■HONG KONG
‘Historic’ mansion a fake
Government surveyors who proposed historic status for a rare Italian renaissance mansion were left embarrassed after it turned out the house was a copy of one demolished 20 years ago. The original mansion in the exclusive Peak district was torn down in 1990, making the present building less than 20 years old, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. “Our staff were looking at its appearance [and thought it was heritage],” monuments office secretary Tom Ming told the paper. “But then after the owner sent us an objection against our proposal of grading, we learnt from the buildings department the original building had been demolished.”
■UNITED STATES
Casino scheme man nabbed
Prosecutors arrested an Australian man in Las Vegas on Friday on charges that he helped gamblers and illegal Internet gambling companies launder US$500 million. In an case unsealed in New York, prosecutors accused Daniel Tzvetkoff, 27, of processing gambling proceeds and making them appear legal to banks, starting in early 2008. He created dozens of so-called shell companies in a scheme that he once wrote was “perfect,” prosecutors said. Tzvetkoff was charged on four counts, including bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to operate and finance an illegal gambling business. If convicted, he could face up to 75 years in prison.
■PHILIPPINES
Militants killed in battle
Three al-Qaeda-linked militants suspected of being behind deadly bomb attacks in the south were killed in a gunbattle with troops, the military said yesterday. Two soldiers were also wounded in the firefight on Friday when troops caught up with fleeing Abu Sayyaf extremists on Basilan island, Lieutenant General Ben Dolorfino said. The gunmen are believed to be part of the Abu Sayyaf group that set off two bombs and fired on civilians and security forces in Basilan’s capital on Tuesday in an attack that left 15 people dead, Dolorfino said. Two rifles and a machinegun were recovered from the dead.
■UNITED STATES
Placement agency fined
A business that brought hundreds of Filipino teachers to the state of Louisiana to teach in public schools has been ordered to refund placement fees that a teacher union estimates will total US$1.8 million. An administrative law judge with the Louisiana Workforce Commission said on Friday that California-based Universal Placement Inc operated without the proper Louisiana license. Les Landon, spokesman for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said the union estimates about 360 teachers are affected and that the placement fees averaged about US$5,000 per person.
■UNITED STATES
Christie’s expects big sale
An emerald brooch owned by Catherine the Great of Russia and a diamond ring that once belonged to former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos are headlining a jewelry sale on Tuesday that Christie’s expects will attract strong Asian buyer interest. Both pieces have not been seen in public for decades and are estimated to sell for between US$1 million and US$1.5 million at the auction of 300 pieces of jewelry. The total sale could reap more than US$25 million, Christie’s said. “Art and jewelry were more resilient than any other sector in the financial world and people still came and put great confidence in what they wish to buy,” Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie’s New York, said of the financial crisis.
■RUSSIA
Pilot loses his bearings
A news report says a small plane crashed when the pilot lost his bearings and decided to ask a tractor driver for directions. No one was hurt. RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a local police spokesman as saying the accident happened on Friday in the southern Stavropol region. It said the pilot lost his way, saw a tractor below and decided to land to get advice from the driver. Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said the An-2 agricultural plane grazed the tractor while landing in the field and broke its landing gear.
■IRAN
Dress sense linked to quakes
A senior cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in the country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported yesterday. “Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes,” Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshipers at Tehran Friday prayer. “Calamities are the result of people’s deeds,” he was quoted as saying by the Aftab-e Yazd newspaper.
■SPAIN
Girl barred for headscarf
A Moroccan immigrants’ association on Friday condemned a school’s decision to bar a 16-year-old girl from class for refusing to take off her Islamic headscarf. “For the past several weeks Najwa Malha cannot go to class in her school, which is contrary to her right to a basic education guaranteed by the constitution,” the head of the association, Kamal Ramoini said. The head of the school said in a statement its internal regulations bar “the use of hats and any other article of clothing that cover the head.” Malha, who was born in Spain to Moroccan parents, said she alone took the decision to wear the headscarf to school in February last year “against the advice of her mother,” Spanish media said.
