burned and melted them,” testified one criminal-turned-witness, Andrea Mantella, describing a 1988 revenge killing of two brothers. The ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful organized crime syndicate, is in the crosshairs of the “maxi-trial” against 355 defendants held in the poor southern region of Calabria, the group’s home turf. Having expanded well beyond its rural roots, the ’Ndrangheta now dominates Europe’s cocaine trade and has infiltrated many areas of the legal economy throughout Italy, and even abroad. It is helped by close contacts with politicians and business figures, and its stranglehold over the local population in Calabria. Testimony that wrapped up this month from an unprecedented 58 mafia informants — connected to court by video link — exposed the brutality of the ’Ndrangheta and the insidious influence of the group at all levels of society. The trial focuses on one Calabria province, Vibo Valentia, whose family clans are dominated by Luigi “The Supreme” Mancuso, 67, himself on trial after serving a 19-year sentence for drug and mafia crimes until 2012. “Without the consent of Luigi Mancuso you can’t open any business,” his nephew, Emanuele Mancuso, testified in March. With nicknames like “Lamb Thigh,” “Sweetie,” “Wolf” and “The Wringer,” the defendants — many of whom are related — are alleged bosses and operatives, as well as their white-collar enablers. They are accused of procuring weapons, gathering votes or
When COVID-19 riots rocked the Netherlands for the second time in a year, Ricardo Pronk was there to livestream it all to his followers on social media. The 50-year-old anti-vaccination activist administered a Facebook group with 10,000 followers, which had shared a call for a demonstration in the port city of Rotterdam on Nov. 19 that later turned violent. The group, which was recently removed by Facebook, is part of a network of conspiracy theorists and COVID-19-deniers on social media that reached as far as the Dutch parliament, whose influence has sparked concern among experts. For Pronk, vaccines “are weapons made to kill.” He also embraces the QAnon conspiracy group’s narrative about “satanic child abuse” by a “globalized elite.” Yet the unemployed former computer technician, who chose a banner for the group with a lion against a backdrop of flames, rejects any responsibility for the unrest in the Netherlands. Five people were shot when police opened fire in Rotterdam, and riots spread around the country for the next three days. “Violence is not the best way, of course not. The best is to do things peacefully,” he said. In January, during the Netherlands’ worst riots in 40 years over a curfew, and during last week’s unrest, social media were used not only to organize protests, but also to spread disinformation. “What is unique about the Netherlands is that we have repeatedly seen COVID protests turn into riots just this year,” said Ciaran O’Connor, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, which specializes in countering radicalism. While Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has branded rioters “scum” and “idiots,” O’Connor pointed the finger at the epidemic of conspiracy theories on the Internet in the Netherlands. On Facebook alone, the top 125 groups disseminating false information about COVID-19 saw a 63 percent rise in followers in six months, comprising
‘INCOMPETENT’ ADMINISTRATION: Protesters, initially demanding government action against an insurgency, said police violence prompted them to build barricades
A child and two journalists were among several injured in the capital of Burkina Faso on Saturday, after police fired tear gas to disperse an anti-government rally over militant violence in the impoverished country. The Ouagadougou City Government had banned the gathering, which aimed to voice frustration at the failure of Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to stem the bloodshed. Riot police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of demonstrators from gathering in a square in the center of Ouagadougou, where substantial police and security forces were deployed and all shops closed. Angry protesters erected makeshift barricades and burned tires in several neighborhoods, including in front of the ruling party’s headquarters, in an effort to block police movement. One protester said he and others had come for a peaceful protest, but that the police’s reaction had been excessive, forcing them to set up the barricades. “We don’t want to burn down a country already at war, but when faced with savagery, we will defend ourselves,” he said. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said that a child who appeared younger than 10 years was injured after security forces fired tear gas. Local media outlets Pomega and Filinfos said that two of their journalists also sustained tear gas injuries. Herve Ouattara, a spokesman for the November 27 Coalition that called for the protest, reported “a huge amount of injured,” including two in a coma. It was not immediately possible to independently verify this claim. Some protesters vandalized part of a civil registry building, after trying unsuccessfully to torch the town hall. In another incident, a mob attacked the vehicle of a journalist reporting for AFP. “The crowd set upon us, throwing stones,” reporter Olympia de Maismont said. “They wanted to block our car and yelled ‘France, we don’t want you here!’” “We managed to escape, but just barely,” he said. Police also used
BECOMING A REPUBLIC: After electing its first president last month, the Caribbean state can leave its colonial past behind, the prime minister said
