HONG KONG
Activists’ sentences quashed
The territory’s top court yesterday quashed the prison terms of three Tiananmen vigil activists, saying that it was a “miscarriage of justice” to jail them for refusing to submit information to national security police. Authorities in 2021 used Beijing’s National Security Law against the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which organized vigils to mark Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown before the events were banned. Three group leaders — Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), Tang Ngok-kwan (鄧岳君) and Tsui Hon-kwong (徐漢光) — were jailed, each for four-and-a-half months, after they refused to turn over details on group members and finances. However, five judges at the Court of Final Appeal yesterday sided with the trio and said the prosecution “made it impossible for them to have a fair trial.” Tang, who had finished serving his prison term, said the ruling was a vindication of his group and urged people not to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown.
Photo: AFP
VIETNAM
Provinces to merge
The government is planning to merge provinces and eliminate district-level authorities, it said yesterday, as a streamlining drive aiming to slash billions of dollars from state budgets gathers pace. The cost-cutting measures have already seen the number of government ministries and agencies slashed from 30 to 22, and one in five public-sector jobs would be cut over the next five years. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said in a statement on the government’s Web site that a “key and urgent task” was to complete the rearrangement of “administrative boundaries ... merging some provinces ... and cutting off the district level.”
Photo: AFP
TIBET
Economic progress touted
Lawmakers yesterday hailed recent economic progress and vowed to keep “high pressure” on alleged separatists in the region as they convened in Beijing for China’s annual “Two Sessions” political conclave. The Tibet region’s GDP was up 6.3 percent last year — above average for China — and disposable income per capita rose for urban and rural residents, a government statement said. Local lawmakers added that stability was “improving,” but warned it was necessary to maintain “high pressure” on alleged secessionists. Delegates also hailed “Sinicization” of Tibetan Buddhism.
Photo: AFP
LITHUANIA
Bomb treaty exited
Vilnius yesterday quit an international convention banning cluster bombs, citing security concerns over Russia. The nation has also signaled its intention to leave another international treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel land mines. It said it wants to strengthen its defenses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fearing it could be next if Moscow succeeds. Parliament voted to leave the cluster munitions convention in July last year, but the country had to wait six months after submitting exit documents to the UN for the decision to take full effect.
Photo: AFP
UNITED STATES
Education order expected
President Donald Trump was expected to sign an executive order instructing his newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to dismantle the department she now leads, US media reported on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal cited a draft of the order, which directs McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” based on “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
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