■NEPAL
UN extends peace mission
The UN has agreed to extend its mission to monitor the peace process that ended the Himalayan nation’s 10-year communist rebellion, officials said yesterday. The UN’s chief official in the nation, Karen Landgren, told reporters yesterday the mission has been extended until May 15. That is the same month that the interim Constituent Assembly has set for wrapping up the peace process, with the completion of a new constitution and a decision on the thousands of former communist rebel fighters still in camps under UN monitoring. The former communist rebels, widely known as Maoists, gave up their armed revolt in April 2006 to join the peace process and confined their fighters in the camps.
■PHILIPPINES
Army accepts ‘short’ troops
The military said yesterday it would now accept “small” soldiers, breaking a long-standing tradition. Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales ordered the armed forces to start accepting at boot camps male and female applicants who are as short as 1.52m, an army statement said. “Aspiring soldiers who are not so lucky with their height will now have a greater chance of serving the country through the armed forces,” the statement said. The new ruling would “accommodate small but equally competent applicants,” the statement said. But applicants must still satisfy other requirements: they must be single, have had some university education and be aged below 22.
■INDIA
Dense fog grounds planes
Dense fog disrupted road, rail and air travel across the north yesterday, with dozens of flights from the capital canceled or delayed, officials said. “We have 22 domestic and international flight cancelations and 33 cases of rescheduling of flights. There were some diversions as well,” a New Delhi airport authority spokesman said. The main weather office for the north predicted little respite in the next couple of days, adding that fog this winter season had been the most dense since 2003. Railway schedules were also in disarray with many trains canceled and 25 long-distance trains running late yesterday, a spokesman for northern railways said. Dense fog has been blamed for a series of train accidents since the beginning of the month that have claimed at least 13 lives.
■NORTH KOREA
‘Hero’ sailors honored
Pyongyang celebrated a group of sailors as national heroes for sacrificing their lives to protect portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his late father even as their ship went down off the Chinese coast last year, state-run media reported yesterday. The captain and chief engineer of the cargo ship were named labor heroes and posthumously conferred gold medals and the Order of the National Flag First Class, the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from the capital, Pyongyang.
■MYANMAR
Fighter jet crashes
A Chinese-made fighter jet crashed and caught fire during a training flight in the army-ruled country yesterday, killing the pilot, witnesses said. The crash was one of at least 10 fatal accidents involving military aircraft since 1999. The single-seat F-7 supersonic jet crashed at the Mingaladon Airbase in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, after the landing gear failed and the pilot was unable to eject, an official at the nearby international airport said.
■EUROPEAN UNION
Watchdog warns on drug
The EU’s medicines watchdog has recommended a weight-loss drug be taken off the market over fears it could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) on Thursday recommended sibutramine be taken off the market after a six-year investigation involving nearly 10,000 patients. An agency committee concluded the risks of the drug outweighed the benefits and “recommended the suspension of marketing authorizations for these medicines across the European Union,” the EMEA said in a statement. Sibutramine is contained in medicines including Reductil, Reduxade and Zelium, which are aimed at helping weight loss in overweight patients with other conditions, such as diabetes.
■GREECE
Bouncer gets jail term
A court sentenced a former bouncer to 22-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday for beating a 20-year-old Australian tourist to death in 2008 on the Aegean island of Mykonos, court officials said. Doujon Zammit from Sydney was beaten up with a metal bar outside a club in the popular resort, where he was spending a summer holiday. Police had arrested four nightclub employees. Marios Antonopoulos was initially accused of murder, but judges on Thursday reduced the charges. Two of the other men arrested were sentenced to eight-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half years in prison each for complicity in the violence. “We believe in justice, we believe in law and we accept the sentences that were passed out,” a tearful Oliver Zammit, Doujon’s father, told reporters.
■FRANCE
I’m ‘falling’: Polanski’s wife
Film director Roman Polanski’s wife said she “understands perfectly” that women were shocked by the 32-year-old sex case revived by her husband’s arrest in Switzerland for possible extradition to the US, but she said that in the 1970s, when the crime occurred, society viewed sex and drugs in a different light. Actress Emmanuelle Seigner says her husband — who pleaded guilty to sex with a US minor, then fled to France — is a “marvelous” man. She described to Elle magazine her feelings after the 76-year-old Polanski was jailed in Switzerland for more than 60 days. He was transferred on Dec. 4 to house arrest in the Swiss resort of Gstaad. Seigner said she feels she’s “falling into a well ... and this long fall won’t stop.”
