Maltese rally to honor slain journalist
VALLETTA, Malta — Outraged by the car-bomb killing last week of Malta’s best-known journalist, thousands of people marched through the tiny country’s capital on Sunday, singing patriotic songs and waving signs emblazoned with the last words written by the murdered blogger: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”
The police tore down a banner, hoisted onto the capital’s 16th-century stone fortifications, that proclaimed Malta a “Mafia state.” But security officials otherwise stood by as protesters poured down a central shopping street, shouting denunciations of the police and government authorities for failing to protect the investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, and to rein in the corruption that she warned was gnawing away at Malta, the European Union’s smallest nation.
The rally, unusually large fora country with a population of only 430,000, drew mostly sympathizers of the opposition Nationalist Party, butit avoided partisan passions, sending instead a message of support for freedom of speechand disgust with the entire political elite.
WHO drops appointment
The World Health Organization has rescinded its appointment of Robert Mugabe, the longtime president of Zimbabwe, to a “goodwill ambassador” role.
WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement Sunday morning that he had “listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns” in making his decision.
The appointment had provoked global head-scratching and outrage because of Mr. Mugabe’s track record of human-rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on political dissent.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the U.S. State Department said “this appointment clearly contradicts the United Nations ideals of respect for human rights and human dignity.”
The unofficial response on Twitter was just as strong: “Who next, Kim Jong Un?” quipped one person, referring to the despotic president of North Korea.
Japan hit by typhoon
TOKYO — A powerful typhoon was heading toward Japan’s main islands early Monday, already bringing heavy rain to western Japan and slightly injuring at least five people.
Typhoon Lan, which had maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour, was on track to make landfall on the Pacific coast of central Japan before dawn Monday and continue northeast toward Tokyo.
Czech mogul’s triumph
Czech billionaire Andrej Babis hit his first obstacle to forming a new cabinet after dominating the country’s parliamentary elections Saturday, with potential coalition partners declining to join him in government as long as he’s facing criminal fraud charges.
After promising to run the state like a business, fight Muslim immigration and oppose deeper integration with the European Union, Mr. Babis’ ANO party won 29.6 percent of ballots.
Asthe second-richest Czech, Mr. Babis has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi.He took credit for one of thefastest economic expansions in the EU and the bloc’s lowest unemployment, but his opponents have accused him of conflicts of interest tied to his agriculture and media businesses.