■ CHINA
Democracy chair released
The vice chairman of the outlawed China Democracy Party, Gao Hongming (高洪明), has been released from prison after serving eight years for subversion, his family said yesterday. "He was released yesterday [Thursday] and is at home now," his sister, who refused to give her full name, said by phone. "Due to regulations, he is not permitted to speak to outsiders and our family doesn't want him to speak to outsiders either," she said. Gao was a founding member of the the China Democracy Party when it was set up in late 1998 and was arrested on June 30, 1999 in the subsequent crackdown on members of the group.
■ CHINA
Philanderers to get the boot
China plans to sack all officials found to have secretly "kept and supported" mistresses, in a move aimed at raising social morals, state media reported yesterday. The step hardens up previous policy. "It is a misunderstanding that officials who have mistresses would only be sacked when the situation is serious," the Beijing News quoted a Ministry of Personnel spokesman as saying. Mistresses and "second wives" are common among government officials and businessmen in China, and Chinese media have said the financial pressures of keeping mistresses have driven some officials to seek money through bribes or abuse of power.
■ CHINA
Islands threatened
China boasts tens of thousands of islands but many are disappearing and others are being devastated by uncontrolled quarrying and other industrial practices, state media reported yesterday. "Rampant stone quarrying and rubbish dumping have accelerated the deterioration of island eco-systems," said a circular issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), according to the Xinhua news agency. China has tens of thousands of islands along its 18,000km coastline, which are unprotected by any anti-exploitation laws, the report said.
■ JAPAN
Manga prize announced
A Hong Kong artist has won Japan's first ``Nobel Prize of Manga'' for artists working in the comic book genre abroad, Japan's Foreign Ministry said Friday. Sun Zi's Tactics by Lee Chi-ching (李志清), 43, beat out 145 other entries from 26 countries and regions around the world, the ministry said in a statement. Lee's historically themed adventure series ran from 1995-2006 in Chinese and has been translated into numerous other languages, it said. Lee, along with three runners-up, will be invited to Japan for a 10-day visit that will include receiving their trophies at a ceremony in Tokyo on Monday.
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■ IRELAND
First black mayor elected
The nation elected its first black mayor on Thursday, the latest sign of how rapid immigration is changing the face of this once all-white nation. Rotimi Adebari, a Nigerian who arrived seven years ago as an asylum-seeker, was elected unopposed to lead the council of Portlaoise, a bustling commuter town west of Dublin. Adebari, 43, called it "a great honor to become the No. 1 citizen of the town." He said he wanted "to encourage immigrants to be a force in their communities, to engage with their communities," adding that "[p]eople will get to know you. Their perception of you will change just like that. That's what happened to me."
■ ANGOLA
Plane crash kills five
An Angolan Airlines plane crashed on landing at an airport in the north on Thursday, killing five people on the same day the EU said it was blacklisting the airline because of safety concerns. The Boeing 737 plane crashed and broke in half when it landed at an airport in M'banza Congo, a town about 300km north of the capital, Luanda, national airports chief Celso Rosas said. The airline said in a statement that 79 passengers had been on board when the accident occurred at 1:40pm. It gave no information about the dead or injured, nor about the possible causes, but said an emergency team was investigating at the scene.
■ ISRAEL
Dog helps criminal escape
An Israeli criminal slipped away from house arrest by putting his electronic ankle monitor on his dog, police said on Thursday. It wasn't until police came to take Nabil Farumi, convicted of attempted murder, to a sentencing hearing, that they found he was gone. "After we searched the house we saw that he somehow managed to take the monitor off his leg and place it around he neck of his dog, who continued to walk around the house," said Yoram Danieli, a police commander.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Spice Girls return
Following a calculated publicity buildup, the original Girl Power group of the 1990s announced on Thursday they had agreed to get together for 11 concerts around the world in December and January. They will be the group's first concerts since breaking up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career in 1998. The group said shows would be in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, Las Vegas on Dec. 8, New York on Dec. 11, London on Dec. 15, Cologne on Dec. 20, Madrid on Dec. 23, Beijing on Jan. 10, Hong Kong on Jan. 12, Sydney on Jan. 17, Cape Town on Jan. 20 and Buenos Aires on Jan. 24.
■ NETHERLANDS
Farmer rues police chase
A Dutch farmer watched in disbelief as a driver under the influence of cocaine drove a slalom course through his corn field, only to be joined by two police vehicles in hot pursuit, adding to the damage. Police, backed up by a helicopter, eventually managed to corner the 35-year-old driver after he careened into a neighboring orchard and crashed into a ditch. "Shoot out two tires ... then the problem is solved," irate farmer Ad van Schendel told police, the Brabants Dagblad newspaper reported. Van Schendel said he estimated the damage to his field near the southern town of Dussen last Friday at 7,000 euros (US$9,400) to 8,000 euros.
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■ UNITED STATES
Integration plan rejected
Students cannot be assigned to public schools because of their race, the US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a significant civil rights decision that casts doubt on integration efforts adopted across the country. By a 5-4 vote on the last day of its term, the court's conservative majority struck down voluntary programs adopted in Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, to attain racial diversity in public school classrooms. The ruling added to a string of decisions this term in which President George W. Bush's two appointees -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- have shifted the court sharply to the right on divisive social issues like abortion. It also fueled vows by Democratic presidential candidates to change the court's direction and reduce racial inequality in schools.
■ CANADA
Memorial security upgraded
Canada will install surveillance cameras around the National War Memorial in Ottawa after three youths urinated on the base of the monument late on the July 1 Canada Day holiday last year. As well as the cameras, the government said on Wednesday there would be more guards at the memorial and the tomb of the unknown soldier, as well as crowd-control equipment at the site during Canada Day and other special events. Veterans Minister Greg Thompson said the measures were designed to "help prevent the unfortunate incidents that occurred on July 1, 2006, from recurring."
A 23-year-old man from Montreal was charged with mischief but the case was later dropped after he apologized publicly. He said he was so drunk at the time that he did not realize where he had been urinating.
■ UNITED STATES
Jupiter changing its stripes
Jupiter is changing its stripes, perhaps because its seasons are changing, scientists reported on Thursday. The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope is capturing some of the most dramatic atmospheric changes ever documented, the team at NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore reported. White areas of the planet's cloud bands are turning brown and brownish areas are lightening up, the researchers said. "Jupiter doesn't stay the same color all the time. We are just lucky -- it is going through what we call a global upheaval, meaning the belts and bands are changing color at the same time," planetary scientist Amy Simon-Miller of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center said. Changes in the heat from the sun may be affecting the gas giant's atmosphere, she said.
■ RUSSIA
Satellite to test hotel plan
Russia on Thursday launched a satellite designed to test the feasibility of the world's first space hotel, the brainchild of a Las Vegas hotel tycoon who hopes to begin construction in 2011, officials said. The Genesis-2 satellite is a smaller version of the Nautilus orbital station, which US tycoon Robert Bigelow wants to offer as a dream holiday destination for tourists of the future. The satellite was shot into orbit by a Dnepr rocket designed on the basis of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Before the launch of its full-scale BA330 prototype, Bigelow Aerospace is sending up a series of satellites to test the strength of inflatable structures and other processes. Bigelow aims to build the hotel, which would consist of several inflatable modules, by 2015 at an estimated cost of US$500 million.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the