24/02/2026

TUESDAY | FEB 24, 2026

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HK court rejects appeal in landmark subversion case

Key Maoist rebel surrenders NEW DELHI: Indian government officials have said the surrender of a senior Maoist guerilla commander heralds the “final phase” to end the decades-long Maoist insurgency. New Delhi has launched an all-out campaign against the insurgents, also known as Naxalites after the village in the Himalayan foothills where the Maoist-inspired insurgency began nearly six decades ago, and vowed to end the rebellion by the end of next month. Maoist commander Thippiri Tirupati, also known as Devji, had been active for years in Chattisgarh state. “This is the final phase,” Chattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said. “It marks a powerful step towards the complete eradication of armed Naxalism.” The Naxalite rebellion once held sway across nearly a third of the country, with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters at its peak in the mid 2000s, but it has been dramatically weakened in recent years. More than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of marginalised indigenous people in forest regions, where mining companies also eye valuable resources. Since 2024, more than 500 Maoist rebels have been killed, including some of the top commanders, according to government figures. Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly vowed to crush the rebels. On Saturday, he said India was “poised to end Maoism” by a long promised deadline of March 31. – AFP Russian embassy gets banner note SEOUL: South Korea has asked the Russian embassy in Seoul to take down a large banner reading “Victory will be ours”, its Foreign Ministry said, just ahead of this week’s fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. The ministry said in a statement that it had conveyed its concerns to the embassy. The 15m banner, in the colours of the Russian flag and written in Russian, was hung on the embassy’s outer wall in central Seoul ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine today. The banner remained in place yesterday. In its statement, the ministry reiterated South Korea’s position that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal. The ministry also said that military cooperation between Russia and North Korea should stop, describing it as a grave threat to South Korea’s security and a violation of the UN Charter and UN Security Council resolutions. Earlier this month, Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev praised what he described as North Korean troops’role in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, according to media reports. The Russian embassy in Seoul could not immediately be reached for comment by phone. – Reuters

o Democracy campaigners’ sentences upheld

During the appeal hearing last year, defence lawyer Erik Shum said that lawmakers should be allowed to veto the budget as a form of “check and balance”, as stated in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution. “In order to check the unpopular exercise of powers by the executive, one of the important measures is to tie the purse,” he told the court. Shum said lawmakers should not be answerable to the courts over how they vote because of the separation of powers. The 45 convicted campaigners were given sentences ranging from four years and two months to 10 years, depending on their role and whether they received reduced penalties. Some of the appellants have already spent nearly five years behind bars. As of last month, 18 other defendants who did not contest their convictions have been released after completing their sentences. Prosecutors had challenged the acquittal of one of the two people found not guilty, lawyer Lawrence Lau. The court upheld the acquittal yesterday. – AFP

Poon dismissed the appeals yesterday. The cases stem from the aftermath of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that convulsed Hong Kong from 2019. In June 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that snuffed out most dissent in the semi autonomous city. A record number of voters turned out for the primary the following month to select pro-democracy candidates for a legislative election later that year. The election was later postponed. Months later, authorities rounded up the opposition figures in a mass arrest that drew international condemnation and deepened fears that the security law had eroded freedoms. Aged between 28 and 69, the group included elected lawmakers and district councillors, as well as unionists, academics and others ranging from modest reformists to radical localists. At their trial, judges said their plan to scupper the budget would have caused a “constitutional crisis”. In 2024, the court convicted 45 people and acquitted two.

HONG KONG: An appeals court here upheld the convictions and sentences of a dozen democracy campaigners jailed for subversion during the city’s largest trial under a Beijing-imposed national security law. The 12 appellants were among 45 opposition figures, including some of the Chinese city’s best-known activists, who were sentenced to prison in 2024 for organising an unofficial primary election that authorities deemed a subversive plot. The 2020 polls had hoped to improve the chances of pro democracy lawmakers winning a majority in the legislature so that they could then threaten to veto the city budget unless the government accepted demands like universal suffrage. The appeals from the 12, including ex-lawmaker “Long Hair”

Ho’s appeal dismissed yesterday. – AFPPIC

Leung Kwok-hung and former journalist Gwyneth Ho, were heard last year. High Court Chief Judge Jeremy

New York declares state of emergency NEW YORK: Children across parts of the US Northeast had to stay home yesterday as a powerful winter storm forced school closures and pushed offices and transit systems onto emergency schedules, with officials across the region warning of heavy snow, strong winds and dangerous travel conditions.

The storm has already snarled travel along the East Coast from Washington to New England, with airlines cancelling thousands of flights and officials urging people to stay off the roads. Winter weather in the Northeast may also slow the processing, transport and delivery of mail and packages, the US Postal Service said. New York City, the nation’s largest school district, ordered all public school buildings closed for a traditional snow day, with no remote instruction and all after-school programmes cancelled. Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared a state of emergency and ordered non-essential vehicles off city roads from Sunday night to noon yesterday, saying plows and emergency crews needed the streets clear as snowfall intensified. The city is under its first blizzard warning since 2017. City offices will close for in-person services, and non-essential municipal employees may work remotely. “I’m urging every New Yorker to please stay home,” Mamdani said. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had activated 100 National Guard members to assist in Long Island, New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley; areas expected to

New York residents walking through Brooklyn on Sunday. – GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFPPIC

flights already cancelled yesterday. NJ TRANSIT suspended bus, light rail and Access Link service Sunday evening and halted statewide rail service by Sunday night, with operations resuming only when conditions allow. In New England, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said it would suspend all service, including its RIde paratransit programme, from Sunday night and would announce plans to resume service only when conditions improve. – Reuters

continues uninterrupted, including staff travel, emergency operations, and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters, with life safety and property protection remaining top priorities. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a statewide emergency effective noon Sunday and urged residents to take the storm seriously. Air travel was among the earliest casualties. Flight-tracking site FlightAware showed more than 5,000

bear the brunt of the heavy snow and coastal winds. The storm also forced closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan yesterday. Parts of the Northeast could see up to two feet of snow and wind gusts could reach 113kph, raising the risk of falling trees and power outages, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In an update on Sunday, the agency said despite its funding lapse, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-response work