■ HONG KONG
No buyer for large diamond
Global auction house Sotheby’s failed to hammer off a 72.22-carat “D” flawless white diamond at its Asian sales last week in a possible sign of weakness in the global diamond trade. The large diamond, which had a pre-sale estimate of US$10 million to US$12 million, attracted a final bid of HK$73 million (US$9.24 million) that fell short of the reserve price and went unsold, Sotheby’s press officer Rhonda Yung said. The diamond was later sold to a private buyer for an undisclosed sum, Sotheby’s said. Yung added that several international buyers had bid for the stone, but “confusion over exchange rates” had caused the auctioneer to retract some bids and may have dampened buyer enthusiasm. The Sotheby’s stone was the third largest “pear-shaped” diamond ever auctioned globally.
■ INDONESIA
Alert raised for volcano
Authorities have raised the alert level for a volcano near the country’s third largest city following increased volcanic activity, a volcanology center official said yesterday. More than 100 volcanic tremors were recorded from Mount Papandayan in West Java on Wednesday, although there were no visible signs it would erupt soon, said Estu Kriswati from the volcanology center in the nearby city of Bandung. “The volcano has shown increased activity since April 9 but it reached its peak yesterday,” she said. Scientists have raised the alert to yellow, two notches below the highest red alert.
■ THAILAND
Martial law to be lifted
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej vowed yesterday to lift martial law, imposed after the 2006 coup, in most of the kingdom after his party swept to victory in last year’s polls. Samak, whose People Power Party is closely allied with ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the restrictions were no longer needed. “At today’s [Thursday’s] meeting of the National Security Council, we agreed to lift martial law rule in 179 districts of 31 provinces,” he told reporters. Martial law will remain in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which are in the grip of a separatist insurgency, he said.
■ CHINA
Ministry lodges CNN protest
The Foreign Ministry summoned CNN executives to lodge a protest as Beijing seeks an apology from the US news network for statements made by a commentator. CNN said Jack Cafferty was referring to China’s leadership and not China’s people on April 9 when he said: “I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.” But the Chinese government did not accept that explanation. A ministry spokesman said Cafferty’s “vile remarks” had “maliciously attacked the Chinese people and seriously violated the professional ethics of journalism,” a report yesterday in the state-run China Daily newspaper said.
■ THAILAND
Human smuggler surrenders
The driver of a truck in which 54 illegal immigrants from Myanmar suffocated last week has surrendered and confessed to working for a human smuggling network, Thai police said on Wednesday. Suchon Bunplong, 38, turned himself in Tuesday after a six-day manhunt, police Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai said. “He was scared he would be killed by the others involved [in the network], so he surrendered for his own safety,” Kraithong said. He said police were searching for two other suspects.
■ ROMANIA
Man found with lion at home
Media say a man in Bucharest was rearing a lion in his back garden until neighbors decided they had heard enough roaring and called police. Rompres state news agency says police found a caged three-year-old lioness, as well as two deer, a stag and two peacocks roaming the garden of the man’s home in the southern village of Pietrosita. The agency’s report on Wednesday says the 28-year-old man is being charged with illegal possession of wild animals and could be sentenced to up to a year in jail. The daily Evenimentul Zilei newspaper says the lioness will be taken to the Bucharest zoo, but that police will let the man keep the peacocks and his dogs.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Neanderthals speak out
Neanderthals have spoken out for the first time in 30,000 years, with the help of scientists who have simulated their voices using fossil evidence and a computer synthesizer. Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to work out how they would have sounded, NewScientist.com reported on Wednesday. The conclusion is that Neanderthals spoke, but sounded rather different to us. Specifically, the ancient humans’ lacked the “quantal vowel” sounds that underlie modern speech and which provide cues that help speakers understand one another.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Teen to be tried for murder
A 17-year-old male youth was to appear in court yesterday charged with the murder of Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones. The 11-year-old was shot in the neck in the Croxteth area of the Merseyside city in August last year after returning from soccer practice, fueling fears of rising youth crime and gang violence. The 17-year-old was charged on Wednesday along with five other suspects. All will appear at Liverpool Magistrates Court. Police charged three youths, aged 15, 16 and 17, and two men, Melvyn Coy, 24 and Gary Kayes, 25, with assisting an offender. The 16-year-old was also charged with possession of a firearm. All those charged were detained after a series of dawn raids involving more than 100 officers in Croxteth.
