NEW ZEALAND
Drinker locked up in pub
A sleepy South Island resident who staged an unplanned one-man lock-in at his local pub had to call police to release him, it was reported yesterday. Staff at the Coach and Horses Inn in the town of Lawrence somehow missed the 42-year-old as they were closing up early on Sunday morning and left him snoozing at the bar, the Otago Daily Times reported. It said the man woke up at 5.30am and called police to let him out, fearful he would trigger alarms if he tried to exit by himself. After scouring the town for someone with a key to the hotel, police turned up 90 minutes later and found the man asleep on a couch in the public bar with a bottle of beer next to him. Police said the first thing the man did was to offer to pay for the beer, which he took after he realized he was in for a long night. He was not charged and was given a ride home by police.
SINGAPORE
Lucasfilm to build facility
Star Wars creator Lucasfilm will soon start construction of its first purpose-built overseas production facility in the city state, the US movie and animation giant said yesterday. The eight-story, 38,000m2 studio complex will be located in a technology hub known as Fusionopolis and contain a data center, a 100-seat theater and retail outlets.
VIETNAM
China releases fishermen
China has released nine Vietnamese fishermen it detained near disputed islands. “I am happy to report to you that China has freed our nine fishermen,” Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh told reporters in Hanoi yesterday. The fishermen were detained in the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea, and their boat impounded on Sept. 11. Vietnam’s state news agency reported last week that the Foreign Ministry had asked for their unconditional, immediate release.
AFGHANISTAN
Chopper blast kills one
An explosion on board a US helicopter killed one person and wounded seven NATO troops shortly after landing on a small military base in eastern an eastern province yesterday, a military spokesman said. The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the cause of the explosion was unclear, but that 26 people had been onboard the aircraft. Another ISAF spokesman identified the aircraft as a US Chinook and said that the landing site had been secured by Afghan and NATO soldiers.
PHILIPPINES
Wife-killer bill mulled
Men who kill their wives after they catch them cheating on them will no longer enjoy legal protection from serious punishment under new a bill before Congress, a lawmaker said in manila on Monday. If passed, the bill will repeal a provision in the penal code that says a husband may be handed only minor penalties if he kills his wife and her lover after catching them in the act of sex, Congressman Neri Colmenares said.
NEPAL
Plane crashes near Everest
A small plane trying to land near Mount Everest crashed yesterday, but there were no casualties, an airline official said. The German-built Dornier turboprop airplane belonging to Sita Air was attempting to land at Lukla airport when it crashed, airline official Binod Singh Basnyat said. Basnyat said there was damage to the aircraft, but that all 11 passengers and three crew members were unhurt.
FRANCE
Rwandan rebel arrested
Police on Monday arrested Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana, wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was arrested in Paris on a warrant issued last month by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, a Foreign Ministry statement said. Mbarushimana, 47, faces five charges of crimes against humanity and six war crimes charges for murders, rapes, torture and destruction of property in eastern DR Congo in 2009, the ICC said in a statement. He received refugee status in France in 2003.
HUNGARY
Director arrested over spill
Police arrested the managing director of the company at the center of a toxic sludge disaster on Monday, as the body of the last missing person was recovered, bringing the death toll to eight. The MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Co’s managing director Zoltan Bakonyi was taken into custody for questioning in connection with the spill, the National Investigative Office said. The spill sent a torrent of red toxic sludge across an area of 40km2 and polluted the Danube River and many of its tributaries. Prime Minister Viktor Orban told parliament on Monday that MAL should foot the bill, not taxpayers, because it wasn’t a natural disaster, but man-made.
SOUTH AFRICA
Winfrey staffer not guilty
A court on Monday found a former employee of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls not guilty of sexually assaulting students. Tiny Virginia Makopo faced 14 charges of assault, including the sexual assault of students. Much of the testimony was held behind closed doors at the Magistrates Court in Sebokeng to protect the students who are minors, the SAPA news agency said. Winfrey spent millions of dollars to open the school in early 2007 to provide a high-quality education for poor girls. She said she was “profoundly disappointed” with the outcome, but was appreciative of prosecutors and police. “I will forever be proud of the nine girls who testified with the courage and conviction to be heard,” Winfrey said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Clair Rayner dies
Agony aunt and patients’ rights campaigner Claire Rayner has died at the age of 79, media reported yesterday. Rayner, who was also an author and broadcaster, had suffered from cancer for several years. She had intestinal surgery in May, but never recovered from it and died in hospital near her home in Harrow on Monday. The former nurse was reported to have told her relatives she wanted her last words to be: “Tell [Prime Minister] David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS [National Health Service] I’ll come back and bloody haunt him.”
UNITED STATES
Streaker seeking US$1m
Billionaire Alki David says a man arrested after streaking at President Barack Obama’s weekend rally in Philadelphia was trying to win a US$1 million Internet challenge. Police say 24-year-old Juan Rodriguez was charged with indecent exposure, public lewdness and disorderly conduct on Sunday. He was released on a US$10,000 bond on Monday night. David offered US$1 million to anyone who could streak in front of Obama with the name of David’s competition Web site on his chest. Rodriguez told reporters that his family needed the money and he believed he had done everything required to win it. He says he didn’t believe he had done anything inappropriate.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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