■THAILAND
U2 backs Aung San Suu Kyi
As U2 begins its world tour, the rock band is turning a spotlight on Myanmar’s jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. On its Web site and on stage, U2 is asking fans to wear an Aung San Suu Kyi mask in support of the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner. “Wear it to work or college. Wear it on the bus or the train. Wear it in the pub or at shops. And don’t forget. Bring it to a U2 show,” the band says on its official Web site. A mask of Aung San Suu Kyi’s smiling face can be downloaded and printed and appears inside the program for the band’s “360 degree” tour, which opened earlier this week in Barcelona.
■JAPAN
Aso’s popularity plunges
Public support for Prime Minister Taro Aso has plunged below 20 percent as his party faces losing its grip on power in upcoming elections, a poll showed yesterday. The rating of 19.7 percent was down from 22.9 percent last month and is the third consecutive decline, the Yomiuri Shimbun said in its latest snapshot of voter sentiment. On Wednesday, Aso named two new Cabinet ministers as he explores ways to improve his sagging popularity ahead of elections that he must call by September. But the poll showed 56 percent of respondents did not support the move, which was backed by just 16 percent of those questioned.
■AUSTRALIA
First elephant born in Sydney
Locals yesterday welcomed the first elephant ever born in the country with the arrival of a 100kg male calf at a Sydney zoo, keepers said. The calf, yet to be named, was born at the harborside Taronga Zoo just after 3am to a 12-year-old Asian elephant named Thong Dee, the zoo’s director Guy Cooper said. Thong Dee, formerly a Bangkok street elephant, was surprised by the birth, and needed to be calmed before she could be introduced to her son, said Cooper, adding that the calf was conceived naturally with the bull Gung under the zoo’s breeding program. She greeted her baby by touching his trunk and he soon tried to suckle, which Cooper said was a good sign.
■NEW ZEALAND
Chinese man arrested
A Chinese businessman said to be friendly with a number of members of parliament has been arrested and charged with immigration and passport offenses, a newspaper reported yesterday. Yong Ming Yan — also known as Bill Liu, Yang Liu and William Yan — was arrested on June 27 as he was about to board a plane to leave the country, the Weekend Herald reported. He subsequently appeared in court on 12 charges alleging he made false declarations on his immigration papers, had false passports and used deception to gain New Zealand citizenship.
■THAILAND
Bangkok buys up elephants
In a bid to rid Bangkok of its elephant population, city authorities have offered to buy the wandering pachyderms from their owners and send them back to the jungle, a media report said yesterday. Under the new project, mahouts have been encouraged to sell their wards to the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, a charity that releases domesticated pachyderms into forest reserves, the Bangkok Post said. The foundation currently has enough funds to buy about 18 elephants, if priced between 500,000 baht (US$14,492) to 1 million baht. Donations are being sought to raise its elephant purchase budget.
■RUSSIA
Chechen police killed
At least seven members of the Chechen police force were killed yesterday when their car came under fire in Ingushetia, news agencies reported. Interfax news agency quoted security sources as saying that seven police had been killed while the RIA-Novosti and ITAR-TASS agencies said that eight had lost their lives. The vehicle came under grenade and gun fire as it was traveling on a road in Ingushetia at about 5:30am and burst into flames, the news agencies said. The Chechen police were in Ingushetia to conduct a joint special operation against militants with their Ingush colleagues, the reports said.
■ISRAEL
Origin of shell probed
The military was investigating whether a teenage Palestinian girl killed in the Gaza Strip was hit by a Palestinian or an Israeli mortar shell, an army spokeswoman said on Friday. “We are running through the checking procedures and checking all the evidence in the case,” the spokeswoman said. The girl was killed by a shell that exploded in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday. Military officials said an initial investigation showed she was probably killed by a misfired mortar launched by Palestinian militants during clashes with soldiers near a border crossing in the area. A Palestinian doctor who examined fragments from the body told Reuters he could not identify their source. Palestinian hospital workers said three other people were wounded when the shell struck near a house in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
■SPAIN
Zeppelin escape plan fails
Police foiled a plot to use a zeppelin to help a prisoner break out of jail, the Interior Ministry said on Friday. Investigators found a package sent from Italy containing sophisticated escape equipment that was to have been smuggled into the hilltop Salto del Negro prison on the Canary Island of Las Palmas using a 4m electrically controlled dirigible. The breakout had been planned for Tuesday, a day before the detainee, whose name was given as “Giulio B,” was scheduled to appear in court on charges of drug trafficking. Three helpers had set up a camouflaged observation tent on a promontory 600m away from the prison and spent month monitoring jail workers’ movements with high power wide-angle binoculars. They also were protected with electronic movement sensors to warn of people approaching. The helpers were also in possession of maps of the prison and handwritten letters sent by Giulio B.
