■ CHINA
S Korea eyeing FTA talks
China and South Korea are likely to launch negotiations on a free-trade agreement next year, Seoul’s ambassador to Beijing said in an interview published yesterday. Ambassador Yu Woo-ik told the China Daily the two sides “are expected to initiate official FTA talks in 2011” following a feasibility study. Yonhap news agency reported last month that the two sides had met in Beijing on July 15 with an eye toward launching the talks. Earlier this year, the countries signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to hold preliminary talks on sensitive sectors such as agriculture before starting fully fledged free trade pact negotiations.
■ CHINA
Mao grandson hails heritage
Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) grandson says his family background was certainly a factor in his recent promotion to the nation’s youngest major general, according to an interview published on the popular NetEase.com Web site yesterday. Mao Xinyu (毛新宇), 40, also said he hopes for a career in politics, but would eschew business opportunities, preferring to live off his modest salary. Family background was “definitely a factor. This is an objective fact that you can’t avoid,” he said. “I feel it among my friends and colleagues in the army, everyone has this sense. All the people take their love and respect for Mao Zedong and transfer it onto my person. Definitely this is a factor.” Mao is a military historian at the Academy of Military Sciences, a member of the government’s main political advisory body, and fervent defender of his grandfather’s legacy. Asked if he wished to pursue politics, he responded “of course,” but gave no specifics. “My mother chose for me in becoming a soldier an excellent path and angle and it’s from the military that I will rise,” Mao said.
■INDIA
Police searching for Hitler
Police are hunting a double murderer called Hitler who escaped from a prison toilet in Goa state with two other men. “We noticed the jail break after 3am today. They escaped by drilling a hole in the toilet,” said Levinson Martins, the head of the high-security Sada jail in Vasco da Gama. Police said 46-year-old Hitler Fernandes was serving a life sentence for murder and had a history of escaping prison. Seby Ferrao was serving time for robbery, while the third escapee was awaiting trial for allegedly stabbing his former girlfriend to death. Four prison officers have been suspended in connection with the escape.
■NEPAL
Contempt charge for lawyer
The Supreme Court has charged the lawyer of convicted murderer Charles Sobhraj and her daughter with contempt after they accused two judges of bias against him. Lawyer Shakuntala Thapa and her 22-year-old daughter, Nihita Biswas, who claims to have married the alleged serial killer in a secret ceremony, appeared in court on Wednesday. Last week the court rejected an appeal by Sobhraj, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of an American backpacker in 1975. The two women reacted angrily to the verdict, telling journalists that the two judges in the case were biased and accusing them of accepting bribes. Sobhraj, 66, has been linked with a string of killings across Asia in the 1970s, but he has always denied murdering Connie Joe Bronzich, whose body was found on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
■ INDONESIA
Jakarta inaction slammed
The government is allowing powerful businessmen to get rich from smuggling rare timber to China despite its pledges to crack down on illegal logging and preserve its forests, environmentalists said yesterday. An undercover investigation by the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and local group Telapak found rampant smuggling of merbau, a valuable hardwood found mainly in Papua. The probe tracked the illicit trade from the forests to the ships where it was being illegally exported, mainly to China, with the help of corrupt officials. “While the huge quantity of illegal timber flowing from Indonesia during the first half of the decade has declined, effective law enforcement against those responsible — the financiers, company bosses and corrupt officials — has been woefully inadequate,” EIA campaign director Julian Newman said.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bomber kills seven
A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of NATO troops and Afghan police yesterday in Kunduz Province, killing seven police officers and wounding at least 11 people, including five civilians. No NATO troops were killed, though some were wounded, said Major Michael Johnson, a NATO forces spokesman. The vehicles were stopped in preparation of an operation in the area and the slain police officers had been standing outside of their trucks. The Taliban claimed has responsibility for the attack.
■ SOLOMON ISLANDS
Security tight for vote count
An Australian-led international security force stepped up security in Honiara to prevent unrest as counting of ballots began yesterday after Wednesday’s general elections. Police Commissioner Peter Marshall said voting had gone smoothly and large numbers of people had turned out despite bad weather in many parts of the country. A record 509 candidates are seeking election to the 50-seat parliament.
■ NETHERLANDS
Military runs low on cash
The Dutch military has an unusual recruiting problem — it has too many aspiring soldiers and not enough money. The Dutch Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it would have to postpone bringing in an additional 467 recruits because budgetary constraints mean the government cannot afford to take them on this year as planned. The Dutch military is one of the country’s more respected institutions, and the all-volunteer force regularly advertises for new soldiers in all branches. Unlike most other armed forces around the world, it is also unionized, which is why ads often promote taking a “job” with the military. Recruiting continues for technical and medical functions, the ministry said, and it plans to begin its recruitment program soon for next year.
