■ MALAYSIA
Shaman arrested for abuse
Police have detained a 50-year-old shaman and his 43-year-old wife accused of molesting a teenager during treatment, news reports said on Thursday. The 19-year-old girl was believed to have gone to the home of the medicine man in the southern Johor state to seek treatment for muscle aches on Tuesday night, the Star daily reported. The victim was allegedly held to the ground by the suspect’s wife during treatment and her clothes removed by the shaman who then allegedly molested the girl. Following a police report logged by the girl, police have detained the suspect and his wife, district police chief Osman Mohamed Sebot confirmed. “We believe there are more victims who did not lodge police reports,” Osman said, adding that the suspect had previously worked as a truck driver.
■MARSHALL ISLANDS
State of emergency declared
A state of emergency was declared after severe flooding forced more than 600 people out of their homes. The Marshall Islands Journal reports that a combination of 1.5m waves and heavy storms swamped the cities of Majuro and Ebeye, destroying plywood homes and forcing residents to move into churches, high schools and youth centers. About 460mm of water submerged parts the islands, and the streets are covered with rocks, coral and debris. The flooding occurred from Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, and the state of emergency was declared Christmas Eve. Flooding is a severe problem for the islands because they lie close to sea level.
■CHINA
Train smoker detained
A man was given three days in detention for breaking a no-smoking rule on a new high-speed rail line, Chinese state media said, an unusually severe punishment in a country where smoking bans are routinely ignored. He was caught smoking in the toilet just after the train had left Tianjin for Beijing, triggering an alarm and causing the train to stop, the official Xinhua news agency said on its Web site.
■CHINA
Wolf caught near Great Wall
A wolf has been captured by forestry workers near a part of the Great Wall close to Beijing that is popular with tourists, state media said on Thursday. The wolf is being kept at a nature park and will be released in uninhabited mountains far from the Wall, Xinhua news agency said.
■NEPAL
Tubby tigers go on a diet
Authorities said on Wednesday they had stopped feeding tigers in the country’s only zoo for one day a week to keep them from piling on the kilos. One of three fat cats at Jawalakhel zoo in the Nepali capital now weighs in at about 220kg, having gained 40kg on a diet of buffalo meat in just eight months.
■CHINA
Public heater breaks down
The collapse of a public heating system in one of the country’s coldest cities has left thousands of people without heat during a cold spell, state media reported on Thursday. At least 10,000 families in Qiqihar City in Heilongjiang Province, which borders Siberia, were affected by the breakdown and local authorities said it could take two days to fix, the Xinhua news agency said. The temperature dropped to minus 25ºC on Wednesday night, when the system feeding coal to the Qiqihar Thermal Power Co broke down. The high on Thursday was minus 13ºC. Households in northern Chinese cities rely on public systems for heating.
■SWEDEN
Donald Duck still a hit
Donald Duck may have struggled under Mickey Mouse’s shadow, but in Sweden millions of people have tuned in to watch the hot-headed Disney character’s Christmas special every year since 1959. Between 3.5 million and 3.8 million people were expected to watch the one-hour special Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You All a Merry Christmas this year, said spokeswoman Ulrika Lundgren Borg of SVT public television. “Swedish television started to show Donald Duck on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in 1959. It was very popular since it was one of the first animated shows on TV,” she said. But the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper reported that viewership for the irascible duck’s show has dropped by 1 million since 1997, the height of the Christmas special’s popularity. Still, SVT programming director Thomas Nilsson said the future of the sailor suit-wearing hero, known as Kalle Ankas in the Nordic country, was safe in Sweden. “Kalle has been the No. 1 or No. 2 [program] for years. We are very far from a critical point,” Nilsson was quoted as saying by Svenska Dagbladet.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Beach sex duo return home
A British man and woman convicted of having sex on the beach in Dubai have returned home in time for the Christmas holidays, their lawyers said on Wednesday. Vince Acors, 34, landed back at London’s Heathrow airport earlier on Wednesday, his lawyer said. “He’s absolutely delighted that he’s home for Christmas,” Andrew Crossley added. “He’s very pleased he has finally got back and is looking forward to spending time at his home.” Acors’ homecoming was repeatedly delayed, apparently over problems with his ticket. Meanwhile, Michelle Palmer, 36, returned a week ago, her Dubai-based lawyer Hassan Matar said, adding that her departure was kept secret on her request. “Michelle called me from the UK and told me everything was okay and that she was very happy to be home,” Matar said. An appeals court last month suspended a three-month jail term but the two were ordered to pay a 1,000 dirham (US$270) fine for drinking alcohol and ordered expelled from the country.