■BELGIUM
Creator of ‘Alix’ dies at 88
French cartoonist Jacques Martin, creator of the popular comic book hero Alix and a collaborator on the Tintin books, died aged 88 on Thursday, publisher Casterman announced. Martin, who studied in Belgium, collaborated with Tintin creator Herge for 19 years on numerous cartoon books. Enjoying success in his own right after his creation, Alix, sprang from the pages of the Tintin magazines to become its own brand, Strasbourg-born Martin plundered Imperial Rome, Egypt and the Napoleonic era for the backdrops to his stories. Because of failing eyesight, Martin had long left the drawing to others.
■RUSSIA
Cargo ship stuck in ice
An official said a cargo ship with a 30-strong crew had iced over and was stranded in the Sea of Okhotsk. An emergency spokesman on Russia’s Sakhalin Island said the captain of the Smolninsky refrigerated cargo vessel sent a distress signal early yesterday. Spokesman Alexander Ivelsky said poor weather had prevented the air rescue of the all-Russian crew.
■UNITED STATES
Prayer boxes spark alert
A teenage airplane passenger using a Jewish prayer object caused a misunderstanding that led the captain to divert a Kentucky-bound plane to Philadelphia and prompted a visit from a bomb squad. A 17-year-old boy on US Airways Express Flight 3079 from New York to Louisville was using tefillin, a set of small black boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, Philadelphia police Lieutenant Frank Vanore said. One box is strapped to the arm while the other box is placed on the head during prayers. The teen explained the ritual after being questioned by crew members, police said. Airline officials, however, said crew members “did not receive a clear response” when they talked with the teen. “Therefore, in the interest of everyone’s safety, the crew decided to land in Philadelphia, where a more complete investigation and follow-up with authorities would be possible.” The plane was met by police, bomb-sniffing dogs and officials from the FBI and Transportation Security Administration.
■UNITED STATES
Mom accused of killing pets
A woman in New York state pleaded not guilty on Thursday to abusing family pets in front of her children at their home, where authorities said 42 dead animals were found buried in the yard. Attorney James Saladino told the judge on Thursday he was considering an insanity defense for Sharon McDonough, who is being held on US$100,000 bail. She could be sentenced to up to two years in prison if convicted of the top charge, aggravated animal cruelty. She also faces child endangerment and other charges. Her 21-year-old son, Douglas McDonough contacted authorities in November, describing the home as “a concentration camp for the animals” and claiming he and some of his younger siblings were present when animals were abused and killed. A judge removed McDonough’s six daughters, ranging in age from 18 months to 13 years, from the home.
■UNITED STATES
Couple’s sentencing delayed
Sentencing has been delayed until March for a Los Angeles filmmaking couple convicted of bribing Thai officials to run a film festival. US District Judge George Wu on Thursday pushed back the hearing until March 4. Gerald and Patricia Green were convicted in September of conspiracy and money laundering. Prosecutors say 78-year-old Gerald Green could face more than 30 years in prison, while his 55-year-old wife could receive 19 to 24 years. Authorities say the pair paid the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Juthamas Siriwan, about US$1.8 million to help secure the Bangkok International Film Festival and tourism-related deals.
■UNITED STATES
Exotic birds rescued
Dozens of exotic birds are being nursed to health after Colorado animal control officers found them malnourished in a condemned house without heat or water. The Pueblo Chieftain reported that authorities went to the house in Pueblo on Tuesday after getting a tip from neighbors. There they found 45 macaw parrots, about 150 pigeons and some dogs and cats, the newspaper said. By the time officials went back the next day, two of the macaws had died. Authorities say the elderly owner was feeding them dog food to try to keep them alive. The 43 surviving macaws were seized on Wednesday and taken to a veterinarian. The pigeons, cats and dogs remain on the man’s property, with officials bringing them food and water.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in