■ ISRAEL
Official warns of Hezbollah
An official yesterday warned of the danger of Hezbollah gaining influence over Lebanon’s army just days after a deadly exchange of fire along the border left four people dead. “There is a danger of the Hezbollization of the Lebanese army, if the army begins to behave like Hezbollah,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio referring to the Lebanese Shiite militia group. “If Hezbollah manages to take control of the army, we will have to treat [the army] in a completely different manner.” Top officials have said that Hezbollah was not involved in Tuesday’s deadly exchange of fire with the Lebanese army, and have for the most part sought to play down the confrontation as an isolated incident.
■ NETHERLANDS
Campbell got dirty diamonds
British supermodel Naomi Campbell told the Sierra Leone war crimes court yesterday that she had been given a pouch containing a few small diamonds while in South Africa. “I saw a few stones, they were very small, dirty looking stones,” Campbell told the court, but added that she did not know who the diamonds were from. Prosecutors summoned Campbell to back their allegations that former Liberian President Charles Taylor received diamonds from rebels in Sierra Leone, which they say he then used to buy weapons during a 1997 trip to South Africa. Taylor has denied the allegations as “nonsense.”
■ ITALY
Atheist union fights bells
An atheist group campaigning for a quiet life called on Wednesday for tighter restrictions on church bells ringing in the Tuscan town of Pisa, after complaints about the noise from locals. The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (URAA), which is also campaigning to ban crucifixes from display in state schools, sent its proposal to the local council to be discussed in September, said Giovanni Mainetto, the URAA’s Pisa official. The association argues that just as union demonstrations would be expected to take place in the daytime, the same should apply to religious processions.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Children’s death suspicious
Scottish police said yesterday they were treating the deaths of three children whose bodies were found at a house in Edinburgh as suspicious. Emergency services were called on Wednesday afternoon after reports of a gas explosion and fire on the first floor of a three-story townhouse in the Scottish capital. Lothian and Borders officers said two boys and a girl of primary school age had died while an adult woman was found on ground outside the property.
■ UNITED STATES
Giuliani’s daughter nabbed
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s daughter was arrested on Wednesday on a misdemeanor shoplifting charge at a beauty supplies store after she was seen on security video stealing makeup, police said. Caroline Giuliani, a 20-year-old Harvard University student, was seen taking five items worth more than US$100 at a Sephora store in Manhattan, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. Store managers, after calling police, said they didn’t want to press charges against her, Browne said. However, police arrested her on a petty larceny charge, he said. She is believed to be estranged from her prosecutor-turned-politican father.
■ UNITED STATES
Elvis runs for governor
Elvis Presley is running for Arkansas governor. No, not that Elvis. Elvis D. Presley of Star City filed papers with the secretary of state’s office on Wednesday to run as a write-in candidate for governor. Presley indicated in the paperwork that he wants to “supply the people with a broader array of employment and newer chain of state government.” He declined to say how he got his name but says he is an Elvis impersonator in his spare time.
■UNITED STATES
Wine kiosks tested
Pennsylvania residents can buy wine from vending machines, but first they must pass a breath test to prove they haven’t been drinking. The state is testing out two wine kiosks at supermarkets in Harrisburg and in nearby Mechanicsburg. If it is successful another 98 will be rolled out across the state this autumn. After selecting a bottle of wine from the 55 on display customers must insert a driver’s license showing they are over 21. Their identify is verified via video link by a member of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board who can see the customer in front of a camera installed in the kiosk. Next customers must blow into a breathalyzer to make sure their breath-alcohol level is not more than 0.02, or just one quarter the legal limit for driving.
■UNITED STATES
Pentagon bans reporter
The Pentagon said on Wednesday it yanked the embedding privileges of the journalist at the center of a scandal that led to the sacking of the head of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said that freelance journalist Michael Hastings, author of the Rolling Stone magazine article on McChrystal, would no longer be allowed to accompany US troops in Afghanistan in a process known as embedding.
■ UNITED STATES
Anti-measles pioneer dies
Thomas Peebles, whose D in college biology belied a keen aptitude for medical research that led him to make landmark scientific advances — including identifying the virus that causes measles — died on July 8 at his home in Port Charlotte, Florida. He was 89. His son Douglas announced the death, which had not been widely reported. Peebles discovered that tetanus vaccine could be given every 10 years instead of every year, with much safer results. He invented a way to add fluoride to children’s vitamins to protect their teeth. However, his work in measles indisputably helped save lives. He also found time to run a group practice, hold administrative posts at Harvard and in hospitals, form and lead a large health maintenance organization and served as an adviser on health policy to the administration of former president Ronald Reagan.
‘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