■CHINA
Carrefour prosecuted
Prosecutors have charged two safety managers at a Carrefour store with negligence over a deadly stampede amid a chaotic promotion for cooking oil last year, local media said yesterday. Three people were killed in November when hundreds of customers crushed into one of the French retail giant’s stores in downtown Chongqing. Thirty-one people, mostly elderly, were injured. Xiang Xuexin, manager of the store’s “damage prevention department,” and assistant manager Duan Chengwei had been charged with negligence by local prosecutors, and their trial would open soon, the Beijing News said.
■CHINA
Government executes 10
Ten people were executed yesterday for murder, robbery and drug trafficking, state media reported. The 10 who were shot dead in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, “were a group of heinous criminals that seriously violated social law and order,” Xinhua news agency said. The report gave a graphic account of the crimes committed by one of the men — Tan Lang — who strangled three people, and raped the corpse of one of his victims. The nine others were involved in murder, robbery that led to the death of other people and drug trafficking, Xinhua said.
■INDONESIA
Convicted shaman executed
A man who murdered 42 women to boost his supernatural powers in “black magic” rituals has been executed by firing squad, an official said yesterday. Self-proclaimed shaman Ahmad Suraji told police he strangled most of the women and drank their saliva, which he believed improved his magical powers. He was sentenced to death in 1998 after police found the women’s bodies buried in a sugar cane field in North Sumatra. Suraji’s victims came to him for supernatural help with their finances and love life. Police said he had instructed his female clients to allow themselves to be buried naked up to the neck before he strangled them to death.
■INDONESIA
Jakarta admits to violence
The government is set to take the blame for arming pro-Jakarta militias that brought death and destruction to East Timor both before and after the 1999 UN-supervised referendum that gave the tiny half-island its independence, an Indonesian official said yesterday. The acknowledgement that officials and army officers engaged in an “organized campaign of violence” is contained in a report prepared by a commission set up by both the Indonesian and East Timor governments that was leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald and confirmed yesterday by Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
■CAMBODIA
Former king claims temple
The former king dismissed any Thai claim to an 11th century temple on the border as baseless, weighing in on a dispute that has soured relations between the neighbors and fueled anti-government protests in Thailand. Preah Vihear temple was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site last week, reopening a long-standing disagreement between Phnom Penh and Bangkok over which country owns the land that surrounds it. Former King Norodom Sihanouk said in a handwritten note posted on his Web site yesterday that any Thai claims to the temple were “absolutely false.” He accused the Thais of causing “unmerited and anachronistic problems” for Cambodia.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown likened to Heathcliff
If the sight of Prime Minister Gordon Brown provokes thoughts of Wuthering Heights, he doesn’t mind. Not that Brown, who has a reputation as a brooding figure, styles himself after Heathcliff, the surly hero of Emily Bronte’s novel. But he readily accepted the suggestion when it was put to him by Gloria di Piero, who interviewed the prime minister for New Statesman, a weekly magazine. “Absolutely correct,” Brown replied, jokingly. “Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff.” In the book, Heathcliff is consumed with resentment at those who prevented him from marrying his great love, Catherine. Heathcliff suffers a breakdown and thinks that he sees Catherine’s ghost. Brown is widely thought to have spent a decade as Treasury chief brooding about when he would succeed Tony Blair in the top job.
■Italy
Roma census to go on
The government said on Thursday it would press ahead with a census of Roma people in which their fingerprints could be taken, rejecting a call for restraint by the European Parliament which says the plan is discriminatory. Joining a growing chorus of criticism over the census, EU lawmakers asked the EU’s executive body to investigate whether it was compatible with the EU’s anti-discrimination laws. It urged the Italian authorities to refrain from collecting fingerprints from Roma people, including children, saying that would “clearly” violate EU rules and would treat minors like criminals. The census initially involved the fingerprinting of all those living in the camps, but Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Thursday fingerprints would only be taken when no other means of identification was possible.
