■NEW ZEALAND
Teen offers sexy pics of mom
A teenager tried to sell some sexy photographs of his mother on an Internet auction site after the pair had an argument, a newspaper reported. The 18-year-old opened an auction for “five naked photos of my Mum” on the Trade Me site after being told to clear the family garage and sell any unwanted items, the Herald on Sunday said. Trade Me pulled the auction the next day, but the student, identified only as Michael, was soon back trying to sell a series of “glamour” shots of his mother, including one in her underwear. His mother, 44, who did not want the family name published, told the paper she was “pretty annoyed” when she found out about the first set of photographs. “He was quite naughty... I thought ‘you cheeky little git,’” she said. But she was also annoyed that Trade Me withdrew the second set of pictures, of which she approved. “I insisted Michael show me first, the little bugger. They are quite artistic. There is nothing dodgy about them. I wanted 50 percent of the sale, but more than that I miss the nice comments,” she said.
■HONG KONG
Man jailed for shooting plot
A second man was yesterday jailed for three years for his part in a suspected plot to shoot pro-democracy champion Martin Lee (李柱銘). Ho Wai-kan appeared in court pleading guilty to possession of a gun and ammunition which he had smuggled over the border from China for Chinese would-be hit man Huang Nanhua (黃南華). However, Ho claimed he had not known what was in the bag and last week testified in the trial of Huang, who was jailed for 16 years last week in Hong Kong’s High Court for possession of the gun and ammunition with intent to commit an arrestable offence. Huang, 50, was found with the gun when he was arrested in a routine police check on a taxi last August. During his trial, the prosecution claimed he was sent to Hong Kong with instructions to target Lee. A photograph and the home address of media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) were also found on him when he was arrested.
■SOUTH KOREA
Gambler sues casino
A man who says he gambled away 30 billion won (US$23.5 million) in three years is suing a casino for allegedly fuelling his addiction, a report said yesterday. The man identified only as Chung, 67, is appealing a court ruling last November which ordered the casino to pay him 2.8 billion won in damages. Chung says this is not enough since he lost 30 billion won at the casino. Chung claims the casino turned a blind eye to him making bets above the legitimate limit. He says he knew nothing about gambling until he first visited the casino six years ago.
■GERMANY
Revenge brings unhappiness
Revenge may be sweet, but it could damage your health and make you unhappier than most other people, a study by German and Belgian researchers shows. The study conducted among 20,000 people by the universities of Bonn and Maastricht found that people who like to pay back perceived injustices also have fewer friends and are less satisfied with life. The researchers wanted to find out what influence character traits such as positive and negative acts of reciprocation had on “success” and “satisfaction with life.” Respondents were asked to what extent they would reciprocate an act of kindness or in contrast pay back an insult. The study also revealed that positively inclined people were more willing to work longer hours but only if they perceived their wages as being fair.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Codex Sinaiticus reunited
The oldest bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus, written in Greek in the 4th century but now scattered between the British Library, Germany, Russia and St Catherine’s monastery in Egypt’s Sinai desert, was to be reassembled online yesterday in a £1 million (US$1.63 million) scholarship exercise. Nobody alive has seen all the pages together in one place. The pages of the codex, described as “a jewel beyond price” by Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, which has the largest part, have been scattered for more than 150 years. Now academics or the merely curious anywhere in the world will be able to search all the surviving text, down to thumbnail-sized fragments found at St Catherine’s, free online. The pages can be searched in facsimile, transcribed or translated. The digital photography is of such high resolution that insect bites and scars of some of hundreds of animals whose hides became the vellum pages can be seen.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Chimp escape closes zoo
Chester Zoo near Liverpool was evacuated on Sunday after about 30 chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure. The animals escaped from “Chimp Island” and found their way into a keeper area where their food is prepared, the zoo said. More than 5,000 visitors were asked to leave the zoo shortly after the breakout as keepers rounded up the chimps. The zoo apologized for the disappointment caused to guests and offered to provide a refund or free future visit to the zoo.
■COMOROS ISLANDS
Black boxes’ signals heard
A submarine scouring the Indian Ocean on Sunday detected the signal beacons of the two black boxes from a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed last Tuesday and plans are under way to retrieve the boxes within days, an official from Yemen said. A 12-year-old girl is the only known survivor of the crash that killed 152 people flying from Paris to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros, via Yemen. Meanwhile, search planes have spotted another floating body on Sunday.
■IRAQ
Police patrols targeted
Attackers targeted police patrols in Mosul on Sunday, killing a police officer with a grenade and injuring 14 people in a car bomb blast, authorities said. Police and medical officials said one officer died and six other people, including two police, were injured in grenade attacks. The 14 people injured in the car bomb included two police. Separately, bombs in Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, killed one civilian and injured 14 others, police said.
■UNITED STATES
‘Change gay ban slowly’
The nation’s top military officer said on Sunday he had advised President Barack Obama to move “in a measured way” in changing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. Obama as a candidate pledged to end the ban. As president, he has not said when or how he will take steps to do so, drawing criticism from gay rights activists and others. “It’s very clear what President Obama’s intent here is. He intends to see this law change,” Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on CNN’s State of the Union. “I’ve had conversations with him about that. What I’ve discussed in terms of the future is I think we need to move in a measured way.”
■UNITED STATES
Bridge collapse injures 25
A pedestrian bridge collapsed in Indiana, injuring 25 people who had gathered with thousands of others to watch a fireworks display marking US Independence Day, police said on Sunday. The collapse of the cable suspension foot bridge occurred at 10:08pm on Saturday in the town of Merrillville, sending rescue teams diving into the water at Hidden Lake Park to help some 50 people who fell in. “We were walking across, and everybody just stopped ... we heard two snaps, and we all went in the water,” Seth Argullin, 29, of Merrillville, told the Post-Tribune.
■UNITED STATES
Irish pub wins Chowderfest
The manager of an Irish pub in Boston is as happy as a clam. Ned Devine’s Irish Pub has won a New England clam chowder contest called Chowderfest for the third time and has been elected to the event’s Hall of Fame. Manager Greg Springer says it’s fantastic New York City chef Sean Ryan’s 20-year-old recipe did so well. The 28th annual Chowderfest was held on Sunday as part of Boston Harborfest, a Fourth of July festival showcasing the city’s heritage. Eight restaurants competed for the title of Boston’s Best Chowder. Organizers said 7,600 liters of New England’s signature dish of clams, cream and potatoes were served to a hungry crowd of about 10,000. Ned Devine’s Irish Pub also won in 2004 and 2005.
■UNITED STATES
Barry charged with stalking
Police say former Washington mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman. The US Park Police said Barry, now a Washington city council member, was arrested on Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained that Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released. Barry’s spokeswoman, Natalie Williams, said on Sunday that the accusation was “baseless.” She said Barry plans to fight the charge and that the accuser is a woman Barry had helped financially. Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor’s office.
■UNITED STATES
Group calls for ‘midget’ ban
Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word “midget” on broadcast TV. The group Little People of America said on Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs. The request was prompted by an episode of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice that the group said was demeaning. In the episode, contestants created a detergent ad called “Jesse James and the Midgets.” The contestants suggested bathing little people in the detergent and hanging them to dry.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of