■ China
Fake Sun Yat-sen in scam
A con man took advantage of his resemblance to Sun Yat-sen, father of the revolution that toppled China's last emperor in 1911, to dupe a few patriotic old people out of their money, officials said yesterday. Wang Jiancheng, 61, posed as Sun despite the fact the former Chinese president and national hero would be over 130 today, according to a statement from the Beijing Chaoyang District government. As Sun, Wang claimed to have been living abroad "instead of having died in 1925 as the history books state," media said. Wang and accomplice Chen Meiying convinced six men to contribute a total of 240,000 yuan (US$29,000) to finance a "national investment project," the government said.
■ China
Two die in Web rage
Customers at an Internet cafe in Shanghai allegedly stabbed to death two employees after an argument over computer usage, local newspapers reported yesterday. The fight broke out around 1am on Sunday after a cafe employee told several customers they would have to buy membership cards if they wanted to stay overnight. Another employee attempted to mediate the dispute, but about 10 men drew knives and chased the pair into a bathroom where they stabbed them to death, the reports said.
■ East Timor
Warrant issued for Wiranto
A UN-backed tribunal yesterday issued an arrest warrant against Indonesia's former military chief and current presidential candidate General Wiranto for human rights abuses during the territory's bloody break with Jakarta in 1999. "The issuance of the Wiranto warrant is an important step in our continuing efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the violence against the civilian population of East Timor in 1999," said UN prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian in a statement released in East Timor. The warrant comes seven weeks after a special tribunal formally indicted Wiranto for command responsibility for "murder, deportation and persecution" during the events of 1999 in which at least 1,500 people died.
■ Hong Kong
Mall erects suicide barrier
An eight-story shopping mall where at least two people have jumped to their deaths has put up an anti-suicide barrier to stop any repeats, a manager said yesterday. "We don't want unhappy incidents to affect the shopping desire of our customers," said Gary Tse, manager of the popular Times Square shopping center in the bustling Causeway Bay district. Mall executives decided to raise the safety railings on the top three floors after a middle-aged man jumped to his death last month, following a similar suicide last year, Tse said.
■ Australia
Injured boy rescues father
A seven-year-old boy was hailed as a hero yesterday after he ignored broken ribs, a punctured lung and other serious injuries to walk 2km through bushland to get help for his badly hurt father. Tyler Moon and his father David were both seriously injured when they flipped over on a quad bike while riding near their home in southern New Wales State on Saturday, rescue officials said. David Moon, 39, was trapped under the bike with chest injuries while Tyler suffered broken ribs, abdominal, arm and internal injuries when he was thrown from the vehicle. Despite his injuries, Tyler stumbled 2km to the family home to raise the alarm, with his fractured ribs puncturing and collapsing a lung as he walked.
■ Poland
Live ammo in football riot
A 19-year-old man was killed and three other people were hospitalized Sunday after a night of violence in the central Polish city of Lodz which saw police use live ammunition, apparently by mistake, to quell an attack by football supporters on university students, reports said. A 23-year-old woman earlier reported dead by police and hospital officials was alive but hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head, police and medical staff in Lodz confirmed. The woman was on a life support system, including a respirator. A 22-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were also hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The woman was reported to be in stable condition after an operation, but the young man, reported to have suffered a rubber bullet wound to the face, was in critical condition.
■ Egypt
Arab summit rescheduled
A postponed Arab summit will be held in Tunis on May 22 and 23, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said Sunday. "The Arab summit will take place on the agreed date, which has not changed," Mussa told reporters after the second day of an Arab foreign ministers meeting here to prepare for the summit. Tunisia had postponed the original annual summit in March after saying Arab countries had rejected essential proposals for democratic reform and women's empowerment. The move angered several Arab capitals, including Cairo.
■ United States
Nancy can't reach Ronnie
Former first lady Nancy Reagan said Alzheimer's disease has taken her husband, former US president Ronald Reagan, "to a distant place place where I can no longer reach him," media reports said Sunday. Her comments were made Saturday night at a fundraiser for stem-cell research in California, where the conservative Republican also came out in support of such research, which current Republican US President George W. Bush has restricted. Nancy Reagan argued at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fundraiser in Beverly Hills that stem-cell research could lead to cures for illnesses that include Alzheimer's. Bush and anti-abortion groups have opposed the research because some of it uses cells from human embryos.
■ South Africa
Pop star dies
South Africa's pop music queen Brenda Fassie died on Sunday two weeks after she fell into a coma following an asthma attack at her home in Johannesburg, media reports said. Fassie gained fame in 1986 with the hit Weekend Special, which made the Billboard hot black singles chart and went on to sell more records in her two-decade-long career as the country's foremost black pop singer than any other recording artist. The 39-year-old was also one of the most outrageous figures in local entertainment, notorious for her drug binges, tantrums and other highly publicized antics.
■ Great Britain
Eggs explode
Eggs heated in a microwave oven could explode and cause serious injury, doctors have warned. The case of a nine-year-old girl who was left temporarily blind after being hit in the face by an exploding egg has been highlighted by eye experts. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they said warnings about the risks of heating eggs in their shells in the microwave should be made more obvious, perhaps being displayed on the oven itself.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was