Barbados is about to cut ties with the British monarchy, but the legacy of a sometimes brutal colonial past and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on tourism pose major challenges for the Caribbean island as it becomes the world’s newest republic. Famed for its beaches and love of cricket, Barbados would this week replace its head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, with her current representative, Barbadian Governor-General Sandra Mason. Ceremonies, starting today in the evening and running until tomorrow, would include military parades and celebrations, as Mason is inaugurated as president, with Prince Charles — heir to the British throne — looking on. The dawn of a new era has fueled debate among the population of 285,000 over the UK’s centuries of influence, including more than 200 years of slavery until 1834, and Barbados finally becoming independent in 1966. “As a young girl, when I heard about the queen, I would be really excited,” said Sharon Bellamy-Thompson, 50, a fish vendor in the capital, Bridgetown, who remembers being about eight years old and seeing the monarch on a visit. “As I grow older and older, I started to wonder what this queen really means for me and for my nation. It didn’t make any sense,” she said. “Having a female Barbadian president will be great.” For young political campaigners such as Firhaana Bulbulia, founder of the Barbados Muslim Association, British colonialism and slavery lie behind the country’s modern inequalities. “The wealth gap, the ability to own land and even access to loans from banks all have a lot to do with structures built out of being ruled by Britain,” Bulbulia, 26, said. “The actual chains [of slavery] were broken, and we no longer wore them, but the mental chains continue to persist in our mindsets.” Last month, Barbados elected Mason to become its first president, one year after Barbadian
A Guatemalan stowaway hidden in the landing gear compartment of an American Airlines jet on Saturday survived a flight from his home country to Miami, where he was turned over to US immigration officials and taken to a hospital for a checkup. US Customs and Border Protection confirmed the incident in a statement initially cited by Miami-based television station WTVJ, which posted video taken of the man at Miami International Airport shortly after the plane landed. The video, attributed to the “Only in Dade” Instagram account, showed the stowaway appearing dazed, but otherwise unharmed, sitting on the tarmac beside the plane — dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt, jacket and boots — as ground crew personnel tended to him and asked if he wanted some water. “U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Miami International Airport apprehended a 26-year-old man who attempted to evade detection in the landing gear compartment of an aircraft arriving from Guatemala Saturday morning,” the agency said in a statement. “The individual was evaluated by emergency medical services and taken to a hospital for medical assessment. This incident remains under investigation.” American Airlines said in a statement that its Flight 1182 from Guatemala City to Miami arrived shortly after 10am and “was met by law enforcement due to a security issue.” The airline gave no further details, except that it was assisting in the investigation. A flight from Guatemala City to Miami takes just over two-and-a-half hours. Guatemala has accounted for a large portion of the about 1.7 million migrants apprehended or expelled by US border agents over the past year, many of them Central Americans fleeing violent gangs and grinding poverty. Immigration attorney Angel Leal told WTVJ that the Guatemalan stowaway would be detained while facing an expedited removal order.
An attack on US Vice President Kamala Harris for buying expensive French cookware rebounded on the Republican Party over Thanksgiving, moving social media users to compare Harris’ culinary outlay with the cost to taxpayers of former US president Donald Trump’s four years in power. On a visit to Paris earlier this month, Harris reportedly spent more than US$500 on cookware at E. Dehillerin, a shop near the Louvre museum. She told reporters that she was making the purchase with Thanksgiving cooking in mind, prompting laughter when she said that her husband, Doug Emhoff, was her “apprentice” in the kitchen. Nonetheless, Republicans and right-wing media outlets seized on the purchase, attempting to use it to show that the vice president, a former California attorney general and US senator, was out of touch with ordinary Americans. On Friday, the Republican Party wrote on Twitter: “While Americans are struggling to pay more than EVER for the holidays, Kamala Harris is out buying a $375 pot.” Thanks to the medium involved, responses were short and to the point. Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, wrote: “Just to put this in perspective: What Harris spent her own money on for cookware wouldn’t cover what Trump was charging taxpayers per room for Secret Service agents.” Moynihan referred to a Washington Post report from February last year that said the US Secret Service paid as much as US$650 a night for rooms at properties owned by the then-president. Many of those properties were golf courses. Journalist David Leavitt wrote: “While Americans lined up at food pantries and died from Covid, Trump spent $141m of taxpayer’s money playing golf.” Trump had famously criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for playing too much golf and said that as president, he would be too busy to play much himself, but then spent considerable time on the
NEW ZEALAND Cyclist legislator gives birth Lawmaker Julie Anne Genter got on her bicycle early on Sunday and headed to the hospital — where she gave birth an hour later. “Big news! At 3.04am this morning we welcomed the newest member of our family. I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening,” the Greens politician wrote on Facebook a few hours later. The island nation has a reputation for down-to-earth politicians. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern famously brought her then-three-month-old to a UN meeting as she was still breastfeeding. Genter — who is her party’s spokesperson for transport issues — also biked to the hospital in 2018 to give birth to her first-born, local media said. AUSTRALIA Online bullying law mulled The government would introduce legislation to make social media giants provide details of users who post defamatory comments, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday. The government has been looking at the extent of the responsibility of platforms for defamatory material published on their sites, he said. The announcement comes after the country’s highest court ruled that publishers can be held liable for comments on online forums, which led to some news outlets, such as CNN, to deny Australians access to their Facebook pages. “The online world should not be a Wild West where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people,” Morrison said. The new legislation would introduce a complaints mechanism, so that if somebody thinks they are being defamed on social media, they would be able to require the platform to take the material down. If the content is not withdrawn, a court process could force the platform to provide details of the commenter. CHINA N Korean escapee captured Police have captured a North Korean prisoner who last month staged a daring escape from
