■TONGA
Searchers find sunken ferry
Searchers believe they have found the wreck of a Tongan ferry that sank last week, but naval divers would be unable to recover nearly 100 bodies that may be trapped inside, police said yesterday. Police commander Chris Kelley said the wreck appeared to be intact and lying upright on the sea floor at a depth of 110m. “I must emphasize the onsite team have not visually confirmed the identity of the vessel but the sonar information is such, along with other evidence, that we have a high level of confidence it is the Princess Ashika,” Kelley said in a statement. But he said the New Zealand and Australian naval dive team would be unable to recover any bodies after confirmation of the wreck’s identity by a robotic submarine with video equipment due to arrive at the weekend because neither navies “have the capabilities to conduct recovery operations beyond 60 meters.”
■SOUTH KOREA
Cloned dog sniffs out drugs
A cloned sniffer dog has proved itself smarter than the average pup by detecting drugs at Incheon International Airport just weeks after starting service, officials said yesterday. The dog, named Tosun, detected 3g of narcotics in an envelope stored in a tightly zipped bag, the Korea Customs Service said in a statement. It was the first such achievement by a cloned animal on government service. “It is a great achievement,” Kim Dae-keun, a customs official working in the narcotics-related department, told Yonhap news agency. “Compared with ordinary sniffers, which have to undergo a longer period of getting accustomed to working conditions, Tosun made a marked score less than a month after being deployed.” Tosun is one of seven dogs cloned in late 2007 by scientists at Seoul National University from a renowned Canadian-born sniffer dog.
■CHINA
Women face ID problem
A group of Chinese women who traveled to South Korea for cosmetic surgery baffled immigration officers on their return home when their new looks did not match their passport photos. The 23 women, aged 36 to 54, had bigger eyes, higher noses and slimmer chins than shown in their passports, the China Daily reported yesterday. “After they took off their huge hats and big sunglasses following our request, we saw them looking different, with bandages and stitches here and there,” Shanghai Hongqiao Airport officer Chen Tao told the paper. “We had to compare their uncorrected parts with their photos very carefully,” he said. The identification process on Sunday took several minutes per woman, instead of the usual average of 45 seconds. “After they passed the identification, we asked them all to renew their passports immediately,” he told the daily.
■CHINA
Factory shut after poisoning
Authorities have closed a factory in the northwest that is suspected of causing lead poisoning in more than 300 children, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The sick children all live near the Changqing industrial park in Shaanxi Province, and parents have pointed at a lead and zinc smelting plant inside. The Changqing County Government was supposed to help relocate villagers living close by in 2006, but the plan is running behind schedule. “Of all the 581 families that should have been relocated by now, only 156 have moved to new homes,” Changqing Town chief Pu Yiming said. The government has pledged to relocate the remaining families within the next two year, the report added.
■RUSSIA
Official slain in Ingushetia
A senior local official was shot dead in Ingushetia yesterday, in the latest in a string of high-profile killings in the mainly Muslim region. Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov “was shot dead by an unidentified gunman this morning” in his office, a spokesman for the local prosecutor’s office said. President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on his motorcade on June 22 and is still recovering.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Oral cancer linked to booze
Britain has seen an “alarming” growth in oral cancer rates for people in their 40s, largely due to rising alcohol consumption, Cancer Research UK warned on Tuesday. New figures from the charity group show the number of 40-somethings developing cancer of the mouth, tongue, lip and throat has gone up by 28 percent for men since the mid-1990s and 24 percent for women. While tobacco is the main risk factor for oral cancer, cancers caused by smoking often take up to 30 years to develop, so experts believe that the second biggest risk factor — alcohol — is the main culprit. “Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and the trend we are now seeing is likely to be linked to Britain’s continually rising drinking levels,” said Hazel Nunn, health information manager at the charity.
