■HONG KONG
Pilots mix up runways
A pilot and his co-pilot have been suspended after they tried to take off from a taxiway rather than a runway at Hong Kong International Airport, investigators said yesterday. An air traffic controller raised the alarm when he saw a South Korea-bound Hong Kong Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 122 passengers hurtling down a taxiway running parallel to the airport’s north runway. The controller radioed the pilot and alerted him in time for him to abort the takeoff after around 500m and take off from the runway instead, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said. Since the incident, a memo has been sent out by management to all Hong Kong Airlines pilots saying, “Ensure you are on a runway before taking off.”
■HONG KONG
Teacher arrested for camera
A primary school teacher was arrested after spy cameras were found in a girls’ changing room, a newspaper reported yesterday. Pinhole cameras were put in a room where girls changed for dance classes at a primary school in the city’s Mongkok district, the South China Morning Post said. A 10-minute videotape showing nine girls changing their clothes in the classroom was also discovered after a dance teacher and students found the cameras, the newspaper said. A 32-year-old teacher who helped teach dance was arrested in connection with the incident and has been sacked by the school.
■VIETNAM
Rare otter spotted
Researchers said on Thursday they have found two hairy-nosed otters, which have been listed as the world’s rarest species, in a national park in the south part of the country. Scientists came across the pair in U Minh Ha National Park in March, a statement from the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program said. “We were only about 2.5m away from them when we spotted the two otters. It was truly amazing to see such a rare species in the wild,” said research officer Nguyen Van Nhuan. Hairy-nosed otters were thought to be extinct in the 1990s. However, they have since been rediscovered in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.
■HONG KONG
Pilot charged with murder
A pilot with Cathay Pacific Airlines has been charged with murder after a man died in a seaside brawl, the airline confirmed on Friday. Airbus 349 senior first officer David Chan, 33, was arrested and charged along with seven other suspects after the fracas in Hong Kong’s Big Wave Bay seaside resort last Saturday. A postmortem examination found that a 36-year-old man died from a blow to the head from a hard object during a fight between two groups of men. Chan, who joined Cathay Pacific in December 1998, telephoned his employers to say he was “unfit for duty” following his arrest. The married pilot is accused of murder along with suspects including a 34-year-old TV director, a 48-year-old company director and an office clerk aged 34.
■HONG KONG
Teen arrested for uploads
Customs officials on Friday arrested a 14-year-old boy suspected of placing 2,000 Chinese-language pop songs on a Web site for free downloading. The suspect, who was not identified because he is underage, is accused of uploading mostly Cantopop songs, as pop songs performed in the Cantonese language are known, customs official Michael Kwan said in a telephone interview. He said the boy is free on bail and has not been charged as the investigation continues.
■EGYPT
Donkey thrown in jail
A donkey has been jailed for stealing corn on the cob from a field belonging to an agricultural research institute in the Nile Delta, local media reported on Thursday. The ass and its owner were apprehended at a police checkpoint that had been set up after the institute’s director complained that someone was stealing his crops, the state-owned Al-Ahram daily said. The unnamed ungulate was found in possession of the institute’s corn and a local judge sentenced him to 24 hours in prison. The man who had his ass thrown in jail got off with a fine of 50 Egyptian pounds (US$9).
■UNITED KINGDOM
Author gives to Labour
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has donated £1 million (US$1.8 million) to the ailing British Labour party, the author confirmed yesterday. Rowling said she wanted to support the party’s work against child poverty. She also criticized plans by the opposition Conservative party to grant tax break to married couples. Her announcement came coincided with the start of the annual Labour Party conference in Manchester yesterday and at a time in which the party led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing its most serious crisis to date. Rowling is close friends with Brown and his wife Sarah, but it is her first donation to Labour.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Nannies hit by financial woes
Watch out Mary Poppins, the hurricane howling through the world’s financial markets is starting to be felt in the rarefied world of the British nanny. As bankers and money dealers fall like flies to a credit crunch that has seen three major US investment banks disappear in a puff of smoke, so the nannies they have employed on salaries of up to £40,000 (US$73,000) have suddenly become expensive luxuries. “The problems are just starting. In the last week or two I have started getting calls from nannies saying one or both of their employers have lost their jobs and so they have too,” said Kate Baker of Abbeville Nannies in south London.
■ITALY
Comic spared prosecution
A comic who said Pope Benedict would be punished in hell for the Church’s treatment of homosexuals was spared possible prosecution on Thursday when the government blocked an investigation against her. Sabina Guzzanti, one of the country’s most biting political satirists, made the remarks before a cheering crowd of thousands gathered at Rome’s piazza Navona in July. A Rome prosecutor suspected the comments broke a law protecting the honor and dignity of the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics under a 1929 Italian treaty with the Vatican. But the treaty, signed by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, required government approval before the investigation could go forward. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano decided to block it.
■SPAIN
Brothel remark criticized
A politician’s public description of how he lost his virginity in a brothel has angered his female counterparts, who accused him of encouraging prostitution. Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the government of the northern region of Cantabria, told a TV interviewer last week that he had paid the first time he had sex at the age of 18. Female members of the regional parliament from the opposition conservative Popular Party were outraged. “As the head of the regional government, he should be an example for the young people of Cantabria,” they said in a communique.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in