■AUSTRALIA
Rudd eyed for UN post
Ousted prime minister Kevin Rudd yesterday confirmed talks over a possible UN role, but said he did not plan to quit the national parliament. Rudd, who was replaced by Julia Gillard last month in a party coup, said he had discussed a “development” role with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, after reports linked him with a new climate-change position. “Among other matters, [Ban] raised the possibility of Mr Rudd being appointed to a United Nations panel which might look at a number of issues related to development,” Rudd’s spokesman said in a statement. He added that the role would not require Rudd to move to New York or leave his parliamentary post.
■AUSTRALIA
Black box inventor dies
A pioneering inventor whose “black box” flight data recorder revolutionized the safety of air travel and aided countless crash investigations has died, aged 85, officials said on Wednesday. David Warren, whose own father died in a plane crash, hit upon the “black box” idea while probing a 1953 disaster involving the world’s first commercial jetliner. “Without any explanation, without any witnesses, without any survivors ... [it was] a really baffling mystery,” Warren said in a 2003 interview. In 1956, Warren built a prototype “black box” that was able to store four hours of voice recordings and instrument readings. The idea was slow to catch on, however, with the Royal Australian Air Force dismissing it as unnecessary and likely to “yield more expletives than explanations.” It took a lunchtime demonstration of the device to a visiting British official in 1958 for the potential of his design to be recognized and christened the “black box.”
■PAKISTAN
Rebel killed in bombmaking
A Taliban commander and his aide died when a bomb they were constructing in the militant chief’s home in northwestern Pakistan exploded, said Syed Ghafoor, a local official. The blast in the Bajur tribal region also wounded several members of commander Irshad Khan’s family, Ghafoor said, adding that Khan was behind several attacks on troops in the region and had contacts with top Taliban leaders in nearby North and South Waziristan.
■AUSTRALIA
Candidate apologizes
A Liberal candidate in next month’s election apologized yesterday for describing a government school building program as a “holocaust.” Mark Banwell escaped being dropped by his party after making the comment during a TV interview. “In probably a year’s time, just what a holocaust this will be,” he said, according to public broadcaster ABC. Banwell later called the comment an “inappropriate characterization.”
■FIJI
Conference to enhance ties
Pacific island nations need to “break the shackles” of their colonial past, Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama told regional states yesterday as he claimed a diplomatic victory over Australia. At the opening of his hastily arranged “Engaging the Pacific” conference, Bainimarama also spoke of a need to enhance new diplomatic ties, saying the region was attracting interest from Arab nations. Bainimarama’s conference was arranged after the Melanesian Spearhead Group summit, scheduled to take place in Fiji this week, was canceled last week over concerns about a lack of democratic reform in the country. Ten island states are attending the new conference, including the leaders of the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Papua New Guinea.
■ISRAEL
Sex fraudster sent to jail
An Arab man who had consensual sex with a Jewish woman has been convicted of rape in a “sex through fraud” case and sentenced to 18 months in jail. The defendant was quoted on Wednesday in the Haaretz newspaper as saying the case was racially motivated because the woman complained to police only after learning he was an Arab. “If I were Jewish, they would not even have questioned me,” he was quoted as saying. Passing sentence on Tuesday, the Jerusalem District Court said the defendant, “who is married, introduced himself falsely to the complainant as a Jewish bachelor, and as such, interested in a meaningful romantic relationship.” The court said that while the woman agreed to the sexual liaison two years ago, the man misrepresented himself, and it had a duty to protect the public against “sophisticated, smooth-talking criminals who can lead innocent victims astray.”
■TURKEY
Blast closes gas pipeline
Suspected Kurdish rebels blew up a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Turkey, forcing the shutdown of the conduit, officials said on Wednesday. The blast occurred overnight at a section of the pipeline near the eastern Turkish town of Dogubayazit, a local official said by telephone, without giving other details. “The explosion is believed to have been carried out by members of the separatist terrorist organization,” Agri Governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
■TURKEY
Anti-terror law eased
Parliament has passed an amendment to soften an anti-terrorism law used to jail Kurdish minors involved in violent protests in support of Kurdish rebels. The measure, which passed early yesterday, reduces or waives jail terms for youths convicted of throwing stones at police. The government proposed the measure late last year as part of its efforts to reconcile with the Kurdish minority, but it was shelved amid nationalist fury after a Kurdish firebomb attack killed a Turkish woman this year.