■Turkey
Rebels confirm kidnappings
Kurdish rebels confirmed on Thursday they had kidnapped three Germans in eastern Turkey and threatened not to release them unless Berlin ended its crackdown against their group and supporters, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported. The separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party said in a statement published on Firat’s Web site that the Germans, kidnapped while on a climbing trip on Mount Ararat, were in good health. Berlin rejected the demands and called for the immediate release of the three mountaineers.
■GULF of ADEN
Gulf has most pirate attacks
The Gulf of Aden, a maritime link between Europe and Asia, had the most attacks by pirates in the first half of the year, overtaking Nigeria. There were a record 19 attacks or attempted attacks in the Gulf of Aden in the first half, compared with seven a year earlier, the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau said in a e-mailed report yesterday. The number of incidents in Nigerian waters dropped to 18 from 19 a year earlier. Globally, there were 114 pirate attacks in the first half, down from 126 a year ago.
■Mozambique
Buses to use natural gas
The government said it would change its public buses to natural gas to help slow the rise of its fuel bill. Environment Minister Alcinda Abreu said on Thursday that the move from gasoline to natural gas follows a successful pilot program and would allow the country to capitalize on its abundant gas deposits. Meanwhile, the state airline said it would raise fares by 10 percent and cut its capacity by 13 percent to compensate for high fuel costs.
■CHILE
‘Subway Goddess’ arrested
A stripper who danced on the poles of Santiago subway trains to challenge the prudishness of society was arrested on Thursday during one of her lightning performances. Monserrat Morilles, 26, surprised subway riders all week stripping to skimpy underwear, but she refused tips. She said she was protesting a lack of tolerance in Chile, one of Latin America’s most conservative societies. “This is just a beginning. We are starting an idea here that will grow and be developed further,” she told reporters as police and subway guards surrounded her. She worked quickly all week to avoid arrest, getting on at one station, finding a subway car with no children on it and stripping in time to exit at the next station. The media dubbed her “La Diosa del Metro” (Subway Goddess). She called her performances “happy minutes.”
■UNITED STATES
Ramsey’s family cleared
New DNA tests have definitively cleared the parents of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey of her unsolved murder almost 12 years ago, Colorado prosecutors said on Wednesday. In a statement seeking to silence suspicions surrounding relatives of the slain six-year-old, prosecutors said new testing techniques on male DNA found on JonBenet’s clothes did not match any family members. “This new scientific evidence convinces us that it is appropriate ... to state that we do not consider your immediate family, including you, your wife Patsy, and your son Burke, to be under any suspicion in the commission of this crime,” Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said in a letter to JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey. JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado, on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006.
■CHILE
Nine killed in plane crash
The nine occupants of a Beechcraft 99A — including a three-year-old — died on Thursday when the airplane crashed in the southern city of Puerto Montt shortly after taking off from the city’s airstrip, headed for Melinka island. The plane crashed and caught fire on barren land, some 500m away from a wealthy neighborhood.
“Something was shaking in the plane’s left wing,” one eyewitness was quoted as saying.
■CHILE
Volcano roars into action
The Llaima volcano roared into action on Thursday, spewing rocks, lava and clouds of ash and putting six nearby communities under a red alert, the National Emergency office said. Cautin Province Governor Andres Jouannet said the 3,125m volcano 700km south of Santiago erupted in the predawn hours, after six months of quiet following its initial eruption on Jan. 1. Six communities in the vicinity were placed under a red alert a week ago.
■CHILE
Nazi hunters closing in
Nazi hunters said on Thursday they were closer to tracking down Aribert Heim, the Nazis’ infamous “Doctor Death,” after finding one of his daughters and what they called “credible” information. “We have hard facts, which are credible, but have to be checked,” said Sergio Widder, Latin America director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Austrian is wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with his experiments, including performing operations without anesthesia and injecting gasoline into their hearts. Heim disappeared from public view some 43 years ago.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was