CENTRAL AMERICA
Quake hits Gulf of Darien
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck in the Gulf of Darien near the border of Panama and Colombia late on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, with tremors felt in both countries. Nine minutes later, the USGS reported a magnitude 4.9 aftershock at the same location. In Panama, civil protection agency Sinaproc said there had been no immediate reports of damage and it was monitoring the situation. In the Colombian city of Medellin, local officials said no damage had been reported. The quakes struck at a depth of 10km, the USGS said.
UNITED STATES
Memorial marks shooting
An emotional President Joe Biden marked the first anniversary of the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre on Wednesday, saying that mass shootings have spread “killing fields” across the US. Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visibly struggled to hold back tears at the ceremony in the White House in front of 21 white candles representing the 19 children and two school staff killed at Robb Elementary School.
HONG KONG
Four arrested in bomb plot
Four Hong Kong students, including two minors, were yesterday sentenced over their roles in an anti-government plot to set off bombs in public spaces. A court sentenced the oldest of the four to more than five years in prison, and sent the other three to juvenile rehabilitation centers in a case handled under the National Security Law, which China imposed on the territory in 2020 to quell dissent. The four defendants, aged 17 to 21, were members of a group called “Returning Valiant,” which promoted independence from China and had called for resistance after the security law was imposed.
DENMARK
Abortion rules unveiled
The government plans to allow women aged 15 to 17 to get an abortion without consent from their parents, as the Nordic country marked the 50th anniversary of the right to choose. “Abortion can be associated with many emotions, guilt and shame,” Minister for Equality Marie Bjerre wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “It can be humiliating and have major consequences to have to ask for parental consent when you are under 18. We want to put an end to that.” Women living in Denmark have the right to an abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy and do not have to provide a justification.
VIETNAM
Noodle vendor jailed
A noodle vendor famous for imitating a celebrity chef to allegedly mock a top government official was yesterday sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, police said, after a court found him guilty of anti-state propaganda. The conviction is the latest in what rights groups say is the government’s wide-ranging attempt to silence voices critical of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party. A video of Bui Tuan Lam, 39, went viral in November 2021 when it was posted days after a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the London restaurant of Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, known as “Salt Bae.” Lam, who described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as “Green Onion Bae,” was convicted of “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the state,” the Da Nang Police Department said after a one-day trial.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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