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   rthk.hk - Express News: World News
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   https://news.rthk.hk
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   rthk.hk - Express News: World News
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   en
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  <copyright>
   Radio Television Hong Kong
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   webmaster@rthk.hk (webmaster)
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  <pubDate>
   Sun, 26 May 2024 17:20:24 +0800
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   Sun, 26 May 2024 15:19:18 +0800
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   News
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    rthk.hk - Express News: World News
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    https://news.rthk.hk
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   <title>
    Trump vows to free 'dark web' drug kingpin
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754743-20240526.htm
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    <![CDATA[Donald Trump appealed for support from the fringe Libertarian Party on Saturday, telling a rowdy crowd that if elected he would free from prison an American man who ran a website that sold millions of dollars in drugs.

The announcement came at a contentious speech -- where the crowd often jeered and booed the ex-president -- at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, as he seeks support in the November US election against incumbent Joe Biden.

"If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht," Trump said, in a line that brought the rowdy crowd over to his side as cheers erupted from the audience.

He also vowed to put a libertarian in his cabinet.

In 2015, Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of masterminding the Silk Road "dark web" marketplace, which sold US$200 million in drugs to customers across the world.

Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts" and was also accused of commissioning five murders at a cost of US$650,000, was sentenced to two life sentences for narcotics distribution and criminal enterprise.

His case has become a famous cause in libertarian circles, who have decried the conviction as government overreach and against the principles of free markets.

Trump has previously vowed to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers.

While the promise to free Ulbricht brought cheers, Trump's speech was far from the usual lovefest he presides over at his rallies, which typically attract hardcore supporters.

The conservative was variously booed as he tried to make common cause with the libertarians in the audience, many of whom view his policies as outside their extremely limited scope of what the government should be able to do.

"The Libertarian Party should nominate Trump for president of the United States," he said to a mix of cheers and boos.

"Only if you want to win. Maybe you don't want to win," Trump said as he at times sparred with the audience.

The speech came after Trump rolled the dice on Thursday by making a campaign stop in deeply Democratic New York, seeking to woo Black and Latino voters whose support for Biden has shown signs of faltering.

"If you want to compete for untraditional votes, you have to take risks," Trump advisor Jason Miller told news outlet Semafor.

The Libertarian Party routinely runs minor candidates that promote both popular limited-government ideas like marijuana legalization while simultaneously pushing fringe ideas like abolishing the federal tax collection agency or social security.

Its candidates have never posed serious threats in presidential elections.

If they weren't interested in mixing it up by endorsing Trump, they were free to "keep getting your three percent every four years," he said. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sun, 26 May 2024 15:19:18 +0800
   </pubDate>
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   <title>
    Mexico's capital bakes under searing heat
   </title>
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    <![CDATA[Mexico City, which is in the midst of a heatwave, recorded its highest-ever temperature on Saturday as thermostats hit 34.7 degrees Celsius, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN).

The record high was recorded on Saturday afternoon at the Tacubaya observatory, the SMN said, after thermometers in the capital reached an earlier record of 34.3 degrees Celsius on May 9.

Scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico warned on Wednesday that in the next two weeks intensifying heat could bring new record temperatures to the city.

The country has recorded 48 deaths due to intense heatwaves hitting the country since March, the government said on Friday.

The eastern coastal state of Veracruz recorded the highest number of deaths, with 14, followed by Tabasco, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas with eight each.

Last year, Mexico reported a record 419 heat-related deaths in the hot season, which runs from March to October, in a country of 129 million people. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sun, 26 May 2024 13:38:44 +0800
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   <title>
    US rapper Nicki Minaj freed after Netherlands arrest
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754715-20240526.htm
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    <![CDATA[US rapper Nicki Minaj was detained at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on suspicion of possessing soft drugs before being released with a fine, Dutch media reported on Saturday.

The singer was due to perform a show in Britain later on Saturday and posted images on social media of her being questioned by officials.