■GERMANY
‘Generous’ barman jailed
A barman was jailed on Friday for serving at least 44 shots of tequila to a 16-year-old boy during a faked drinking contest that killed the teenager, Berlin’s state court said on Friday. The 28-year-old barman gave himself glasses of water, but served the teenager with alcohol during the drinking bout the pair had in February 2007. After about an hour the youngster fell into a coma and died five weeks later. The bartender, who admitted his guilt, was sentenced to three years and five months in jail for causing grievous bodily harm with fatal consequences. Two other bar staff who were involved in tricking the dead teenager were convicted at an earlier trial of causing grievous bodily harm. They were sentenced to receive social training for 10 months, while a third bartender at that trial was acquitted. The case triggered a national debate over teenage alcohol abuse and the danger of “flat-rate” binge-drinking parties where customers pay a one-off entry fee and are served unlimited strong spirits all night.
■MEXICO
Police find mummy
Police found a mummified corpse and four other dead bodies on a farm in the drug-plagued western state of Michoacan on Friday. Four of the bodies were found in an unmarked grave, and the fifth was discovered inside a farmhouse in the small town of Coatepec de Morelos, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The completely mummified corpse, which was found sitting in a chair, had apparently been dead for some time and was desiccated by the dry air. Investigators also found a weapons cache, camouflage military uniforms and scattered human bones. Forensic experts were investigating the identities, times and causes of death, officials said.
■PUERTO RICO
Woman burnt in healing
A self-described spiritual healer accidentally dropped a candle into a tub where a client was bathing in alcohol on Friday, leaving her with burns over half her body, police said. The victim, 28-year-old Stephanie Rodriguez Pizarro, sought the spiritual treatment because of marital and financial troubles, said Maria del Pilar Bon, the police spokeswoman in San Juan. The woman was hospitalized in serious condition on Friday afternoon. The healer, Jose Cadiz Tapia, 46, was also taken to the hospital for burns on his arms and torso after he tried to help the woman.
■DOMINICAN
Plane forced to return
Air France says a flight has been forced to return to a Dominican airport because of technical problems with its air conditioning. Paris-bound Air France Flight 493 had been airborne for about 20 minutes late Thursday when the pilot noticed a technical problem and returned to the Caribbean capital. Air France spokeswoman Maria Esther Velasquez said the Boeing 777 had a problem with its air conditioning system. The passengers aboard were taken to nearby hotels to await later flights to Paris.
■UNITED STATES
Pachyderms beat humans
In the fight of pachyderms versus people — the pachyderms now have the upper trunk. Three circus elephants scored a decisive victory over three human competitive eaters at a cross-species eating contest on Friday, chomping down 505 hot dog buns in six minutes. The humans forced down only 143 buns in the bout at Brooklyn’s Coney Island. The humans were Eric “Badlands” Booker, the world champion in corned beef hash eating; Juliet Lee, the world cranberry sauce champion; and Tim “Gravy” Brown, whose claim to fame is having eaten 3.84kg of blueberry pie in an eight-minute, handsfree competition. Contest organizers called the results a “setback for humanity.”
■UNITED STATES
Statue of Liberty reopens
The Statue of Liberty was to reopen yesterday after being closed for more than seven years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The reopening of Lady Liberty, who has greeted millions of immigrants to the US as they entered New York Harbor, was to coincide with the celebration of US Independence Day. Access to Liberty Island and the inside of the Statue of Liberty was totally closed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks owing to security concerns. US national park officials have gradually allowed more access, first to the island and later to the lower storeys of the statue. But the climb up through Liberty’s robe and into the crown had been totally closed to visitors until its reopening yesterday.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of