■CHINA
Sale sparks stampede
A sales promotion set off a stampede in Chongqing that left two people dead and 11 injured, Xinhua news agency said. Details of the Sunday sale were unclear, but Xinhua said the crowd was scrambling for giveaways during a promotion for a brand of Tibetan medicine. A spokeswoman for Chongqing’s Fuling District government said yesterday that said the company hosting the sale, Fuling Liaofeng Electronics Co, issued an apology.
■VIETNAM
Toddler escapes jaws
A mother narrowly rescued her year-old son from an attack by a crocodile that had escaped from a nearby farm, a police officer in the Mekong delta said yesterday. The woman was holding her son over a canal to relieve himself on Sunday when the 100kg crocodile leapt out of the water and snapped at the child’s foot. The mother managed to pull her son back and outrun the crocodile that pursued her onto land, the officer said. Four local men subdued the crocodile with ropes and sticks. “It is mating season, so the crocodile was more aggressive than usual,” the officer said.
■PHILIPPINES
Teen stabs six
Jonathan Tiplado, 17, was shot dead after stabbing six people inside a Manila police station, police said yesterday. He had been brought in for questioning over a stabbing late on Sunday. While being questioned he pulled out a knife that had been hidden in his underwear and began attacking people, police said. The injured included four teenagers, a community peace volunteer and a police officer.
■JAPAN
Activists appear in court
Two Greenpeace members appeared in court on charges of stealing whale meat, in what the environmental group said was a legitimate act to highlight corruption in Japan’s controversial whaling program. Junichi Sato, 32, and Toru Suzuki, 42, appeared in the district court in Aomori for a pre-trial hearing. They were arrested in June last year for allegedly stealing whale meat from a transport company in Aomori and held for 26 days. They face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. Greenpeace says Sato and Suzuki took the meat to show it was being sold illegally and to highlight there is corruption in the Japanese whaling industry.
■AUSTRALIA
Whale rescue under way
Volunteers joined rescue workers yesterday in struggling to save the lives of 17 whales that survived a mass stranding on a beach in Hamelin Bay, south of Perth. Around 80 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins were found beached. “When found this morning there were 25 whales alive, since then a further eight have died,” the Department of Environment and Conservation said in a statement.
About 100 people were working to stabilize the survivors while awaiting equipment to help return them to the sea.
■SOUTH KOREA
Ex-presidential aide arrested
A former aide to President Lee Myung-bak has been arrested in connection with a widening bribery investigation, an official said yesterday. Choo Boo-kil was taken into custody in Seoul for allegedly accepting up to 200 million won (US$140,000) in bribes from a businessman, a prosecution spokesman said. Choo, a former presidential secretary for public relations, is being investigated for purportedly using his connections with tax officials to help the businessman avoid an investigation.
■ITALY
Royal heir wins dance show
More than 60 years after Italy scrapped its royal family, the youngest heir to the defunct throne has been crowned king for a day after dancing the cha-cha-cha on the TV dance show, Strictly Come Dancing. Emanuele Filiberto, the grandson of the country’s last king, and Russian dancer Natalia Titova won the show’s final round on Saturday night with 75 percent of the phone-in vote. The 36-year-old said he entered the contest “with the aim of letting Italians get to know me,” and has hinted he may stand in European elections. Waving his enormous trophy on Saturday, Filiberto gave a speech worthy of the Oscars, saying: “The victory is above all for the Italians who discovered me.”
■ISRAEL
Prisoner swap talks not over
Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers both said on Sunday that talks aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier held nearly three years by Palestinian militants are not over, despite last week’s public breakdown of talks mediated by Egypt. Sergeant Gilad Schalit has been held by Hamas-linked militants since June 2006. Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said on Sunday the government was trying to reach a deal with Hamas. “The work is ongoing,” he said. He provided no further details. The head of Hamas’ government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, also indicated a deal was still possible in an article in the Hamas newspaper al-Ray. “Our people are still trying to renew the Egyptian-sponsored negotiations in order to reach a respectable prisoner exchange,” he said.
■YEMEN
Spy sentenced to death
The state security court has issued a death sentence in the case of a Yemeni man found guilty of spying for Israel. Two other men received jail sentences of three and five years in the same case. Presiding judge Mouhssien Alwan said the court convicted the trio after it checked the evidence and found out that it was “clear enough to let the court have the degree of certainty to convict them.” The prosecution has charged the three young men with establishing contact with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, offering to work as agents for the Mossad intelligence agency. The group’s leader, Bassam Abdullah al-Haidari, 26, received the death sentence.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Shark kills teenage surfer
A 16-year-old surfer died after being attacked by a shark, media reported yesterday. The youth was part of a group surfing in Port St Johns when the shark bit him in the leg and buttocks, the region’s newspaper, the Herald, reported. He managed to paddle to shore, where his instructor and a lifeguard pulled him to safety. He died later in the hospital from his injuries. The incident is the second of its kind along the Wild Coast in two months.
■ISRAEL
Second coalition deal struck
Prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a second coalition deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, officials said yesterday. As part of the deal, the religious party will receive four portfolios in the new Cabinet, including interior, housing and religious affairs. The fourth minister from the party will be a minister without portfolio. The move brings Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party, one step closer to forming a government following last week’s signing of a deal with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
‘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