■CAMBODIA
Tribunal enters final stage
The Khmer Rouge war crimes court yesterday began final arguments in its first trial, bringing the regime’s prison chief closer to justice for the “Killing Fields” atrocities 30 years ago. Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch — has apologized for his role in the horrors of the hardline communist regime, which killed up to 2 million people. Lawyers for the victims argued yesterday that Duch had failed to acknowledge the full extent of his guilt. “Your honors must objectively, we say, review the evidence to determine whether or not what has been accepted by the accused amounts to full disclosure and the full truth,” lawyer Karim Khan told judges. “In large and important material particulars, even today, the accused has sought to evade or minimize his role and the awful reality that was S-21 [prison] and the regime that operated there and the fate and suffering that befell so many civil parties that we all represent.”
■NORTH KOREA
China reaffirms relations
The defense chiefs of North Korea and China reaffirmed pledges to strengthen their nations’ 60-year-old alliance, state media reported yesterday, amid renewed attempts to draw the country back to disarmament talks. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday, broadcaster APTN reported. He is the latest high-level Chinese official to visit as the two nations mark the 60th anniversary of their relationship. China, which backed the North during the 1950 to 1953 Korean War, is the country’s main source of economic aid and diplomatic support. Liang said China will aim to further consolidate bilateral ties.
■JAPAN
Military mulls F-35 jets
The defense ministry is moving toward selecting Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 jet as the mainstay of its next-generation fighter force, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday, citing ministry sources. The ministry, which is thinking of buying about 40 F-35s, plans to submit a request for their purchase in the fiscal 2011-2012 budget, Kyodo said. It said, however, that the ministry may postpone making the request for one year because of a view in the government that the purchase should only be made when details of the plane’s capabilities are available.
■VIETNAM
Train crashes into bus
At least nine people were killed and twenty were seriously injured after a train and a bus collided on the outskirts of Hanoi, police said yesterday. Hanoi traffic police said the collision occurred on Sunday at an intersection in Hanoi’s Thuong Tin district. The crossing signal at the intersection was broken. The train threw the bus to one side, where it hit and killed a motorcyclist. Six passengers on the bus were killed immediately, and two more died later in hospital. A doctor at Hanoi’s Vietnam-German Hospital, who declined to be identified, said some of the injured passengers remained in critical condition.
■CAMBODIA
Tourist charged over kids
A Frenchman has been arrested for allegedly soliciting sex with a child prostitute, police said yesterday. Police said they found Olivier Madrieres, 48, at a guesthouse on Saturday in Phnom Penh. “He was arrested while he was having sex with a prostitute,” said Keo Thea, chief of the municipal anti-trafficking and juvenile police unit. Madrieres, who arrived last month as a tourist, was being held on charges of soliciting sex from the 15-year-old girl and faces up to five years in jail if convicted, Keo Thea said.
■GERMANY
Advice on teen binging
A blanket ban on alcohol for teens is counterproductive since it only increases the urge to drink, the German
Professional Association for Children and Youth Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (BJKPP) said. Once children reach age 14 they should be allowed to have the occasional sip of alcohol, the group said. But it’s important for parents to set clear rules with their children and to set consequences for any violations. If a child comes home drunk, it’s best to save speeches about the violation for the next day, BJKPP chairman Maik Herberhold said. It should be made clear that that kind of alcohol consumption is frowned upon and that there needs to be rules for the next party.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson’s M.D. back to work
Michael Jackson’s former personal physician was to return to work yesterday at his Houston, texas, clinic for the first time since before the pop singer’s death, his lawyer said. Dr Conrad Murray was set to resume office hours at his Armstrong Medical Clinic, attorney Edward Chernoff said. “He has not been able to earn a living since the death of Michael Jackson,” Chernoff said on Sunday of his client, a 56-year-old cardiologist licensed in Nevada, California and Texas. “His legal fees are enormous and his debts have mounted to the point where it is unclear whether he will be able to keep his house or support his family,” Chernoff said in Houston.
■UNITED STATES
Radiation scare insignificant
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the small amount of radiation detected at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is not significant. Specialist John White has told ABC News on Sunday that there is no indication that radiation at the plant exceeded or even approached regulatory limits. The commission sent investigators to the central Pennsylvania plant after a small amount of radiation was detected. About 150 employees were sent home on Saturday afternoon, but officials say there is no public health risk. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says the radiation was quickly contained.
■UNITED STATES
‘Hero sex’ helps couple
Pilot Chesley Sullenberger jokes that his heroic handling of a disabled jetliner brought him “rock star sex” in an interview for NBC’s People of the Year TV special. Sullenberger, who safely ditched a US Airways plane in New York’s Hudson River after geese hit the engines, is among those interviewed by Matt Lauer for the Thanksgiving Day special. Lauer asked Sullenberger and his wife, Laurie, whether his sudden celebrity helped or hurt their relationship. “He doesn’t know I’m gonna say this, but I had joked the other day that ... the hero sex really helps a 20-year-old marriage,” Laurie Sullenberger said.
■IRELAND
Flooding nixes strike plans
Trade unions said a public sector strike planned for today would be canceled in areas worst hit by last week’s flooding. About 150 troops were deployed on Sunday to deal with flood waters which left large parts of the south and west submerged and thousands of people in the city of Cork without drinking water. Unions opposing the government’s plans for pay cuts in the third austerity budget in little over a year next month said the industrial action would be called off in places where emergency or local authority staff were needed to combat the floods.
‘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