NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Kashmir attack: Unidentified assailants fatally shot a proIndia politician in Kashmir along with his father and brother, police said, in the first major attack against members of India’s ruling party in the disputed region. Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir for the attack late Wednesday. Militants fired at Sheikh Wasim Bari, a leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in northwestern Bandipora town, police said. No rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack. Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, with tens of thousands of lives lost, including civilians, militants and government forces.
2 Protest law: Demonstrations are being planned in Athens and around 40 other Greek cities and towns to oppose plans by the centerright government to restrict public protests. Many of the rallies planned for later Thursday have been backed by the Greek Communist Party, while labor unions and Greece’s leftwing main opposition party have also organized rallies. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ yearold conservative government says it is determined to stop small protest gatherings from disrupting traffic and commercial activity.
3 Dog meat: The Cambodian province that is home to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex, a major destination for foreign tourists, has outlawed the trade in dog meat, which animal rights activists have said is rife in the area. The authorities in Siem Reap province issued an order Monday banning the buying, selling and butchering of dogs for food. The trade remains legal in other parts of the country. A recent report by two animal welfare groups estimated that 2 million to 3 million dogs are killed annually in Cambodia for their meat, and that the Siem Reap region is a major source of supply of the animals, which are sometimes stolen pets. Older Cambodians generally shun eating dog meat because they believe it can bring bad luck, but it has become a minor fashion among younger people. Neighboring Vietnam is better known for the practice.
4 Extremism report: Germany recorded a significant rise in the number of rightwing extremists last year, after security agencies added thousands of members of the country’s main farright party to the count. An annual report on extremism in Germany released Thursday estimates the number of rightwing extremists in the country at 32,080 last year. This is an increase of almost 8,000 compared with the figure of 24,100 recorded in 2018. The report, released by the BfV domestic intelligence agency, includes for the first time around 7,000 members of the Alternative for Germany party’s youth section and a radical faction known as The Wing. Both have come under heightened scrutiny from the BfV because of their perceived extremist tendencies. The number of farleft extremists increased by 1,500 to 33,500 last year, the report says.
5 China sanctions: The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, including a member of the ruling Politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities that China has detained in the western part of the country. The decision to bar these senior officials from entering the U.S. is the latest of a series of actions the Trump administration has taken against China as relations deteriorate over the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, Hong Kong and trade. Just a day earlier, the administration announced visa bans against officials deemed responsible for barring foreigners’ access to Tibet. Thursday’s step, however, hits a more senior level of leadership and is likely to draw a harsh response from Beijing.
Chronicle News Services