■ GERMANY
Man feeds parents to pigs
Prosecutors in Germany called for life imprisonment on Wednesday for a farmer accused of murdering his parents and feeding his dead neighbor to his pigs. Prosecutors in Kassel, central Germany, accuse the 32-year-old of creeping up behind his father in the cowshed and beating him to death before strangling his mother in her sleep four years later. The defendant claims he is innocent and that his father was killed after being kicked by a cow. He is accused of killing his parents to get his hands on the family farm.
■ SPAIN
Bomb blamed on extremists
A bomb blast outside the office of Spain’s ruling Socialist party in Bilbao yesterday, blamed on Basque separatist group ETA, caused serious damage to the building but no casualties, police said. “There is notable material damage,” a local police spokesman said. Two police officers were lightly injured. A police patrol discovered a suspicious suitcase in front of the building in the city in Spain’s northern Basque region “about one hour before” the blast, the spokesman said, adding that officers evacuated the area. At 5:30am the traffic service DYA received a phone call warning of a blast at 6am. Calls to DYA have traditionally been used by ETA to warn of imminent explosions in the Basque country.
■ UNITED STATES
Web site creates candidate
Fed up with the flaws of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain? An innovative Web site using Wikipedia-like collaborative software has given people around the world a chance to design the perfect, although unfortunately fictional, candidate for the country’s presidency. Wikicandidate08.com lets contributors edit previous entries about the fictional candidate, changing their sex, name and photo, as well as their political agenda and response to events in the news. The site began with an imaginary candidate based on satirical comedian Stephen Colbert. The project was launched by Cornell University researchers who want to explore the benefits and disadvantages of “online civic participation.”
■ UNITED STATES
Court convicts Cambodian
An accountant was convicted on Wednesday of orchestrating a failed attempt to overthrow the Cambodian government with a handful of rebel fighters who attacked government buildings in 2000. Yasith Chhun, a US citizen of Cambodian descent, was convicted of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country and other charges. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 8. The Cambodian government welcomed the ruling. Chhun headed a group known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which accused Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of rigging elections so he could stay in power.
■ UNITED STATES
Officials raid poultry plants
Nearly 300 people were arrested on Wednesday in immigration and identity theft raids at poultry plants in five states. More than 100 people were arrested on immigration violations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Moorefield, West Virginia, with 45 arrests in Mount Pleasant, Texas, on charges of false use of Social Security numbers. More than 25 people face administrative charges for immigration violations in Live Oak, Florida. More than 20 were arrested in Batesville, Arkansas, on federal warrants for alleged document fraud or identity theft. “We knew in advance and cooperated fully,” said Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry company.
■ CANADA
BSE strain identified
A case of mad cow disease discovered in December involves an “atypical” strain of the infection also reported in Europe, officials said on Wednesday. The country’s 11th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) provides evidence that multiple strains of the affliction exist around the world, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The agency said that, as in many atypical BSE cases, the diseased animal was more than 13 years old, compared with an average of six years old for those infected with the BSE strain involved in most cases.
■ CHILE
Education minister ousted
Lawmakers ousted Education Minister Yasna Provoste on Wednesday for failing to prevent a scandal involving subsidies to private schools. The vote also bars Provoste from public office for five years. Provoste is not accused of any personal wrongdoing, but opposition legislators said she should be held accountable for the alleged mishandling of government funds. Subsidies were paid to schools that overstated the number of their students. Bachelet’s administration called the ouster politically motivated.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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