■ CHINA
Exterminators battle locusts
More than 33,000 exterminators have been dispatched to battle a locust infestation in the north in hopes of preventing a potentially disastrous migration to Beijing during next month’s Olympic Games, state media reported on Tuesday. The insects, which devour crops, routinely plague the Inner Mongolia region and have damaged 1.3 million hectares of grassland in three areas near Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported. Under a prevention plan, some 200 tonnes of pesticides, 100,000 sprayers and four airplanes were being used to kill the pests, Xinhua reported. Environmental problems were also a concern in the coastal city of Qingdao, which is hosting Olympic sailing events. An algae bloom has smothered coastal waters and officials have mobilized 10,000 workers and 1,000 boats to clear the blue-green infestation.
■ AUSTRALIA
Funerals feature rock music
Hymns are being replaced at funerals in one city by popular rock classics like Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, a cemetery manager said yesterday. At Centennial Park, the largest cemetery and crematorium in the southern city of Adelaide, only two hymns still rank among its top 10 most popular funeral songs: Amazing Grace and Abide With Me. Leading the funeral chart is crooner Frank Sinatra’s classic hit My Way followed by Louis Armstrong’s version of Wonderful World, a statement said. The Led Zeppelin and AC/DC rock anthems rank outside the top 10, but have gained ground in recent years as more Australians give up traditional Christian hymns. Among other less conventional choices were Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by the Monty Python comedy team, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, Hit the Road Jack, Another One Bites the Dust and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.
■ SINGAPORE
Former prince arrives
Nepal’s former crown prince Paras has arrived in Singapore, a source said yesterday, as speculation swirled that he was planning to abandon his homeland for good. Paras, 36, boarded a Silk Air flight to the city-state on Tuesday, a senior airport security official in Nepal told reporters, after initial reports said he had taken a flight to Bangkok. “What I heard ... he already landed in Singapore,” said the Singapore source, who asked not to be identified and could not immediately provide further details. It was not clear where Paras was staying. When asked by journalists as he entered Kathmandu airport if he planned to return, Paras smiled and made no comment. The Himalayan Times on Tuesday reported the ex-prince was headed to Singapore to find a school and home for his three children and wife, but that he would not be living in the city-state himself. It said Paras was concerned for the safety of his family following the end of the 240-year-old monarchy in the Himalayan nation, and the withdrawal of all royal privileges.
■ INDIA
Flooding kills 11
Flooding and house collapses caused by heavy rains have killed at least 11 people in northern India over the past two days, officials said yesterday. The eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh State, where all the deaths took place, have been lashed by heavy rains since Monday and all major rivers in the region have flooded over, said Ramendra Singh, a revenue official. Details of the damage caused by the rain are still being collected, Singh said.
■ ISRAEL
Anti-Bedouin video out
Schoolgirls in a southern Israeli town are taught not to date Bedouins and shown a video called Sleeping with the Enemy, but the man behind the sex education program insisted on Tuesday it was not racist. “I compare this with ocean outings, when the black flags are up, one should not go out. With Bedouins it’s the same, they’re dangerous,” said Chaim Shalom, a municipal social worker who runs the program. The program has the support of the municipality and the police in Kiryat Gat, a community on the edge of the Negev desert, as well as local public schools, where Shalom gives his presentation. “They shower the girls with presents — jewels, clothes, cellphones — but all that doesn’t come free,” said Shalom, who insisted that the “sensitization” program was not racist.
■ BELGIUM
Bias against Roma high
People of Roma origin are considered the least desirable neighbors in the EU, a survey released in Brussels on Tuesday showed. The Eurobarometer survey of almost 27,000 EU citizens showed that 24 percent of Europeans said that they would feel “uncomfortable” having a Roma neighbor, with half of them saying they would be “very uncomfortable.” That figure is more than double the number who would not like to live next door to a homosexual, and four times more than those who would feel uncomfortable living next door to someone of a different ethnic background, the report said. Italy was the most anti-Roma state, with 30 percent of respondents saying they would be “very uncomfortable” to have a Roma neighbor. The figure was almost as high in the Czech Republic at 29 percent and Cyprus at 25 percent. In contrast, 42 percent of respondents in Poland said they would be “totally comfortable” with a Roma neighbor, well ahead of the next most tolerant countries, Sweden with 35 percent and Denmark with 33 percent.
