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Protests flare for third night in Tunisia
TUNIS, Tunisia — Protesters clashed with police for a third-consecutive night in Tunisia after a journalist set himself on fire and died this week to denounce the economic problems engulfing the North African nation.
National Guard spokesman Housameddine Jebabli said Thursday that protests took place in six towns including Kasserine, in west-central Tunisia, where journalist Abderrazak Zorgui set himself ablaze this week.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sofiane Zaag said 14 people were arrested overnight, in addition to the 18 arrests announced Wednesday.
Protests started after Zorgui posted a video online before his self-immolation describing his desperation and calling for revolt. He expressed frustration at the country’s high unemployment and the unfulfilled promises of Tunisia’s 2011 Arab Spring revolution.
A similar self-immolation, by a street vendor lamenting unemployment, corruption and repression, led to nationwide protests fueled by social media that brought down Tunisia’s longtime authoritarian president in 2011. That ushered in democracy for Tunisia and unleashed similar movements around the Arab world.
Japan, China in row over boat sail-away
TOKYO — Japan said Thursday that it had protested to Beijing that a Chinese trawler suspected of poaching off Japan’s southern coast sailed away with Japanese inspectors on board. China disputed the boat had crossed the border to fish and said it was dissatisfied Japanese fisheries authorities went on board.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the boarding occurred Nov. 5 in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Kagoshima and Japan complained about the “vicious” case via diplomatic channels.
The incident surfaced more than 50 days after it occurred when Suga responded to a reporter’s question after a news report. Suga did not explain why nothing was released earlier and the Foreign Ministry declined to give further details.
Fisheries officials said about 10 Japanese officials boarded the trawler for inspection in Japan’s exclusive economic zone but the trawler kept sailing into intermediate waters.
The inspectors returned to their own ship after its half-day chase of the trawler, with the help of the Japanese coast guard. They had to let the Chinese trawler go since it by then had escaped the zone, Japanese officials said.
In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said at a news conference that Japan’s accusation the Chinese boat had crossed the border to fish was “not true” and that China expressed strong dissatisfaction on the boarding check conducted by Japanese fishery authorities.
Afghan bombing kills Pakistani militant
QUETTA, Pakistan — A separatist leader blamed for masterminding last month’s attack on a Chinese Consulate in Pakistan has been killed in a bombing in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials and the separatist group said Thursday.
Aslam Baloch, one of the leaders of the Baluch Liberation Army, and five of his associates were “martyred” in a blast, according to Jeeyand Baloch, a spokesman for the group. He did not provide further details. Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Baloch was killed Tuesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
Mohammad Yousof Younosi, a provincial council member from Kandahar, said six people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a house Tuesday in a wealthy subdivision of the city. He said the blast, which was a block away, blew out the windows of his home and several others in the neighborhood.
He said he knew one of the people killed, who hailed from Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, and had alerted authorities to their presence several weeks ago.
No one immediately claimed the attack. Several militant and separatist groups operate in Baluchistan.
Blast damages statue on Thailand beach
SONGKHLA, Thailand — Two small bombs exploded at a popular beach in southern Thailand, one of them damaging an iconic statue beloved by tourists, police said.
Police in Songkhla province said they’re looking into whether the bombs late Wednesday were related to a Muslim separatist insurgency that has wracked nearby provinces since 2004, taking almost 7,000 lives.
One of the explosions damaged the Golden Mermaid statue, which is an unofficial symbol of the province, said police Lt. Gen. Ronnasilp Phusara. The other took place about 300 yards away, near the beach’s Cat and Mouse sculpture.
Police said a bomb-disposal squad discovered and destroyed three other explosive devices found near a trash area and under rocks near the Golden Mermaid statue.
The insurgency has mostly affected the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, which have Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Songkhla, with a substantial Muslim population, has generally been spared the violence, though its biggest city, Hat Yai, has suffered several bombings.
A Section on 12/28/2018
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https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/dec/28/pope-john-paul-ii-s-shooter-visits-tomb/