■INDIA
Gunfight at space center
A gunbattle broke out between two armed men and security forces outside a high security space center early yesterday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said. The gunbattle occurred in Byalalu, on the outskirts of Bangalore. The Home Ministry sees ISRO buildings as a high-priority target for militants, and has beefed up security around them after warnings of possible attacks. “Two people were seen moving in a suspicious manner outside our center,” ISRO spokesman S. Satish said. “The police immediately challenged them and they opened fire in retaliation. The shootout continued for some time before the two men fled.”
■AUSTRALIA
Obama always welcome
The country said yesterday it would “roll out the welcome mat” for US President Barack Obama at any time, after the US president delayed and trimmed down his state visit to just over 24 hours. Obama has pushed back the trip, during which he will address the joint houses of parliament and meet Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as he attempts to shepherd his healthcare reforms through Congress. Obama, who has also shelved plans to bring along his wife, Michelle, and two daughters for the trip to Indonesia and Australia, will arrive in Canberra late on March 25 and fly out again the following night. “We welcome very much his arrival,” Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Sky News. “As the prime minister has said, any time President Obama wants to visit Australia, we’re very pleased to roll out the welcome mat.”
■CAMBODIA
Mating causes accidents
Authorities in the capital have rounded up 15 bulls and cows after their mating habits caused traffic accidents along a busy road, a local councilor said on Monday. Officials began herding the animals last week, seizing two bulls and 13 cows, said Khin Sim, a deputy chief in Phnom Penh’s Pong Toek commune. He said that a number of traffic accidents occurred every mating season when “bulls wildly pursue their mates across the road.” “It is the breeding season and the animals were wandering around a public park near the Phnom Penh International Airport, where the road is so busy,” Khin Sim said. “It affects the traffic and caused animal anarchy in the eyes of international guests passing through the airport.” Khin Sim said a motorist had been knocked unconscious last week when one of the roaming animals ran into him. Villagers have been warned the animals would be seized if they are not kept under control, he said.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Baboons stealing grapes
Baboons with a taste for Chardonnay grapes are terrorizing farmers in the Western Cape wine region, munching tonnes of grapes ready for harvesting, a local newspaper reported on Monday. Farms in the Franschhoek Valley had been emptied by rampaging Chachma baboons. “They can easily wipe out up to 2 tonnes of grapes a week when you are not watching, and that makes about 1,500 to 2,000 bottles of wine,” said Mark Dendy-Young, farm manager of La Petite Ferme. He said he had lost up to 40 percent of his harvest last month.
■FRANCE
Oscar winner skewered
Oscar winner Marion Cotillard gasped in pain after Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand accidentally stuck a pin into her chest as he decorated her with the Order of Arts and Letters on Monday. Cotillard, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as the singer Edith Piaf in La vie en rose in 2008, was praised for her “charm, natural grace and beauty” by Mitterrand before he skewered her. She appeared to suffer no damage, however, and burst out laughing as Mitterrand apologized.
■UNITED KINGDOM
T-shirt worries airport guard
London’s Gatwick Airport has apologized after a Briton wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Freedom or Die” was asked to turn it inside-out because it could be threatening, a spokesman said on Monday. Lloyd Berks, 38, was stopped by security officers as he headed for a skiing holiday in Austria with his family. “When I went through the metal detector, first they told me to take my trainers [sneakers] off, then they took my wallet off me. Then the guy who checked me told me to turn my T-shirt inside out,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying. “I thought he was joking at first. It is turquoise and white, it is just a design T-shirt, it is not gothic or in your face and the slogan is quite small.”
■RUSSIA
UNEP criticizes Sochi plans
The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has criticized Moscow for ignoring the effects that several building projects for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi will cause to the region’s unique wildlife. An agency report says impact assessments undertaken by the government “did not take into account the cumulative ... effects of the various projects on the ecosystems of the Sochi region and its population.” Ecologists say precious wildlife has been destroyed, water has been contaminated and the construction of the facilities is hazardously amateur.
■FRANCE
Mother’s murder trial opens
A 38-year-old woman went on trial on Monday, accused of strangling or smothering to death her six newborn babies. Celine Lesage admitted before a judge in the Channel town of Coutances to killing the six infants between 1999 and 2007. Asked if the babies were alive when she murdered them, Lesage hesitated and said: “I cannot answer” before finally adding: “Yes, your honor.” She is accused of first degree murder and faces a life jail sentence if convicted, with no possibility of parole for 18 years.
■ITALY
Officials protest over mayor
Around 50 municipal officials dropped their trousers at Rome’s city hall on Monday to call for the speedy passage of the city’s budget for this year. “Alemanno has reduced us to our underwear,” read one poster, referring Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno. “Parks and gardens abandoned,” “Homeless people, empty homes,” others read.
■UNITED STATES
No jail time in bribery case
A judge ordered no prison time on Monday for the final defendant in a bribery scheme that allowed Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis to dine on sushi and watch The Office and Family Guy DVDs while jailed on tax charges. US District Judge Larry Hicks sentenced former law officer Mary Boxx to 100 hours community service, three years probation and a US$1,680 fine after she pleaded guilty to accepting a gratuity as a public official. Boxx, 54, admitted that she smuggled in special tanning lotion requested by Francis, as well as DVDs. However, the Nevada woman said she never connected that to the US$1,680 in cash and gifts she received from a Hollywood associate of Francis.
■BRAZIL
Artist subverts ‘CowParade’
An artist launched a subversive protest against the popular “CowParade” traveling art exhibit, which he deemed an affront to his country’s homegrown art scene. The popular “CowParade” urban art display brings dozens of brightly colored, life-sized resin cows to cities around the world, installing them in public spaces. The exhibit is now on display in Sao Paulo, with individually decorated cows spread throughout the city’s streets, but the seemingly harmless art project raised the ire of local artist Eduardo Srur, prompting him to add his own element to the display — randy bulls mounting the cow sculptures. Organizers failed to see the funny side and ordered the renegade bulls to be removed.
■UNITED STATES
Stalker handed jail term
A Chicago insurance salesman was sentenced to 30 months in jail on Monday for making nude videos through hotel peepholes of ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews and posting them on the Internet. Michael Barrett, 48, had pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews over an 18-month period and removing the peepholes from the doors of at least three different hotel rooms to shoot video of her naked on his mobile phone. Barrett was sentenced by a federal judge in Los Angeles and ordered to pay Andrews US$7,366 in restitution. At least 16 other women were victimized by Barrett in the same way, according to court papers. Their names were not revealed, but the court papers described them as “female sports reporters and other television personalities.”
■CANADA
Blind institute staff strike
Guided by dogs for the blind and with white sensing canes in hand, staff at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and their visually impaired clients hit the picket line on Monday. Talks between the non-profit organization’s Winnipeg branch, which provides support for 5,000 people living with vision loss in Manitoba Province, and its 19 workers broke off on Thursday. The nurses and social workers voted down a final contract offer that included lower-than-average wages and scaled back paid sick leave.
■UNITED STATES
Owners pine for pooches
Have you ever had the feeling your loved one misses the dog more than you when he or she is away on a business trip? You may be right. A third of Americans admit to pining for their pooches more than their partners when out of town, but maybe that’s because nine out of 10 feel their pet is more pleased to see them after a hard day at work. Nearly two-thirds believe their dogs are more dependable than their closest comrades and more than 70 percent would rather go for a walk with pooch when feeling uptight than hang out with their best buddy.
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
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
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