■NEW ZEALAND
Temblors shake country
Three earthquakes with an average magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale hit the country yesterday. Southland civil defense said that yesterday’s shocks had not injured anyone. There also appeared to be very little property damage. The first and largest of the three quakes struck at 4:40am and measured 5.1 on the Richter scale. It was centered 160km west of Tuatapere. The other two quakes occurred 80km west of Te Anau and measured 4.5 and 4.9 respectively. There have been 16 earthquakes in the South Island region of Fiordland since Wednesday, when there was a magnitude-7.8 shake. The country is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone areas, recording about 14,000 a year, though only 100 to 150 are strong enough to be felt. Civil defense officials said the quake should come as a wake-up call to people to prepare for a similarly large quake in a populated area.
■PAKISTAN
Terror trial adjourned
The trial of the five accused of involvement in last year’s terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai has been adjourned until next week, the defense lawyer said yesterday. A total of 166 people died and more than 300 were injured in the Nov. 26 to Nov. 29 attacks, which saw 10 heavily-armed gunmen target luxury hotels, the city’s main railway station, a popular restaurant and Jewish center. “The hearing has been adjourned till July 25 and I was given access to the accused persons,” defense lawyer Shahbaz Rajput said. “Judge Baqar Ali Rana allowed me to meet the accused persons and I have filed documents to defend them,” he said. “We have requested the court that we should be provided details of evidence against us so that we can prepare the defense.”
■PAKISTAN
Taliban hideout bombed
Government warplanes flattened a suspected Taliban hideout in the volatile northwest early yesterday, killing nine associates of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, intelligence officials said. The military has targeted Mehsud and his militant network in recent months in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. The Taliban leader is accused of orchestrating the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and launching a string of suicide attacks across the country in recent months that have killed more than 100 people. Early yesterday, fighter jets destroyed hideouts of Mehsud’s deputy, Hakim Ullah, in the Orakzai region, part of the lawless tribal belt.
■HONG KONG
Pornography too accessible
Eighty percent of schoolchildren in the special administrative region have accessed pornography online, a survey published yesterday showed. Students download pornography for the first time at an average age of 11 and the majority do so on computers at home, the survey by the Polytechnic University found. More than 40 percent gained access to pornographic material through pop-up adverts. Almost 20 percent said they looked at pornography for entertainment while 14 percent claimed they used it to learn about sex. Social worker Tammy Sin, who helped carry out interviews with 1,500 pupils in primary and secondary schools, said the survey highlighted the need for better sex education in school. “Sex education should embrace moral education, through which adolescents can learn how to respect each other,” she told the South China Morning Post, which carried the survey results.
■SINGAPORE
Man charged with rape
A court sentenced a man to 24 years in jail after he raped and abused a girl for more than seven years, a media report said yesterday. The man, now 59, who was not named to protect the victim’s identity, was a spiritual adviser to the girl’s father and had been considered a family friend by her parents. The married father of four children started to abuse the girl when she was eight years old, exploiting the parents’ trust in him when he stayed overnight at their apartment many times, the Straits Times newspaper reported. Even after the girl’s parents divorced in 2004 and the girl moved to another flat with her mother, he continued his crimes when the mother let him take care of the child while she was working, the report said. The abuse came to light in summer last year after the girl, who has three sisters, confided in an aunt. The long-time abuse had resulted in far-reaching harm for the victim, a psychiatrist said. “It would be difficult for [her], even with intensive counseling, to show recovery,” the report quoted him as saying.
■AUSTRALIA
Filmmaker protests
British filmmaker and activist Ken Loach has moved to withdraw his work from Melbourne’s International Film Festival in protest against sponsorship from Israel, a report said yesterday. Loach, whose work The Wind That Shakes the Barley won the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2006, wrote to festival director Richard Moore threatening to pull his film Looking for Eric because the event had received Israeli funds. “Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel,” the Age quoted Loach as writing. The boycott, aimed not at independent Israeli filmmakers or films but “the Israeli state,” was in protest at what Loach described as “illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods” and “the massacres in Gaza.”
■POLAND
Kolakowski dies at 81
Leading philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, who turned against his Marxist beliefs, went into exile and then branded his old doctrine “the greatest fantasy of the 20th century,” died on Friday aged 81. Kolakowski, who won international renown with his monumental Main Currents of Marxism, died in hospital in Oxford, the PAP state news agency said. Kolakowski had lived and taught mainly at Oxford since leaving his communist country as a dissident in 1968. “We have lost a man who rendered remarkable services in the cause of a free and democratic Poland,” speaker parliament Bronislaw Komorowski told deputies who observed a minute of silence for Kolakowski. Starting off as an orthodox Marxist after the war, Kolakowski became progressively disenchanted and his calls for a more democratic version of socialism led him into conflicts with the censors, which finally forced him to move to the West.