■ LEBANON
Buns and Guns on offer
At Buns and Guns you can order a “Kalashnikov” sandwich from a bullet-shaped menu, prepared by chefs in military fatigues with the roar of explosions as background music. The new fast food restaurant in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Hezbollah movement holds sway, was the brainchild of co-owner Ali Hammoud. He said the war theme was a novel concept that had nothing to do with Lebanon’s bloody recent history. “It’s just an idea I had, nothing more, nothing less. I could have put toys in place of the sandbags and teddy bears instead of guns,” Hammoud said. Guns, bullets and pictures of other weapons decorate the interior. The slogan “A sandwich can kill you,” with a picture of a gun superimposed on a burger, is displayed outside.
■ UNITED STATES
Denmark happiest country
Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, US researchers said on Monday. Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world’s richest nation, the US, ranks 16th. Overall, the world is getting happier, said the US government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists. It found increased happiness from 1981 to last year in 45 of 52 countries analyzed. “I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness,” said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.
■ BRAZIL
Father finds son, son dies
A teenager lost in the Amazon rain forest for more than 40 days was found by his father, only to die in his arms shortly after, rescue officials said on Tuesday. Jonathan dos Santos Alves, 18, had been lost in the forest since mid-May, when he became separated from two friends he was hunting with in an area 117km north of the city of Manaus. The official search was called off a month ago but his father, Edilson, continued looking with his brother and two other men. On Saturday, they found Jonathan lying next to a river, dehydrated, emaciated and covered in insect bites. I held him in my arms and got the insects away from his mouth,” his father, a 40-year-old farmer, was quoted as saying by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. “When I tried to revive him, he gritted his teeth and died.” The teen was found about 45km from where he went missing.
■ MEXICO
Woman arrested for murder
Police say a woman arrested in Hildago state on suspicion of killing a 16-year-old mother and her infant son told investigators she did it because she thought the victim was using witchcraft against her and her family. The killing and dismemberment of Beatriz Sanchez Lopez outraged inhabitants of the tiny hamlet of Coyuco. Villagers detained 23-year-old suspect Rosa Rodriguez Olvera on Monday and threatened to lynch her before a local official stepped in and persuaded them to turn her over to police. Sanchez Lopez’s dismembered body was found in a sack near a sawmill on Monday, and the body of her three-month-old son was found near a stove, a police report said.
■ UNITED STATES
Tongue steering possible
A new device that uses a tiny magnet can help disabled people steer a wheelchair or operate a computer using only the tip of the tongue, US researchers reported on Monday. The magnet, the size of a grain of rice, lets people direct the movement of a cursor across a computer screen or a powered wheelchair around a room.
■ UNITED STATES
’Shrooms impact longlasting
The “spiritual” effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, US researchers reported on Tuesday. The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.
■ UNITED STATES
Trans-fat-free test in NYC
One New York City chef spent a year mastering a trans-fat-free version of his sfogliatella pastries. Boston Market restaurants have introduced a trans-fat-free chicken pot pie in New York before taking it to other US cities. All that work was in preparation for the city’s ban on trans-fats in restaurants, which took full effect on Tuesday, and is the first of its kind among major US cities.
■ UNITED STATES
Nowthen now official
Residents of Nowthen, Minnesota, know it’s a funny name, but they’re proud to officially become a city. The community changed its name on Monday from Burnsville Township to Nowthen, which was the name the first local post office was given by mistake. During the 1890s, a community leader created a list of possible names for the post office and wrote, “Nowthen, one of these ought to do.” Nowthen plans a city incorporation celebration in September.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema