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World News Quick Take

■AUSTRALIA

Rudd recalls flub

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has sought to make light of strained diplomatic relations with China by telling an anecdote about how sentiments can easily get lost in translation. Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat and self-avowed Sinophile, told students at the Australian National University about an error he made as a junior envoy in Beijing. “Apparently, what I’d said as I sought to elevate his expression into a more classical form, was that China and Australia are currently experiencing fantastic mutual orgasm,” he said, delivering a speech late on Thursday. “Ever since then, our Chinese friends have remembered my visits to Beijing, [saying] ‘Ah, you were the one...,’” he said. “Perhaps that explains some of the challenges in our current relationship with the Chinese.”



■AUSTRALIA

‘Engineer’ sentence raised

A bogus aircraft engineer jailed for more than three years for faking his qualifications on Friday had his sentence increased for providing phony character references to the court. Timothy McCormack, who was described as a pathological liar by his own lawyer, posed as a licensed aircraft engineer checking planes leaving Sydney Airport for almost nine months before he was caught in July 2007. McCormack pleaded guilty but tried to convince the court to go easy on him with a series of fake character testimonials, including one from a football official and another from his school counselor, the AAP newswire reported. Sydney District Court judge Greg Woods on Friday added eight months to McCormack’s jail term for the references. Likening McCormack to the fictional character Walter Mitty, who is a hero in his own fantasy world, Woods said he had a “delusional presumption of fake seniority.”



■MALAYSIA

Pangolins rescued

Authorities yesterday said they have rescued nearly 100 pangolins and arrested a man attempting to smuggle the protected species, destined to be sold to restaurants and medicine shops. Officials from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks raided a house in northern Kedah state on Thursday and seized 98 of the animals, the department’s enforcement chief said. Three kilograms of pangolin scales were also found.



■CHINA

Nuclear work delayed

Work on two powerful new nuclear reactors was delayed by wet weather, the French companies building them said on Thursday, as campaigners claimed the project was likely to fall through. A spokesman for French nuclear group Areva said that a ceremony to pour the first concrete in the site of the third-generation European Pressurized Reactors had been postponed because of “two typhoons in the region.” “The pouring of the first concrete is due to happen soon” at the site in Taishan in Guangdong, he said. The French anti-nuclear campaign movement Sortir du Nucleaire said, however, that authorities were now likely to cancel the projects.



■PHILIPPINES

Madhatta Haipe extradited

An alleged member of a Muslim extremist group was extradited to the US to face charges of kidnapping four US citizens, US embassy statements said yesterday. Madhatta Haipe, also known as Commander Haipe, was sent to the US on Thursday to face charges of “hostage-taking” and other crimes. He could face life imprisonment, the embassy statements said.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Pop band Oasis splits

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher said he’s leaving the pop band because he can’t work “a day longer” with his brother Liam. A statement from Gallagher on the band’s Web site says he was leaving the group “with some sadness and great relief.” The band was scheduled to play a festival in Paris on Friday, but didn’t take the stage. A message flashed to the crowd said “as a result of an altercation within the band, the Oasis gig has been canceled.” Gallagher’s statement sent “apologies to all the people who bought tickets” for the band’s remaining shows in France, Italy, and Germany.



■SWITZERLAND

Carrier of West Nile spreads

Scientists say a mosquito capable of spreading the deadly West Nile virus has been detected in central Europe for the first time. Zurich University researchers say the Asian rock pool mosquito has colonized an area of 1,400km² in central Switzerland. Parasite expert Alexander Mathis said on Friday the insect’s larva was found in 122 of 3,500 locations tested. This indicates the species has gained a foothold and is spreading. The US Centers for Disease Control said lab research shows the mosquito can spread Japanese encephalitis and West Nile virus. The species is native to Japan, South Korea and China.



