■China
Two foreigners charged
China has charged an American and a New Zealander with inciting subversion and kidnapping after they plotted to explode a hot-air balloon over Tiananmen Square and scatter pro-democracy leaflets. Benjamin Lan, 54, a Taiwan-born US national, and Sun Gang, 44, a Chinese-born New Zealand businessman, were nabbed last month along with six Chinese citizens while preparing to carry out the plan on behalf of the little-known China Federation Party. State security formally arrested the pair on Thursday for "carrying out illegal activities," the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
■ China
Man tries to sell self
A failed Beijing businessman has been arrested after handing out flyers in the Chinese capital offering to sell himself into slavery to clear his debts, a news report said yesterday. The 25-year-old was taken into police custody as he handed out the flyers near the Beijing Art Gallery on Wednesday offering to be someone's "lifelong servant," according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily. The man told officers he had debts of 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) and his parents had sold their ancestral home to fund his failed business. He wanted to raise money to repay his parents, the newspaper said.
■ New Zealand
Station apologizes for label
New Zealand's TV3 channel has apologized after a label reading, "George W. Bush Professional Fascist" was flashed during its prime time news bulletin, news reports said yesterday. The baseline graphic, superimposed over a weather map, was seen by 360,000 viewers halfway through Wednesday night's news and appeared on screen for a few seconds, the New Zealand Herald said. The Herald quoted channel spokesman Roger Beaumont as blaming "human error" for the graphic and saying an investigation was under way. "The fact that it made it to air was extremely unfortunate," he said.
■ Japan
Minister threatens IWC
Japan may pull out of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after its request to resume commercial whaling was blocked at a fractious annual meeting, the country's top fisheries official said yesterday. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said the government would review its options after consulting with Japanese delegates returning from this week's IWC meeting in Berlin which ended Thursday. "We will make a judgment on a comprehensive basis after studying the reports from the delegation," Kamei said at a news conference.
■ New Zealand
Teacher jailed on sex charge
A 35-year-old New Zealand female schoolteacher was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday for having sex with a boy aged 10 she said she had loved like a son. Faryn Ripine Matthews of Tauranga admitted to sexually violating the boy over a period of eight months. At an earlier hearing in the High Court in Rotorua, she was said to have told police they had intercourse 10 to 20 times when the boy lived next door to her and she was a friend of his family. Ordering that she spend at least two years in prison before being released on parole, Judge David Baragwaneth said she had exhibited a gross breach of trust and the emotional damage to the boy would become more apparent as he got older.
■United States
Max Factor heir jailed
The heir to the Max Factor make-up fortune, Andrew Luster, began serving a 124-year sentence in a US jail on Thursday, a day after being captured in Mexico after five months on the run. The 39-year-old convicted rapist arrived at Los Angeles' international airport in handcuffs and under armed FBI escort just hours after being deported from Mexico where he was caught by a US bounty hunter on Wednesday. The FBI handed the wayward millionaire over to sheriffs from California's Ventura County, where Luster was convicted in January of drugging and raping three women.
■ Canada
Officials to track SARS
Canadian health officials are trying to track down 120 people who tested positive for SARS in March but were never quarantined or put on the probable or suspect case list. The 120 people were tested for SARS in March at Health Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, said Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public security. Young said the 120 had a variety of symptoms in the early days of the SARS outbreak, when officials still weren't certain what it was. The lab was working with officials to track down the people, their doctors and people with whom they were in contact to ensure that other cases weren't developing undetected.
■ Argentina
Is dead Peron a daddy?
The body of former Argentine president Juan Domingo Peron is to be exhumed for a paternity test nearly 30 years after his death. A judge ordered the DNA test on his remains, a court spokesman said, on a request from Marta Susana Holgado, who alleges the military officer fathered her daughter, for whom she is demanding an inheritance. Peron died in 1974 after serving twice as Argentina's president from 1946 to 55 and 1973 to 74.
■ United States
Ohio trucker al-Qaeda man
An Ohio truck driver, who met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and plotted to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, has pleaded guilty to providing support to the al-Qaeda network, US officials said on Thursday. Iyman Faris, a truck driver based in Columbus who entered the US in 1994 and became a US citizen five years later, admitted as part of the plea deal that he gave al-Qaeda information about possible US targets for attack, they said. None of the plotted attacks were ever carried out. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a US$500,000 fine at his Aug. 1 sentencing.
■ Colombia
Colonel jailed for 40 years
A Colombian judge on Thursday sentenced a retired army colonel to 40 years in prison for conspiring with far-right paramilitaries to massacre 30 peasants in 1997. In one of the heaviest sentences for human rights abuses ever passed against a Colombian soldier, Judge Lester Gonzalez ruled that Colonel Lino Sanchez was a "co-author" of the killings along with paramilitary chief Carlos Castano. Castano also received a 40-year sentence for the massacre, carried out by his armed fighters in the jungle village of Mapiripan, in eastern Meta province. But the warlord, who has already been sentenced for other killings, faces no immediate threat of jail as he has been negotiating peace with the government since his 10,000 armed outlaws called a ceasefire late last year.
Agencies
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the