Around the world
North America The United States has warned Beijing about Chinese agents it says are operating secretly in the US to pressure fugitives to return to China, the New York Times has reported. Citing unnamed US officials, the New York Times said the effort, part of Beijing’s global man hunt dubbed Operation Fox Hunt, sought to repatriate fugitives wanted for corruption and other misdeeds and recover illicit funds. In recent weeks, the US State Department issued a warning to Chinese officials to halt these activities. The complaints come before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington next month. The newspaper said the agents, working undercover for China’s Ministry of Public Security, were most likely entering the country on tourism or trade visas. Their strongarm tactics include threats to family members. More than 930 suspects around the world have been repatriated to China since last year under the programme, the New York Times said, citing the Ministry of Public Security.
A US Army skydiver who had served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan died yesterday from injuries suffered in a midair collision with another jumper during a stunt at the Chicago Air & Water Show, authorities said. Corey Hood of Cincinnati, Ohio, 32, served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife, Lyndsay. Latin America Hundreds of thousands of protesters have demanded Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s resignation. They blame her and the leftist Workers’ Party for runaway corruption and looming recession. Crowds chanting “Dilma out!” paraded through the capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo and elsewhere across Brazil. The G1 news site reported the latest police estimate for turnout to be 866,000 in dozens of cities and towns. Organisers claimed a total of 1.9 million. Less than a year into her second term, Rousseff is all but a lame duck, with the opposition considering controversial impeachment proceedings, and the country’s elite caught in a vast embezzlement scandal centred on state-oil company Petrobras. Asia/Oceania Police in northeastern Bangladesh are seeking charges against 13 men for beating a 13-year-old boy to death in a case that stunned the nation because a video of the boy being tortured was posted online. Detective Inspector Suranjit Talukdar sent the charges to a court in Sylhet city involving the case of Samiul Islam Rajon, who died of internal bleeding. The attackers allegedly punished him after accusing him of stealing a bicycle. The court will decide on the next course of action. A 28-minute video of the beating of the boy, who cried for help, went viral online, triggering protests. His body bore at least 64 injury marks, according to an autopsy report.
Two suicide attackers have killed a Pakistani provincial minister, who had campaigned against militants, and at least 15 other people, after detonating a bomb at a meeting the minister was attending. Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada, 71, had been holding a meeting with local people. He was trapped with several others under the rubble after the blast brought down the roof of the building in the village of Shadi Khan in Attock district.
Residents are calling for a Sydney
Ideputy mayor to be sacked after he blocked an entire street in the city’s inner west for his extravagant wedding. Nearly one thousand people have signed the petition which argues the millionaire property developer and Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer “treated the community with great disrespect”. Mehajer hired four helicopters to land in a local park, while his fiancee Aysha travelled with a motorcade of motorbikes and luxury cars worth A$50 million, when they tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Lidcombe on Saturday. Supporters signed the #SackSalimMehajer petition after they were informed last Tuesday in a letter-box drop that the street had to be cleared of all vehicles on Saturday or they would be towed at their expense. Auburn City Council released a statement that said the road closure was not authorised although a partial closure and the helicopter landing had been approved. Mehajer, 29, told KIIS radio station he “doesn’t think they’ve done anything wrong”. A NSW police spokesman said: “The matter is subject to an ongoing police investigation”. Europe Research has revealed the devastating effect that Mafia activity has had on Italy’s economy. Paolo Pinotti, an economics professor at Bocconi University in Milan, has studied the effects of various Mafia organisations in the southern Italian regions of Puglia and Basilicata. His research shows that, since the “mafia wars” of the mid-1970s, which saw an influx of criminal organisations into the southeast of the country, the homicide rate quadrupled in the two regions while their growth rates fell from the highest in the country to the lowest. Comparing Puglia and Basilicata with the other regions in southern Italy, Pinotti’s research, published in Economic Journal, calculates that organised crime was responsible for a 20 per cent fall in their economic output, or GDP, between the mid-1970s and mid2000s. Middle East Egyptian President Abdel-fattah alSisi has ratified an anti-terrorism law which stipulates exorbitant fines, and possible suspension from employment, for “false” reporting on militant attacks. The controversial law, published in the official gazette, sets a minimum fine of 200,000