‘ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN’: With the presence of foreign peacekeepers helping to cool tensions, residents feared food and fuel shortages as the capital remains on edge
Calm yesterday returned to the Solomon Islands’ capital, Honiara, after days of rioting left at least three dead and reduced sections of the city to smoldering ruins. Fuel stations, shops and other businesses began to reopen, with Honiara residents flocking to buy basic provisions as the violence ebbed. “The situation is very tense and anything could happen any time,” said Audrey Awao, a working mother who worried there would soon be no food left in the shops. What began as a small protest on Wednesday quickly descended into a violent free-for-all, with poor Honiara residents joining anti-government protesters to rampage through the shattered glass and burnt-out remains of businesses for things to eat or sell. For three days, angry mobs cut through the usually sleepy seaside capital, demanding the removal of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Two years of closed borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic have left the country’s already ravaged economy in tatters, deepening widespread joblessness and poverty among the population of about 800,000. “Now the PM needs to step down,” a self-employed 32-year-old who gave his name as Selson said. “That’s the demand for all citizens of the Solomon Islands.” Local police said a forensic team was working to identify the charred remains of three bodies found in a shop in the city’s burnt-out Chinatown district. Heavily armed police were a visible presence on nearby streets as locals began cleanup operations and limited bus services resumed. A nighttime curfew and the presence of about 150 foreign peacekeepers from Australia and Papua New Guinea appeared to have helped cool tensions. The scale of the recovery was coming into sharp focus, even as the city remained on edge. “It is very frustrating as it took me more than three hours to reach the fuel pump to get my vehicle fueled,” Awao said. Many Solomon Islanders believe their government is corrupt
DISAPPEARING RIVER: An estimated 97 percent of Iran faces some level of drought, a government agency said, as water shortages drive protests
Police on Friday fired tear gas and birdshot while fighting protesters with batons in a central Iranian city that has seen days of demonstrations demanding government action over a drought, online videos show. The social media videos and others from activists show police and protesters clashing in the dry bed of the Zayandeh Rud river in the city of Isfahan. The videos correspond to reporting and satellite images of the area, as well as some semiofficial Iranian news agency accounts of the unrest. Videos from Human Rights Activists in Iran show demonstrators throwing stones at police, while others depict bloodied protesters, including one man who appeared to have wounds in his back from birdshot. They also show similar unrest in nearby streets in Isfahan, which is 340km south of the capital, Tehran. The Iranian semiofficial Fars news agency said a heavy presence of security forces brought the gathering of about 500 people in Isfahan to an end. A separate report carried by the semiofficial Tasnim agency said unknown perpetrators on Thursday night damaged a pipeline that transfers water from Isfahan to other provinces. Iranian security forces arrested several people in the protests staged by “anti-revolutionary” groups, local police chief Mohammadreza Mirheidari said in an interview on state TV. Some people in Isfahan later on Friday reported that mobile Internet service was disrupted in the city. The group NetBlocks reported an outage in the past few days that also affected the southwestern city of Ahvaz amid water protests there. Iran in the past has shut down both mobile and landline Internet to halt protests. That included a nationwide shutdown during 2019 protests over rising government-set gasoline prices that Amnesty International said resulted in more than 300 people killed. Farmers reportedly ended a long protest in the area on Thursday after authorities promised to compensate them for losses in drought-stricken areas of central
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise move to scrap three contentious farm laws might not be enough to stem a year-long protest movement by farmers, with the two sides yet to close the gap on another crucial issue — guaranteed prices for crops. The protesters plan to march to the capital, New Delhi, tomorrow, when parliament reconvenes for its winter session, to push ahead with their demands that include setting up of a mechanism to ensure farmers receive minimum support rates for all harvests. India fixes the rates for two dozen farm commodities, including some grains and pulses, and procures limited volumes for its welfare programs at those levels. Private players buy agricultural goods at market-determined prices. The government has said it would form a group to find ways to make the system “more effective,” but that is not enough for the protesters. They demand a new law to make it illegal to buy crops below the state-set prices. “We are not fond of sitting on the streets,” Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella group of farmers’ associations, said in a letter to Modi dated Sunday last week. “We too desire that after resolving these other issues as soon as possible, we return to our homes, families and farming. If you want the same, then the government should immediately resume talks.” The farmers’ continued anger could carry a political cost for Modi, who announced his biggest policy reversal since assuming power in 2014 by scrapping the farm laws earlier this month ahead of some state elections. It could dent Modi’s image as a strong and decisive leader. Analysts say that establishing a price guarantee system for agricultural goods would be impossible, both logistically and fiscally, given India’s annual output of food grains alone of about 300 million tonnes, the risk of inflation and the government’s stretched budget
