■TURKEY
Quake death toll lowered
Officials on Wednesday lowered the death toll in this week’s magnitude 6 earthquake from 51 to 41. A statement issued by the governor’s office in the eastern province of Elazig said erroneous reporting was responsible for the earlier toll in Monday’s temblor. NTV and Haberturk television said there was duplicate counting in cases where the maiden surnames and married surnames of the same women were reported as belonging to different victims. The Anatolia news agency said one male victim was also counted twice because he had changed his name.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Berezovsky wins libel suit
Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky won a libel lawsuit in the UK against a TV station for an interview it aired linking him to the 2006 murder of a former spy. Berezovsky was awarded £150,000 (US$224,000) in damages in the judgment handed down on Wednesday at a London court against the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. The TV station broadcast a news story in April 2007 about the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, featuring an interview with a man in shadow who said Berezovsky was involved. The channel is available in the UK, where Berezovsky has been granted asylum. “There is no truth in any of the allegations,” Justice David Eady said in the judgment. “The allegation was calculated to put at risk Mr Berezovsky’s refugee status and leave to remain in the United Kingdom.”
■GERMANY
Crawford blackmailer jailed
A man who tried to blackmail supermodel Cindy Crawford with a photo of her bound and gagged seven-year-old daughter was sentenced to two years in jail on Tuesday. Edis Kayalar, 26, was found guilty after confessing that he tried to extort 100,000 euros (US$136,000) from Crawford and her husband, Rande Gerber, last year using the photo, the court in Kirchheim unter Tech said. The picture, which showed the child gagged and tied to a chair, was reportedly taken by a former nanny during a “cops and robbers” game. Kayalar lived illegally in the US from 2007 until last year, had an affair with the nanny and stole the photo from her, Judge Joachim Spieth said.
■DENMARK
Gay altar unions welcomed
Nearly two-thirds of the public support a call to allow gay and lesbian couples to be married by the church, a poll showed on Wednesday. The country was the first in the world to allow a civil union for homosexuals, in 1989, but its parliament is now split over a move by the center-left opposition to amend the law to allow religious weddings too. A poll published by the Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet on Wednesday, 63 percent of the population would be happy to see gay couples married at the altar.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Sub-par schools doubled
The number of schools in England classed as sub-standard doubled under a controversial new inspection regime introduced last year, watchdog OFSTED said on Wednesday. OFSTED said its new testing is more focused, but teaching unions have accused it of causing more confusion in schools. Of 2,140 schools inspected under the new system between September and December, 10 percent were classed as inadequate, up from 4 percent the year before. Forty-nine percent were judged to be good or outstanding and 40 percent satisfactory.
■ UNITED STATES
Police explain sculptures
The New York Police Department wants the public to know that the figures soon to be gazing down from buildings near a midtown park are an artist’s body casts — not residents in distress. Police spokesman Paul Browne said on Tuesday that the department was worried the upcoming outdoor exhibition might spark emergency calls reporting possible jumpers, so it wanted to alert the public. The Madison Square Park Conservancy Web site said the work by Antony Gormley consists of 31 life-size figures of the artist cast in iron and glass fiber. They’re being installed on pathways, sidewalks and rooftops for an exhibit beginning on March 26.
■UNITED STATES
Corey Haim dies at 38
The Lost Boys actor Corey Haim has died aged 38, the Los Angeles coroner’s office said. Coroner’s Lieutenant Cheryl MacWillie said on Wednesday that Haim died on Wednesday morning at Providence St Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. She said an autopsy would determine the cause of death, and there were no other details. Canadian-born Haim became a teen heartthrob with the 1986 film Lucas and 1987’s The Lost Boys. His first role was in the 1984 hit Firstborn, in which he played a young child caught up in a family war. He then appeared in the 1985 television movie A Time to Live. In recent years, he appeared in the A&E reality TV show The Two Coreys with his friend Corey Feldman. It was canceled in 2008 after two seasons.
■UNITED STATES
Police seek guerrilla knitter
Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town. An unknown person dubbed The Midnight Knitter by West Cape May residents is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness. Mayor Pam Kaithern said police were looking into the guerrilla needlework, which is technically against the law because it is being done on public property without permission. The mayor and many residents admit they’re enthralled by the rainbow of colors that has popped up.
■UNITED STATES
Letters call Obama ‘idiot’
President Barack Obama joked on Wednesday that half of the 40,000 letters that pour into the White House each day brand him an “idiot.” Tongue-in-cheek, the president remarked that his staff did not spare him the wrath of his correspondents — selecting a representative portion of 10 letters for him to read when he returns to the White House residence at night.
■UNITED STATES
Huge numbers have herpes
About 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes, making it one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, health officials said on Tuesday. Black women had the highest rate of infection at 48 percent and women were nearly twice likely as men to be infected, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed. About 21 percent of women were infected with genital herpes, compared with only 11.5 percent of men, while 39 percent of blacks were infected compared with about 12 percent for whites, the CDC said. There is no cure for genital herpes, or herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), which can cause recurrent and painful genital sores and also increases the likelihood of acquiring and transmitting the AIDS virus. It is related to herpes simplex virus 1, or oral herpes, which causes cold sores.
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
‘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