■SWEDEN
Gunman injures three
A highly inebriated man shot and injured two female customers and a security guard at the Cosmopol casino in Stockholm, police reported on Thursday. The man had been denied entry to the casino shortly before midnight because he looked drunk. He then pulled out a pistol, fired numerous shots in the direction of the entrance and fled. The two women, aged 47 and 28, received injuries to the arms and legs, while the guard was shot in the stomach. All three were taken to hospital. A major search had so far been unable to locate the man.
■FRANCE
Blast hits real estate agency
Police defused an explosive device found at an athletic center in southwestern France on Thursday, but another device exploded at a real estate agency in a neighboring region, a police official said. The first device, a container of flammable liquid connected to a live detonator, was found in the town of Capbreton around midday, the official said. No one had claimed responsibility. He said the anti-terrorism division of the Paris prosecutors office had opened an investigation. Graffiti at the site of the device that exploded, in the French Basque country read: “The Basque Country is not for sale.” No one was hurt in the explosion.
■UNITED STATES
Dog burglar lifts bone
A thief remains at large after pulling off a daring heist — in the pet food aisle. Surveillance video at a supermarket in a Salt Lake City suburb caught a dog shoplifting, KSL-TV reported on Wednesday. The video showed the dog walking in the front door of Smith’s Food & Drug in Murray, and heading straight to Aisle 16, the pet food aisle, where it grabbed a bone worth US$2.79. The thief wasn’t even perturbed by a face-to-face confrontation with store manager Roger Adamson. “I looked at him. I said ‘Drop it!”’ Adamson said. “He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he ran for the door and away he went, right out the front door.”
■CANADA
Woman gives birth in snow
A woman who gave birth to twins on a freezing street in Windsor, Ontario, amid snow and rain was in good condition and the newborns were expected to survive, it was reported on Thursday. Police officers on a routine patrol first thought they were at a crime scene when they saw a woman covered in blood screaming for help and waving them down. The 27-year-old woman was clutching a baby and said she had just given birth, the Windsor Star reported. While ambulances were still on their way, the woman delivered a second baby before midnight on Tuesday. Staff at the Windsor Regional Hospital said on Thursday that the mother and babies were doing well. One of the newborns was said to be in serious condition on Wednesday. The premature babies weighed in at 1.8kg and 1.3kg. “Our officers deal regularly with tragic circumstances. This was extremely unusual ... traumatic,” Windsor deputy police chief Jerome Brannagan was quoted as saying. The Children’s Aid Society was investigating the circumstances that led to the woman giving birth on the street.
■DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Cardinal pans pardons
The top Roman Catholic official is criticizing the president’s pre-Christmas pardon of five embezzlers. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez says inmates jailed for petty crimes were far more deserving of pardons or commutations. The cardinal said on Thursday that many people felt “deep indignation” over the pardons, which were issued by President Leonel Fernandez. One of the men pardoned on Monday was Vivian Lubrano de Castillo, a former bank executive convicted for embezzlement and fraud amid the 2003 financial collapse that hobbled the economy.
■UNITED STATES
Dog shooting causes stir
A new policy that allows authorities in a rural northern Texas town to shoot wild, roaming dogs has riled animal welfare advocates. The policy, which permits authorities in Ferris to use shotguns to kill aggressive dogs running loose, was implemented last week to curb the town’s growing population of about 50 to 100 feral dogs. City Manager David Chavez said Ferris, a town of about 2,300 residents about 32.19km south of Dallas, had become an unwanted pet dumping ground where the released animals breed, form packs and scavenge for food. Police Chief Frank Mooney said the town had tried other methods with little success. Mooney said police would shoot only potentially violent dogs after attempts to capture them had failed. Animal rights advocates said the problem could be solved in better ways, such as trapping the animals or encouraging punishment for those who dump dogs.
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