■ China
Judge and family murdered
A judge, his wife and seven-year-old grandson were killed in northwest China this week, Beijing News reported yesterday, raising fears that it could be an act of revenge linked to his work. One of judge Chen Yiming's (陳義明) neighbor heard a gun shot late on Monday, and Chen's daughter-in-law later found the three family members as well as a 16-year-old nanny lying dead in their home, the report said. Chen, who lived in Gansu Province, dealt mainly with office crime and drug cases, the report said, adding that retaliation was a possible motive for the murders.
■ China
Fraudsters' appeal fails
The State Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for two bank employees who bilked customers out of hundreds of millions of yuan by offering fake accounts with high interest rates, state media said yesterday. Zhou Limin (周利民), former head of the China Construction Bank's Xian branch, and accountant Liu Yibing (劉怡冰) collected up to 484 million yuan (US$61 million) from 30 organizations and 400 individuals, state television said. They kept about half for themselves, it said, but only 7 million yuan has been recovered.
■ China
Audit campaign announced
An audit campaign to scrutinize pension funds will be launched under local authorities' control following a recent US$400 million scandal in Shanghai, the China Daily said yesterday. The nationwide campaign is aimed at preventing a repeat of the graft scandal in Shanghai, which involved officials misusing the city's US$1.25 billion pension fund for speculative property and highway projects, it said. The report did not give further details on the campaign.
■ India
Dog food tailor-made
Mumbai's fussy high-society dogs can now feast on gourmet cuisine specially adapted to suite their individual tastes and delivered to their homes. More than 500 people have signed up for the Home-Care Dog Food service, business owner Wasiff Khan said. "They tell us about their dog's likes, dislikes, allergies, and we come up with a meal plan for the month," Khan said. Owners' habits are also taken into account, said Khan. On Hindu holidays when people do not eat meat for religious reasons, their dogs go vegetarian too. Those who can afford the service, which costs from US$0.66 to US$2.60 daily, are attracted by the convenience, Khan said.
■ Malaysia
Acid spills in truck accident
A sting from a hornet caused a truck driver to lose control of his vehicle, and sent his load of hydrochloric acid all over an expressway in the north, an official and a news report said yesterday. The accident on Wednesday sparked a massive traffic jam, and sent "very smelly" fumes all around the scene, an official from the highways authority said, on condition of anonymity. It was not clear what the driver did after he was stung to cause the vehicle to overturn. The newspaper speculated that he may have slammed on the brakes.
■ Japan
Military role to change
A parliamentary committee approved legislation to upgrade the country's defense agency to a full ministry, a parliamentary official said yesterday. The bill would bolster the agency's status within the government and allow its troops a greater role in case of possible threats abroad. The legislation goes to the full upper house for approval today, parliamentary official Shun Makishi said.
■ France
Hedgehog stew lawsuit
French animal lovers said on Wednesday they had filed a lawsuit after a publishing company issued a hunter's year book extolling the virtues of "hedgehog stew." The recipe appears in the Almanach du Chasseur (The Hunter's Almanac), published by a company called CPE in Romorantin, central France. The national hedgehog sanctuary sounded the alarm, pointing out that hedgehogs are a protected species. Killing them for the pot carries a potential penalty of 9,000 euros (US$11,700) and a six-month jail term. Two groups for the protection of wild animals, Aspas and One Voice, said they had filed the suit, demanding that CPE withdraw the book.
■ Turkey
Camel sacrificed at airport
Workers at Turkish Airlines celebrated a job well done by sacrificing a camel at Istanbul airport and their boss has now been suspended. The national flag-carrier said on Wednesday that maintenance staff killed the camel at the country's busiest airport after sending a batch of aircraft back to the supplier ahead of schedule. Turkish Airlines has suspended the head of plane maintenance pending an investigation, the company said in a statement.