■AUSTRIA
Confessional controversy
Vienna’s archdiocese has ruled that a confessional box cannot be turned into a sauna. Bidding on a confessional described on eBay as ideal for conversion into a one-person sauna, a small bar or a children’s playhouse was ended when the archdiocese stepped in. Archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger told the daily Salzburger Nachrichten that auctioning “objects that were used for dispensing the sacraments is not acceptable.” Confessionals “should not be converted into saunas or bars,” he was quoted as saying. The confessional was offered for auction by a Vienna church undergoing renovations.
■ISRAEL
Group calls for baptism halt
An environmental group on Wednesday called for a halt to baptisms in the Jordan River where tradition holds that Jesus was baptized, saying the waters there were dangerously polluted. “Friends of the Earth Middle East call on regional authorities to halt baptism in the lower Jordan River until water quality standards for tourism activities there are met,” a statement from the group said. The group issued the call following media reports that Israel’s health ministry had urged the tourism ministry to stop people bathing in the river, saying it posed a health risk.
■UNITED STATES
Alaska drilling halted
A US judge has ordered a halt to offshore oil and gas drilling off the north coast of Alaska for further environmental review, the plaintiffs in the case said. An environmental coalition represented by the group Earthjustice said the court in Anchorage ruled on Wednesday that the federal government “failed to meet its obligation under the law to analyze the importance of missing basic scientific information about the Chukchi Sea” prior to offering leases in the sea. “We have long argued that more science, more data and more research is needed in the sensitive waters of the Arctic Ocean before oil and gas lease sales or drilling are allowed to occur,” said Erik Grafe, an attorney at Earthjustice.
■ARGENTINA
Mannequins fail to guard
Two inmates escaped on Saturday from a prison that was so understaffed it used mannequins to man its watchtowers. “I admit we have a type of mannequin but in this sector there are cameras that enable us to observe all movements,” Daniel Verges, the director of prisons in Neuquen Province, said on Wednesday. The watchtower guarding the wall the men climbed over was manned by a makeshift doll nicknamed “Wilson,” after the ball that kept a marooned Tom Hanks company in the movie Cast Away, prison officials said. Only two of the prison’s 15 watchtowers have real guards, officials said.
■UNITED STATES
‘Flower bandit’ caught
New York police on Wednesday said they have arrested a suspect who robbed banks brandishing a bunch of flowers. Edward Pemberton, 44, a suspect in two bank robberies this month, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York Police Chief Raymond Kelly said. A security camera photo published in the New York Post showed the suspect standing at the teller’s window in a Manhattan bank holding the bouquet while handing over a note, which reportedly read: “Give me all your hundreds, fifties, don’t be a hero.” After getting US$440 from the teller, the robber fled the bank, leaving the bouquet.
■BRAZIL
Safari organizers arrested
Police on Wednesday said they have broken a South American gang that organized illegal hunts of protected animals such as jaguars for wealthy clients. Four Argentines, three Brazilians and a Paraguayan were arrested on Tuesday as they readied another illicit safari from a ranch in Mato Gross do Sul state, the police said. The suspects were caught with a big arsenal of hunting guns and ammunition, they said. Another 13 suspects were being sought.
■UNITED STATES
Injured climbers rescued
Rescue teams used helicopters to remove 16 injured climbers from Grand Teton mountain in Grand Teton National Park on Wednesday after a thunderstorm and severe lightning struck the area. The search for another climber was suspended because of darkness. Three separate climbing parties reported injuries after the storm hit around midday. The climbers’ injuries were the result of being struck by lightning and included burns and neurological effects such as numbness.
■UNITED STATES
Conrad Black freed on bond
Media mogul Conrad Black was released from a Florida prison on Wednesday on an unsecured US$2 million bond as he appealed his 2007 fraud conviction. Black, 65, has served more than two years of a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
‘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