■ CHINA
Olympic items up for auction
The bed used by basketball star Yao Ming (姚明) at the Olympics will be among millions of items of memorabilia auctioned off after the Beijing Games, the China Daily said yesterday. The bed will be the one that the 2.26m Yao uses at the Beijing Olympic Village. It is one of about 200 million items used during the Games that will eventually go under the hammer in online bidding that started on Wednesday, the newspaper said. That figure could not immediately be independently confirmed. The auctions could fetch up to 1 billion yuan (US$145 million), the paper said. The items up for grabs will include furniture, sports equipment, electronics, and even some pieces of land used as temporary sports venues, the report said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Doctor ready to face court
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday welcomed reports that a doctor allegedly linked to the deaths of 17 patients had dropped his fight against extradition from the US. Surgeon Jayant Patel — dubbed “Dr Death” by the media — was arrested in Oregon in March after Queensland officials laid a range of charges against him, including manslaughter. The Indian-born doctor, who is also a US citizen, was expected to fight extradition but his lawyer told a court in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday that Patel would consent to being transferred to Australia. Patel was director of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital for two years from 2003 before fleeing. He reportedly had a 20-year history of botched operations and surgical malpractice claims, which saw him banned from surgery in New York and Oregon.
■ EAST TIMOR
Jackie Chan seeking scripts
Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan (成龍) invited Timorese to send him their scripts for action comedy films as he wrapped up a two-day UN goodwill visit to promote peace yesterday. “I already told the government people and my friends [to] please send me some scripts,” Chan said before leaving the country. He said Timor would make a great backdrop to one of his action films. “All these years I see Timor is fighting, fighting,” he said, adding that he wanted to use films to send “smart messages” about peace.
■ AUSTRALIA
Croc joins pub crawl
Drinkers at an Outback watering hole found a crocodile at the door — and brought it inside for their session. The saltwater croc in question was just 60cm long and more a curiosity than a threat to drinkers at the Noonamah Tavern on Sunday. Barmaid Sarah Sparre said yesterday that three patrons spotted the crocodile outside the pub, grabbed it and brought it inside. “You could say we were a bit surprised,” Sparre said. “He was pretty complacent, easygoing. But we weren’t going to test him out.” The three men taped up its mouth, took some photos of them holding it, then put it in a box near the bar. Sparre said the croc may have escaped from a crocodile farm several kilometers away. Wildlife officials took the croc to the farm.
■ THAILAND
Samak to visit China
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will make his first official visit to China next week, the foreign ministry said yesterday. Samak will begin his four-day trip in Beijing on Monday. “The aim of visit is to introduce himself, strengthen relations and continue cooperation between the two countries,” the ministry said. Samak had been due to visit China last month but postponed the trip after the Sichuan earthquake.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Golf shot wins coffin
A “dead-on drive” earned Herna Els a coffin on a Kroonstad golf course, but she declined to take it home, stating perfect health. The Volksblad daily said that the coffin was the prize for the best drive on the 16th hole at a charity event and that Els earned laughter, jokes and a few frowns. The prize helped raise money for charity and Els — a police detective and vice president at the country club where the tournament was held — donated the coffin back to the club for the next charity event. The coffin was reportedly chosen because the chairman of the Vryburgers service organization that ran the event is a coffin maker.
■ GERMANY
Government targets obesity
The Cabinet initiated a plan of action on Wednesday to combat mounting obesity in the general population, putting forward a series of voluntary measures for states, local authorities and businesses to consider. The program aims to cut disease related to obesity by 2020. Among the measures proposed are courses at schools, which fall under state governments, and awareness programs, although there are no plans for compulsory school courses on nutrition. Among other measures proposed are better labeling of foods and motivating people to exercise more.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Court convicts supremacist
A court on Wednesday imposed a 16-year jail term on a neo-Nazi who made nail bombs designed to attack black, South Asian and Jewish people. A judge in Leeds, northern England, told Martyn Gilleard, who was found guilty by a jury of terror offenses on Tuesday, that he believed he intended to cause “havoc” with the devices, which were found under a bed at his home. Sentencing him to 11 years for terrorism offenses and five years for child pornography charges, Judge John Milford said Gilleard may not have formulated any specific targets and appeared to be a “lone wolf.”