Police confirmed that they had detained a 41-year-old American woman but declined to confirm directly that it was Minaj, as per their usual policy.

"We never confirm the identity of a person in custody but I can confirm we have arrested a 41-year-old woman suspected of trying to export soft drugs to another country," said Robert Kapel, a military police spokesman.

Kapel later said the suspect had been released after the payment of a "reasonable" fine.

"There's no reason for us to keep her in custody any longer. We have all the information for our file. Case closed," he said.

The rapper posted on X that authorities told her they had found cannabis in her luggage, which she said belonged to her security personnel.

"Keep in mind they took my bags without consent. My security has already advised them those pre-rolls belong to him," she wrote on X, referring to marijuana joints.

"Now they said I have to go five mins away to make a statement about my security to the police precinct," she said. "It's to try to make me late so that they can write negative stories."

Her concert in Manchester scheduled for Saturday night had to be postponed. Promoter Live Nation said the performance will be rescheduled and tickets will be honoured.

A common misconception outside the Netherlands is that dope is legal in the country, home to world-famous coffee shops (which actually sell pot) that are a huge draw for cannabis smokers.

The consumption of small quantities of cannabis is technically illegal but police choose not to enforce the law as part of a "tolerance" policy in place since the 1970s.

Transporting the drugs to another country is illegal. (AFP/AP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sun, 26 May 2024 06:42:12 +0800
   </pubDate>
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   <title>
    Russian strikes on Kharkiv DIY store kill 4 people
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754708-20240526.htm
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    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754708-20240526.htm
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    <![CDATA[Russia on Saturday bombed a hardware superstore in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least four people and wounding 38, Ukraine officials said, in an attack condemned as "vile" by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said "unfortunately there are already four dead" and "38 wounded" after two guided Russian bombs hit the store.

Two of those killed "were men who worked in the hypermarket," Synegubov said earlier in a video posted on Telegram.

Thick black smoke billowed from the gutted building of the Epitsentr DIY superstore in the northeastern outskirts of the city, as firefighters sprayed water on a blaze sparked by the strikes.

Still wearing her uniform, Lyubov, a cleaner at the hypermarket told how she escaped the building.

"It happened all of a sudden. We didn't understand at first, everything went dark and everything started falling on our heads," she said.

"It was good that my phone lit up, thanks to the flashlight I found where to go, but in front of us everything was burning already."

The Epitsentr chain sells household and DIY goods.

"As of now, we know that more than 200 people could have been inside the hypermarket," Zelensky said on Telegram, condemning the daylight attack on an "obviously civilian" target.

Russia's TASS state news agency cited a security source as claiming that a missile strike destroyed a "military store and command post" inside the shopping centre.

The regional governor said there was "no contact with some of the staff" and "according to our information, visitors could still be in the building."

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, is just a few dozen kilometres from the border and regularly comes under attack from Russian missiles. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sun, 26 May 2024 03:49:08 +0800
   </pubDate>
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   <title>
    At least 24 dead, mostly children, in India fire
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754703-20240526.htm
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    <![CDATA[At least 24 people were killed, most of them children, when a fire broke out at a packed amusement park arcade in India on Saturday, officials said.

Footage posted on social media showed a ferocious blaze engulfing a temporary structure, with black smoke pouring into the sky.

Prabhav Joshi, the district collector of Rajkot, in the western state of Gujarat, said that 24 people had died in the inferno, "mostly children," and another half-dozen were hospitalised.

"The police have detained four persons associated with the game zone for questioning," he said. "We are trying to get more details about the owners of the facility."

More than 300 people were in the two-storey structure at the TRP amusement and theme park when the blaze broke out as it was a summer holiday weekend, Rajkot fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters.

"People got trapped as a temporary structure at the facility collapsed near the entrance, making it difficult for the people to come out," he said.

The flames spread rapidly because of its flammable material, he added.

Pictures from the scene showed a corrugated metal structure largely in ruins.

