■SOUTH KOREA
Elephant assault claimed
Seoul police are investigating whether a zoo’s elephant threw a stone at a woman visitor. The woman told police she was visiting the zoo at the Children’s Grand Park on Monday when she noticed an elephant picking up a stone with its trunk. After she turned away from 35-year-old Taesani, she was hit on the back of her head by a large stone, several newspapers reported. She reported the incident to police in Gwangjin district, who found that the scene of the alleged assault was out of range of security cameras. “Though Ms Kim believes the elephant threw a stone at her, it’s hard to conclude that the elephant attacked her since there are neither witnesses nor evidence,” Dong-A Ilbo newspaper quoted a police source as saying.
■CHINA
Xinjiang bans explosives
Police on Tuesday banned explosives from being transported in Xinjiang as more suspects were being investigated for a spate of mysterious syringe attacks. The Xinjiang Public Security Ministry said transport of weapons, ammunition, explosives and radioactive goods into or within the region would be suspended from Sept. 25 to Oct. 8. The ministry did not give a reason, but the dates cover the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule on Oct. 1 and the holiday period afterward. The party has launched a nationwide security clampdown aimed at making the anniversary pass smoothly. The notice comes amid investigations into reported needle attacks in Urumqi that began Aug. 20 and apparently ended earlier this month.
■AUSTRALIA
No license for 50 years
A 67-year-old man pulled over for a traffic infringement told Sydney police that he had been driving without a license for 50 years. He was charged with failing to observe a stop sign. Next month he will have to be in court to explain why he hasn’t bothered to take a driving test for decades.
■PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Cult leader urged public sex
A cult leader promised villagers a bigger banana crop every time they had sex in public, Port Moresby’s Post Courier newspaper reported yesterday. People from Yamina in Morobe Province walked 12 hours to the nearest town to report the activities of cult leader Thomas Peli. Police sent to Yamina spotted Peli, but failed to question him because he escaped into the bush.
■FRANCE
Telecom to be monitored
The government ordered an official to monitor France Telecom’s health and safety meetings, following 23 suicides among company employees since February last year, Labor Minister Xavier Darcos said on Tuesday. Darcos said he wants monthly updates on the situation by the head of the body that oversees the nation’s labor inspectors. However, he didn’t acquiesce to a union demand that the telecom halt its corporate restructuring, which the unions say could be to blame, along with layoffs, for some of the suicides by employees.
■HONG KONG
Wives going without sex
Almost a third of middle-aged married women in the territory have had no sex for a year with their husbands, who blame their nagging for the lack of conjugal relations, a study of almost 3,000 married men and women published yesterday said. The study found that 31.6 percent of wives aged 45 to 59 had not had sex with their husband for a year or more. Younger wives fared better.
■SPAIN
Bolivia’s debt written off
Madrid on Tuesday said it would write off 60 million euros (US$87 million) in debt owed by Bolivia to help the impoverished country’s development. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said 60 percent of the debt would be forgiven outright, while 40 percent would go toward funding education projects. “It’s a gesture by Spain toward Bolivia’s development, toward young people who have no schools or have difficulties finding decent schooling, Bolivians who have no access to water or healthcare services,” Zapatero said during a press conference with visiting Bolivian President Evo Morales.
■UNITED STATES
Vein holds up execution
Executioners couldn’t find a suitable vein in which to inject drugs to kill a 53-year-old man convicted of murder, who then got a one-week reprieve from the Ohio governor so prison officials could figure out what to do. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland issued the reprieve at the request of the prison warden overseeing the state’s execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Prison officials said they would consult “several people” about how to perform convicted rapist and murderer Romell Broom’s execution, which must be done by lethal injection. Broom is to be executed for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in Cleveland in 1984.
■UNITED STATES
Toys “R” Us giraffe dies
A giraffe that starred in a series of TV commercials for Toys “R” Us and appeared in the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective has died at a Boston zoo. American Humane, an animal welfare group that oversees animal treatment on movie sets, said Tweet the giraffe died on Friday at the Franklin Park Zoo where producers are filming the Kevin James movie The Zookeeper. The 18-year-old giraffe didn’t belong to the zoo and had no known health problems. Tweet collapsed while feeding. The animal welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Tweet was mistreated and has asked for an investigation. American Humane denies mistreatment.
■CANADA
Protest shuts Shell mine
A Greenpeace protest shut down Royal Dutch Shell’s massive oil sands mine on Tuesday on the eve of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit with US President Barack Obama. Two dozen Greenpeace members chained themselves to giant earth-moving equipment, shutting down Shell’s massive Albian Sands oil sands mine in northwestern Alberta for several hours. Shell suspended operations to ensure the safety of the activists and of Shell staff, while it negotiated with the protesters. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Karolina Malik said the protesters were very polite, so there was no rush to cut the chains or make arrests.
■UNITED STATES
Search warrant in Yale case
Police on Tuesday executed a search and seizure warrant against a person of interest in the murder of Annie Le, a student who went missing days before she was to be married. The 24-year-old’s body was found on Sunday. Police late on Tuesday carried out the search of the Middletown, Connecticut, apartment of “Raymond Clark, a person of interest in the murder of Annie Le,” New Haven police said. “Clark has not been charged in the death of Annie Le,” the statement added.
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
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