■ Singapore
PM wants people to smile
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) has launched a campaign urging the city-state's 4 million people to smile during the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in September, the Straits Times reported yesterday. "We should make a special effort to welcome all the delegates to this event, to make their stay here fruitful and memorable. We should greet them literally with 4 million smiles," the daily quoted Lee as saying at the start of the campaign on Sunday. On Sept. 19 and 20, Singapore will host 16,000 delegates and visitors for the annual meetings. Photographs of smiling Singaporeans will be combined into a digital mural to welcome the delegates to the country. The government has warned that it will use severe punishments such as caning for protesters who commit violent acts during the IMF-World Bank meetings.
■ Hong Kong
MI3 `insulting' to Chinese
The latest Mission Impossible movie has had scenes cut from it in Chinese cinemas because officials believe they are insulting to Shanghai, a news report said yesterday. Censors were unhappy about scenes showing laundry hanging on bamboo poles and a slow response by police to a high-speed chase, the South China Morning Post reported. The movie starring Tom Cruise will be screened in China from July 20 after the movie's makers apparently agreed to changes requested by the Chinese government, the newspaper said. Cruise and his co-stars were in Shanghai last year to film part of the third instalment of the blockbuster series.Last week, the Da Vinci Code was banned after a two-week run in Chinese cinemas following protests by state-backed Catholics in some parts of the country.
■ France
Former prez bemoans crisis
Former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing says France is in "crisis," and that none of its EU partners are looking to Paris for initiatives ahead of presidential elections next year. France will offer proposals for the EU's future at the 25 nation bloc's summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, but "nobody attaches any importance to them," Giscard d'Estaing said late Sunday on LCI television. "It is a country in crisis, a country that cannot take the initiative, a country whose horizon is limited to 10 months right now," he said, referring to next year's presidential and legislative elections. Giscard d'Estaing, who led the effort to draw up the EU Constitution -- which was rejected by French and Dutch voters last year -- said it was a "good idea to extend the reflection period" for the text.
■ United Kingdom
Suspects to enter pleas
Five men charged with the murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky will appear in court today for a pre-trial hearing. The men, charged with murder, robbery and firearms offenses, are due at Leeds Crown Court to enter pleas before a trial later this year, police and court officials said. They are accused of killing the 38-year-old last November when she and a colleague responded to an emergency alarm at a travel agency in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The defendants are: Yusuf Jama, Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, Raza Haq Aslam, Faisal Razzaq and Hassan Razzaq.
■ Congo
Sexual violence highlighted
Women in Africa are ravaged not just by poverty but by systematic sexual violence too, a UN Security Council delegation on a four-nation tour of the continent were told on Friday. Whether in the parched deserts of Sudan's Darfur region, or in the jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, women are systematically subjected to the same sordid routine: rape with impunity by armed militias and soldiers, often those ostensibly their protectors, a text presented to UN delegates by a group of women's rights advocates said.
■ Nigeria
Faction's office blockaded
Police blockaded the newly designated headquarters of a faction of the ruling party over the weekend, saying on Sunday that they sealed off the building to prevent a "breakdown of law and order" in the capital. About 100 members of the main People's Democratic Party broke away from the group on Friday and selected the building as their new headquarters. Faction member Bode Ojomu said they deserted the ruling party because of unfairness in the way officials were appointed at a December convention.
■ France
Justice changes pledged
Justice Minister Pascal Clement said on Sunday he will propose changes to the country's justice system to try to prevent a repeat of mistakes that led to more than a dozen people being wrongly accused in a pedophilia case. Clement said he would also seek an opinion from the top authority for judges about the handling of the so-called "Outreau affair," named after the northern French town where an alleged pedophilia ring operated. The case, which centered on the abuse of 18 children between 1995 and 2000, gripped the nation's attention for several years. It ended in acquittals last December by an appeals court for six people.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number