China’s Xi to secure third term as president, brushes off crises

BEIJING Xi Jinping will secure a third term as China’s president at a rubber-stamp parliament that starts this weekend, enjoying unchallengeable status despite criticism over his handling of Covid and the economy.

Xi is certain to be reappointed as president after he locked in another five years as head of the Communist Party (CCP) and the military — the two more significant leadership positions in Chinese politics — in October.

Since then, 69-year-old Xi has faced unexpected challenges and scrutiny over his leadership, with mass protests over his zero-Covid policy and its subsequent abandonment that saw countless people die.

But those issues are almost certain to be avoided at the National People’s Congress (NPC), a carefully choreographed event that will also see the unveiling of an ally of Xi as the new premier.

Starting on Sunday, the NPC is expected to last around 10 days and culminate with Xi’s presidency being endorsed by the 3,000 delegates casting votes in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

“Public opinion is probably not very good about him — zero-Covid has damaged people’s faith,” said Alfred Muluan Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Yet Xi still enjoys a “pretty strong” position at the top of the party that makes him virtually unchallengeable, Wu said.

China maintained some of the world’s strictest Covid curbs until late last year, pounding growth and social life under

Lawyer found guilty of killing wife, son

WASHINGTON a constant barrage of testing mandates, quarantines, and travel restrictions that Xi himself championed.

A US jury on Thursday found disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and son on their hunting estate in a trial that has drawn global attention.

Public resentment exploded in November into the most widespread public demonstrations for decades, followed by the rapid dismantling of the policy and a maelstrom of infections and deaths that went mostly unreported by authorities.

The country is still tentatively emerging from the outbreak, after three years in which business, employment and even education were subjugated to the government’s demand to shut out the virus at any cost. AFP

WAGON DEBRIS.

UNITED NATIONS — The world cannot recover from a spate of crises if its poorest nations are forgotten, the UN envoy for the least developed countries told Agence FrancePresse AFP ahead of a key summit.

The 1.2 billion people that comprise the planet’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs) are “possibly bearing the heaviest brunt” of coronavirus, climate catastrophes and Russia’s war in Ukraine, said Rabab Fatima.

“The Covid-19 pandemic took back the development progress, especially on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the LDCs by a decade or more,” said the Bangladeshi diplomat, making a plea ahead of a conference on their development in Doha starting this weekend.

“If we really want to turn the tide, and to see to it that they can be brought back onto track to achieve the SDGs, especially in this final decade of action, we have to invest more efforts and resources to the LDCs,” added the high representative.

UN member states adopted 17 SDGs in 2015, including the aim of achieving food security, eliminating poverty, and providing access to clean and affordable energy by 2030.

“There can be no sustainable recovery, there can be no Agenda 2030 to celebrate in 2030, if those who are furthest behind are left behind,” said Fatima.

While she hopes traditional donor countries will come to Doha with “concrete commitments,” she emphasizes that it is in poorer countries’ interest not to be so dependent on official aid.

We need to “support them in building the resilience against future such shocks,” Fatima insisted.

The fifth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries runs from March 5 to 9.

The aim is to “build the structure and capacity of the LDCs themselves so that the aid dependence can be reduced (and) their capacity for trade and investment, enhanced,” Fatima said, giving the example of her native Bangladesh. - ‘Potential’ -

“It has now been able to achieve food security (and) grow enough rice, food to feed 165 million people. They have moved into services and manufacturing and have emerged as the second largest exporter of readymade garments in the world after China,” she noted. AFP

PORT VILA, Vanuatu — The Pacific nation of Vanuatu was under a state of emergency

Friday, after two earthquakes and two cyclones hit in as many days. As the country cleared roads and restored power lines cut by Cyclone Judy, residents were jolted early Friday by twin earthquakes and told to hunker down for a second approaching storm -- Cyclone Kevin.

“It’s crazy, Vanuatu is used to natural disasters, but I think this is the first time it has had two cyclones back to back,” UNICEF’s Eric Durpaire told AFP. Authorities have reported no casualties from Cyclone Judy, which tore off roofs, flooded roads and uprooted countless trees. Hundreds of people remain in emergency evacuation centres in the capital Port Vila, according to police, and some parts of the capital have been without power for two days. No casualties were immediately reported

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian court acquitted jailed former prime minister Najib Razak of a corruption charge on Friday but he will continue to serve a 12year prison term from another case. High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said state prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case that Najib tampered with an official audit report on scandal-wracked state fund 1MDB for his benefit.

Najib’s co-accused, former 1MDB chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy, was also acquitted.

“The first accused (Arul Kanda) is discharged and acquitted from the charge. The second accused (Najib) is discharged and acquitted against the charge made against him,” the judge said in court.

