■ China
Shandong leader fired
The second most-powerful figure in Shandong Province has been fired for serious misconduct, state media announced yesterday, amid a crackdown on corruption. The deputy party secretary of Shandong was dismissed because he committed a "serious discipline violation," the Xinhua news agency and state television said. They didn't give any details, but such language usually is used to describe embezzlement, extortion or other graft.
■ Philippines
HK fishermen arrested
Thirty fishermen from Hong Kong have been arrested poaching off a protected marine reserve, the navy said yesterday. The men were aboard the vessel Hoi Wan, intercepted on Thursday by security forces off Palawan island. Officials will later determine whether the men will be fined, jailed or repatriated immediately. The ill-equipped coast guard and navy has struggled to protect the vast coast area. In October maritime forces arrested 24 Chinese illegally fishing and in March, 17 Chinese poachers were deported after spending one year in jail.
■ China
One-tier tax debated
Lawmakers yesterday considered a draft law that would impose a 25 percent income tax on both domestic and foreign firms to end the preferential rate for overseas firms, state media said. The tax bill was unveiled to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress -- the top legislature -- at the start of a week-long session due to end on Friday, Xinhua news agency said. Domestic companies are currently taxed at a rate of 24 percent on average. Foreign firms only pay about 14 percent, which local firms have complained about in the face of hard competition.
■ Spain
Police find weapons cache
Police in the north of the country found a weapons cache on Saturday that allegedly belonged to the Basque separatist group ETA, officials said. Police said they found 50kg of chemical substances to make explosives; detonators; clothes and a tent. The items were recovered from an underground cache in a wooded area near the Basque town of Amorebieta. Investigators said it had only been built two or three days ago. Another arms cache was found by police in Itxaso, but this one seemed to have been abandoned four years ago, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
■ Burkina Faso
Prisoners flee jail en masse
About 600 prisoners are on the run after escaping during fighting between soldiers and policemen earlier this week, officials said. The head of the main prison in the capital, Ouagadougou, said the prisoners escaped on Wednesday when soldiers battling with police attacked the gates of the prison. The Ouagadougou prison holds about 1,200 prisoners in all and a spokesman said none of those who escaped were dangerous criminals, who are kept in more secure cells. He said most of the escapees had been convicted of small-time thievery or forgery. The firefights between soldiers and police were sparked by a police killing of a soldier on Tuesday.
■ United Kingdom
Domestic flights resume
Tens of thousands of passengers headed home for their Christmas holidays on Saturday after three days of chaos at airports caused by fog. By mid-afternoon the fog had largely lifted. British Airways (BA), which has suffered the bulk of the cancellations, resumed all domestic flights from London's Heathrow airport at midday. BA said it hoped to run 95 percent of services on Saturday and a full service yesterday.
■ Madagascar
Court confirms vote result
The nation's top court officially declared President Marc Ravalomanana to be the legitimate winner of this month's elections and rejected complaints from his rivals that the ballot was flawed. On Saturday the Constitutional High Court said that Ravalomanana won 54.8 percent of the vote, with his closest rival, Lahiniriko Jean, getting just 11.7 percent. Nine senior judges, led by court president Jean-Michel Rajaonarivony, told journalists that they had rejected requests from nine candidates for a rerun of the elections and for the disqualification of the president for breaching the electoral code. Jean had accused the president of campaigning outside the official dates and closing schools without proper authorization to increase the numbers at his rallies.
■ Spain
Prince not poisoned
Preliminary forensic tests conducted on the body of 14th century Prince Sancho de Castilla say the seven-year-old died of natural causes and not poisoning, a newspaper reported on Saturday. For centuries, historians suspected his uncle Enrique killed Sancho to inherit the throne of Castilla. However, recent tests by the Universities of Granada and Alcala de Henares and Barcelona's Clinico Hospital found no traces of cyanide or arsenic, El Pais reported. Instead, the preliminary tests indicated that the young prince may have died of a lung infection after chronic exposure to smoke, likely to have come from a fireplace.
■ United States
Arnold breaks a leg
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his leg while skiing with his family, a spokesman said. Schwarzenegger was taken to a hospital for X-rays and was discharged with a fracture to his right femur following the accident on Saturday morning, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's deputy chief of staff for communications. He will have surgery to repair the bone when he returns to Los Angeles, Mendelsohn said. The governor remained at his Sun Valley, Idaho, home on Saturday night and still planned to spend Christmas there. No one else was involved in the accident, Mendelsohn said.
■ United States
New York DJ killed
A popular hip-hop disc jockey died on Saturday after being shot at least 13 times earlier this month, police said. Carl Blaze, born Carlos Rivera, was shot outside an apartment building near Manhattan's Inwood section on Dec. 7, and his US$20,000 diamond chain stolen, police said. He was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he died on Saturday. Blaze, 30, was a DJ for hip-hop and R&B radio station Power 105.1 FM for about three years. He had gained a large fan base by spinning records at clubs and on the air on Friday and Saturday nights. Power 105.1 FM held a tribute for Blaze on Saturday night.
■ United States
Tumbleweeds take over town
The blizzard that dumped up to 1.2m of snow in Colorado's mountains brought a different force of nature to Front Range town: tumbleweeds that piled up to 6m high. "I couldn't see out the kitchen window, and it's on the second story," said Lisa Jackson, a local resident who lives near the Pueblo West golf course. She and her husband were still trying to dig out from the tightly packed weeds on Friday. Neighbor Michelle Peulen drove through the tumbleweed storm on Wednesday. "It was like being in a weird video game, dodging the tumbleweeds," she said.
■ United States
Trump sues over flag citation
Donald Trump is suing the local administration in Palm Beach, Florida, for US$10 million after being cited for flying an oversized US flag over his Mar-a-Lago Club. Attorneys for the club filed a complaint on Thursday, saying that flying the flag is a constitutionally protected expression of free speech -- and that the large flag is a proper match for the size of the real-estate mogul's patriotism. Town officials said Trump violated zoning codes when the lavish club hoisted a 4.5m-by-7.5m flag atop a 24m pole on Oct. 3. The citation was for having a flagpole taller than 12.6m, for not obtaining a building permit and for not getting permission from the landmarks board.
■ United States
Legislator admits Castro threat
A Florida congresswoman acknowledged calling for Cuban President Fidel Castro's assassination after earlier claiming a video clip of her making the comments was fake. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said on Saturday she has not seen the unedited footage of her interview, which appears in a 28-second clip on the Internet by the makers of a new British documentary, 638 Ways to Kill Castro. In it, she says: "I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people." Earlier this month, the Havana-born lawmaker said filmmakers spliced clips together to make the sound bite.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not