■ THAILAND
Condom testing popular
Some 1,000 amorous people have applied for 500 positions to volunteer to test condoms for customer satisfaction, a firm said on Wednesday, as part of a campaign promoting safe sex. "We are surprised to see huge interest in our campaign with almost 1,000 applicants wanting to take part," said an official at a Thai marketing firm for condom-maker Durex. The campaign was part of Durex's efforts to promote safe sex as well as giving people "an outstanding opportunity to enjoy their favorite pastime," Durex said in a statement.
■ RUSSIA
Moscow claims seabed
Samples taken by a submarine when it planted a flag beneath the North Pole show that the sea floor there is a continuation of the federal republic's land mass, an official said on Wednesday. The underwater Lomonosov Shelf was shown to be a "structural extension of the Siberian continental platform," said Viktor Poselov, deputy director of the country's institute of maritime geological research, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The finding was the first to come from study of "geological materials" collected by the submarine on Aug. 2, Poselov said. It will take a year to secure final results, he said.
■ JAPAN
Three murderers hanged
Tokyo hanged three murderers yesterday, the Justice Ministry and media said, bringing to 10 the number of executions carried out since Shinzo Abe became prime minister last September. Another 103 convicts remain on death row following the executions of three convicts in their 60s, Kyodo news agency said. The ministry did not identify those executed but media gave their names and said each had been convicted of multiple murders in the 1990s, mostly in connection with robberies. Tokyo carries out several executions a year, usually when parliament is in recess or as the country winds down in December for New Year holidays.
■ LATVIA
Freiberga plans auction
Former president Vaira Vike-Freiberga is considering using eBay to auction off the wardrobe she wore in office in an attempt to recoup money she spent to look attractive and presidential. Freiberga told public radio in an interview this week that most of her salary during her years in office went on garments fit for a president in all situations. "I literally spent all my salary to take care of myself ... to be able at any time to stand next to the Japanese Emperor, the British Queen, [the Netherland's] Queen Beatrix, any other lady," she said.
■ ISRAEL
Crematorium torched
A crematorium has been torched after its secret location was revealed by a newspaper of ultra-Orthodox Jews who fiercely oppose cremation, police said. The crematorium in Hibat Tzion, a town north of Tel Aviv, has functioned for two years attracting vigorous criticism from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, which knew of its existence but not its exact location. Ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose cremation on religious grounds. The facility burned down on Wednesday after its location was revealed in an ultra-Orthodox newspaper. Police said they suspect arson.
■ UNITED STATES
Aid workers to be screened
The government plans to screen employees of aid organizations that receive funds from the Agency for International Development looking for possible links to terror organizations, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Outlined in a recent Federal Register notice, the program demands for the first time that nongovernmental organizations file detailed information on key personnel who apply for or manage funds distributed by the federal aid agency, the Post said. The Federal Register notice said the program could involve 2,000 people and "will become effective on August 27," the last day that public comments about it are to be submitted.
■ UNITED STATES
Major indicted for bribery
An Army major and two of his family members, accused of taking bribes from Defense Department contractors in 2004 and 2005, have been indicted in federal court in San Antonio, Texas. Major John Cockerham, a contract officer, and his wife, Melissa Cockerham, are accused of taking at least US$9.6 million in bribes while Cockerham was stationed in Kuwait and responsible for contracts for Defense Department services, including bottled water for soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq. The Cockerhams were arrested last month at Fort Sam Houston, where the major had been reassigned.
■ UNITED STATES
Parrots returned to Mexico
Officials returned 149 parrots and parakeets that were sedated and hidden under blankets or in duffel bags and smuggled from Mexico. The neon-green birds, which had been held in quarantine for up to 18 months at the San Diego, California, Otay Mesa border crossing, were handed over in cages to Mexican authorities on Wednesday. They will be returned to native habitats in southern Mexico or kept for breeding purposes if veterinarians determine they cannot survive in the wild. Strict quarantine rules, partly in response to outbreaks of exotic Newcastle disease in California, have created a thriving black market for pet birds, authorities say.
■ UNITED STATES
Security proposed for farms
Poultry growers are protesting proposed regulations from the Department of Homeland Security that would label propane gas a "chemical of interest" and require anybody with 3,402kg or more of the fuel to register with the agency. At that amount, poultry farmers who use propane to heat chicken houses would have to fill out the forms. "I could think of a lot easier, better targets" for terrorists than chicken farms, groused Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a Washington-based industry group. The Poultry & Egg Association and the National Turkey Federation have joined the protests.
■ UNITED STATES
Hunger-striker deteriorating
The health of a hunger-striking TV cameraman at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay has deteriorated sharply in recent months, according to notes released on Tuesday by his lawyer after they were censored by US authorities. Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for the al-Jazeera TV network, has lost 18kg since he began his strike late last year and has developed intestinal problems and other conditions, according to the notes from attorney Clive Stafford Smith. Al-Hajj, who has been held at Guantanamo since June 2002, seemed anxious and "even paranoid," and had difficulty concentrating or speaking his previously fluent English.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion