HONG KONG
Infected fowl washes ashore
A dead chicken found on a Lantau Island seashore had the H5N1 virus, and officials are trying to determine how the bird got there. There are no chicken farms within 3km of where the carcass was found on Dec. 18. There also was no evidence of any backyard poultry being kept in nearby villages. The territory banned backyard poultry in 2006 to prevent bird-to-human spread of the virus. Agricultural officials said yesterday lab tests confirmed the bird had H5N1. A woman who visited the mainland was confirmed last month as Hong Kong’s first human case of H5N1 in seven years. Her condition has since been reported as stable.
SWEDEN
Suspect packet a scary hoax
A suspect packet that forced the evacuation of a metro station in central Stockholm, less than two weeks after the country’s first suicide bombing, turned out to be a fake bomb. “It looked like a real bomb. Someone made it to frighten people,” Stockholm police spokesman Henrik Billestam said. Police described the packet as about the size of a milk carton, wrapped with silver adhesive tape with cables connected to a cellphone. On Thursday night, police completely evacuated the Kungstraedsgaarden metro station and sent in deminers after a train driver alerted authorities to the possible threat. The metro station is close to the seat of government in the Swedish capital.
SWITZERLAND
Present sparks evacuation
Part of the EU embassy in Berne was evacuated on Thursday after a scare over a suspect package — but it turned out to be a Christmas present, Swiss police said. The parcel was investigated and was quickly declared safe, police said.
UNITED STATES
Placebos can help: study
Placebos can help patients feel better, even if they are fully aware they are taking a sugar pill, researchers reported on Wednesday on an unusual experiment aimed to better understand the “placebo effect.” Nearly 60 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome reported they felt better after knowingly taking placebos twice a day, compared with 35 percent of patients who did not get any new treatment, they report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. “Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle,” Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.
AFGHANISTAN
Arms ‘facilitator’ captured
A member of the elite al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been captured in the south accused of cross-border weapons smuggling, international forces said yesterday. The man, described as a “key Taliban weapons facilitator,” was captured last Saturday in Zhari district, Kandahar Province. He was targeted “for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz Province,” a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. It is thought he was connected to smuggling small arms between the countries. “The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province,” the ISAF spokesman added in a statement.
NIGERIA
Iranian bailed on charges
A court granted bail on Thursday to an alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who along with three Nigerians was charged last month with illegally importing arms into the country. The government reported the seizure of the shipment — including rockets and other explosives hidden in containers of building materials — to the UN Security Council last month for an apparent breach of UN sanctions on Iran. Azim Adhajani, identified on the charge sheet as a Tehran-based businessman and a Revolutionary Guard Corps member, says he’s not guilty. A trial date of Jan. 31 has been set.
UNITED STATES
Tunneling burglar sought
Police are looking for the person who tunneled through a wall into a New York City apartment while the owner was away around Thanksgiving and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of artwork by Andy Warhol and other artists. They say the thief broke through a hallway wall into the Manhattan apartment and stole limited-edition artwork, watches and other jewelry worth a total of about US$750,000.
UNITED STATES
Contraception fights cancer
Birth control pills have long been known to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, but a new study suggests any type of contraceptive — even a vasectomy — may also be protective. After comparing women with ovarian cancer to those without, researchers found that women who used any type of contraception — birth control pills, tubal ligation, intrauterine devices, barrier method or a partner with a vasectomy — had between a 40 percent and 65 percent lower risk of ever developing ovarian cancer.
CUBA
Two more headed for Spain
Two political prisoners are set to be released and sent to Spain, the Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday. The prisoners are not among 52 jailed dissidents Havana agreed to release earlier this year, the office of Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega said. I Miguel Vidal and Hector Larroque had agreed to leave for Spain once they are released from jail at a date yet to be announced, the office said. It said Vidal was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 on charges of violence and terrorism, while Larroque was serving a 22-year-sentence for weapons possession and trying to leave the country illegally in 2000.
NEW ZEALAND
US officials ‘bullying’
US officials engaged in “bullying” when they tried to stop then-environment minister Marian Hobbs from attending a screening in 2004 of anti-war film Fahrenheit 9/11, former prime minister Helen Clark said yesterday. US diplomats in Wellington complained to Clark over Hobbs’ support for the Michael Moore documentary, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Clark, now the head of the UN Development Programme, said the US actions were unprofessional.
“This comes down to really outright bullying,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “It’s pretty crazy. I just find it unprofessional.”.
CUBA
Leaks to be translated
State-run media says the government will publish Spanish translations of US diplomatic cables about the nation, released by WikiLeaks. Cubadebate Web site said on Thursday that the “Razones de Cuba” site has already posted literal translations of seven of the cables.
‘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