■HONG KONG
Gem sells for US$10.8m
A ring with a chickpea-sized pink diamond has fetched a record price of US$10.8 million at auction, Christie’s said yesterday. The auction house said the five-carat jewel, dubbed Vivid Pink, set a per-carat world record for a diamond at the Tuesday evening sale, beating a Hong Kong property tycoon’s US$10.5 million winning bid for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva earlier this year. An unidentified Asian buyer made the record-smashing bid on Vivid Pink, the highest-priced lot at Christie’s sale this week.
PHOTO : REUTERS
Vivid Pink’s pre-sale estimate was between US$5 million and US$7 million dollars. “This definitely went above its high estimate, but that is what the market thought it was worth,” a Christie’s spokeswoman said. “We think this will probably hold for quite some time — it’s a very strong price.” Asian jewelry buyers have become “an extremely important group” for the auction house, she said. “They are very active, very sophisticated and they’re buying at the very high end.”
■SOUTH KOREA
N Korean repatriated
The US-led UN Command has repatriated a North Korean soldier rescued at sea by South Korea’s navy. The command said the army sergeant was handed over to the North at the border village of Panmunjom yesterday. It said the soldier affirmed his desire to return to the North during interviews with the command and the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.
■UKRAINE
Museum claims a Titian
The director of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa claims that a portrait of a Venetian Doge in its collection is a work of Titian. Vladimir Ostrovsky said chemical samples and X-rays analysis of the portrait by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg are proof of Titian’s authorship. Sergei Androsov of the State Hermitage’s department of western European art said he couldn’t confirm the claim before the painting is analyzed by art historians.
■GERMANY
Sunday shopping ban upheld
Shops in Berlin will not be allowed to open on the four Sundays in the run-up to Christmas, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday, upholding a complaint by churches. Stores are generally not allowed to open for business on Sundays but many federal states have made exceptions, allowing stores to open on a few Sundays per year. Berlin had allowed shops to open on up to 10 Sundays per year, including the four Sundays during the Advent season ahead of the Christmas holiday, more than any of the other state. Catholic and Protestant churches had complained that opening stores on Sundays made it harder for people, especially those working in the retail industry, to attend church.
■PAKISTAN
Retired major questioned
The army has confirmed security agencies are questioning a retired major in connection with a US terror investigation. Major General Athar Abbas did not say when the arrest was made or reveal the identity of the man. However, he did confirm yesterday that the major is being questioned over alleged links with two men arrested in Chicago in October. Intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, first revealed the arrest last week. The Chicago men are accused of plotting an armed attack on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten after it published cartoons in 2005 depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
■UNITED KINGDOM
More bankers seek affairs
Bankers and other beleaguered financial workers have been looking for solace in adultery, a Web site for people seeking affairs says. IllicitEncounters.com said it has seen a huge increase in the number of financial workers signing up to have affairs after the collapse of the markets in October last year, and that “finance” continued to be one of the most represented professional areas on the site. The Web site said it has more than 380,000 members across Britain, of which more than 20,000 work in “financial services.” It also said it surveyed more than 600 men and women bankers to compile a top 10 list of reasons why they embarked on extra-marital affairs. Public revulsion for bankers combined with a lack of affection in private was the top reason for having an affair, followed closely by the excitement of doing something risky, escaping boredom, feeding the ego and one-upping the boys with a trophy mistress.
■POLAND
Police protest pay delays
At least 4,000 police officers protested on Tuesday over delays in the payment of benefits that have built up as the government struggles with a sharp economic downturn. Uniformed policemen and women waved trade union banners and blew whistles outside Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s office in Warsaw. “We are owed about 200 million zlotys [US$73 million] by law. We have not been paid and we have come here because talks have reached an impasse,” organizer Roman Wierzbicki said.
■UNITED STATES
Artifacts sent home
The FBI on Tuesday returned 150 smuggled pre-Columbian artifacts, some more than 3,000 years old, to the governments of Peru and Ecuador, the agency said. The 153 pieces of jewelry as well as pottery, baskets, sculptures and figurines were found last April in the home of a man after he died in his retirement community in Avon Park, Florida, the bureau’s Miami field office said. Experts indicated that the artifacts, presented in a Miami ceremony to representatives of the Peru and Ecuador governments, were between 500 and 3,200 years old, the FBI said. The FBI teamed up with specialists from Florida International University, who determined that 141 of the pieces originated in what is present-day Peru, and the other 12 came from neighboring Ecuador. “These artifacts represent the cultural heritage of Peru and Ecuador,” said the FBI’s chief agent in Miami, John Gillies. “We are honored to return these items to their rightful owners,” Gillies said.
■BRAZIL
Governor in video scandal
Video showing a key opposition party governor apparently taking a kickback has cast a fresh spotlight on persistent political corruption and could hurt the opposition in next year’s presidential race. Jose Roberto Arruda, the governor of the federal district of the capital Brasilia, is pictured in video footage that surfaced last Friday, apparently accepting large amounts of money during his election campaign in 2006. Federal police said they suspect that Arruda, a member of the right-wing Democratas Party (DEM), received undeclared cash from companies that wanted contracts from his administration and distributed the money to political allies. Other DEM politicians also are seen in the footage pocketing wads of cash.
■UNITED STATES
DC couple rebut allegations
The Washington area couple alleged to have crashed a White House gala dinner spoke out for the first time on Tuesday, insisting that they were invited to the event. “We were invited, not crashers,” said Michaele Salahi, speaking to NBC’s Today Show program. “There isn’t anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that ... certainly not us,” she said. She and her husband Tareq managed to skirt a tight White House security cordon to attend last week’s state dinner in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The staunch denial by the couple, who are reported to be aspiring reality television stars, came as the US Secret Service was conducting a comprehensive investigation into how they were able to breach several layers of security to get into the White House event.
■UNITED STATES
Monroe film surfaces
A home movie showing a relaxed Marilyn Monroe apparently smoking marijuana has surfaced, retrieved from an attic some 50 years after it was filmed. The reel-to-reel silent, color film taken at a private home in New Jersey was recently purchased by collector Keya Morgan for US$275,000 from the person who took the film, who has asked to remain anonymous. The copyright of the image will be put up for sale on eBay later this week, Morgan said. At one point Monroe is passed a cigarette and takes a puff, but does not appear to inhale deeply. The person who made the film confirmed that the cigarette contained marijuana, saying: “I got it. It was mine. It was just passed around.” “It was not a party. It was just a get-together. You know, come over and hang out,” the person said.
‘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