Arrested reporters 'deprived of sleep'

YANGON • Two Reuters journalists in Myanmar were hooded and deprived of sleep after they were arrested while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, one of them told a court yesterday in startling testimony.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, face up to 14 years in jail if convicted under an official secrets law of possessing classified documents about security operations in Rakhine state.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Heatwave kills at least 14 in Japan

TOKYO • An intense heatwave killed at least 14 people over a three-day-long weekend in Japan, media reported yesterday, and high temperatures hampered the recovery in flood-hit areas where more than 200 people died last week.

Temperatures on Monday, a national holiday, surged above 39 deg C in some areas and combined with high humidity to produce dangerous conditions, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. Thousands more were treated in hospitals for heat-related conditions.

REUTERS

Chinese activist detained

SHANGHAI • A woman who live-streamed herself throwing ink onto a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been detained, according to activists who accuse the authorities of suppressing speech to protect a "cult of personality" around the country's leader.

The woman, who has been identified by activists as 28-year-old Dong Yaoqiong, went live on Twitter on July 4 in a video in which she accused the ruling Communist Party of employing "oppressive brain control".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE