■ AUSTRALIA
"Monarchy to remain for now
The government will likely only break its ties with the British monarchy and become a republic when Queen Elizabeth II dies, the former leader of the campaign for a republic said yesterday. Malcolm Turnbull, now a conservative politician, said he did not believe the time was ripe for Australia to shake off a tradition spanning more than two centuries. "I know this is not very consoling to many republicans and this doesn't give me any joy to say it," the former chairman of the Australian Republican Movement told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But my own judgement is that the next time when you would have your best prospects would be at the end of the Queen's reign -- so when she dies, or abdicates."
■ CHINA
Elephant attacks teacher
A wild elephant in Yunnan Province attacked an American by tossing him with its trunk, causing the man to suffer from fractured ribs and stomach injuries, an official said yesterday. Jeremy Allen McGill, who teaches English in Wuhan, was found unconscious by a security guard around dusk on Thursday at the "Wild Elephant Valley" nature reserve in Xishuangbanna. "It wasn't clear why he was attacked," said an official with the Xishuangbanna foreign affairs office who would only give his surname, Chen. "The elephant just used its trunk to pick the man up and then let go." McGill's abdomen and lungs were "seriously injured" and he had broken ribs, Chen said.
■ INDIA
Vets raid homes for chickens
Veterinary staff in eastern India are capturing chickens in night-time raids on the backyards of homes to surprise villagers unwilling to part with their poultry as an outbreak of bird flu spreads. Bird flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal's 19 districts, with samples of dead chickens testing positive in two new districts, officials said yesterday. Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic, but there have been no reported human infections in India yet.
■ AUSTRALIA
Pig hunters face charges
Three pig hunters face 58 criminal charges after a wild hunting spree in which they drove their truck through fences and gates on 11 farms and were pursued by a farmer in an aircraft and police. The pig hunters are charged with a "spate of malicious damage incidents" over almost 12 hours on Australia Day on Saturday in New South Wales, police said on yesterday. The pig hunters, who smashed their four-wheel drive through fences and gates across 11 properties, were finally arrested on Sunday, police said. "Three men have been charged after their vehicle was tracked by witnesses in a small aircraft following a spate of malicious damage incidents," police said in a statement.
■ HONG KONG
US Navy warship docks
A US Navy warship yesterday made the first visit to Hong Kong by an American ship since November when an aircraft carrier group and two minesweepers were separately turned away, dealing a blow to improving China-US relations. The USS Blue Ridge and its 700 sailors would stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days, Captain David Lausman told reporters on board the ship. The arrival of the ship comes two months after the USS Kitty Hawk and its strike group, carrying about 8,000 sailors hoping to join their families in Hong Kong for a holiday break, were refused entry.
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