TONGA
Noble selected as leader
Nuku‘alofa’s first popularly elected parliament selected a noble as prime minister-designate yesterday, edging out a pro-democracy activist in a victory for conservatives. After almost a month of horse-trading and alliance building following the Nov. 26 ballot, Lord Tu’ivakano was named prime minister in waiting by interim parliamentary speaker Lord Tupou. Tu’ivakano won support from 14 of the 26 politicians in the new parliament, beating his only rival, veteran pro-democracy campaigner Akilisi Pohiva, whose Friendly Islands Democratic Partyholds 12 seats.
PHILIPPINES
Paid holidays decreased
President Benigno Aquino III yesterday cut the number of paid holidays next year amid complaints from foreign business groups unhappy over mounting overtime pay. “The point, number one, is to pay the proper respects, and number two it reduces disruptions on the economy,” he told reporters in Manila after decreeing that only 16 public holidays should be observed next year, down from 21 this year. He said the country tended to go off work even when it was not observing religious holidays or the death anniversaries of heroes, such as when a regular working Friday or Monday is sandwiched between a holiday and the weekend.
VIETNAM
Storms take toll on sailors
Forty-seven sailors were missing, most of them from a cargo ship and a fishing vessel, and six others were confirmed dead after storms hit the South China Sea, officials said yesterday. A source at the national search and rescue center said 20 fishermen were missing and presumed dead after their boat overturned on Friday. The officials quoted the only survivor of the accident as saying none of the sailors was able to put on a life jacket. Another 23 missing seamen belonged to the Phu Tan container ship that capsized and sank on Thursday about 185km west of Sanya city on China’s Hainan island.
MALAYSIA
Gay Muslim cautious
A Muslim gay man in Kuala Lumpur who posted an Internet video to speak about his sexuality says he is taking safety precautions and consulting a lawyer after being hit by death threats and government accusations that he had insulted Islam. Azwan Ismail’s clip, titled “I’m Gay, I’m OK,” has been viewed more than 140,000 times on YouTube in just six days. It features him encouraging other gays to be confident and hope for change in this Muslim-majority country, where sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison.
AUSTRALIA
‘Prisoner’ sentenced to jail
An elderly man has been sentenced to four years in jail for lying about being a prisoner of war in order to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in pension payments. Judge Marshall Irwin of the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday said 84-year-old Arthur Crane would be released after six months on a good behavior bond. Crane claimed he was captured and tortured by the Japanese during World War II. In reality, he had never served in the military. Before his lies were uncovered last year, Crane claimed nearly A$690,000 (US$687,560) in war pension and disability payments. He was not entitled to A$464,409 of that amount and has been ordered to repay the money. Crane pleaded guilty to defrauding the Commonwealth.
IRAN
Big quake topples villages
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the southeast late on Monday, wrecking villages, bringing down power lines, and killing up to seven people and injuring hundreds more, media reports said yesterday. The quake was followed by more than 30 tremors, including one of magnitude 5, the Mehr news agency said, quoting the geophysics department of Tehran University. Mild tremors continued into yesterday near the epicenter of the main quake near the town of Hosseinabad in Kerman Province. “Considering the damage, the death toll is expected to rise,” Mehr quoted Kerman Governor Esmail Najjar as saying. Nearly two dozen villages were partially or completely destroyed, the reports said.
KENYA
Three killed in bus blast
A bomb exploded on a bus in central Nairobi on Monday during a security search before it left for Uganda, killing three and wounding 23, police said. “Two more people have succumbed to injuries in hospital, the death toll is now three including the owner of the luggage that exploded in the bus,” a senior Kenyan police officer at the scene told reporters. “Twenty-three other people are admitted to hospital with various injuries.” Police Chief Mathew Iteere did not explicitly call the blast a terrorist attack, but mentioned “an explosive device” in a piece of luggage as the source of the explosion. An official with Kampala Coach said the would-be attacker was among those wounded or killed by the blast, which went off when he abandoned his bag after realizing that all luggage was being searched.
GAZA STRIP
Israeli strikes target camp
Israel carried out a series of air strikes yesterday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said, after militants from the Hamas-ruled territory fired rockets into southern Israel. No one was reported killed in any of the strikes that targeted a Hamas training camp, where two gunmen were wounded, as well as smuggling tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt, Hamas officials said.
AUSTRALIA
ADF seizes drugs in raids
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) yesterday said it had seized suspected illegal drugs and steroids in a series of raids, following claims that sailors were operating a trafficking ring at a central Sydney naval base. The ADF said it raided a “number of premises” alongside police after being tipped off about drug abuse and dealing at the base. “A range of substances and other items were seized and a number of defense personnel were tested for prohibited substance use,” the ADF said in a statement. “It is too early in the investigation to confirm the nature of all of the substances seized to date, though it can be confirmed that steroids were found.” Media reports have said that sailors were selling drugs from the Garden Island naval base on Sydney Harbour.
SPAIN
Stolen sculptures recovered
Eduardo Chillida’s iron sculptures are worth considerably more than the 30 euros (US$39) that a Madrid scrap merchant was asked to pay by thieves who stole a truck-load of works by Chillida, Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero and other Hispanic artists four weeks ago. The thieves seem to have had little idea about the true value of their haul. A medium-sized Chillida in steel can fetch up to 2.5 million euros. Police said on Monday they had recovered 34 of the 35 works stolen when thieves broke into the Crisostomo warehouse in Getafe, near Madrid. The thieves are still at large.
BRAZIL
Groom launches attack
A bridegroom fatally shot his new wife, his best man and then himself after announcing to horrified guests that he had a “surprise” for them, authorities said on Monday. Witnesses reported that 29-year-old Rogerio Damascena, a sales manager in Camaragibe, outside the northeastern city of Recife, did not give any previous indication that anything was wrong at his wedding reception, police investigator Joao Brito said. Brito would not speculate on a possible motive. Brito did say the killings are believed to be premeditated because of the groom’s announcement and because he had hidden a gun in his father’s pickup truck.
CUBA
Man on trial for bombings
A Salvadorean man accused of being involved in a 1990s bombing spree at Cuban tourist hotels, killing one Italian tourist, went on trial on Monday on terrorism charges, the government said. Havana has blamed -Cuban-American exile groups for the deadly attacks and claims that Francisco Chavez Abarca confessed to being hired to plant the bombs by a US-based opponent of former Cuban president Fidel Castro. Chavez Abarca’s trial was taking place at Havana’s state security crimes court, the state-run Cubadebate Web site reported. Chavez Abarca was detained in Venezuela in July as he tried to enter the country on a false passport. Venezuelan authorities alleged he was plotting violence ahead of congressional elections there and extradited him to Cuba, where he was jailed.
UNITED STATES
Santa bandit robs bar
Call it a ho-ho-holdup. Police say a man dressed as Santa Claus has robbed a Rhode Island yacht club. Authorities say a bartender was alone in the East Providence Yacht Club on Sunday night when a large man wearing a red suit, red hat, white beard and carrying a sack walked into the bar and brandished a gun. The bartender fled and ran to a nearby business where she called police. By the time police arrived, the Santa bandit and an undetermined amount of cash from the register were gone.
UNITED STATES
Cabbies don flak jackets
A handful of New York cabbies are to wear bullet-proof vests as part of a pilot program in response to assaults on drivers, their representative said on Monday. Initially, a dozen police-issue flak jackets will be given to drivers of livery cabs in tough areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, NY1 television reported. The plan is in response to the June shooting and murder of a livery driver in the Bronx neighborhood. A livery driver in the Queens neighborhood was shot and severely wounded during a robbery this month. Fernando Mateo, head of the New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, says that some 300 robberies and assaults against livery cab drivers take place monthly. City officials said the idea was overkill.
UNITED STATES
Man sentenced in sex case
A Los Angeles man who taught English in Cambodia was sentenced on Monday to nearly nine years in federal prison for traveling abroad to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, in what a judge called one of the most disgusting cases that has come before him. Michael Dodd, 61, was sentenced by US District Judge John Walter to 104 months and was ordered to pay US$9,500 in restitution. Dodd pleaded guilty under a plea agreement in September to traveling to Cambodia to engage in sex with a minor.
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
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