■IRAQ

Iraqi Picasso likely a fake

A Picasso painting that police proudly announced they had found last week appears to be a fake, officials at the Louvre in Paris and the National Museum in Kuwait said. Officers had said that the painting was stolen during Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, but a source at the museum in the oil-rich emirate said they had never housed such a work. “The national museum had no Picasso paintings before the Iraqi invasion,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Pictures of the painting, named the nakede (sic) and inscribed “sold by the louvre to the musum” (sic) of Kuwait 1979, and carrying a stamp of the Eiffel Tower, saying “Louvre musem” (sic), indicate it is a forgery.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Man sentenced for poison

A British pensioner who slipped mercury into cups of tea he prepared for his estranged wife in an alleged effort to “win her attention” was given a suspended jail sentence on Friday. William Dowling, 69, was given a 350-day suspended prison term by Preston Crown Court and placed under an 18-month supervision order. He admitted in court that he administered a “poison or noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy” between January and April. His wife, 64, who suffered symptoms of forgetfulness, indigestion and headaches, had experienced “no serious effect on her health” from the mercury, the court in Lancashire said.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Gorillas await French lover

Three female gorillas at London Zoo are waiting for their new French lover — and were given a sneak preview of the Gallic stud coming their way this week. Mjukuu, 10, Effie, 16, and Zaire, 34, were left bereft after their silverback mate Bobby died in December. But the wait is almost over, as 12-year-old stud Yeboah, from La Boissiere Du Dore zoo in western France is scheduled to join them in the next few months in London. And in an unusual experiment, the three singletons were this week given pictures of the 125kg French gorilla — while Yeboah was shown images of his three lady friends.



■UNITED STATES

Car stolen on first date

Police say a first date went from bad to worse when a man skipped out on the restaurant bill, then stole his date’s car. Police say 23-year-old Terrance Dejuan McCoy had dinner with a woman on April 24 at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. The woman says the two met a week earlier at a Detroit casino and she knew McCoy only as “Chris.” The woman told police that McCoy said he left his wallet in her car and asked for keys. He then sped away in the 2000 Chevrolet Impala. The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reports that police identified McCoy by a photo he’d sent to the woman’s cellphone, and his phone number.



■MEXICO

Mansion sports Rivera murals

A mansion on the market in the legendary beach resort of Acapulco has an unusual selling point — six murals by one of the country’s most renowned artists, Diego Rivera. Three of the murals are publicly unseen, late works by the world famous artist who died more than 50 years ago made and his name painting massive murals on buildings from Mexico City to New York. The mansion was built on a cliff in Acapulco’s heydey in the middle of the last century, and is on the market for a minimum of US$6 million. “There are [three] unknown murals inside. Only the ones that can be seen from the street are known,” said Carlos Phillips, son of the mansion’s original owner, Dolores Olmedo. Olmedo, a sophisticated art collector and friend of Rivera and his famous artist wife, Frida Kahlo, had the mansion built in 1940. Rivera created the murals between 1955 and 1957 — the year he died. One mural of naturally colored stones depicting a journey by leftist Rivera to the former Soviet Union decorates the artist’s former studio alongside the house, Phillips said. Another — on the outside of the house called Exekatlkalli or “House of the Winds” in the indigenous Nahuatl language — depicts an Aztec serpent god in a long stone mosaic.



■UNITED STATES

Stimulus leads to arrests

Police in a Florida city used the promise of economic stimulus checks to lure 76 people to their arrest on a variety of outstanding warrants. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department set up “Operation Show Me The Money” to round up people wanted on charges ranging from second-degree murder to guns and drug charges to failure to pay child support.



■UNITED STATES

Checks sent to inmates

The government sent checks by mistake to 1,700 inmates around the country as part of efforts to jump-start the crisis-hit economy, officials said on Thursday. The prisoners “received the economic recovery payment because our records did not accurately reflect that they were in prison,” said Social Security Administration spokesman Dan Moraski. The checks were for an average of about US$250, meaning the mistake cost the government around US$425,000.



■BRAZIL

Cologne closes bridge

Talk about making a stink. A grenade-shaped bottle left under a busy bridge closed a major thoroughfare and brought police to investigate — only to discover that it contained French cologne.The black bottle of Arsenal cologne by the design house of Gilles Cantuel looked realistic enough for police to halt rush-hour traffic on Thursday morning. The result was a 5km traffic jam in South America’s biggest city — already known for its congested streets.


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