Gujarat is the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who posted on X: "Extremely distressed by the fire mishap in Rajkot. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. Prayers for the injured."

It took nearly an hour to douse the fire, with about a dozen ambulances carrying the injured to hospital.

Fire department officials said a short-circuit was suspected as the cause and police at the site said the bodies of the dead were heavily burned, making identification difficult.

Pictures from an Instagram account that appears to belong to the facility show a lively gaming and recreational centre, with teenagers enjoying activities such as bowling, go-karting and trampolining. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sun, 26 May 2024 02:36:40 +0800
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  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Nasa launches ground-breaking climate change satellite
   </title>
   <guid>
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    <![CDATA[A tiny NASA satellite was launched on Saturday from New Zealand with the mission of improving climate change prediction by measuring heat escaping from Earth's poles for the first time.

"This new information – and we've never had it before – will improve our ability to model what's happening in the poles, what's happening in climate," Nasa's earth sciences research director Karen St Germain told a recent news conference.

The satellite, which is the size of a shoe box, was launched by an Electron rocket, built by a company called Rocket Lab, which lifted off from Mahia in the north of New Zealand. The overall mission is called Prefire.

The company is later to launch a similar satellite of its own.

They will serve to take infrared measurements far above the Arctic and Antarctic so as to measure directly the heat that the poles release into space.

"This is critical because it actually helps to balance the excess heat that's received in the tropical regions and really regulate the earth's temperature," said Tristan L'Ecuyer, a mission researcher affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"And the process of getting the heat from the tropical regions to the polar regions is actually what drives all of our weather around the planet," he added.

With Prefire, Nasa aims to understand how clouds, humidity or the melting of ice into water affects this heat loss from the poles.

Until now the models that climate change scientists used to gauge heat loss were based on theories rather than real observations, said L'Ecuyer.

"Hopefully we'll be able to improve our ability to simulate what sea level rise might look like in the future and also how the polar climate change is going to affect the weather systems around the planet," he added.

Small satellites like this one are a low-cost way to answer very specific scientific questions, said St Germain.

Larger satellites can be thought of as "generalists" and the small ones as "specialists," she added.

"NASA needs both," said St Germain. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 22:47:50 +0800
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  </item>
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   <title>
    Israel 'intends' to renew Gaza talks 'this week'
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754689-20240525.htm
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    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754689-20240525.htm
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    <![CDATA[An Israeli official said on Saturday the government had an "intention" to renew "this week" talks aimed at reaching a hostage release deal in Gaza, after a meeting in Paris between US and Israeli officials.

"There is an intention to renew the talks this week and there is an agreement," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli official did not elaborate on the agreement, but Israeli media reported that Mossad chief David Barnea had agreed during meetings in Paris with mediators CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on a new framework for the stalled negotiations.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said.

Talks aimed at reaching a hostage release and truce deal in the Gaza Strip ground to a halt this month after Israel launched a military operation in the territory's far-southern city of Rafah.

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,903 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to data from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 21:32:15 +0800
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  </item>
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   <title>
    Uvalde families sue 'Call of Duty' gamemaker
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754667-20240525.htm
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    <![CDATA[Families of the victims of the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, filed two lawsuits on Friday against Instagram's parent company Meta, Activision Blizzard and its parent Microsoft and the gunmaker Daniel Defense, claiming they cooperated to market dangerous weapons to impressionable teens such as the Uvalde shooter.

Together, the wrongful death complaints argue that Daniel Defense – a Georgia-based gun manufacturer – used Instagram and Activision's video game Call of Duty to market its assault-style rifles to teenage boys, while Meta and Microsoft facilitated the strategy with lax oversight and no regard for the consequences.

Meta, Microsoft and Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association, a lobbying group representing the video game industry, said many other countries have similar levels of video game playing but less gun violence than the United States.

"We are saddened and outraged by senseless acts of violence," the group said in a statement. "At the same time, we discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay, which detract from efforts to focus on the root issues in question and safeguard against future tragedies."

In one of the deadliest school shootings in history, 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24, 2022, when an 18-year-old gunman armed with a Daniel Defense rifle entered Robb Elementary School and barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms with dozens of students.

The complaints were filed on the two-year anniversary of the massacre by Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, the same law firm that reached a US$73 million settlement with rifle manufacturer Remington in 2022 on behalf of families of children killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

The first lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Meta's Instagram of giving gun manufacturers "an unsupervised channel to speak directly to minors, in their homes, at school, even in the middle of the night," with only token oversight.

The complaint also alleges that Activision's popular warfare game Call of Duty "creates a vividly realistic and addicting theatre of violence in which teenage boys learn to kill with frightening skill and ease," using real-life weapons as models for the game's firearms.

The second lawsuit, filed in Uvalde County District Court, accuses Daniel Defense of deliberately aiming its ads at adolescent boys in an effort to secure lifelong customers. (Reuters)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 15:17:10 +0800
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   <title>
    Alec Baldwin set to face trial over movie shooting
   </title>
   <guid>
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    <![CDATA[A New Mexico judge on Friday rejected Alec Baldwin's bid to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge for the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, opening the way for an unprecedented trial of a Hollywood actor for an on-set death.

Baldwin's lawyers argued at a May 17 hearing that a grand jury indictment of the actor was "a sham" as prosecutors failed to tell jurors they could question defence witnesses and stopped them hearing evidence helpful to the actor's case.

Among her arguments in a court filing, district court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said she did not find prosecutorial bad faith in the grand jury, nor error in jury instructions and prosecutors adequately advised jurors regarding a letter from Baldwin's legal team listing defence jurors they could call.

"The court finds no error in the actions taken by the prosecutor vis-a-vi the reading of the evidence letter," Marlowe Sommer said in the filing

The actor now faces a July 10 trial.

Hutchins was shot with a live round after Baldwin pointed a gun at her as she set up a camera shot on a movie set near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The "30 Rock" actor maintains he did not pull the trigger, an assertion that has become central to the case.

Much of the differences between prosecution and defence positions are factual disputes and that is the type of case juries are meant to decide, said business and entertainment trial litigator Tre Lovell.

At trial, Baldwin’s legal team must convince Santa Fe jurors there was a cascading failure in set firearms safety before the weapon was put in Baldwin’s hand,

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey has argued in court filings that Baldwin broke firearm safety rules by pointing the gun at Hutchins, cocking it and pulling the trigger.

Sommer sentenced "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez to 18 months prison in April after a Santa Fe jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter for loading the live round into the reproduction Colt Single Action Army revolver Baldwin was using. (Reuters)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 10:33:14 +0800
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  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Chinese movie and canine star win Cannes prizes
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754639-20240525.htm
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   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754639-20240525.htm
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   <description>
    <![CDATA["Black Dog," about a man released from prison who returns home to his remote town in China to rid it of stray dogs before the Olympics, only to befriend one of them, won the Cannes Film Festival's "Un Certain Regard" competition on Friday.

Eddie Peng, who stars as Lang in the film by director Guan Hu, attended the ceremony at Cannes along with greyhound Xin.

It was the second prize in one day for Xin, who donned the Palm Dog red collar after being picked for the Grand Jury Prize at a separate ceremony celebrating canine performances.

The "Un Certain Regard" jury prize went to the French film "The Story of Souleymane," director Boris Lojkine's feature about a Guinean immigrant's struggle to survive in Paris.

The best director prize was given to both Italy's Roberto Minervini for "The Damned" and Zambian-Welsh auteur Rungano Nyoni for "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl," while "Norah," by Saudi Arabian director Tawfik Alzaidi, received a special mention.

Canadian filmmaker and actor Xavier Dolan headed this year's five-strong jury for the competition focused on arthouse films that runs parallel to the main competition, the Palme d'Or.