■MEXICO
Bishop slams sex education
Educators and officials defended the country’s public school sex education on Friday from criticism by a Roman Catholic bishop who said such teachings make celibacy vows more difficult for priests to keep. On Thursday, Bishop Felipe Arizmendi said that “when there is generalized sexual licentiousness, it is more common to have pederasty. In the midst of the invasion of so much eroticism, it is not easy to remain faithful in celibacy, or in respecting children.” He said part of the blame for the environment lies with sex education programs that gave “only genital information.” On Friday, the Association for Sexual Health defended the need for the government sex-ed programs and criticized the bishop’s comments. “Blaming the problems that the Catholic Church has had with priests’ sexually abusing minors on sex education makes no sense,” it added. “It borders on the pathetic.”
■BOLIVIA
Protesters burn offices
A government spokesman in the southeast said Indian protesters set fire to the offices of a Japanese mining subsidiary to demonstrate against unwanted development. The extent of Friday’s damage was unknown. The company is a subsidiary of the Japanese Sumitomo Corp. San Cristobal officials did not immediately comment. The Indian communities oppose the installation of electricity, streets and cell phone towers. They also claim San Cristobal is monopolizing water and are worried mining will contaminate local aquifers.
■COLOMBIA
Mint busy replacing notes
Citizens’ passion for adorning, defacing and scribbling on their banknotes is wreaking havoc on the nation’s money supply, prompting protests from the central bank that is weary of replacing millions of notes each year. The bank has launched a television campaign and awareness courses to try to wean the population off the habit that keeps the national mint busy. Examples cited by the bank include sweet if banal expressions of ardour: “Gordis, my love has no price, Memo,” was written on a 2,000 peso note, which is worth about US$1. On the same note someone had adorned the face of General Francisco de Paula Santander, a 19th-century independence leader, with modish spectacles, moles, wrinkles and a goatee.
■UNITED STATES
‘Allergy’ delay rejected
An inmate scheduled to die next week for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl has failed to present enough evidence of an allergy to anesthesia that could affect the execution, a federal judge ruled on Friday. Condemned killer Darryl Durr waited too long to raise the issue of an allergy and then relied on speculation to ask for time, US District Judge Gregory Frost said. In an unusual legal move, Durr is arguing that no one knows how his body will react if state officials are allowed next week to inject him with the one lethal drug they now use.
■UNITED STATES
Testers admit faking
A company and its laboratory director have admitted faking testing results for concrete formulas for the World Trade Center memorial, the Port Authority bus terminal and dozens of other major New York City projects. Stallone Testing Laboratories Inc and William Bayer pleaded guilty on Friday to offering a false instrument for filing. The company is expected to pay a US$1,500 fine and has lost its concrete testing license.
■UNITED STATES
Officials find ‘bestiality farm’
A convicted cocaine smuggler has been arrested for running what authorities say appears to be a bestiality farm in Washington state in which visitors could engage in all sorts of twisted sex acts with animals. Douglas Spink was arrested at his ramshackle, heavily wooded compound near the Canadian border along with a 51-year-old tourist from the UK who is accused of having sex with three dogs. Dozens of dogs, horses and pet mice were seized, along with what investigators described as thousands of images of bestiality and apparent child pornography. The mice were euthanized, said Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo, whose office assisted federal agents in the case. “This stuff is just truly bizarre,” he said. “These were mice that had their tails cut off, they were smothered in Vaseline and they had string tied around them.”
■UNITED STATES
Student charges school
A suburban Philadelphia school district snapped secret Webcam pictures of a high school student when he was partially undressed or sleeping in his bed, and captured instant messages he exchanged with friends, the student charged in court papers this week. The Lower Merion School District concedes its efforts to find missing school-issued laptops was misguided. The district used LANrev software, which takes screen shots and Webcam photos every 15 seconds when activated, capturing more than 400 screen shots and Webcam images of Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins, court papers said.
‘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
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