■NEPAL
Appa records 19th climb
A Sherpa guide has once again broken his own record, scaling Mount Everest for the 19th time, mountaineering officials said yesterday. Appa, who like most Sherpas goes by one name, reached the 8,850m peak early yesterday, guiding foreign clients and accompanied by several other fellow guides, said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. Tshering said Appa and members of the team were safe and returning to lower camps after spending a few minutes on top of the world. Appa, 48, first climbed Everest in 1989 and has done so almost every year since. His closest rival is fellow Sherpa guide Chhewang Nima, who has made 15 trips.
■AUSTRALIA
Rudd blasts public benefits
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday questioned why taxpayers are funding weight loss courses for well-padded public servants. Official documents released this week showed the government was paying A$30,000 (US$22,800) to provide weight-loss classes for bureaucrats from the employment agency Centrelink and that it paid a similar amount to Weight Watchers for defense department workers in 2007. Rudd said he did not believe the expenditure was appropriate. Official figures released earlier this month showed Australians are getting fatter, with 62 percent classified as overweight or obese, compared with 45 percent in 1995.
■CAMBODIA
Fake bid for Pol Pot’s shoes
A photographer’s attempt to sell the sandals of late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot has yielded only one bid — US$790,000 in fake money offered in protest at the sale, a report said yesterday. Nhem En, who photographed inmates at the regime’s main torture center and also snapped pictures at official regime ceremonies, announced last month he was selling the footwear along with two cameras. “Bidder” Pok Leak Reasey told English-language Phnom Penh Post newspaper that the reason he “offered the money in ghost notes is because I want to say that all material remaining from the regime is worth nothing.”
■HONG KONG
Costly mystic advice
A disgraced politician burned US$70,000 on the advice of a feng shui master who told him it would help him avoid jail for vote-rigging, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Gilbert Leung told a court he was advised by the feng shui master to burn 15 HK$1,000 bills worth US$129 each every night for a year if he wanted to stay out of jail — an act that would have cost him more than US$700,000, the paper said. To save money, Leung said he burned US$100 bills worth US$12.90 each instead, but the nightly rituals failed to prevent him from going to prison when his case came to court. When Leung challenged feng shui master Tony Chan about the outcome, Chan told Leung it was his fault for not following his advice by burning HK$1,000 bills.
■NEW ZEALAND
Couple flee with millions
Police said yesterday they had launched an international hunt for a couple who fled after reportedly having millions of dollars mistakenly paid into their bank account. Reports said an Asian couple who ran a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua had fled overseas after Westpac bank mistakenly deposited NZ$10 million (US$6 million) in their account. Police and the bank refused to say how much money was withdrawn or give any details of the couple, but the bank said it was “pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action.”
■GERMANY
Cub’s adoptive father killed
A tiger cub born in a zoo over the weekend and rejected by its mother experienced a further tragedy when the dachshund that adopted the newborn was run over by a postman’s van, the zoo reported on Wednesday. “We are totally shocked, he only wanted to go out to do his business,” Almuth Ismer said of the dog’s death. Ismer is the tiger cub’s carer at Stroehen Zoo in Lower Saxony. The nine-year-old dog, named Monster, had shown great affection in caring for the tiger cub, which was twice its size. The tiger cub has now been adopted by Monster’s daughter Bessi, the zoo said. It is not uncommon for dogs to adopt and raise other animals.
■ISRAEL
US plan ‘stupid’: PM’s aide
An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict favored by US President Barack Obama was “childish and stupid.” The aide spoke on Wednesday to reporters on the plane carrying Netanyahu home from talks in Washington. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters on the record. His views were assumed to reflect Netanyahu’s thinking. Obama made it clear that the US backs the creation of a Palestinian state, but Netanyahu has not endorsed the concept. The aides said the two-states for two peoples idea is “childish and stupid, because the problem is more complex than that.”