There were 18 films in total competing for the prize. (Reuters)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 09:51:43 +0800
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   <title>
    US sends military aid worth US$275mn to Ukraine
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754615-20240525.htm
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    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754615-20240525.htm
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   <description>
    <![CDATA[The United States on Friday announced a fresh tranche of military aid for Ukraine, including ammunition, missiles, mines and artillery rounds as Russia presses its assault on the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine has been battling back in Kharkiv since May 10, when thousands of Moscow's troops stormed the border, making their biggest territorial advances in 18 months.

"The United States is announcing today a significant new drawdown of weapons and equipment for Ukraine to support the brave Ukrainian people as they defend their country," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"This 275 million dollar package, which is part of our efforts to help Ukraine repel Russia's assault near Kharkiv, contains urgently needed capabilities."

Last month, US lawmakers passed a long-delayed US$61 billion military aid deal for Kyiv after months of squabbling in Congress as Ukrainian forces suffered setbacks on the battlefield due to ammunition and funding shortages.

Since then, President Joe Biden has ordered five tranches of military aid to be sent to Ukraine.

"Assistance from previous packages has already made it to the front lines, and we will move this new assistance as quickly as possible," Blinken said.

Strikes on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, killed at least seven people on Thursday, local authorities said.

More than 11,000 people in the wider region have been evacuated since Russia began its new offensive, according to local governor Oleg Synegubov. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 03:24:35 +0800
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  <item>
   <title>
    SpaceX mega rocket Starship's next launch on June 5
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754608-20240525.htm
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   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754608-20240525.htm
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   <description>
    <![CDATA[Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, is set for its next test flight on June 5, SpaceX announced on Friday.

The launch window from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas opens at 7:00 am local time (1200 GMT), pending regulatory approval.

It will be the fourth test for the sleek mega rocket, which is vital to Nasa's plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade, and to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's hopes of eventually colonising Mars.

Three previous attempts have ended in the Starship's destruction, all part of what the company says is an acceptable cost in its rapid trial-and-error approach to development.

"The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy," SpaceX said in a statement.

Super Heavy is the booster, while Starship refers to both the upper stage and the two stages combined.

The flight path will be similar to the third test, which took place in March and saw Starship fly halfway around the globe before it was eventually lost as it re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

This time around, SpaceX hopes to achieve a soft splashdown for the booster stage in the Gulf of Mexico, and a "controlled entry" for the upper stage.

Designed to eventually be fully reusable, Starship stands 121 metres tall with both stages combined – 27 metres taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Its Super Heavy booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, almost double that of the world's second most powerful rocket, Nasa's Space Launch System – though the latter is now certified, while Starship is still a prototype.

SpaceX's strategy of carrying out tests in the real world rather than in labs has paid off in the past.

Its Falcon 9 rockets have come to be workhorses for Nasa and the commercial sector, its Dragon capsule sends astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, and its Starlink internet satellite constellation now covers dozens of countries.

But the clock is ticking for SpaceX to be ready for Nasa's planned return of astronauts to the Moon in 2026, using a modified Starship as the lander vehicle. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 02:47:11 +0800
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   <title>
    Some 45,000 Rohingya have fled fighting in Myanmar: UN
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754609-20240525.htm
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   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754609-20240525.htm
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   <description>
    <![CDATA[The United Nations warned on Friday that escalating fighting in conflict-torn Myanmar's Rakhine State had forced around 45,000 minority Rohingya to flee, amid allegations of killings and burnings of property.

"Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by the fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships," UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.

"An estimated 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh, seeking protection," she said.

Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked forces of the ruling junta in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021.

The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to around 600,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Rakhine in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

"Over a million Rohingya are already in Bangladesh, having fled past purges," Throssell pointed out.

UN rights chief Volker Turk was urging Bangladesh and other countries "to provide effective protection to those seeking it, in line with international law, and to ensure international solidarity with Bangladesh in hosting Rohingya refugees in Myanmar", she said. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Sat, 25 May 2024 01:38:21 +0800
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  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    World Court orders Israel to stop Rafah offensive
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754601-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754601-20240524.htm
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   <description>
    <![CDATA[Judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Reading out a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or World Court, the body's president Nawaf Salam said provisional measures ordered by the court in March did not fully address the situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.