■ United Kingdom
Bill Bryson honored
US author Bill Bryson, whose wry travel writing includes an affectionate look at Britain, received an honorary Order of the British Empire (OBE) on Wednesday. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the award marks Bryson's contribution to literature. "Bill Bryson is one of Britain's most popular and best-loved authors," she told the presentation ceremony in central London. "Despite having been born and raised in the US, he has become a true British institution. He has not only delighted the British public with his witty and insightful writing, but educated and informed them as well," she said. Bryson, a former journalist, is best known for his travel writing, including Notes From A Small Island about modern Britain.
■ France
Monet's letters sold
A collection of about 1,000 letters to French impressionist painter Claude Monet from his friends and admirers fetched 1.3 million euros (US$1.7 million) at an auction on Wednesday, Artcurial auction house said -- more than double the estimated price. The letters, which date from 1874 until the artist's death in 1926, offer an intimate glimpse into a close circle of artists. Many are by Monet's fellow impressionist painters, including Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt. Others were written by sculptor Pierre-Auguste Renoir and writer Guy de Maupassant.
■ United Kingdom
Kenyan clergyman arrested
Police on Wednesday arrested a clergyman who claimed to produce miraculous pregnancies through prayer, but who is charged in Kenya with kidnapping. Pastor Gilbert Deya, 54, was arrested by London police on a Kenyan extradition warrant, the force said. Deya, who has churches in the English cities of Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester, claimed to help infertile couples conceive "through the power of prayer and the Lord Jesus." Twenty of Deya's "miracle babies" have been taken into care in Kenya after DNA tests showed they had no genetic connection to their mothers.
■ United States
Evel Knievel sues rapper
Veteran daredevil Evel Knievel is suing rap star Kanye West for trademark infringement over a music video that depicts the recording artist as "Evel Kanyevel" trying to jump a canyon on a rocket vehicle. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in US District Court in Tampa, Florida, says Knievel's image was tarnished by the "vulgar, sexual and racially charged nature" of West's video for his hit single Touch the Sky, which co-stars actress Pamela Anderson. "He's just a disgrace to me," Knievel, 68, said.
■ United States
Man bequeaths it all to L.A.
A 79-year-old man gave over US$400,000 to the people of Los Angeles in his will but snubbed his five siblings by leaving them only US$1 each, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday. Theodore DiFiore died in 1990, leaving most of his assets -- which included an old gas filling station and a car repair shop -- to the people of Los Angeles, the newspaper reported. "I think he was just a ornery guy ... and why he chose the city of Los Angeles, I don't have any idea," said attorney Robert Pasquinelli, who handled the case. DiFiore's properties were run down and needed renovation before being sold, the reason Los Angeles is only getting the money now.
■ United States
Jell-O catharsis
By day Sandra Martinez works at a New York law firm, but by night she abandons her conservative outlook and becomes "Sandra Claws" -- an amateur female Jell-O wrestler. At a grungy live music bar on New York's Lower East Side, she joined 11 other women to do battle -- several for the first time -- in a blue, blow-up kiddie pool decorated with orange fish and filled with warm, clear clumps of an unflavored version of the gelatin dessert. "It [lets us do] things we probably want to do to women sometimes that we dislike, but we have a forum where we can express it in a fun and safe way," the 29-year-old Martinez said.
■ United States
Baby not missing, but dead
A woman who reported her young son missing over the weekend was booked on suspicion of murder after sheriff's investigators found the toddler's small body stuffed in a trash bin near the family's home in Escondido, California, authorities said on Wednesday. Erika Panyavong, 30, told investigators on Tuesday night that 19-month-old Keithan's death was an accident, said Captain Clay Reynard, a San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesman. "The baby was sick, she gave the baby some medication and the next thing she knew the baby wasn't breathing," Reynard said. On Sunday afternoon, Panyavong had told investigators a different story.
■ United States
Here, pee in the bottle
A teacher who did not have time to escort three students to the bathroom is under fire for allegedly telling them to urinate in a soda bottle. The students did as they were told, said Thomas Field, interim superintendent of Wicomico County schools. The incident happened last Friday at Salisbury Middle School in Maryland, where restroom vandalism has led to a policy that some students have to be escorted to the restroom. Students said that the eighth-grade teacher -- who was not identified by the school pending a review of the matter -- could not find anyone to escort three students and told them to urinate into a soda bottle.
‘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