Category: General

A monumental moment took place in Hong Kong Monday as an award-winning investigative journalist found guilty of deceiving the government won her appeal in a rare court ruling upholding media freedom in the Chinese territory.

Bao Choy was convicted in April 2021 after she gained access to vehicle ownership records for journalistic purposes despite stating in an online application that she would be using the information for “other traffic transport related issues,” according to The Associated Press.

At the time, Choy was working on a documentary about a mob attack on protesters commuters inside a train station during the anti-government protests in 2019, was trying to track down the perpetrators.

She was also fined 6,000 Hong Kong Dollars ($765) for two counts of making false statements, prompting her to describe the ruling as “a very dark day for all journalists in Hong Kong” sparking outrage over the city’s shrinking press freedom.

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On Monday, the city’s top court unanimously ruled in her favor in a written judgment – overturning Choy’s conviction slashing her sentence.

“The issues of falsity knowledge were wrongly decided against the appellant because her journalistic investigation into the use of the vehicle on the dates in question did fall into the wide catchall category of ‘other traffic transport related matters’,” the judgment read.

The judges also wrote Choy’s use for the records was “not an irresistible inference that she knew that to be false,” even if it didn’t fall into the catchall category.

Choy told reporters outside the court she was not only happy that she won her appeal, but that the judgment recognized the importance of the city’s constitutionally protected freedom of press speech.

“Over the last few years, we might have found that many things have disappeared quietly,” she said via The AP. “But I believe our beliefs in our hearts can’t be taken away that easily. No matter I win or lose today, the persistence (demonstrated) over the last few years is already a meaningful thing.”

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The documentary in question, “7.21 Who Owns The Truth,” was co-produced by Choy ultimately won the Chinese-language documentary award at the Human Rights Press Awards in 2021. Judges deemed the film “an investigative reporting classic,” honoring it for chasing the “smallest clues” and”interrogating the powerful without fear or favor.”

In the crackdown on dissent following the anti-government protests of 2019, vocal media outlets Apple Daily StNews have been forced to close, some of their top managers have been prosecuted, the AP reported.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is facing collusion charges under the national security law enacted in 2020 two former StNews editors are charged under a colonial-era sedition law used to silence critical voices.

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Hong Kong returned to China’s rule in 1997 after nearly 150 years as a British colony. Critics of the occupation say Beijing’s promise that it would keep the city’s freedoms is dwindling, especially after the establishment of the national security law.

Hong Kong ranked 140th out of 180 countries territories in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index released in May.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

China’s defense minister on Sunday conceded that a war between China the United States would be an “unbearable disaster for the world” stressed the need for both sides to improve relations that are “at a record low.” 

The comments from Gen. Li Shangfu, his first since becoming defense minister in March, came during the Shangri-La Dialogue, a gathering of some of the world’s top defense officials in Singapore. 

“History has proven time again that both China the United States will benefit from cooperation lose from confrontation,” he said.

“China seeks to develop a new type of major-country relationship with the United States. As for the U.S. side, it needs to act with sincerity, match its words with deeds, take concrete actions together with China to stabilize the relations prevent further deterioration.” 

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Still, Li defended China for sailing a warship across the path of an American destroyer Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait, called so-called “freedom of navigation” patrols a provocation to China.

Li said China doesn’t have any problems with “innocent passage” but that “we must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation (patrols), that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the same forum Saturday that Washington would not “flinch in the face of bullying or coercion” from China would continue regularly sailing through flying over the Taiwan Strait the South China Sea to emphasize they are international waters, countering Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims.

That same day a U.S. guided-missile destroyer a Canadian frigate were intercepted by a Chinese warship in the strait dividing the self-governed islof Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, mainlChina. The Chinese vessel overtook the American ship then veered across its bow at a distance of 150 yards in an “unsafe manner,” according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

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The incident came less than two weeks after the U.S. has said a Chinese J-16 fighter jet intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, flying directly in front of the plane’s nose.