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Child had beheading video
Video clips of terrorists inspired by al-Qaeda beheading people have been found on the cellphone of a 12-year-old boy, British police revealed yesterday. Teachers reported the child to police after he sent clips to his classmates. The chief constable of West Yorkshire, Sir Norman Bettison, said terrorist propaganda was spreading like a virus, and warned that every Muslim child in Britain could be at risk. He raised the example of the 12-year-old, who was not a Muslim, during a speech at the Association of Chief Police Officers’ annual conference. The boy has been referred to a project to divert people from extremism before they turn violent.
■ NIGER
French hostages released
Four French hostages held for three days by Tuareg rebels have been released in Niger to Red Cross officials, a company who employed them said on Wednesday in Paris. The French nuclear firm Areva said the captives were in good shape after being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the northern region of Niger. The four were to return immediately to France. Areva did not comment on whether a ransom was paid for their release. Tuareg rebels from the Movement for Justice kidnapped the French citizens on Sunday, Areva said. The rebels in the west African country are fighting for more independence and a greater share of income from natural resources.
■ UNITED STATES
Child traffickers arrested
Police arrested 389 people on child sex trafficking charges in a major sweep across several states, the New York Times reported yesterday. The five-day operation spanned 16 cities and involved hundreds of local, state and federal agencies dealing with missing children, many of them runaways, and identifying networks behind child trafficking for the sex trade, the report said. Twenty-one sexually exploited children were rescued from the street, it said. So far 433 exploited children have been rescued as a result of the initiative, the report quoted federal officials as saying.
■ UNITED STATES
Alleged terrorists arraigned
Three men accused of plotting to blow up New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday after they were extradited from Trinidad. They were extradited overnight from Trinidad amid great secrecy and security in an operation that involved 15 FBI agents in addition to local law enforcement officers, the Trinidad Guardian said. Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, 62, and Guyanese citizens Abdul Kadir, 59, and Abdel Nur, 57, were flown by private jet from Trinidad. A fourth suspect, Russell de Freitas, was arrested in New York and is in jail pending trial.
■ UNITED STATES
Parents giving kids booze
More than 40 percent of the country’s 10.8 million underage drinkers get their alcohol free from adults — and many get it from their own parents, US health officials said yesterday. Up to 650,000 youths and underage adults were given alcoholic beverages by their parents or guardians in the past month, they said. The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 3.5 million underage drinkers each year abuse or are addicted to alcohol. The report is based on a nationwide survey of 158,000 people aged 12 to 20 who answered questions about behavior and social situations involved in underage drinking.
■ UNITED STATES
Virginia executes man
Virginia executed a 30-year-old man late on Wednesday for murdering a shopkeeper during a robbery 11 years ago, the 100th execution since it resumed the death penalty in 1976. Robert Yarbrough, 30, was executed by lethal injection at 9:28pm at Greensville prison in Jarratt, said Larry Traylor, director of communications at the Virginia Department of Corrections. “He did make a last statement. He said: ‘Tell my kids I love them and let’s get it over with. Make people happy, help celebrate the murder,’” Traylor said.
■ UNITED STATES
Stolen art case in court
A tale of betrayal, theft and a family feud has led to the arrest of a 61-year-old French woman accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in art work from a storage facility in Chicago. But Michele Taburno-Vasarely was expected to argue in court today that the paintings by her father-in-law belonged to her. That is a question a French court has spent months trying to figure out. The story began when painter and op-art pioneer Viktor Vasarely donated his work to a foundation in France in 1971. The museum Vasarely designed flourished, but Vasarely’s family began to bicker over the management of the foundation. Over the course of the wrangling, nearly all of the 1,300 original works and 18,000 silkscreen prints disappeared. The feud has jumped to Chicago, where Taburno-Vasarely lives.
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