NEW ZEALAND
Sea lion attacks rowers
A sea lion attacked a college rowing boat, smashing into the hull twice and chasing the panicked crew to shore, a newspaper report said yesterday. The University of Otago rowing crew was about 200m off shore near the South Island city of Dunedin on Wednesday when the creature suddenly rushed up under the boat and smashed itself into the hull twice, leaving two holes. The team quickly headed for the closest boat ramp, but the ornery animal wasn’t ready to retreat and chased the team the whole way. “It was the best [pace] we rowed all morning. We went flat tack,” rower Adam Garden was reported as saying by the Otago Daily Times. After the crew pulled the boat from the water, the sea lion came back for one last inspection. “It walked up the ramp and gave us a bit of a snarl,” Garden said.
PHOTO:AFP
SINGAPORE
Philips probed after ‘hoax’
Dutch electronics giant Philips is under investigation after a marketing campaign for a new shaver triggered a search for a wild bear. Philips issued a public apology after a fuzzy video of a bear-like creature was sent to a social-media Web site by a marketing firm on Wednesday, triggering a search by zoo officials — armed with a tranquilizer gun — and animal-welfare activists. The “bear” was actually just a mascot pretending to rummage through a garbage can in Ulu Pandan, a residential and school district with pockets of thick foliage. Singapore Zoo took no chances and dispatched a team armed with a tranquilizer gun. Three members of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, a non-profit group, also took part. The Straits Times, whose citizen journalism Web site STOMP received the hoax video, reported that four police officers showed up to offer assistance.
PHILIPPINES
Tax collectors shake hips
In the land of dancing prisoners and airline cabin crews, tax collectors have also caught the toe-tapping bug. Hundreds of people now queue to pay their business and property taxes in Cebu, the country’s No. 2 city, with the added incentive of watching the staff shake their hips, city treasurer Ofelia Oliva said. “We say to them, paying your taxes is no longer a burden,” said Oliva, a grandmother who leads the dancing. She said daily local tax collections had risen 42.8 percent to 5 million pesos (US$115,700) since Monday, when the 320-member staff launched the dance routine with pop star Shakira’s 2010 FIFA World Cup theme Waka Waka. The twice-daily performances, one in mid-morning and another in the afternoon, now also include Earth Wind and Fire’s Boogie Wonderland. “The mayor said we should get the taxpayers to pay with a smile,” Oliva said.
NEW ZEALAND
TV chiefs sorry for racial slur
State television chiefs made a personal apology to the country’s governor general over a race slur that contributed to the resignation of a presenter, the broadcaster said yesterday. TVNZ chairman John Anderson and chief executive Rick Ellis went to Governor General Anand Satyanand’s official residence in Auckland to say sorry for host Paul Henry’s remarks questioning if the dignitary was a real New Zealander. “Anand Satyanand has very graciously accepted the apology,” they said in a statement. Henry caused outrage last week when he grilled Prime Minister John Key about whether Satyanand, who was born in Auckland to Indo--Fijian parents, was qualified to be the official representative for the head of state. The row then escalated when footage emerged of Henry mocking Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s name and adding “it’s so appropriate because she’s Indian,” provoking a furious official protest from New Delhi. Henry resigned last Sunday, but TVNZ has faced criticism over its handling of the row, particularly its initial defense of Henry’s Satyanand comment, when it argued he was saying “things we quietly think, but are scared to say out loud.”
INDONESIA
President’s songs in exam
Aspiring civil servants faced an unusual question in their selection exam this week when they were asked to name a song from the latest album by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. About 3,000 candidates who were applying for vacancies at the trade ministry were surprised to find the question about the president-cum-crooner’s most recent collection of pop songs under the general knowledge section. “I got a headache choosing the answer,” one applicant, Anita, told the Okezone news Web site, describing the question as the hardest in the whole exam. While she knew Yudhoyono had released several albums, it was not part of her exam preparation, she added. Trade ministry spokesman Robert James Bintaryo denied there was any hidden political agenda in the question. “What is wrong if a general knowledge question is about SBY’s song?” he said, using the president’s nickname. “It’s part of the general knowledge questions. There were 30 to 40 questions in that section and the song title was only one question,” he was quoted by the Jakarta Globe newspaper as saying.
CHILE
Miners ponder Greece trip
After 10 weeks underground, the rescued miners are now free to contemplate a journey that must once have appeared unlikely — a week’s all-expenses paid holiday in the Greek islands. Elmin, a Greek mining company, has shown its solidarity with the 33 men by offering to fly each of them and a companion to its country. “We want them to relax on our beaches with the sun and sea,” said Liberis Polixronopulos, an executive at the firm. The trip includes a stop in Madrid to watch a Real Madrid soccer game, then a trip to England to see Manchester United play. Soccer clubs around the world have sent signed shirts, while the Chilean Football Association has offered a trip to South Korea. The men will also each be given a free iPod, apparently sent by Steve Jobs himself. Chilean officials withheld the iPods before the rescue, concerned that the men might use music to isolate themselves from their fellow miners.
PUERTO RICO
Crocs invading capital
Invasive crocodiles are making themselves at home in the densely populated capital of San Juan and pose a potential threat to humans and pets, researchers said on Wednesday. The new study by the San Juan Bay Estuary Program does not estimate the reptiles’ total population, but investigators spotted a dozen in one place on a recent night and there have been hundreds of reported sightings. The crocodiles are believed to be the descendants of pets brought to the island in the 1960s and are now flourishing in the estuary, which is surrounded by more than 500,000 people. Most common is the spectacled caiman, a native of Central and South America that can grow to more than 2m. There have been no known attacks on humans, but the crocs are devouring native birds and fish, Estuary Program project director Javier Laureano said.
UNITED STATES
Billboard triggers storm
A billboard depicting President Barack Obama as an Islamist suicide bomber, a gay and a Mexican bandit has triggered a storm of criticism in Colorado weeks ahead of crucial polls. The colorful poster of the president — under the ironic slogan “Vote DemocRAT” — is attracting attention from media worldwide and from people clogging a local parking lot for a closer look. “It’s beyond distasteful and it’s disrespectful of the commander-in-chief,” said Martelle Daniels, chairwoman of the local Mesa County Democrats, calling it “clearly racist and homophobic.” “Certainly [it] is not designed for intelligent discourse at all,” she added in Grand Junction. Beneath the cartoonish figures of Obama — also depicted as a cigar-chomping gangster — are rats, labeled as trial lawyers, the Inland Revenue Service (IRS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Reserve.
BRAZIL
Humpback whales dying
Marine scientists say a record number of humpback whales have been found dead on the coast this year. Milton Marcondes of the Humpback Whale Institute says at least 75 have died this year. The previous high was 41 in 2007. Marcondes says most died at sea and their carcasses washed ashore. Some beached while still alive and perished. Scientists are investigating whether disease may be a factor, or if warming oceans may be diminishing the supply of krill that whales eat. Humpbacks travel from Antarctica to warmer South American waters to reproduce between July and next month. Seven non-humpback whales have also been found dead this year.
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