The body of 10-year-old Thai Ly Hao Nam was finally recovered Friday, 20 days after he fell down a 35-meter (115 foot) shaft at a construction site in Vietnam’s Dong Thap province, Doan Tan Buu, deputy head of the Dong Thap provincial administration told a news conference. The boy was declared dead on Jan. 4 but local officials vowed to continue efforts to recover the body from the hollow concrete pillar. Two local police rescue team members went 24 meters (79 feet) down the hole wearing oxygen masks, according to…
Day: January 19, 2023
Death Toll After Avalanche on Tibet Highway Rises to 13
BEIJING — The death toll in an avalanche that buried vehicles outside a highway tunnel in Tibet has risen to 13 with rescue efforts continuing, authorities said Friday. Images from the scene at the exit of the tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibet’s southwest with outlying Medog county showed about half a dozen backhoes digging through snow up to 3 meters (10 feet) deep. Tons of snow and ice collapsed onto the mouth of the tunnel on Tuesday evening, trapping drivers in their vehicles. Many of them were…
People on the Move Again in China This Lunar New Year
Anticipation is building for Lunar New Year, as millions of Chinese people plan trips to see relatives under Beijing’s relaxed zero-COVID policies. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports on the festivities — and the worries about spreading infection — during the holiday that many Asian people will celebrate Sunday. Some of the video in this story comes from Chinese state television. VOA
Xi’s authority dented by sudden Covid U-turn but iron grip on power is undimmed
Just a few months ago, the thought of questioning the strength of Xi Jinping’s leadership was inconceivable. He had just secured his third term, conducted a brutal purge of factional rivals and ensured he and his beliefs were inextricably and existentially tied with the Chinese Communist party. The zero-Covid policy – despite some societal grumblings – had been enshrined as the best and only way out of the pandemic. But zero Covid was already growing unpopular in China in the latter half of 2022. It was playing havoc with people’s…
U.S. launches private refugee sponsorship program
The U.S. State Department launched a new program on Thursday called the Welcome Corps that will allow Americans to privately sponsor refugees applying to move to the United States. The program, formed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, plans to place 5,000 refugees with 10,000 American sponsors in its first pilot year, a State Department press release said. It is intended to “enable Americans to sponsor refugees … directly support their resettlement, and make a difference by welcoming these new neighbors into their communities,” it…
Rights groups consider legal steps in case of Uyghurs facing deportation in Malta
Two human rights groups instrumental in getting the European Court of Human Rights to order Malta to halt the forcible deportation of two Muslim Chinese asylum-seekers of Uyghur ethnicity are now strategizing with lawyers about their next move. “We together with the lawyers will evaluate the rest of the procedures to be followed, which may be a full application to the European Court—maybe. There might be other avenues, but we are discussing that,” said Laura Harth, campaign director at the Spanish humanitarian group Safeguard Defenders, which learned about the two…
Chinese consumers’ online shopping activities surge on back of Lunar New Year holiday demand, Alibaba report says
Online expenditure on sporting goods, outdoor products, wigs, pet food and other trendy merchandise showed double-digit growth during the 16 days tracked by Alibaba, compared with the same period last month. On Tmall and Taobao, the number of searches for “pre-made meals” rose 340 per cent during that period. Meanwhile, sales of meals such as a seafood dinner set for four to six persons rose 80 per cent at Alibaba-owned grocery retail chain Freshippo. Advertisement The Year of the Rabbit has also triggered consumer demand for a range of products…
China population: new births to fall to a third of India’s by 2050 without ‘powerful fertility support’
The United Nations has projected that India will surpass China as the world’s most populous country this year, while the mainland population is expected to drop to 1.313 billion by 2050 and below 800 million by 2100. Advertisement China’s working-age population – those between 16 and 59 years old – stood at 875.56 million at the end of 2022, down from 882.22 million a year before. But that number will decrease by about 23 per cent compared to last year by 2050, according to the YuWa report, written by Chinese…
U.S. Drops Case Against Police Officer It Had Called an ‘Insider Threat’
In September 2020, when federal authorities charged Baimadajie Angwang, a Marine Corps veteran and New York Police Department officer, with acting as an illegal agent of China, the head of New York’s F.B.I. office called him “the definition of an insider threat.” The government has quietly changed its mind. On Thursday, in a brief and subdued hearing in a Brooklyn courtroom, a federal judge granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the charges against Officer Angwang. The swift unraveling of the case — which had been hailed as a signature example of…
South Africa to Hold Naval Drill With Russia and China Amid Ukraine War
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s military announced on Thursday that it plans to hold joint training exercises off its coast next month with Russia and China, a move criticized by the United States, which has been trying to rally other countries to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine. The exercises will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24. South Africa was among three dozen countries that abstained last year in a vote in the United Nations to condemn Russia for its…