■CAMBODIA
Overloaded ferry sinks
At least 17 people were missing and presumed drowned after an overloaded ferry sank in the Mekong River, officials said yesterday. The 14 women and three men were traveling to a local Buddhist temple to watch a performance in Kratie Province, about 200km from Phnom Penh, when their ferry sank in a tributary late on Saturday in strong currents.
■NEW ZEALAND
Greenpeace paints slogan
Seven Greenpeace members were arrested yesterday after painting a protest slogan on the side of an Indonesian ship unloading palm-kernel animal feed at New Plymouth. Greenpeace says indigenous rain forests in Indonesia are being cleared to plant palms, whose kernel is used as a food supplement for cows supplying milk to New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative, the world’s biggest dairy exporter. The activists painted the 3m high words: “Fonterra climate crime” on the Ikan Juana. Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner Simon Boxer said clearing rain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia to plant palm plantations is causing “massive carbon emissions.”
■CHINA
Hepatitis B tests stopped
The government will stop mandatory hepatitis B tests for employees joining new companies and students enrolling in schools, state media said yesterday after a court ruled the tests were illegal discrimination. Deng Haihua (鄧海華), deputy director of the health ministry’s general office, said the government would soon issue instructions to drop the required tests, Xinhua news agency reported. “A hepatitis B disease carrier does no harm to others’ health,” Deng was quoted as telling a news conference on Saturday.
■ITALY
Daughter defends Berlusconi
After a dreadful week for Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister’s eldest daughter has claimed a “manhunt” is under way to overthrow him and subvert democracy. Marina Berlusconi, 43, leaped to her father’s defense in the wake of the decision by the constitutional court to remove his immunity from prosecution while in office. “In dictatorships they send tanks into the piazzas,” she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. “In a democracy like ours that someone is aiming to besiege, you jab and you use subtle means that are officially legal and therefore even more insidious. The aim is the same, to overturn the verdict of the electorate.”
■RUSSIA
Moscow, Beijing to ink deals
Moscow and Beijing will sign a range of agreements when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits China this week, including one on missile launches, the government said yesterday. Other agreements in the works include business deals and a memorandum of understanding on the “organization and development of fast and high-speed train travel on Russian territory,” it said. Putin is due to visit China from today to Wednesday, during which he is scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao (溫家寶). On Wednesday he is to attend a heads of government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security group dominated by China and Russia that has been touted as a counterweight to Western-led institutions.
■ISRAEL
Military exercise canceled
The military says Ankara has canceled an annual air force drill in Turkey this week because of Israeli participation. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since the winter war in Gaza. Muslim Turkey was especially vocal in denouncing Tel Aviv conduct during the war. The military said in a statement that the drill was delayed “indefinitely” because of Turkey’s decision ... “not to allow the Israeli air force to take part.” The military said the exercise was to have also included US, Italian and NATO forces.
■GERMANY
Robots to rescue satellites
Robots that rescue failing satellites and push “dead” ones into outer space should be ready in four years, reports said. Experts described the development as a crucial step in preventing a disaster in the Earth’s crowded orbit. Last year it was reported that critical levels of debris circling the Earth were threatening astronauts’ lives and the future of the satellite communications industry. Senior figures at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) said they have been given the go-ahead to tackle a crisis that will come to a head in the next five to 10 years as more orbiting objects run out of fuel. Their robots will dock with failing satellites to carry out repairs or push them into “graveyard orbits,” freeing vital space in geostationary orbit. This is the narrow band 35,000km above the Earth in which orbiting objects appear fixed at the same point. More than 200 dead satellites litter this orbit. Within 10 years that number could increase fivefold, the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety has said. Klaus Landzettel, head of space robotics at DLR, said engineering advances, including the development of machines that can withstand temperatures ranging from 200°C to minus 170°C, meant that the German robots would be “ready to be used on any satellite.
■CUBA
Swine flu deaths reported
Havana has acknowledged its first deaths from swine flu, saying three pregnant women succumbed to the virus and many more have been treated for symptoms. Deputy Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said a total of 2,100 pregnant women were treated for symptoms of the disease, with 110 of them seriously ill, in comments reported by the official Communist Party newspaper, Granma, on Saturday. The report does not say how many women remain hospitalized, nor make clear whether all of the 2,100 cases were confirmed to be H1N1. The communist government has expressed deep reservations about global plans to use a vaccine, saying the program will be costly and could also be ineffective, since the virus could easily mutate.
■COLOMBIA
Guerilla escapes, flees
The global police agency Interpol said on Saturday it issued a top red notice in a bid to capture a leading Colombian guerilla thought to have fled to Venezuela this week after escaping from prison. Quinchia Gustavo Anibal Giraldo, known as “Pablito,” is a central figure of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerilla group. Arrested in Bogota in January last year, he is accused of homicides linked to “terrorist” activity, prosecutors said. Fellow rebels assisted his escape last week, which left one prison guard dead and another seriously wounded. A reward for his capture stands at around US$900,000.
■CANADA
Airlines discuss emissions
Members of the airline industry group International Air Transport Association (IATA) pledged on Saturday to improve fuel efficiency by 1.5 percent a year until 2020, and called on governments worldwide to provide incentives to speed biofuel development. Representatives from IATA, which represents the world’s largest airlines, also agreed to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2050 during a meeting on climate change in Montreal. IATA director Giovanni Bisignani said cooperation between states and airlines would be key to lowering emissions. He also called for “aviation access to global carbon markets to offset emissions until technology provides the ultimate solution.” The airline industry is responsible for up to 3 percent of emissions linked to climate change, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found.
■UNITED STATES
Man shoots fiancee dead
A man in the state of Florida shot and killed his bride-to-be on the eve of their wedding after he mistook her for an intruder, local media reported on Saturday. John Tabbut and his fiancee Nany Dinsmore, both aged 62, had been due to walk down the aisle on Saturday. On Friday night, Tabutt grabbed his gun and fired into the darkness when he heard a suspicious noise in their home. Tabbut has not been charged for what police said appeared to be no more than a tragic accident, the reports said.
■BOLIVIA
Morales defends jets
President Evo Morales denied on Saturday his country was engaged in a regional arms race, insisting the purchase of six Chinese light military aircraft would serve to fight drug trafficking. “The aircraft purchase is aimed at the fight against drug trafficking and not ... any arms race,” he said. Bolivia plans to buy the Chinese K-8 Karakorum jets at a cost of US$57.8 million after a similar order of Czech planes was blocked by the US.
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