NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Bomb plot: An Iranian diplomat suspected of involvement in a bomb plot against an Iranian opposition rally in France was charged in Germany on Wednesday with activity as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit murder. Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat, is suspected of contracting a couple in Belgium to attack an annual meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in Villepinte, near Paris, German federal prosecutors said. He allegedly gave the Antwerp-based couple a device containing 500 grams of the explosive TATP during a meeting in Luxembourg in late June, prosecutors said in a written statement.
2 Lethal mudslide: A mudslide triggered by monsoon rains demolished tinroofed homes on a hillside in northeastern India, killing at least eight children and one woman while they were sleeping, a government official said Wednesday. Some of them were swept away by the floodwaters. Rescuers have reached Tamenglong village to help other residents, said Deputy Commissioner Ravinder Singh. The village in Manipur state is nearly 375 miles south of Assam’s state capital, Gauhati. The June-September monsoon season often brings heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides to India.
3 Social media tax: Ugandan police on Wednesday used tear gas and bullets to break up a street protest against a new tax targeting social media users. Two protesters were arrested in downtown Kampala, the capital, after a scuffle in which some policemen were assaulted, said Luke Owoyesigire, a spokesman for Kampala police. The protest was organized by a popular lawmaker, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a pop star who is one a group of singers who say the tax will have negative impact on the marketing of their music. Since July 1, social media users have been paying upfront a daily tax of 5 cents to access all social media websites and apps, including WhatsApp. The new levy is in addition to the usual data fees.
4 Rights activist imprisoned: China on Wednesday sentenced a veteran pro-democracy campaigner to 13 years in prison on vaguely defined subversion charges, one day after releasing the widow of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate after eight years of house arrest. The People’s Intermediate Court in the central city of Wuhan announced the sentencing of Qin Yongmin, whose activism dates back four decades. No further details were given and it was not immediately clear who was representing Qin in court. On Tuesday, authorities allowed Liu Xia, wife of the late Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, to depart for Germany in response to what the Chinese Foreign Ministry called her own request to receive medical treatment. Liu had been held under house arrest since late 2010. Qin’s sentencing, however, underscores China’s hard line against anyone challenging the ruling Communist Party, which under leader Xi Jinping has launched the most sweeping crackdown on civil rights in years.
5 Royal visit: Hundreds of well-wishers turned out to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry and his wife, the former actress Meghan Markle, as they made their first overseas walkabout in Dublin Wednesday. Students and tourists flocked to the Irish capital’s Trinity College, screaming and shouting to greet the royal couple, who were on their first official trip abroad as a married couple. Harry said he hoped to take the opportunity to reflect on the “difficult passages” in the history between Britain and Ireland.
Chronicle News Services