Those previous incidents have raised concerns about a possible accident occurring that could lead to an escalation between the two nations at a time when tensions are already high.

Li has been under American sanctions that are part of a broad package of measures against Russia — but predate its invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed in 2018 over Li’s involvement in China’s purchase of combat aircraft anti-aircraft missiles from Moscow.

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The U.S. has noted that since 2021 China has declined or failed to respond to more than a dozen requests from the U.S. Defense Department to talk with senior leaders, as well as multiple requests for standing dialogues working-level engagements.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Nearly 80 young girls in Afghanistan were poisoned in two separate attacks over the weekend, according to a local education official. 

The attacks were said to have taken place in the northern Sar-e-Pul province over Saturday Sunday.  

Mohammad Rahmani, who heads the provincial education department, told The Associated Press that female students, in grades 1 through 6, were poisoned in Sangcharak district. He said 60 students were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab School 17 others were poisoned in Naswan-e-Faizabad School

“Both primary schools are near to each other were targeted one after the other,” he told The Associated Press. “We shifted the students to hospital now they are all fine.”

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The department’s investigation is ongoing initial inquiries show that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani said, without elaborating. He gave no information on how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries. 

It is thought to be the first time this kind of assault has happened since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021 began their crackdown on the rights freedoms of Afghan women girls.

Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade, including university, women are barred from most jobs public spaces.

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The attack has recalled a wave of poisonings in neighboring Iran targeting school-age girls, dating back to November. Thousands of students said they were sickened by noxious fumes in the incidents. But there has been no word on who might be behind the incidents or what — if any — chemicals have been used. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Indian officials said Sunday a signaling error is at fault for a train derailment that killed at least 275 people injured hundreds of others. 

In what has proven to be one of the deadliest rail disasters in decades, two passenger trains derailed Friday night in the Balasore district in the state of Odisha. 

Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said preliminary investigations reveal that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line. The signal later changed, the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore.

The collision flipped Coromandel Express’s coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side also to derail, Verma said. The passenger trains were carrying nearly 2,300 people in total. 

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Verma said the root cause of the crash was related to an error in the electronic signaling system, a safety mechanism designed to prevent conflicting movements between trains. It also monitors the status of signals that tell drivers how close they are to the next train, how fast they can go the presence of stationary trains on the track.

It’s unclear at this time whether the error was human or technical.

Authorities worked through the weekend to clear the mangled wreckage of Friday night’s disaster. By Sunday, a few shattered carriages were the only remnants of the tragedy. 

Meanwhile, many desperate relatives were struggling to identify the bodies of their loved ones. Few others were searching hospitals to check whether their relatives were alive.

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Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening efforts continued overnight with heavy cranes being used to remove an engine that settled on top of a rail car. No bodies were found in the engine the work was completed on Sunday morning, officials said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Two Italian professional soccer players may face charges for their roles in allegedly raping an American woman after a night out in Milan.

Mattia Lucarelli Federico Apolloni, both 23, will face a preliminary hearing later this month over their alleged participation in a March 2022 rape of a 22-year-old American woman, according to a report from The Sun, which cited Italian media.

Both players have strongly denied the accusations.

The alleged incident took place at an apartment in Milan, where authorities said the American woman, who has not been identified, was deceived into going after being offered a ride from a group that included the soccer players. Once in the apartment, the woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by the two players three others.

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Prosecutors are seeking sexual assault charges against the soccer players three of the friends who allegedly participated in the rape.

According to the report, a months-long investigation piecing together videos from the players’ cellphones resulted in the accusations.

Apolloni, who plays for Livorno, Lucarelli, a member of Serie D side Follonica, were placed on house arrest over the case ordered not to leave their homes between the hours of 8 p.m. 8 a.m., though that order was later revoked by the Court of Review.

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The State Department U.S. Embassy in Milan could not be immediately reached for comment on the case.