"Israel must immediately halt its military offensive" in Rafah, he said.

The court backed a South African request to order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, a week after Pretoria called for the measure in a case accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel has repeatedly dismissed the case's accusations of genocide as baseless, arguing in court that its operations in Gaza are self-defence and targeted at Hamas militants who attacked Israel on October 7.

An Israeli government spokesman said "no power on Earth would stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza".

Israel launched its assault on the southern city of Rafah this month, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee a city that had become a refuge to around half of the population's 2.3 million people. 

While the ruling by the ICJ is a blow to Israel's international standing, the court does not have a police force to enforce its orders. In another case on its docket, Russia has so far ignored a 2022 order by the court to halt its military campaign in Ukraine.
(Agencies)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 21:42:59 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    School heads drilled in hearing over campus protests
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754559-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754559-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[The presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers universities in the United States defended their decisions to end pro-Palestinian encampments through negotiations rather than police force, telling a US House committee on Thursday that they defused the danger without ceding ground to protesters.

“We had to get the encampment down,” Northwestern's Michael Schill said. “The police solution was not going to be available to us to keep people safe, and also may not be the wisest solution as we’ve seen at other campuses across the country.”

Schill and Jonathan Holloway of Rutgers were called before the House Education and the Workforce Committee as part of a series of hearings examining how colleges have responded to allegations of antisemitism.

Also testifying was Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, which has come under scrutiny for a delayed police response to violence between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters.

The committee’s inquiry expanded to large, public universities, UCLA and Rutgers, after earlier hearings largely focused on private, Ivy League colleges. 

In Philadelphia, protesters packed up their belongings and left a pro-Palestinian encampment at Drexel University after the school announced a decision to have police clear the encampment.

University President John Fry said in a statement that he decided to have campus police and public safety officers join Philadelphia police in clearing the encampment as peacefully as possible. 

News outlets reported that police gave protesters a warning to clear the encampment and the protesters left.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students in graduation robes walked out of the Harvard University commencement chanting “Free, free Palestine” after weeks of protests on campus and a day after the school announced that 13 students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates.

Some students chanted “Let them walk, let them walk” during Thursday’s commencement, referring to allowing those 13 students to get their diplomas along with fellow graduates. (AP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 17:04:42 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Japanese dog of 'Doge' meme fame dies
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754558-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754558-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency died on Friday, her owner said.

"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu – the face of the "Doge" meme.

"I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner," Sato wrote.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown but Sato estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a shiba inu, with her birthday celebrated in November.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Sato took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa.

She posted that image – with the fluffy shiba inu giving the camera a beguiling look – on her blog, from where it spread to online forum Reddit and became a meme that bounced from college bedrooms to office e-mail chains.

The memes typically used goofy broken English to reveal the inner thoughts of Kabosu and other shiba inu "doge" – pronounced like pizza "dough" but with a "j" at the end.

The picture also later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for US$4 million and inspired Dogecoin, which was started as a joke by two software engineers and is now the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of US$23 billion. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 16:56:15 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Scores feared dead in Papua New Guinea landslide
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754538-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754538-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[Australian media reports on Friday said more than 100 people were believed to have been killed Friday in a landslide that buried a village in a remote part of Papua New Guinea.

The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam village in Enga province early on Friday morning, about 600 kilometres northwest of the South Pacific island nation's capital of Port Moresby, ABC reported.

Provincial governor Peter Ipatas told international media there had been a big landslide "causing loss of life and property" amid unconfirmed reports that hundreds may be buried.

He later said that "more than six villages" had been hit, describing the scene as an "unprecedented natural disaster" that had caused "substantial damages".

