NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Dissent crackdown:
A court in northern Vietnam sentenced a dissident to 13 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government. He was the seventh activist to be jailed in the past week as Communist authorities step up a crackdown on dissent. Nguyen Van Tuc, 54, was convicted of affiliating with an outlawed group named Brotherhood for Democracy in a half-day trial at the People’s Court in Thai Binh province. Despite sweeping economic reforms since the mid-1980s that opened the country to foreign trade and investment and made it one of fastest-growing economies in the region, Communist-ruled Vietnam maintains tight controls on almost all aspects of society, including the media and religion.
2 Thousands detained:
Libyan militias, including some affiliated with authorities, are holding thousands of prisoners in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention that includes torture, the United Nations said Tuesday. Men, women and children across the country have been rounded up based on “tribal or family links and perceived political affiliations,” and held with “little or no recourse to judicial remedy or reparations,” while armed groups roam free with impunity, the organization said in its report. Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew and killed longtime ruler Moammar Khadafy. Today the country is ruled by rival governments in the capital, Tripoli, and in the east, each backed by a loose array of militias.
3 Aid workers killed:
The United Nations says two aid workers have been killed in separate attacks over the weekend in civil war-torn South Sudan. A statement says armed men shot at a “clearly marked” aid vehicle near Bentiu town in Unity state, killing a local worker with the Hope Restoration organization. And a local worker with the UNIDO organization was killed near Leer town in Unity state. South Sudan is one of the world’s most dangerous places for aid workers, with at least 98 killed since fighting began in December 2013.
4 Liquor deaths:
Indonesian authorities say at least two dozen people have died in the past day from drinking toxic bootleg liquor, raising the toll to 82 this month and highlighting how attempts to curb legal alcohol have tragically backfired. National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said Tuesday that the latest information shows 51 died in West Java in the past several days on top of the 31 who died in the capital, Jakarta, and satellite cities earlier in the month. High taxes on alcohol have spawned a black market for booze among the poor in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where drinking alcohol is discouraged but not illegal.
5 Oldest man:
Masazo Nonaka, whose family has run a hot springs inn for four generations, was certified Tuesday as the world’s oldest living man, at age 112 years, 259 days. Nonaka received the certificate from Guinness World Records in a ceremony at his home in Ashoro, on Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido. The 105-yearold inn is now run by his granddaughter. He is one of about 67,800 centenarians in Japan, the fastest-aging country in the world, with the highest average life expectancy — 80.98 for men and 87.14 for women, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. A 117-year-old Japanese woman, Nabi Tajima, who is currently the oldest living person in Japan, is expected to be certified as the world’s oldest person.