HONG KONG
Protest song ban rejected
A judge yesterday denied a government request for an injunction banning Glory to Hong Kong (願榮光歸香港), an anthem that emerged from the territory’s huge pro-democracy protests in 2019. The government last month requested an injunction order so that the song — penned anonymously — would be banned from being disseminated or performed “with the intention of inciting others to commit secession or with a seditious intent.” However, Judge Anthony Chan (陳健強) said in his ruling that banning the song would raise serious freedom of expression issues. “I believe that the intrusion to freedom of expression here, especially to innocent third parties, is what is referred to in public law as ‘chilling effects,’” he wrote. “Whilst I entirely accept that no chilling effect is intended behind the injunction, it is the duty of the court to keep in mind that there is a whole spectrum of Hong Kong people,” he said.
DENMARK
Countries battle bird flu
Norway and Finland face record outbreaks of bird flu this year, which have killed thousands of seagulls and other species, put livestock at risk and restricted travel in some areas, officials said. Avian influenza has circulated throughout Europe in the past few years, leading to a cull in May and last month of millions of birds on French farms alone and affecting the supply of poultry meat and eggs. Officials in the Arctic town of Vadso, part of Norway’s Finnmark County, said they had collected more than 10,000 dead birds in the area and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority on Thursday imposed a travel ban covering three nature reserves. Finland also said wild birds were heavily affected and that the H5N1 strain has now been found in 20 fur farms, up from 12 earlier this week.
MYANMAR
Suu Kyi moved from prison
Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a 2021 military coup, has been moved from prison to a government building on Monday night, an official from her National League for Democracy party said yesterday on condition of anonymity. Aung San Suu Kyi has been seen only once since she was held after the Feb. 1, 2021 putsch — in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in Naypyidaw. The party official also confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi had met lower house Speaker Ti Khun Myat and was likely to meet Chinese special envoy for Asian affairs Deng Xijun (鄧錫軍), who is visiting the country. A source from another political party said she had been moved to a VIP compound in Naypyidaw. There have been concerns about the health of the Nobel laureate, 78, since her detention.
UNITED STATES
Eagles’ Meisner dies at 77
Randy Meisner, a founding member of the Eagles who added high harmonies to such favorites as Take It Easy and The Best of My Love, and stepped out front for the waltz-time ballad Take It to the Limit, has died, the band said on Thursday. Meisner died on Wednesday night in Los Angeles of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Eagles said in a statement. He was 77. The bassist had endured numerous afflictions in recent years and personal tragedy in 2016 when his wife, Lana Rae, accidentally shot herself and died. Called “the sweetest man in the music business” by former bandmate Don Felder, the baby-faced Meisner joined Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon in the early 1970s to form a quintessential Los Angeles band and one of the most popular acts in history.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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