■GERMANY
Identical triplet girls born
A 34-year old woman has given birth to three identical girls, an event thought to occur in less than one in 1 million births, doctors in Bonn said on Tuesday. The three girls, Alexandra, Antonia and Adriana, were delivered within seconds of each other in the middle of last month and all three are healthy, the hospital said in a statement. “At first we could not believe it,” said the mother, identified only as Karina P. The triplets were delivered six weeks early.
■POLAND
Protest to target Madonna
An ultra-religious movement said on Tuesday it planned prayer sessions to protest a concert by US superstar Madonna in Warsaw on Aug. 15, which is when Roman Catholics honor the Virgin Mary. “We’re going to continue our crusade with daily prayer sessions outside Warsaw city hall from Aug. 1,” said Marian Brudzynski, head of the Committee for the Defense of the Faith and Tradition. “We’ll start with a group of a few hundred people, but I’m convinced that the square in front of city hall will end up filled with pious Poles,” he said. Madonna has angered Christians in the past with racy shows including on-stage antics such as a mock crucifixion scene.
■POLAND
Nazi tree in the way
An oak tree planted during the Nazi occupation to mark dictator Adolf Hitler’s birthday may soon face the axe. Authorities in Jaslo discovered the origins of the tree when plans were lodged to fell it to make way for a traffic roundabout. “We obtained information that this is no ordinary tree but was put here to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday,” Jaslo Mayor Maria Kurowska said. “So should I try to improve our town’s communications or should I allow a memorial to that criminal to remain standing? The choice is simple.” Not everybody in the town agreed. Kazimierz Polak, who was present at the planting 67 years ago, said: “[The tree is] a historic curiosity ... It’s not the tree’s fault that it was planted here to honor the biggest criminal and enemy of Poland.”
■GERMANY
Tractor in low-speed chase
A drunk man sparked a slow-speed chase after stealing a tractor, said police, who used pepper spray to try to stop him. “After his girlfriend abandoned him in a night club, the 23-year-old driver, who doesn’t own a license, commandeered the vehicle to make his way home,” a police spokesman said on Monday. Six police cars trailed the tractor at 20kph on Saturday. Officers held up stop signs and directed pepper spray through the window. They then threw nail belts on the road, but the tractor’s tires were too thick. The 40-minute chase ended when officers shot at the tractor’s tires after it rammed into a police car and collided with another vehicle.
■AUSTRALIA
Debate over Uluru landmark
A plan to close a tourism attraction because its Aboriginal owners consider it sacred sparked a fierce debate yesterday. Parks Australia said Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, would likely be off-limits by October 2011. Around 350,000 people visit Uluru each year. A third of them climb the 347m monolith despite the owners urging visitors not to do so. Vince Forrester, a spokesman for the Mutitjulu community, said the traditional owners had wanted Uluru roped off since it was handed back to them in 1985. “You can’t go to the top of the Vatican,” he told national broadcaster ABC. “You have to respect our religious attachment.”
■UNITED STATES
Book sparks controversy
A book by a bestselling biographer alleging that former US president John F Kennedy’s widow, Jackie, began a four-year affair with her brother-in-law, Robert, within months of her husband’s assassination has sparked a row in the country. The book, Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, by C David Heymann, alleges that the relationship grew so intense that when Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968, it was Jackie, not his wife, who told doctors to turn off life support. Heymann says the accounts are based on the recollections of a clutch of Kennedy confidants, including Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Pierre Salinger and Arthur Schlesinger. But Salinger, Kennedy’s press secretary, dismissed the account as “bullshit,” while Heymann’s critics said he has been caught making egregious errors in previous books and has even been accused of fabricating material.
■UNITED STATES
No pants and drunk
A Delaware man who claimed he lost his pants faces drunken driving charges after authorities said the deputy who pulled him over noticed he was in the buff below the waist. A spokesman for Maryland’s Cecil County Sheriff’s Office said 41-year-old Jonathan Schultz “was driving commando” and only partially covered with a towel on his lap, though he was wearing a shirt. Lieutenant Bernard Chiominto said Schultz was stopped Saturday near Rising Sun for going 111kph in a 80kph zone. Chiominto said the deputy smelled alcohol and noticed Schultz’s semi-exposed situation. The Newark, Delaware, man told the deputy he’d lost his pants.
■UNITED STATES
Alaska a ‘good deal’: Obama
President Barack Obama on Tuesday thanked Russia for giving his country a “good deal” on Alaska when it purchased the northern territory, now a US state, in 1867. “Before we ever exchanged ambassadors, we exchanged goods,” Obama said at a US-Russia business forum in Moscow, which he addressed as part of a state visit to the Russian capital. “Along the way you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you,” Obama said to laughter from the audience. It purchased Alaska in 1867 for US$7.2 million in gold after the government of Russiaan Tsar Alexander II determined it was losing money on the colony.
■BRAZIL
New monkey discovered
Researchers have discovered a new sub-species of monkey in a remote part of the Amazon rain forest, a US-based wildlife conservation group said on Tuesday. The newly found monkey was first spotted by scientists in 2007 in the state of Amazonas and is related to the saddleback tamarin monkeys, known for their distinctively marked backs, the Wildlife Conservation Society said. The small monkey, which is mostly gray and brown and weighs 213g, has been named the Mura’s saddleback tamarin after the Mura Indian tribe of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the new sub-species was found.
■MEXICO
Useless phones stolen
Call it the case of the dead cells — both telephones and the ones in the brain. Employees at a Telefonica Movistar cellphone store in Morelia said they arrived on Tuesday morning to find that the store had been broken into. An examination of the shop revealed the only items missing were hollow replica phones for display that are completely useless for making calls. Employees said the clueless thieves overlooked real cellphones and cash in another part of the shop.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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