■ITALY
Pope undergoes surgery
Pope Benedict XVI waved reassuringly to well-wishers outside a hospital where he underwent surgery to set his right wrist, fractured when he fell in his Alpine vacation chalet. The 82-year-old pope’s overnight accident was the first significant medical issue of his four-year-old papacy, but doctors said on Friday he would suffer no long-term effects and would be able to return to playing piano and writing once the wrist heals. His cast will be removed in a month. The pontiff’s first public appearance of his mountain holiday is scheduled for Sunday in Ivrea, the hometown of his No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, where he is to deliver his traditional Sunday blessing. “We hope that his remaining schedule can be preserved,” Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio. Despite the accident, the right-handed pope celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital, a Vatican statement said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
World’s oldest man dies
The world’s oldest man, Henry Allingham, has died at the age of 113. St Dunstan’s care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton on the south coast, said Allingham died early yesterday. He was one of only two surviving World War I veterans in Britain and had been the world’s oldest man since June 19. Allingham joined the Royal Naval Air Service — precursor to the Royal Air Force — in 1915 and a year later took part in the Battle of Jutland, the war’s largest naval battle. During World War II he worked on measures to counter magnetic mines. He co-wrote an autobiography, Kitchener’s Last Volunteer — a reference to the war secretary who rallied men to the cause — and was made an Officer of France’s Legion of Honor.
■NAMIBIA
Journalists convicted
Two foreign journalists who were arrested while filming the clubbing of seals were convicted on Friday of entering a protected marine area without a permit. British journalist Jim Wickens and his South African cameraman, Bart Smithers, appeared in a magistrates court in the coastal town of Swakopmund. They were given the choice of 12 months in jail or a fine of 10,000 Namibian dollars (US$1,200) each, along with a six-month suspended sentence, police spokesman Angula Amulungu said. Their employer, the British investigative agency Ecostorm, has agreed to pay the fine, spokesman Andrew Wasley said. In a matter the court did not consider, Wasley said the two men allege that the sealers attacked them.
■BRAZIL
UK launches trash probe
The British government has launched a probe into reports several British companies have been involved in dumping hazardous waste in Brazilian ports, reports said yesterday. British Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told the Times newspaper he had ordered the investigation after reports that shipping containers carrying tonnes of syringes, condoms, bags of blood and other waste had turned up in Brazil. Benn said he could consider tightening rules on transporting waste. Some 90 shipping containers have been discovered on three docks in Brazil containing hazardous material in recent months. The waste has been linked to two British companies. The companies in Brazil that received the waste claimed to have been expecting recyclable plastic, the Times said.
■ECUADOR
US narcotics force leaves
A US anti-narcotics force flew its last surveillance mission from Ecuador’s Pacific Coast on Friday. For a decade, E-3 AWACs and P-3 Orion planes operated by about 220 Americans at Manta’s international airport have been identifying suspicious vessels and planes so US Navy and Coast Guard ships could intercept them and search for drugs. The force was credited with about 60 percent of drug interdictions in the eastern Pacific, but Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa refused to renew the lease. US officials are negotiating with Colombia to shift the operation there.
■VENEZUELA
Retired general charged
Prosecutors have charged a former defense minister with crimes allegedly committed two decades ago during riots known as the “Caracazo.” Prosecutors say they have charged retired General Italo del Valle Aliegro with ordering murders and violating international agreements during the 1989 unrest over hikes in gasoline prices and transportation fares. Del Valle Aliegro was defense minister under former president Carlos Andres Perez when the rioting broke out. Authorities used force to put down the violent protests and at least 300 people died. On this year’s Feb. 27 to Feb. 28 anniversary, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on authorities to administer justice for crimes committed during the Caracazo.
■CANADA
First Nation seeks shots
A group representing Canada’s indigenous population has called for native communities to receive priority vaccination against swine flu. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) justified its call by pointing to the disproportionate spread of the A(H1N1) virus in remote indigenous communities, including in Manitoba, where the rate of infection is “20 times higher ... than in the general population,” said AFN Regional Chief Angus Toulouse, who holds the health portfolio at the organization.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson report delayed
The coroner’s report into the death of Michael Jackson has been delayed for another two weeks as speculation continues to swirl about the cause of the megastar’s June 25 death, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said on Friday. Legal officials also announced the postponement of a custody hearing for Jackson’s children to Aug. 3. The postponement came amid reports of positive negotiations between Jackson’s former wife, Debbie Rowe, and his mother over the custody of the children.
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