■FRANCE
Sarkozy wants flags, anthem
President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for more French flags to be flown in the country, and the Marseillaise anthem sung widely to instill a greater sense of pride. In an eight-page mission letter sent to the Minister of Immigration, Integration and National Identity Eric Besson e-mailed to the press on Tuesday, he asked members of his government to make national symbols more visible. He said they needed to reinforce the space for emblems and symbols of the Republic, its language, its flag, its anthem and the values of liberty, equality and fraternity. The letter also called for the government to firmly clamp down on immigration. France wants to integrate migrants already in the country, he said, and will only take in new immigrants selectively. It will give the ones it chooses temporary visas.
■FRANCE
Soldier kills three people
A French soldier allegedly killed two fellow Foreign Legion members and a peacekeeper from Togo in an unexplained shooting on Tuesday in Chad, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said late on Tuesday in Paris. The suspected killer was being sought by Chadian security forces. The three legionaries were reportedly members of a French regiment based with European EUFOR troops in Abeche, Chad. The slain Togolese soldier was assigned to the UN’s MINURCAT peacekeeping mission. There was no immediate explanation or motive for the shooting. Several thousand foreign troops are stationed in northern Chad to protect refugees from neighboring Sudan.
■FRANCE
Hijacked yacht located
A French yacht that was captured by pirates off Somalia over the weekend has been located, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday, without giving details of any rescue efforts. The sail boat, the Tanit, which was carrying two couples and a three-year-old child, was taken far from the coastline of Somalia, Kouchner told RTL radio. “Yes, they have been located. This has been the case since yesterday,” he said.
■GERMANY
Skeleton on tree found
The skeleton of a German pensioner who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker. Police in southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing. An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11m up, near the top of the spruce tree. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
■GERMANY
Felix the cat is alive
A cat named Felix was found alive and well beneath the rubble of a six-storey building in Cologne that collapsed five weeks ago, the city fire brigade said on Tuesday. The 12-year-old cat was in surprisingly good health, authorities said. He was found beneath the city archives building that collapsed on March 3. Rescue workers were clearing away the rubble from the ruins, in which two people were killed, when they spotted a pair of small paws. “The men lifted some concrete blocks when suddenly a little cat came to light,” said Dietmar Paust, fire brigade spokesman.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez bashes bishops
President Hugo Chavez railed against Roman Catholic leaders on Tuesday for condemning a law that has weakened his political opponents. Chavez took issue with the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference for accusing him of sidelining adversaries with a new law that let him take control of airports and seaports previously under the administration of opposition politicians. “This group of bishops is shameless,” Chavez told state television from China, where he is wrapping up a tour that also included visits to Japan, Iran and Qatar. “They side with all those who attack the government.” Quoting the Bible, Chavez said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
■BRAZIL
Nun case to be retried
A court on Tuesday ordered the arrest and retrial of an Amazon rancher acquitted of orchestrating the murder of US nun and rain forest activist Dorothy Stang. Para state’s top court reversed last year’s not-guilty verdict for Vitalmiro Moura on a technicality, ruling that a video used by the defense was not admissible as evidence, the state prosecutor said. “We’re elated and we are convinced we will get a guilty verdict in the new trial,” prosecutor Edson Souza said. Souza said Moura is charged with ordering Stang’s murder and that he had yet to be arrested. Moura is accused of masterminding the 2005 death of the 73-year-old Stang, who was shot six times at close range with a revolver.
■UNITED STATES
Chinese cases in court
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Chinese businessman with conspiracy in the sale of materials to Iran that could be used in missiles and atomic weapons, in violation of UN restrictions on trade with Tehran. The 117-count indictment charges Li Fangwei (李方偉) and his company Limmt Economic and Trade Co with conspiring to conceal bank transactions through New York. Meanwhile in Virginia, a judge sentenced a physicist to 51 months in prison for illegally exporting space launch technical data and defense services to China and offering bribes to Chinese government officials. Shu Quansheng (舒泉聲), 68, a US citizen of Chinese origin, has already been ordered to forfeit US$386,740 in connection with the case.
■MEXICO
Caretaker admits killing
The caretaker of a Texas priest’s home in Nuevo Laredo admitted on Tuesday to killing the 69-year-old reverend and said the two were intimately involved. Manuel Martin Torres told police and reporters during a news conference that he stabbed and attacked Reverend Jesse Euresti with a machete after learning the priest was kicking him out of the home. Torres said he had demanded Euresti pay him between US$10,000 and US$15,000. Torres said he had been seeing the priest for the past year.
■UNITED STATES
Sex costs pilot license
A judge says a commercial helicopter pilot videotaped in a sex act while flying over San Diego committed gross negligence and cannot have his license back. National Transportation Safety Board administrative law Judge William Mullins upheld a Federal Aviation Administration order revoking the license of David Martz after a hearing on Tuesday. Martz had no comment after the ruling. A passenger was videotaping when Martz let an adult film actress perform a sex act on him during the 2005 flight and an edited version eventually became public. The judge watched the unedited tape in chambers and took testimony before his decision.
‘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