■ BANGLADESH
Million lack basic shelter
The International Red Cross says more than a million people are without basic shelter five weeks after a devastating cyclone struck the country's coast. Cyclone Sidr hit on Nov. 15 with winds of 250kph and a 5m storm surge, killing more than 3,300 people. According to government figures, more than 1.5 million houses were fully or partially damaged by Sidr, the deadliest storm since 1991 when a cyclone killed about 143,000 Bangladeshis.
■ THAILAND
Police retrieve 22 bodies
Marine police have retrieved the bodies of 22 Burmese migrant workers in the Andaman Sea, police said yesterday. Acting on information from fishermen, the search party found the corpses floating in the sea off Ranong Province on Saturday. "We do not know why or when the boat or boats sank but we believe that they must have been overloaded and sank in that area about two days ago," said a police spokesperson. The 22 bodies include those of eight women, 10 men and four children.
■ CHINA
Mine officials jailed
The owner of a coal mine and four other company officials found responsible for a blast that killed 171 workers two years ago were jailed by a local court on Saturday, state media reported. A court in northeast Heilongjiang Province sentenced Ma Jinguang, owner of the Dongfeng coal mine, to six years in prison for dereliction of duty and failure to comply with safety regulations, Xinhua news agency reported. Four other company officials received terms ranging from three-and-a-half to five years, Xinhua said.
■ UNITED STATES
Man crucifies Santa
Art Conrad has an issue with the commercialism of Christmas and his protest has gone way beyond just shunning the malls or turning off his TV. The Bremerton, Washington, resident nailed Santa Claus to a 4.5m crucifix in front of his house. "Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff." A photo of the crucified Santa adorns Conrad's Christmas cards, with the message "Santa died for your MasterCard." The display is also Conrad's way of poking fun at political correctness.
■ UNITED STATES
Zhen Zhen on display
Visitors lined up outside the zoo gates for the first public viewing of the San Diego Zoo's giant panda cub Zhen Zhen (珍珍). The 7.7km, black-and-white cub was on display outside the Giant Panda Research Station's "classroom" exhibit for two hours. "We weren't sure how much interest there'd be, since we have four pandas" zoo spokesman Andrew Circo said. "But a lot of people came out to see her." Since her birth on Aug. 3, Zhen Zhen has been living in a den out of the public view. The toddler, however, has been visible to the world via the zoo's Web site.
■ COSTA RICA
Police seize marijuana
Agents made the largest marijuana bust in the Central American country's history, seizing 4.4 tonnes of the drug found in an abandoned boat, police said on Saturday. The marijuana was discovered on Friday during a joint patrol with the US Coast Guard off the country's Pacific coast, police said in a statement. The ship's crew fled, abandoning their 15m-long boat near the border with Panama, where they appear to have fled, police said.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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