The explosion occurred just after midnight in the city centre, which is home to around 100,000 people.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called it “an attack against our democracy” and urged authorities to “step up the fight against serious crime.”

The blast, heard from as far away as 20 kilometres (12 miles), caused no injuries but serious material damage. The police station entrance was completely destroyed, with dozens of windows smashed.

Police sources quoted by daily Aftonbladet said several kilos (pounds) of explosives were used.

The head of the local police, Patric Heimbrand, told reporters that investigators were working on the presumption that “criminal circles” were behind the attack. He said police work against gangs was paying off and likely causing “irritation”.

Explosives are often used by organised crime rings in Sweden, especially in the south where settling of scores and intimidation are frequent among drug traffickers.

Police and judges are also regularly targeted.

On November 30, 2014, a blast damaged a building in the southern city of Malmo that housed police, prosecutors, a courthouse and penitentiary administration.

Heavily armed police officers were stationed outside those buildings on Wednesday.

Although the Nordic nation has a relatively low crime rate compared to the rest of Europe, physical violence against police officers has surged. In 2016, it rose by 65 percent with 86 cases reported, according to government figures.

The move hit users of the ubiquitous Chinese social media platforms WeChat, QQ, Weibo and even Alibaba’s payment platform Alipay, though it appeared only to affect those with accounts registered on the mainland.

“WeChat is undertaking system maintenance. From today until the end of the month, users will temporarily be unable to change their profile picture, nickname and tagline,” the app, run by internet behemoth Tencent, announced Tuesday.

Chinese authorities have kicked both online and offline security into high gear for the week-long, twice-a-decade party Congress that will reshuffle top leadership positions.

The ban on profile picture updates could be a bid to avoid the kind of defiance seen during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Umbrella Revolution in 2014, when Facebook users changed their profile pictures to yellow ribbons symbolising universal suffrage.

Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a slew of foreign media have been blocked for years.

In recent weeks the service of messaging app WhatsApp — which provides an end-to-end encryption function unlikely to please censors — was also severely disrupted.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has overseen a clampdown on internet freedoms since he came to power in 2012, tightening censorship in a country where young people are avid users of social media.

In his opening speech to some 2,300 congress delegates gathered in the cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi said the party should “provide more and better online content and put in place a system for integrated internet management to ensure a clean cyberspace.”

Complaints about extreme over-crowding in the Beijing metro, subject to extra security checks during the congress, were scrubbed and photos of commuters crammed like sardines were deleted, according to Free Weibo, a website that archives items from social media that have been removed.

China enacted a controversial new cybersecurity law earlier this year.

Platforms must now verify users’ true identity before allowing them to post online, with certain content banned outright, including anything that damages “national honour”, “disturbs economic or social order” or is aimed at “overthrowing the socialist system”.

Last month, Chinese internet regulators slapped “maximum” fines on Tencent and Baidu, China’s Google-equivalent, for allowing the publication of such banned material.

There was not a single critical comment to be found on Weibo about Xi’s more than three hour-long speech Wednesday.

“The chairman spoke very well and hopes our country can be thriving and prosperous. He will lead the Chinese people to glory,” one user wrote.//AFP

The flamboyantly-decorated but smoke-belching vehicles were originally converted from surplus World War II US army jeeps but now largely use reconditioned diesel engines from Japan.

Citing pollution and health concerns, Duterte said Tuesday the old jeepneys would have to be switched for modern and less-polluting versions by 2018.

His threat came after a two-day strike by jeepney operators led by the transport group PISTON, which had previously rejected the modernisation scheme.

“You know, you are poisoning the people… one-third of Filipinos are poor and they will die from lung cancer because you do not want to fix your used engines,” Duterte said in a speech to military men, referring to the jeepney operators.

“This is what I will do: either you must modernise next year those jeeps of yours, you must sell them to the junkyard. Next year I do not want to see any single PUJ (public utility jeepney.) All those still operating will be towed off the streets,” he added.

For decades the colourfully decorated jeepney has served as the main form of public transport and a symbol of Filipino creativity.

The government wants them replaced with less polluting vehicles, either with better engines or electrical power and with modern safety measures.

PISTON president George Mateo said Duterte’s threat was unrealistic as it would take more time to replace the 240,000 jeepneys across the archipelago.

While the government had offered programmes to help the jeepney owners replace their old vehicles with new ones, Mateo said the new versions were too expensive and the ownership schemes would displace small operators.

He charged that it was Duterte who had previously challenged them to stage a transport strike, resulting in their protest on Monday and Tuesday which forced the government to call off school classes and shut government offices.

“He is arrogant, anti-poor,” said Mateo.

Despite threats to arrest jeepney operators, Mateo warned of a bigger transport strike if Duterte pushed through with his plan.

“We have no choice but to fight back.”//AFP

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday Taiwan saw nearly 1.4 million tourist arrivals from the 18 countries covered by the policy.

Among those, Vietnam was the largest source of visitors, with a 113-per-cent increase from the same period of last year, the report said.

The number of visitors from Thailand and the Philippines also posted growth of more than 70 per cent thanks to a more convenient visa policy introduced by the government for tourists from Southeast Asia, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, trade between Taiwan and countries covered by the policy reached US$82.298 billion between January and September, a 19-per-cent increase from the same period last year.

The ministry said the policy’s effectiveness was becoming more and more apparent, with continuous exchanges increasingly highlighting Taiwan’s role in the Asia-Pacific region.

Foreign Minister David Lee was on Wednesday due to present the report to the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee.

Founded on November 16, 1945 the U.N. cultural organisation, Unesco was created to promote international collaboration in education, science and culture as a way to contribute towards world peace.

Every two years the Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, holds the convention on conferring the world heritage status on places of immense cultural and physical significance. It is an exercise towards creating an environment of dialogue between civilizations, cultures and people.

As of this year there are a total of 1073 sites, out of which 832 are Cultural sites, 206 are Natural sites and 35 are mixed sites. In Asia it is China and India that house the most heritage sites.

Italy has the highest number of heritage sites in the world. It constitutes around 5 per cent of the total sites in the world. The nation is culturally and geographically rich with 58 sites marked as culturally significant by Unesco.

Spread across various places like Beijing, Xian, Sinchuan, Qufu, Lishan and many others, China is second to Italy with 48 sites marked as culturally and physically significant. Out of these 48 sites 37 are Cultural sites, 8 are Natural heritage sites and 3 are both Natural and Cultural.  The most famous heritage site in China is The Great wall of China followed by Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang: The Forbidden City, Shenyang Imperial Palace.

China’s strong and successful international lobbying for Unesco acclaim is also seen as soft power instrument to showcase the ‘glorious past’ of the nation. While the inscription of sites increases tourism it also renders these place fragile and throws challenges towards preserving them for longer time. The Chinese government has capped the number of tourists at certain sites to preserve the ecology and balance as per the Unesco bid.

Spain has third most number of World Heritage sites. Cities like Toledo, Cordoba and Salamanca possess some of world’s most historical monuments like Great Mosque in Cordoba, Cathedral in Santiago.

France has the fourth most sites with currently 30 different Unesco World Heritage sites. The first French sites were recognised in 1997. Some of these sites are Chartres Cathedral and  Mont-St-Michel. Unesco recognised a large number of historic highlights of Germany´s monuments to be a World Heritage Site bringing it on number fifth. Mexico City is home to various Aztec ruins and beautiful colonial architecture.

India is second in line to China with 35 Heritage sites. It is among the top countries with most number of sites on the heritage list. Out of the 35 sites, 27 are of cultural importance and 8 are Natural sites. From Nalanda University in Bihar, to Khangchendzonga National Park in Sikkim, Churches and Conventions in Goa, and the famous Taj Mahal in Agra India has marked its presence on the Unesco list.

Indian state is lobbying for more natural sites to be on the list since it believes that the current list reflects the heritage of India in an incomplete manner, with more emphasis on cultural sites and less on natural sites.

More recently Unesco added an ancient temple site in Cambodia to its world heritage list, bringing the number of heritage sites in the Southeast Asian country to three.

The decision by US District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii — which the White House signaled it would appeal — marks the latest blow to Trump’s long-running efforts to restrict entry of travelers from targeted countries into the United States.

Watson said the third rendition of the travel ban — covering people from six mainly Muslim countries, as well as North Korea and some officials from Venezuela — could not be justified under law.

In his decision, Watson wrote the ban “suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: it lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specific countries would be ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States.'”

The ruling means the Trump administration could again ask the Supreme Court to decide whether his immigration orders are legal.

– Legal saga –

The newest order was announced last month to replace an expiring 90-day temporary ban on travelers from the Muslim-majority nations of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The September decree removed Sudan from the list, but added Chad and North Korea for full bans and Venezuela for a ban limited to certain classes of officials.

The White House justified the measure as needed to protect US national security — but critics said it appeared virtually the same as the original order of January 27.

Courts shot that version down saying it targeted Muslims, violating the US constitutional protections for religious freedom.

A second version was only slightly adjusted and was quickly tied up in similar legal wrangling.

In June, the Supreme Court accepted to review the case but let the 90-day ban go mostly into effect in the meantime.

When the ban expired, the court said there was nothing to rule on.

Trump went forward with a new version with no expiry date, tacking on North Korea and Venezuela to the list of targeted countries and implying the updated measure did not simply target Muslim countries.

But Watson — who also issued freezes on the first two attempts — said the order does not improve US security, since individuals who pose risks can already be denied entry under existing law.

The order “plainly discriminates based on nationality” in a manner antithetical to US laws “and the founding principles of this nation,” he wrote.

Watson placed a freeze on the ban on travelers from the six countries, but allowed it to be implemented on North Korea — which sent only a handful of people to the United States last year — and Venezuela, where US sanctions have also already made travel to the United States difficult for many officials.

‘Dangerously flawed’

The White House quickly rejected his argument, calling it “dangerously flawed” and promising to fight the action.

“The entry restrictions in the proclamation apply to countries based on their inability or unwillingness to share critical information necessary to safely vet applications, as well as a threat assessment related to terrorism, instability and other grave national security concerns,” it said.

“We are therefore confident that the judiciary will ultimately uphold the president’s lawful and necessary action and swiftly restore its vital protections for the safety of the American people.”

One of the most controversial changes in the latest version of the White House order was the addition of Chad, whose forces are working with US troops in the battle against Boko Haram extremists.

But the administration appeared to be preparing to back away from this widely-criticized position.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced that in recent weeks the Chad government had shown a “clear willingness to work closely with us on these issues.”

She did not give any timeline, but said the US “is committed to working with Chad to address the deficiencies, toward the goal of improving vetting capabilities and lifting visa restrictions.”