■NETHERLANDS
Burglar calls cops for help
A burglar had to call police to free him after finding himself trapped in an attempt to break into a school in Amsterdam, police said on Wednesday. The 26-year-old “got into the school through the roof and a small window” on Tuesday night, police spokesman Ebe van der Land said. “He was unable to leave the same way and found himself trapped in an inner court, his exit blocked by a high gate. “He said he did not have the strength left to scale the gate, and so called the police.” Officers freed the man before locking him up.
■AUSTRALIA
Wartime animals honored
A fly-past yesterday at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra recognized the contribution of sniffer dogs and other animals that have served in combat. Rather than traditional fighter jets, however, a flock of homing pigeons swooped low over Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin. “Camels transported troops and equipment across hot and dusty plains in the Middle East and North Africa, carrier pigeons delivered messages where radios and telephones wouldn’t work and dogs sniffed out the enemy in the jungle,” Griffin said. “All these animals and more have served alongside Australian servicemen and women.” The Animals in War memorial features a plinth with a bronze of a horse’s head.
■AUSTRALIA
Man ‘killed’ wife over dog
A man strangled his wife for waking up his dog and then went out for a drink at his local pub, a court in Melbourne heard yesterday. Anthony Sherna, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Susanne Wild, would rock his Jack Russell terrier to sleep every night, the court heard. He told police that Wild woke the dog one night by shouting, after which he pulled the cord from his dressing gown and strangled her. Senior Constable Graeme Raynor gave evidence that Sherna was “extremely relieved” last year when he told police where he buried the body.
■UNITED STATES
Mayor resigns for love
A Texas mayor abruptly resigned after being forced to pick between his job and his love for a Mexican man who does not have legal status in the US. J.W. Lown told the San Angelo Standard-Times on Wednesday from Mexico about his relationship with the man. Lown, 32, said he didn’t want to take the oath of office knowing he was “aiding and assisting” someone who is not a US citizen. “We had to do the right thing and come to Mexico and wait in line for a visa,” Lown said. He said he’d made thousands of decisions as mayor and weighed the one to resign “in the same manner.” City Manager Harold Dominguez said he had spoken to Lown twice since receiving the resignation letter on Wednesday morning. “My impression is that he is very happy with the decision he made,” Dominguez said. “He gave the decision-making process a lot of thought, and he is at peace with it. He did sound happy.”
■UNITED STATES
Snake not used as jump rope
A spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Public Schools says a high school student swung around a snake from a biology class but didn’t use it as a jump rope as police had said. Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said on Wednesday that “it’s not a big enough snake to jump rope with.” She also says the albino corn snake is OK and didn’t need to be treated by a veterinarian after Monday’s incident. Police say the 17-year-old Taylor Allderdice High School student will be charged with theft and cruelty to animals.
■CANADA
British names a plus: study
Jobseekers in Canada fare better if their names sound British than people with names from Pakistan, China or India, a study published on Wednesday revealed. Researchers sent 6,000 fake resumes to small and mid-sized employers advertising jobs in Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis and one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. Among the fake applicants with Canadian education and experience, employers called back 16 percent of those with English-sounding names. Only 11 percent of applicants with Asian-sounding names were called back, said economist Philip Oreopoulos of the University of British Columbia. “The magnitude of [the difference] was larger than I would have imagined,” he said. “The findings suggest that a distinct foreign-sounding name may be a significant disadvantage on the job market — even if you are a second or third generation citizen.” Oreopoulos added: “A lot of people are going to point and say this is racial discrimination.” The economist said more research is needed to determine whether the results would be similar with large businesses, which were not included in the study, and whether the discrimination was intentional or due to employers flipping quickly through resumes and making “subconscious stereotype decisions.”
■CUBA
Spanish agents expelled
Havana has expelled a group of Spanish secret service agents who had come to investigate activities of members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, the Madrid daily El Mundo reported yesterday. The agents were ordered to leave by today because they had not informed authorities of their arrival a few days earlier, the daily quoted sources close to Spanish intelligence services as saying. Cuba has taken in ETA members on the basis of deportation agreements with Spain but there have also been reports on the alleged non-official presence of ETA activists. Spain is concerned that the separatists could continue lending ETA financial or logistical support.
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
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