A rapid response team of medics, military, police and UN agencies was dispatched to the area to assess the damage and help the injured. (Agencies)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 15:13:29 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Hanoi apartment fire kills 14
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754487-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754487-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[A fire that ripped through a small apartment block in central Hanoi has killed at least 14 people and injured three others, state media said Friday.

"The fire broke out at around 12.30am. The fire was big, with several explosions," the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

By 6.20am, at least 14 people had died and three were injured, VNA cited local officials as saying.

It was not clear how many people were in the flat at the time the fire broke out. The flames were extinguished after an hour.

The building is situated down a two-metre-wide alley, with the top floors of the building rented out, VNA said.

The first floor was reportedly used for the selling and fixing of electric bicycles.

A neighbour, who declined to give her name, said she heard an "explosion like fire crackers".

"I thought there was a fight, or something hitting the window. I ran down and saw the fire.

"Many of the neighbours had run out of the alley, crossing through other neighbours' houses. We were so, so scared." (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 09:33:17 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Iran's Raisi buried after dying in helicopter crash
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754456-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754456-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was laid to rest on Thursday, concluding days of funeral rites attended by throngs of mourners after his death in a helicopter crash, state media reported.

Hundreds of thousands marched in his home town Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

The 63-year-old died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others after their helicopter went down in the country's mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.

Once the five days of public mourning, announced on Monday, have passed, the authorities including acting President Mohammad Mokhber will focus on organising an election for a new president set for June 28.

Men and women, who were mainly clad in black chadors and clutching white flowers, crowded the main boulevard of Mashhad, the Islamic republic's second city in the northeast where Raisi was born.

Some held aloft placards paying tribute to Raisi as the "man of the battlefield" as a large truck carrying his body drove through the sea of mourners.

"I have come, O king, give me refuge," said a slogan emblazoned on top of the truck, in reference to Imam Reza, the eighth imam of Shiite Islam.

Posters of Raisi, black flags and Shi'ite symbols were erected along the streets of Mashhad, particularly around Raisi's final resting place – the Imam Reza shrine, a key mausoleum visited by millions of pilgrims every year.

Earlier thousands of people holding images of Raisi and waving flags lined the streets of Birjand, capital of the eastern province of South Khorasan, for the procession of Raisi's coffin.

Raisi was South Khorasan's representative in the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body in charge of selecting or dismissing Iran's supreme leader.

Raisi had widely been expected to succeed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led prayers in Tehran on Wednesday for the late president and knelt before the coffins of the eight people killed in the helicopter crash.

Among them was foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was buried on Thursday in the shrine of Shah Abdol-Azim in the town of Shahre Ray south of the capital. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 03:30:41 +0800
   </pubDate>
  </item>
  <item>
   <title>
    Atlantic faces 'extraordinary' hurricane season
   </title>
   <guid>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754449-20240524.htm
   </guid>
   <link>
    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1754449-20240524.htm
   </link>
   <description>
    <![CDATA[The North Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1, is forecast to be "extraordinary," with between four and seven hurricanes of Category 3 or higher expected, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather agency said on Thursday.

Category 3 storms pack wind speeds over 178 kilometres an hour and wreak devastating damage on houses, uproot trees and often cut off electricity and water for days or even weeks.

"This season is looking to be an extraordinary one in a number of ways," said Rick Spinrad of the NOAA, which cited warm Atlantic ocean temperatures and La Nina conditions in the Pacific for the expected increase in storms.

It said human-caused climate change was warming oceans and melting ice on land, leading to sea level rises that worsen storm surges.

"The forecast for named storms – hurricanes and major hurricanes – is the highest NOAA has ever issued for the May outlook," Spinrad said. "It only takes one storm to devastate a community."

Oceanic heat in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea creates more energy to fuel storms.

Hurricane Ian, which struck Florida in September 2022, caused 152 deaths and losses worth US$112.9 billion. (AFP)]]>
   </description>
   <pubDate>
    Fri, 24 May 2024 01:45:16 +0800
   </pubDate>
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