■UAE
Student faces big traffic fine
A Saudi student has racked up 400 traffic violations since 2008 in Dubai generating 356,000 dirhams (US$97,000) in fines, local media reported on Monday. The student had eluded police for the past two years but they finally caught up with him and have made him cough up 256,000 dirhams for “normal” traffic violations, the Khaleej Times reported. Additionally, he also must pay 100,000 dirhams to recover his car which was impounded by police, the Gulf News said.
■UNITED STATES
Docs find drug stinks
The commonly used diabetes drug metformin stinks, literally, and this may explain why many patients stop taking it, doctors reported on Monday. The drug smells like fish or dirty socks to some people and this could account for the well-known side effects of the drug, which can make people nauseated, they said. But the problem could be solved by coating the pills so they do not smell or release the odor into the stomach, where it can be burped up, they wrote in a letter to the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Patients may report that metformin nauseates them but do not further elaborate or distinguish this as a visceral reaction to the smell of the medication. Although reaction to the odor of metformin has not been reported in the medical literature, hundreds of postings to message boards on the Internet note the peculiar odor of the drug,” Dr Allen Pelletier of the Medical College of Georgia and colleagues wrote in a letter to the journal.
■INDIA
‘Suspicious’ Brits detained
Two British nationals have been detained for questioning in New Delhi for alleged suspicious behavior near the international airport, police said yesterday. Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the men were being interrogated at the Radisson hotel near the airport for “suspicious activity,” but would not comment on reports they had equipment to track aircraft. The Hindustan Times identified the men as Stephen Hampston, in his mid-40s, and 56-year-old Steven Martin, and said they were detained on Monday night at the hotel after staff informed intelligence agencies. The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said police found sophisticated equipment on the men which could be capable of tracing aircraft. “The equipment, which is believed to have the capacity to track an aircraft which is around 100km away, is being examined by experts,” PTI quoted an unnamed senior police official as saying. The news agency reported the men told officials the equipment was for plane spotting.
■FRANCE
Troops guinea pigs: report
The government deliberately exposed soldiers to nuclear blasts in the 1960s to study the effect of radiation, a newspaper reported yesterday. The French government promised last year to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria, carried out between 1960 and 1966, recognizing a link between the blasts and veterans’ illnesses. While the government has said the tests were conducted as safely as possible, newspaper Le Parisien quoted an official defense report from the period as saying that the army deliberately sent soldiers on risky maneuvers. One of the aims was “to study the physical and psychological effect of atomic weapons on humans, in order to obtain necessary elements for the physical preparation and training of morale of the modern combatant,” Le Parisien quoted the report as saying. Defense Minister Herve Morin told the paper he had no knowledge of the report.
■LIBYA
Schengen ‘citizens’ banned
Muammar Qaddafi on Monday banned citizens of the 25 countries in Europe that share the visa-free Schengen system from visiting his country in a sudden escalation of a dispute with Switzerland that has been running for almost two years. Government officials summoned EU ambassadors in Tripoli on Monday to inform them of the move and the European Commission announced that European travelers arriving in Tripoli with valid visas were being refused entry. EU officials were seeking to clarify the exact details of the ban, including whether diplomats would be expelled and whether businesspeople and other Europeans resident in Libya would have their visas withdrawn and need to leave.
■UNITED STATES
Ohio man builds igloo
Jimmy Grey says he’s been out of work for almost a year and needed a project to stay busy. So with the heavy snowfall this winter, the 25-year-old got to work on an igloo in his family’s yard in Aquilla, 50km east of Cleveland, Ohio. His four-room creation has nearly 2m ceilings and an entertainment room. He powers the TV with an extension cord plugged into an outlet in the garage. He also ran wires for cable television with surround-sound stereo. Grey told the Plain Dealer newspaper that candles help add ambiance for get-togethers with friends, and the freezing temperatures mean that the beer never goes warm.
■UNITED STATES
Better-fitting condoms urged
Condoms that do not fit right could break and may reduce sexual pleasure for both partners, suggesting reasons why men and women often fail to use them, researchers reported on Monday. The study has implications for countries trying to encourage people to use condoms to reduce the risk of AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy, the researchers reported in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. “Men and their female sex partners may benefit from public health efforts designed to promote the improved fit of condoms,” wrote Richard Crosby of the University of Kentucky and Bill Yarber of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in Indiana. They surveyed 436 men aged 18 to 67 for their study. Nearly half — 45 percent — said they had used a badly fitting condom during the previous three months.
■CZECH REPUBLIC
Surgeons left tool in woman
It took five long months for a 66-year-old woman to discover the reason for her pain: Doctors had left a 30cm-long medical tool inside her abdomen. This month, doctors in Ivancice discovered their colleagues had forgotten to remove a spatula-like instrument from the woman following gynecological surgery in September. Top regional official Michal Hasek apologized and said the region would compensate her. Clinic head Jaromir Hrubes blamed “a series of individual failures” and said four employees had been punished.
■ESTONIA
Man uses movie to propose
A man surprised his girlfriend and a Tallinn movie audience on Sunday by proposing in a short film shown just before the screening the main movie. In the video, Maido Ruutel holds a rose and speaks about his feelings for his sweetheart before asking her, “Will you marry me?” At that moment, Ruutel stood up in the audience and then fell to one knee, holding out a ring and popping the question in person. The woman — who said “yes” — burst into tears as the audience applauded.
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