The charge dismissed Friday — which carried up to 20 years in jail on

Police and emergency crews examine the debris of a crushed wagon on the second day after a train accident in the Tempi Valley near Larissa, Greece, March 2. At least 46 people were killed and another 85 injured after a collision between two trains caused a derailment near the Greek city of Larissa late at night on February 28, authorities said. AFP

Scion of an elite South Carolina family of judges and attorneys, Murdaugh, 54, was described as having killed his son Paul with a shotgun and his wife Maggie with the assault rifle Paul used for hunting wild pigs on the family’s sprawling property.

Following the reading of the verdict, which the jury reached after less than three hours, the defence requested a mistrial which Judge Clifton Newman quickly denied.

“The evidence of guilt is overwhelming,” Newman said.

Murdaugh, who wore a blazer and showed little emotion, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, concluding a complex case that has often touched on the bizarre.

The jury heard how Murdaugh murdered his family members on June 7, 2021 after realizing his years of stealing millions from his law firm and from clients to feed his hidden opioid addiction was about to go public. AFP

Massive fire engulfs HK high-rise build site

HONG KONG — A skyscraper under construction in the heart of a historic Hong Kong shopping and tourist district was left scorched on Friday by a massive fire, with authorities saying the blaze had been largely extinguished.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw blackened concrete walls and the tattered remains of bamboo-and-tarpaulin scaffolding around the building on Friday morning, as municipal workers swept roads clean of debris. Officials said the fire in Tsim Sha Tsui on the city’s harbourfront was “largely put out” by 8:30 am local time (00:30 GMT) on Friday, nine hours after it first erupted.

A major section of the neighbourhood’s Nathan Road thoroughfare — one of Hong Kong’s main transport lifelines — had been shut, authorities said, causing traffic disruptions. No casualties were reported with two people treated for minor injuries, the fire department said. Police told AFP that 170 people from nearby residential blocks were relocated to a safe distance as embers fell to the ground.

AFP from Friday’s 6.5 and 5.4 magnitude quakes. But the situation on outlying islands remained unclear.

“People on (Espiritu) Santo felt the earthquake, but couldn’t go outside to assess the damage because of the high winds,” Dickinson Tevi, secretary general of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society told AFP.

“They told me they didn’t sleep well as the earthquake hit when they were already awake from the cyclone.” AFP conviction — focused on allegations that Najib used his position to order a report on the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund by the government’s official audit body to be altered in February 2016.

The changes were aimed at exonerating him from any criminal liability, according to the charge. He was allegedly assisted by Arul Kanda, who was president and chief executive of the fund at the time. AFP

US, EU pledge billions in ocean aid at int’l gab

PANAMA CITY — A global conference to save the world’s oceans kicked off Thursday in Panama with urgent calls to adopt an international protection treaty, along with billions of dollars in US and EU pledges for research, monitoring and conservation.

Political and business leaders, environmental activists and academics at the two-day conference are grappling with how best to address a multitude of threats facing the oceans — from climate change and pollution to overfishing and mining.

The Our Ocean Conference is “so incredibly important because it is a conference that is focused on action, not on talk. It’s about real commitments and real solutions,” White House climate envoy John Kerry said at the meeting’s opening.

The former secretary of state announced US commitments of nearly $6 billion across 77 projects to protect the high seas in 2023, including technical cooperation to facilitate “green shipping corridors”. AFP

PHNOM PENH — A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced top opposition leader Kem Sokha to 27 years in jail for treason, in a case rights groups say is politically motivated. Kem Sokha was the joint founder of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party and has long been a foe of Hun Sen — Asia’s longest-serving leader.

“Kem Sokha... is sentenced to 27 years in prison on the charge of collusion with foreigners committed in Cambodia and other places,” Judge Koy Sao said at the court in Phnom Penh. Immediately after the verdict, the 69-year-old was placed under house arrest, where he will be banned from meeting anyone who is not a family member.

He has one month to appeal the conviction and jail sentence, Ang Udom, a lawyer for Kem Sokha told reporters. The court also stripped him of his right to vote and barred him from running for political office.

Arrested in 2017 in a midnight swoop involving hundreds of security forces, Kem Sokha was accused of hatching a “secret plan” in collusion with foreign entities to topple the government of longtime ruler Hun Sen. He has repeatedly denied the charges against him.

Critics say Hun Sen has wound back democratic freedoms and used the courts to stifle opponents, jailing scores of opposition activists and human rights defenders. AFP

SCHOOL CLASH. Demonstrating students and university security clash as they attempt to gain entry to the Great Hall at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg on March 2. The students were protesting what they allege is a lack of adequate support from the university for unhoused students and those with outstanding fees. AFP