■ Australia
Thieves get walking shoes
Deborah De Williams' fund-raising trek around Australia came to a temporary halt when thieves made off with her most required equipment -- her walking shoes. On the road since leaving her Melbourne home in southeastern Australia on Oct. 17 last year, De Williams has trudged through cyclones and floods in a bid to become the first woman to walk around Australia. Thieves in remote Halls Creek in Western Australia state stole four pairs of walking shoes, her wedding rings, a mobile phone and a digital camera from her van over the weekend, she said yesterday.De Williams is hoping to raise US$182,500 for charity, walking an average of about 42km a day to complete the 14,600km trek within a year.
■ China
HK delegates out in the cold
Pro-democracy legislators were yesterday shut out of a meeting which could help shape Hong Kong's political future. Chinese officials and Hong Kong delegates to the National People's Congress met in the border town of Shenzhen to debate the possibility of freer elections in the former British colony. Democrats asked to attend but were told their request had come too late and it would have been "too much of a rush" to have them at the forum. Qiao Xiaoyang (喬曉陽), the top Beijing representative at the talks, said yesterday morning he only received the Democrats request on Tuesday evening. He said if they wanted to put their views forward they could make written submissions which would be considered before the talks ended today. The forum will report to the National People's Congress in Beijing, which begins a hearing on Sunday to decide its response to calls for reform in Hong Kong.
■ United States
Bush to front commission
US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will appear together on April 29 before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, an official said on Tuesday. The closed-door questioning is likely to focus on what steps the administration took in the summer of 2001 to guard against a terrorist attack in the face of warnings from intelligence sources. The issue has proved increasingly troublesome for the White House in the last two weeks, as top administration officials appearing before the commission faced aggressive questioning about whether they took the threat seriously enough.
■ United States
No condom, no start
California officials are to pursue legislation that would require all porn actors to wear condoms during sex scenes, the Los Angeles Times said on Tuesday. The move comes after the US$11 billion adult-entertainment industry was hit last week by an AIDS scare when an actor and actress were diagnosed HIV-positive. State and county officials believe that the scare has given them the leverage they need to force change. The paper said that the state Division of Occupational Health and Safety plans to begin inspections this week, marking the first time the division has investigated the adult-film industry. Industry representatives dispute the need for legal action.
■ IRAQ
UN probe to proceed
Russia has dropped its objection to a proposed investigation of the scandal-ridden UN oil-for-food program in Iraq, clearing the way for former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to take up his post as chairman of the inquiry yesterday. The allegations of corruption and cover-up have damaged the reputation of the UN just as it is being asked to take the lead in shaping the interim government to take power in Iraq on June 30 and to assist the country in planning elections and drawing up a constitution. Critics have said the charges raise questions about the fitness of the organization for the Iraqi assignment and cast doubt on the willingness of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to permit a thorough investigation.
■ Haiti
UN mission planned
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday called for a broad-based new UN mission in Haiti that would include 6,700 troops, more than 1,600 international police officers and experts to help turn the Caribbean nation into "a functioning democracy." The UN military contingent would replace the 3,600-strong US-led multinational force sent to bring stability to Haiti after a three-week rebellion led the country's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to flee in February. Annan said the transfer of authority from the multinational force to the
UN force would take place by June 1, with troops in the multinational force then withdrawing on a phased basis as UN troops arrived "to avoid any security gap."
■ Russia
Craft reaches space station
A Russian craft carrying a Russian-US-Dutch crew docked with the international space station yesterday. The Soyuz TMA-4, working on autopilot, docked three minutes ahead of schedule, approximately two days after blasting off on a rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Carrying three astronauts, it was the third Russian spacecraft to fill in for the US space shuttle, which has been suspended since the Columbia disaster.
‘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
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