■NEW ZEALAND
Swine flu no excuse for DWI
A woman had a novel defense when she appeared in court on a charge of driving while intoxicated (DWI): It was swine flu’s fault. Business manager Deborah Karen Graham sought clemency for the charge in Queenstown on Monday, saying the three glasses of wine she had consumed were more potent because she was recovering from the virus. Judge Kevin Phillips was having none of it: “Swine flu seems to be the ‘in’ submission for everything at the moment. I reject all that.” He fined Graham US$360 and disqualified her from driving for six months. The country has been hard hit by swine flu, with 2,662 confirmed cases reported, including 14 deaths.
■HONG KONG
Murderer sentenced to life
A man who killed a teenage prostitute before cutting up her body and leaving some of the remains at a butcher’s has been sentenced to life, a judicial spokeswoman said yesterday. Transportation worker Ting Kai-tai, 24, was found guilty by a unanimous verdict at the High Court on Monday of murdering the 16-year-old, the spokeswoman said. Jailing Ting, Judge Alan Wright described the crime as “barbaric,” the English-language daily the Standard reported. “The fact we had to sit and listen to what you did was the worst experience ever imaginable,” Wright was quoted as saying. “It would be no exaggeration to say your conduct was barbaric. You killed a 16-year-old and you disposed of her body in a most horrendous way.” Ting told police following his arrest last year that he had killed Wong Ka-mui after having sex with her in his apartment in April last year. He pleaded not guilty, saying he had been under the influence of drugs and had no recollection of killing the girl.
■AUSTRALIA
Women rescued from toilet
A woman was stuck in her toilet for a week before neighbors heard her cries for help, officials said yesterday. The 67-year-old Queensland woman was found on Sunday, seven days after she became trapped, officials said. “Firefighters accessed the woman and freed her. Paramedics treated the woman and transported her to Ipswich Hospital,” they said. She was very dehydrated but conscious, officials said. Rescuers had trouble reaching the woman because she was so tightly wedged by the toilet, with a foot stuck on either side.
■AUSTRALIA
Ski jump fells octogenarian
An 80-year-old man broke his hip while attempting a 2m ski jump at Mount Buller in Victoria state on Sunday, but says life is “too short” to skip the slopes. Ambulance Victoria flight paramedic Steve Grove says the man has been a regular skier at since the 1950s. The man was airlifted off the mountain and taken to a hospital in Melbourne for treatment. Grove says when he asked him why he was still skiing at 80, the man replied simply: “Life is too short.”
■CAMBODIA
Activists slam ‘AIDS colony’
AIDS campaigners and rights groups protested yesterday over the government’s shunting of HIV sufferers into an unsanitary “AIDS colony” outside Phnom Penh. More than 100 international and domestic pressure groups told Prime Minister Hun Sen and Health Minister Mam Bunheng in a letter they were “deeply disturbed” by the government’s treatment of 40 HIV-affected families. Over the past two months the government has evicted the families from Phnom Penh to live in metal sheds without running water or adequate sanitation at Tuol Sambo, 25km from the capital, the letter said.
■SRI LANKA
Cellphones banned in school
The government has banned students from taking mobile phones to school following the suicide of a teenager disciplined for using her telephone, an education ministry spokesman said yesterday. All schools were ordered to impose the ban after a 14-year-old girl — reprimanded over telephone contact with a boy during school last week — hanged herself, the spokesman said. Another student from the same school in the capital Colombo attempted suicide after receiving a similar reprimand. “Bringing mobile phones to school will now be considered unacceptable and teachers will make sure that no students takes a phone to class,” the spokesman said. More than half the country’s 20 million population use mobile phones and several networks offer special packages aimed at students.
■FRANCE
Oxygen prevents cancer
Men who regularly do heart-pounding exercise are less likely to develop cancer, a study said yesterday. The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that the key factor in the reduced risk of cancer was a higher rate of oxygen consumption. A team of researchers from the universities of Kuopio and Oulu in Finland studied the leisure-time physical activity over a 12-month period of 2,560 men between 42 and 61 years old with no history of cancer. Over an average follow-up period of 16 years, 181 of the subjects died from cancer, mostly of the stomach or intestines, lungs, prostate and brain. Using an intensity scale for physical exercise that measured “metabolic units” of oxygen consumption, the scientists found that the men who exercised for at least 30 minutes a day were half as likely to get cancer as those who did not.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Model charged with bigamy
A former model who wed five men without divorcing any of them was handed a suspended jail sentence on Monday by a court after being charged with bigamy. Emily Horne, 30, married four men by the age of 23, changing her name on marriage certificates to avoid detection, a court in Manchester heard. Horne, a former glamour model who had roles in adult movies, only told husband No. 5 that she was already married when they set off on their honeymoon in 2007. Judge Mushtaq Khokhar described Horne as a “manipulative woman” who had “undermined the institution of marriage.” But the judge said he had decided not to jail her because she had made progress in the last six months since being prescribed medication for a personality disorder. Horne, who has bipolar disorder, was handed a 10-month suspended prison sentence after admitting to bigamy at an earlier court hearing.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Bomb prankster sentenced
A teenager who phoned the White House and claimed as part of a “drunken prank” that there was a bomb in the center of New York escaped jail on Monday. Thomas Hutchinson, 19, from Sheffield, northern England, made a “giggling” call to the White House switchboard after drinking with friends at a barbecue in May and claimed there was a bomb in Madison Square Garden. The operator pressed a malicious call trace button and it was found to have been made in Britain. Prosecutor Stephen Acaster said there was great concern when the call was first received but it was soon realized it was a hoax and Madison Square Garden was not evacuated. A court gave him a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese