ARMENIA
Over 200 protesters detained
Police have detained more than 200 demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over territorial concessions made to Azerbaijan, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Protests erupted in the nation last month after the government agreed to hand territory it had controlled since the 1990s back to Azerbaijan. Pashinyan’s position remains unshaken, despite the challenge mounted by archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who is trying to launch an impeachment process against him. Hundreds of protesters yesterday took to the streets across Armenia, trying to block roads in what Galstanyan has called a “nationwide campaign of disobedience.” The ministry said “226 citizens were detained for disobeying the lawful demands of police.” Last week Yerevan returned control over four border villages it had seized decades ago to Azerbaijan, a key step toward normalizing ties between the two countries — who fought two wars for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
JAPAN
Chinese ships spotted
The Japan Coast Guard has spotted Chinese ships sailing near disputed islands in the East China Sea for a record 158 consecutive days, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said yesterday. The territorial dispute over the Tokyo-controlled islets, known as the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyutai (釣魚台) by China, is a long-running sore point between the countries. The coast guard observed four China Maritime Police Bureau vessels sailing in the “contiguous” zone adjacent to Japan’s territorial sea near the island chain. It was the 158th consecutive day that Chinese boats were spotted there — surpassing the previous record of 157 days in 2021, Hayashi said. “The government considers this series of navigations within the contiguous zone and intrusions into territorial waters an extremely serious matter,” he told reporters.
THAILAND
MP jailed over royal insult
A Thai court yesterday sentenced a lawmaker from the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) to two years in jail for insulting the monarchy. Chonthicha Jaengraew was found guilty under lese majeste laws over a speech she made during an anti-government protest in 2021. The MFP won the most seats in last year’s general election, but was blocked from forming a government by conservative forces opposed to its pledge to reform the royal defamation laws. The court in Thanyaburi reduced the sentence from three years because Chonthicha cooperated, her lawyer said. The court freed the lawmaker on 150,000 baht (US$4,097) bail pending an appeal, the lawyer added.
PAKISTAN
33 arrested over assault
Police have arrested dozens of Muslim men and charged them with attacking a Christian father and son on allegations of desecrating pages of Islam’s holy book, officials said yesterday. The mob went on a rampage on Saturday after locals saw burnt pages of the Koran outside the two Christian men’s house and accused the son of being behind it, setting their house and shoemaking factory on fire in the city of Sargodha in Punjab Province, senior police officer Asad Ijaz Malhi said. They also beat up the son. Malhi said police forces rescued the two wounded men and transported them to a hospital where they were in stable condition, and that at least 33 men were arrested following multiple police raids. Authorities were chasing others who might be involved in the attack, he said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
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
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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