■CHINA
Foreigners face execution
Four foreigners may face execution over a big seizure of heroin, a Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday. The four were among nine people arrested over 144.5kg of heroin found by police in Shenzhen in August, the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported. “Under Chinese law, they may face the most extreme penalty,” said the report, which cited Shenzhen officials. It did not specify the nationality of the four foreign suspects, who were arrested in September after detectives uncovered and then tracked the shipment of drugs from Pakistan.
■CHINA
Man arrested for murder
A man has been charged with killing six people and injuring nine others with a knife used to slaughter pigs in the latest in a recent spate of mass murders, state media said yesterday. Huang Yangfang, 46, was arrested following Wednesday’s killings in the village of Changshan, Guangdong Province, the Guangzhou Daily reported. A family dispute allegedly drove Huang to strike at fellow villagers after a heavy bout of drinking. Huang also used a hoe as he pummeled his victims, the report said. Two were killed at the scene, while four died in hospital.
■CHINA
Smoker halts fastest train
China has unveiled what it says is the fastest rail link in the world, but the train came to a screeching halt this week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded — thanks to a law-breaking smoker. The cigarette smoke triggered a fire alarm on Tuesday on the train connecting Guangzhou to the central city of Wuhan — a journey now made at an average speed of 350kph. The train, which was still in the station when the incident occurred, was able to leave Guangzhou two-and-a-half hours later, Xinhua news agency reported late on Wednesday. The smoker fled the scene before the alarm sounded.
■CHINA
Teacher arrested for rape
Police have arrested a teacher for the alleged rape of 11 girls aged between nine and 14 at their school, police and state media said yesterday. Liu Xianhong, in his 50s, has been charged with raping the girls at the Jinwutang Township central elementary school in Hunan Province, the Beijing News reported. The girls had been placed in the boarding school by their migrant worker parents, the report said. The incident came to light after one of the children became ill and revealed the abuse to a classmate. The classmate’s parents told the girl’s father, who returned to the village and demanded an inquiry, it said. The school tried to cover up the crime by paying 200 yuan (US$26) to each of the children to remain silent.
■LITHUANIA
Shutdown to prove costly
The country braced for the EU-ordered shutdown of a key nuclear plant yesterday, a move set to push up electricity prices. At 11pm, the last reactor was due to go offline at a plant near the town of Visaginas, which provided 70 percent of the country’s electricity. It is similar to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986. Lithuania agreed to shut the plant by this year in order to win admission to the EU. Vilnius subsequently tried and failed to convince Brussels to allow it to keep the plant running until a replacement was ready. The country is now facing a surge in power prices from today: 30 percent for households and 20 percent for companies.
■SENEGAL
Comments spark protest
Police broke up a protest outside Dakar’s cathedral on Wednesday after Catholics accused the country’s president of making disparaging comments about Jesus. The dispute between President Abdoulaye Wade and predominantly Muslim Senegal’s small but influential Catholic community is the latest twist in a growing controversy over Wade’s plan for a huge monument overlooking Dakar that depicts the “African renaissance.” Imams this month attacked the statue of a giant family group as un-Islamic for presenting the human form as an object of worship — a criticism Wade sought to deflect this week by arguing that Christians prayed to a “man called Jesus Christ.” “We were shaken and humiliated by the comparison which the head of state made between the monument to African renaissance and the representations found in our churches,” Theodore Adrien Sarr told a congregation in the cathedral. “It is scandalous and unacceptable that the divinity of Jesus is jeered and questioned by the highest authority of state,” he said.
■JORDAN
‘Honor’ killer gets 10 years
A court sentenced a 61-year-old man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after convicting him of killing his teenage daughter last year to “defend his honor,” a judicial official said. “In 2008, the 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a group of men, who are currently on trial,” the official said. “But the father suspected that his daughter was involved in a sexual relationship with one of the men. He shot her dead before handing himself in to police, claiming he wanted to defend his honor.” The court initially jailed the father for 15 years, “but decided to reduce the sentence after the man’s family urged leniency,” he said. In a separate case, a court commuted the death sentence of a man to 10 years in jail for strangling his married sister to death in 2007 “because he suspected the girl was involved in prostitution,” an official said.
■SWITZERLAND
Missing tourist found dead
Police say an autopsy on the body of a British tourist shows he was under “strong influence of alcohol” when he fell to his death last week. The disappearance of 23-year-old Myles Robinson shortly before Christmas sparked a media frenzy in Britain that included speculation he might have been abducted. His body was found on Monday at the bottom of a cliff. Police said on Wednesday the body showed a blood-alcohol level equivalent to eight small bottles of beer.
■AUSTRIA
Man confesses to killing
A man confessed on Wednesday to killing the Philippine housekeeper of the Lebanese ambassador’s residence in Vienna who was found dead in the building’s cellar, police said. The man, a friend of the victim, was arrested and admitted killing the woman.
■ARGENTINA
Ex-archbishop sentenced
The former archbishop of Santa Fe Province has been sentenced to eight years in prison for “aggravated sexual abuse” against a seminarian, a court source said on Wednesday. Judge Maria Mascheroni said Edgardo Storni, now 73, took advantage of his access to and authority over the young man when the crime was committed in 1992, while he was archbishop. The victim in the case expressed “relief” that the former top Catholic official in the region finally would have to pay for his crime. “I thought that this sentencing would never come,” said Ruben Descalzo, who said Storni’s conviction and punishment would help him “turn the page” from what has been a “painful” chapter of his life. Storni will serve his sentence under house arrest because he is more than 70 years old.
■UNITED STATES
Cop off the hook for kick
Los Angeles County prosecutors will not file charges against a police officer who kicked a surrendering suspect in the head after a car chase. Deputy District Attorney Jason Lustig wrote in a decision on Tuesday that evidence indicated the kick by officer George Fierro was likely an attempt to stun or distract gang member Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez was lying face-down on the ground during the May 13 incident, which was broadcast by a TV news helicopter. After four officers converged on Rodriguez, two of them did a “high five.” Rodriguez’s attorney, Nick Pacheco, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that Fierro should have held his gun on Rodriguez and waited for backup. “Instead he kicked him in the head,” he said.
■UNITED STATES
Drunk driver stuns attorney
South Dakota authorities say a woman found passed out in a stolen van earlier this month registered a blood alcohol content of 0.708 — nearly nine times the legal limit and a possible record for the state. Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal said on Wednesday that 45-year-old Marguerite Engle was found slumped over the van’s steering wheel along a highway on Dec. 1. He said the highest blood alcohol content state chemists he spoke with could recall was 0.56. The state’s legal limit is 0.08. Authorities said Engle missed an initial court hearing on Dec. 15, but that they found her on Monday in another stolen vehicle, and that she had been drinking.
■UNITED STATES
Jail serves cold food only
Taking a bite out of crime has never been so bland at a southeast Michigan jail. Failing freezers have forced Macomb County Jail inmates to forgo warm meals in favor of an endless stream of bologna and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sheriff’s officials said on Wednesday that mold was spotted last month in the jail’s 50-year-old freezers. The Detroit Free Press said county officials told commissioners as early as 2005 that the freezers needed to be replaced. Officials plan next month to ask for emergency funds to buy new refrigerators.
■UNITED STATES
Assistant principal arrested
Prosecutors have accused an assistant principal at a Texas high school of soliciting sex from students using text messages. James Camden McKinney was arrested last month on a charge of online solicitation of a minor involving a 15-year-old student. His attorney said the Porter High School assistant principal turned himself in on Tuesday after learning he was wanted on similar charges involving four students.
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