A lovestruck and historically minded Indian husband has emulated the world’s most famous display of marital devotion by building for his wife a replica of the Taj Mahal. The original “Monument to Love” was constructed on the orders of heartbroken Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz, in the 17th century. Anand Prakash Chouksey’s beloved remains very much alive, and even helped consult on the project and his version of the marble wonder of the world, around one-third the size of the original. “My wife’s only demand was for a meditation room. She’s a spiritual woman,” the 52-year-old businessman said. “She says the dome creates a different environment and there is a lot of positive energy,” he added. The original Taj Mahal — dubbed a “teardrop on the cheek of time” by writer Rabindranath Tagore — is in Agra south of Delhi, while the new replica is 800km away in Burhanpur. The central Indian city is none other than the place where Mumtaz died while giving birth to her 14th child in June 1632, having accompanied Shah Jahan to quell a local revolt. Mumtaz’s body was even initially buried there too, and according to locals Shah Jahan had at first wanted to build the Taj Mahal for her on the banks of the river Tapti. “The soil structure back then was not suitable to build the Taj here that’s how it was decided to be built in Agra,” Chouksey said. The city is still home to the dilapidated remains of the palace where the royals lived, including a once-beautiful hammam or bathhouse built by Shah Jahan for his wife to relax in before she died. Chouksey’s story has none of the tragedy and building his new home has taken him three years — a dozen less than the mausoleum that inspired it. It cost 15
Chinese authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the head of Macao’s biggest junket organizer over accusations that he helped run an illegal cross-border gambling syndicate. Prosecutors in Wenzhou, in the eastern Zhejiang Province, said in a statement on Sina Weibo on Friday that Suncity Group CEO Alvin Chau (周焯華) along with another individual, Zhang Ningning (張寧寧), led cross-border gambling operations and set up casinos across China. Authorities said they had been investigating the case since July last year, and that the gambling syndicate has 199 shareholder representatives, more than 12,000 agents that promoted its gambling operations and more than 80,000 gamblers in its network. The syndicate also set up asset management firms to assist gamblers with cross-border fund transfers and to recover debts they owed. Casinos and most forms of gambling are illegal in mainland China, and Macao is the only territory allowed to operate a casino. Mainland visitors are able to travel to Macao to gamble, but are required to obtain a visa. In 2019, China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua news agency accused Suncity of targeting mainland gamblers with online gambling and proxy-betting operations based in Cambodia and the Philippines. Suncity denied the allegations. In the statement on Friday, authorities said the syndicate “severely damaged the social order of the country” and they urged Chau to turn himself in, in exchange for a more lenient punishment.
The US and six other nations on Friday issued a joint statement calling on the international community to suspend all assistance to the Burmese military, and expressing grave concern over reports of human rights abuses by Myanmar’s security forces. The statement came as fears of an escalation of violence grow in the Southeast Asian nation, whose army is attempting to crush an increasingly active armed opposition movement seeking to end military rule. “We are concerned about allegations of weapons stockpiling and attacks by the military, including shelling and airstrikes, use of heavy weapons, and the deployment of thousands of troops accompanying what security forces assert are counterterrorism operations, which are disproportionately impacting civilians,” the statement said. It said the rights abuses include “credible reports of sexual violence and torture,” and highlighted the country’s northwest, where tens of thousands of people have been reported to have been displaced by government attacks. The countries issuing the statement — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the UK and the US — already have embargoed arms sales to Myanmar, whose army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. They also have instituted targeted diplomatic and economic sanctions meant to pressure the ruling generals behind the takeover. Although such measures harm Myanmar’s economy, they have done little to help restore democracy and peace. China and Russia are allies of the military-installed government, and as members of the UN Security Council, have effectively blocked concerted international action to isolate the generals. Beijing and Moscow are also the top suppliers of arms to Myanmar. Friday’s statement, released by the US Department of State, applauded a consensus declared earlier this month by the UN Security Council, which called for “the immediate cessation of violence, protection of civilians, and full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.” The consensus, issued as
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