■AUSTRALIA
Whale poo fights warming
Scientists have discovered an unlikely element in the fight against climate change — whale poo. Experts from the Australian Antarctic Division have found that whale excrement — much of which is derived from the huge mammals’ consumption of krill — effectively places a plant-friendly fertilizer into ocean waters. “When whales consume the iron-rich krill, they excrete most of the iron back into the water, therefore fertilizing the ocean and starting the whole food cycle again,” scientist Steve Nicol said. The research suggests that if whale numbers grow, their droppings could help marine plant life flourish, thereby improving the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide blamed for global warming. Iron is a vital element in the production of marine plants, known as algae, which suck up carbon dioxide as they grow, although it is a scarce element in the “anemic” Southern Ocean, said chemical oceanographer Andrew Bowie. Bowie said whales consumed several tonnes of krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, each day and this found its way back into the ocean via liquid-form, reddish brown emissions from the giant mammals.
■CHINA
Baby disposal regulated
The top health body said on Thursday that health workers who improperly dispose of dead babies would be “severely dealt with” following an investigation into the dumping of several bodies along a river. A scandal erupted last month when the bodies of 21 babies and fetuses — some with hospital identification tags around their ankles and at least one stuffed in a yellow bag marked “medical waste” — were found washed ashore on the Guangfu River on the outskirts of Jining city, Shandong Province. The Ministry of Health said on its Web site that hospitals should dispose of dead babies as they would any other corpse. The report said dead babies and fetuses should not be treated as medical waste, but did not give details on how local hospitals normally dispose of medical waste.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Bakiyev defies resignation
The ousted leader has said from exile in Belarus that he does not intend to return to his homeland as president — but insists a resignation he signed has not come into force. Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed in an April 7 uprising that left 85 people dead in the Kyrgyz capital. He fled last week to neighboring Kazakhstan and arrived in the Belarusian capital of Minsk earlier this week. Bakiyev told reporters yesterday in Minsk that a resignation he signed before leaving the country has not come into force because interim officials have reneged on a promise to protect his relatives. Bakiyev said yesterday that Russian anger at his decision to extend the lease on a US air base was a factor in his overthrow.
■PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Eighteen dead in bus crash
Eighteen people are dead and two have life-threatening injuries after a bus crash, a hospital said yesterday. A 15-seater bus reportedly ran off a cliff in the remote Western Highlands on Wednesday, apparently after its brakes failed as it tried to negotiate a steep road. The dead and injured were taken to Mt Hagen General Hospital, which confirmed the number of fatalities. “Eighteen people died. Two others are fighting for their lives,” a hospital spokesman said. It is the second major incident to hit the impoverished South Pacific nation this year, after about 40 people were killed when two buses crashed head-on in January.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Marmite miffed over BNP ad
Marmite, the intensely salty yeast spread loved or hated by millions of Britons is in an unsavory quarrel with a far-right political party. Marmite’s owner, Unilever NV, on Thursday threatened to sue the British National Party (BNP) for using Marmite’s image without authorization in an election video. Unilever is seeking an injunction to remove the Marmite jar from the BNP’s online broadcast, which featured a jar of the yeast spread in the upper left corner of the video as BNP leader Nick Griffin spoke about asylum seekers and foreign migrants. “We want to make it absolutely clear that Marmite did not give the BNP permission to use a pack shot of our product in their broadcast,” Unilever said in a statement. “Neither Marmite nor any other Unilever brand are aligned to any political party.”
■UNITED STATES
Seal found on rooftop
Mike Kai thought one of his surfing buddies was thumping around on his rooftop deck, but it turned out to be a wayward sea lion pup, enjoying the view of Newport Beach, California at sunrise. Kai said he couldn’t imagine how the animal made it up the stairs and onto the roof early on Thursday. Kai called Animal Control and the sea lion was taken to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where volunteers named him Fiddler, after the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Staff there say sea lions are mobile and curious, and have been found everywhere from a restaurant kitchen to a public restroom.
■UAE
Police hunt unwed couples
Police in the conservative Sharjah emirate are hunting for unmarried couples sharing the same address.
The door-to-door search is the latest effort by Sharjah authorities to enforce Islamic codes in their enclave, which borders far more freewheeling Dubai. The campaign, detailed on Thursday in local media, follows a police report that a couple was arrested for living together out of wedlock. Violators may face jail and deportation. But Shariah, or Islamic law, remains on the books and includes possible sentences of lashings.
■UNITED STATES
Porn trumps finance policing
An agency watchdog says senior employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic Web sites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system. SEC Inspector General David Kotz says in a memo that the behavior violates agency and government-wide ethics rules. The memo reports 33 violations in the past five years — 31 of which took place in the two-and-a-half years since the financial system teetered and nearly crashed. It says one supervisory accountant looked at pornographic Web sites about twice a day and saved images on his SEC computer to view during work hours.
■VATICAN CITY
Bishop resigns over abuse
Pope Benedict accepted the resignation yesterday of a Belgian bishop who admitted to sexual abuse in a statement issued by the Vatican. “When I was still a simple priest and for a while when I began as a bishop, I sexually abused a young man in my close entourage,” said the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, in the statement, adding that he asked for forgiveness. “This will be very saddening to the Belgian Catholic community. We are aware of the crisis of confidence that this will engender for a number of people,” said Andre-Joseph Leonard, head of the Belgian church.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of