■ Indonesia
Boy dies in landslide
A landslide in a western village buried several homes and a small mosque, killing a four-year-old boy and leaving 12 people missing, police said yesterday. Rescuers used heavy machinery to clear away mud after days of heavy rain triggered Monday's landslide in Sungai Sariak, a village on Sumatra island, police Lieutenant Colonel Yadi Prariyadi said. "We believe 13 people may have been killed," he said, as the body of a young boy was pulled from the mud. Flooding and landslides last month killed more than 100 people on Sumatra, the country's westernmost island.
■ Japan
Cool on `Sea of Peace'
The government reacted coolly yesterday to a proposal by South Korea to rename the waters between them the "Sea of Peace" as part of efforts to build better relations. "The `Sea of Japan' is the only name for our country," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the top government spokesman. Seoul calls the waters the East Sea and Tokyo the Sea of Japan. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun proposed renaming the waters the "Sea of Peace" or "Sea of Friendship" to remove one issue of contention between the two nations, South Korean officials said on Monday. Roh made the proposal to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when they met during the APEC forum in Vietnam in November. The nations have agreed on how to divide most of the sea into exclusive economic zones. But they still disagree over Japan's claims to South Korean-controlled islets called "Dokdo" in Korea and "Takeshima" in Japan. Japan colonized Korea from 1910 until 1945. During this time, "Sea of Japan" was widely adopted internationally.
■ Germany
Milk negates tea's benefits
Drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew, German scientists said yesterday. Research has shown that tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax, but researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin in Mitte found milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease. Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital, and her team discovered that proteins called caseins in milk decrease the amount of compounds in tea known as catechins which increase its protection against heart disease.
■ Venezuela
Chavez touts nationalization
President Hugo Chavez declared he would nationalize electrical and telecommunication companies, taking a bold step toward increasing state control as he promised to transform Venezuela into a socialist country. Chavez, who will be sworn in today to a third term that runs until 2013, announced the nationalization plan as a key move in a series of radical changes. Chavez also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly to give him greater powers to approve "a set of revolutionary laws."
■ United Kingdom
Hawking prepares for space
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says he wants to undertake a zero-gravity flight aboard an airplane this year as a precursor to a journey into space, a newspaper reported on Monday. "This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009," he was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Hawking, 65, has said he hopes to travel on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic service, which is scheduled to launch in 2009. Virgin Galactic spokesman Stephen Attenborough said on Monday that the company had not discussed the issue of payment with Hawking.
■ Canada
Sextuplets born alive
Six babies born to a woman in Vancouver were in fair condition on Monday after what was believed to be Canada's first delivery of living sextuplets, hospital officials said on Monday. The mother, who has asked that the family's name not be made public, gave birth to the four boys and two girls over the weekend and is in good condition, British Columbia Women's Hospital said. Doctors said the babies were born prematurely after 25 weeks of gestation. All but one of the infants were delivered by Caesarean section and weighed an average of 800g, according to media reports before the hospital confirmed the births.
■ Saudi Arabia
King mulling Cabinet shuffle
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is considering a major Cabinet reshuffle soon, the first since he ascended to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom, diplomats and Saudi media said on Monday. The reshuffle may include key posts such as foreign minister, which has been held by Prince Saud al-Faisal for more than 30 years, and the influential oil minister, they said. The reports came amid mounting speculations in the Saudi capital that the king was planning the reshuffle in an attempt to inject new blood into his 20-member Cabinet. When Abdullah succeeded his half brother, the late King Fahd in August 2005, he made no changes in the government.
‘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
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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