■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.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.