PHILIPPINES
President drops holiday
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr dropped a public holiday marking the anniversary of a revolution that ousted his father as president, an official document showed yesterday. A military-backed “People Power” revolt in February 1986 ended the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr and forced the family into exile in Hawaii. Feb. 25 was declared a “special national holiday” in 2000 by then-president Joseph Estrada. Rights advocates typically hold rallies on the day to commemorate the restoration of democracy. A presidential proclamation declaring holidays for next year makes no mention of the anniversary. Rights group Karapatan said that the removal of the holiday showed the administration’s contempt for “meaningful social actions that pursue justice, truth and accountability.”
UNITED STATES
Senator linked to Egypt
Senator Bob Menendez on Thursday was accused of conspiring to act as an agent of the Egyptian government in a new indictment. The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses Menendez of contravening the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with Washington if they act as “an agent of a foreign principal.” As a member of Congress, Menendez is prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government.
UNITED NATIONS
Torture tools ban urged
A top UN expert on Thursday urged law enforcement agencies around the world to ban 20 “modern-day torture tools,” such as spiked batons, electric shock bands and caged beds. “They are as horrifying as the racks and thumbscrews favored by medieval torturers,” special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards said at the UN. “They have no place in human rights-compliant law enforcement.” On the list of “inherently cruel, inhuman” tools compiled by Edwards were “spiked batons that literally just rip through the skin,” knuckle cuffs and finger cuffs with serrated edges, and electric shock bands worn by defendants in court. Other torture devices include “caged beds so people are literally constrained in those places,” Edwards said. “We’re talking about tiger chairs and metal chairs where people cannot move and are held in stress positions for hours while they are being interrogated,” she said.
HAITI
Border kept closed
The nation on Thursday declined to join the Dominican Republic in reopening a key commercial border crossing, leaving some trade at a standstill and prolonging a diplomatic crisis over the construction of a canal on its soil. Dominican President Luis Abinader had closed all borders, including the crossing at the Dominican city of Dajabon for nearly a month to protest the construction of the canal, which he says contravenes a treaty and would take water needed by Dominican farmers. Haiti says it has the right to build the canal. Abinader’s government partially reopened the borders on Wednesday, including the one at Dajabon, but allowed only limited trade and kept a ban on Haitians entering the Dominican Republic for work, school, tourism or medical issues. Haiti declined to follow suit at its gate in the nearby community of Ouanaminthe. President Moise Charles Pierre told reporters that the Dominican side needed to apologize and resume full border operations. “Abinader needs to respect the Haitian people and apologize publicly,” Pierre said.
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
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
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
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