■ITALY
Dogs licensed as lifeguards
Three hundred dogs are now licensed to save drowning bathers at beaches and lakes, and have already helped save seven lives. Accompanied by instructors, the labradors, newfoundlands and golden retrievers plunge through waves or even leap out of boats and helicopters to help pull bathers to safety. “The dogs are notching up more rescues and becoming increasingly popular,” said Donatella Pasquale, vice-president of the school run by the civil protection agency, where dogs have trained since the 1980s. Pasquale said dogs learned to tow their instructors out to sea, leaving them the strength to give medical attention to drowning swimmers. “The dogs are incredibly strong,” she said. “Our record is one dog towing 40 people at the same time.”
■GERMANY
Police rescue drunk bride
A bride spent her wedding night passed out next to a crate of vodka in the back seat of a car and had to be rescued by police when the BMW began to overheat in the sun. Police in Cologne said on Monday the inebriated 30-year-old remained unconscious even after they smashed the car window to get her out. “Only after being shaken several times did she eventually regain consciousness,” police said in a statement. Still clad in her wedding dress, the dazed woman had to scramble through the broken window because she had no idea where the car keys or her husband were, police said.
■KUWAIT
Alleged al-Qaeda cell held
The government said on Tuesday it has foiled an attack by suspected al-Qaeda members on the main US military base in the emirate, the first such incident in four years. The group also planned to attack the Shuaiba oil refinery and the state security building, al-Anbaa newspaper reported yesterday, citing unidentified sources familiar with the investigation. An Interior Ministry statement said all six members of the al-Qaeda-linked cell had confessed after being arrested.
■UNITED STATES
Yawn could lead to prison
Clifton Williams, 33, is facing six months in jail in Illinois for making what court documents called a yawn-like sound in Will County Judge Daniel Rozak’s court last month in Illinois. The yawn happened as Williams’ cousin, Jason Mayfield, was being sentenced for a drug charge on July 23. Rozak found Williams in contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in jail. Rozak could free Williams after a status hearing today if Williams apologizes and the judge accepts. By then, Williams will have served 21 days. Charles Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County state attorney’s office, said the prosecutor in the courtroom at the time told him that the yawn “was a very loud, boisterous, deliberate attempt ... to disrupt the proceedings and show disrespect to the court ... It was not a guy who involuntarily yawned.”
■UNITED STATES
Jackson kids get guardian
A Los Angeles judge has appointed a special guardian to represent the financial interests of Michael Jackson’s three orphaned children, heirs to his massive music empire, a court statement said on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Superior Court said that attorney Margaret Lodise, a partner with the law firm Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, LLP, had been selected to represent the interests of Jackson’s daughter Paris, 11, and sons Prince Michael, 12, and Prince Michael II, 7, known as “Blanket.” Lodise’s advocacy is to be independent of the management of the singer’s estate and separate from decisions made by the paternal grandmother, Katherine Jackson, who is the legal guardian.
■COSTA RICA
President catches swine flu
President Oscar Arias is suffering from the H1N1 flu virus, making him the first head of state known to have contracted it. Nobel Peace Prize winner Arias, 68, has a mild case of the virus, which he tested positive for on Tuesday after feeling unwell at the weekend, the government said. Arias is at home and plans to do some work from there. “Apart from the fever and a soar throat, I feel well,” he said in a statement.
■UNITED STATES
Slain pair had second safe
Robbers who killed a Florida couple last month made off with a safe that contained little of value, but missed a second safe that held US$164,000 in cash, a lawyer for the victims’ family said on Tuesday. Byrd and Melanie Billings were shot to death on July 9. Surveillance cameras captured men dressed as ninjas entering the couple’s sprawling house, stealing a safe and leaving in less than four minutes. Family attorney Robert Beasley said in a statement that a second safe was not stolen and contained the money. A grand jury has indicted seven men in the case on two counts each of first-degree murder and one count each of home-invasion robbery.
■UNITED STATES
Boy saves girl from NY fire
Police say a six-year-old boy rescued a two-year-old girl from a fire at a Long Island house where three adults were later found dead. The two women and one man found in the burned Central Islip house had been shot, but it’s unclear if they died from gunshot wounds or the fire, which police said was arson. Homicide Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick says firefighters were called to the blaze on Tuesday morning. The two-story house was engulfed in flames. The boy and girl were found outside the home.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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