MYANMAR
Opposition appeals ban
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is seeking to revive her political party by launching an appeal to the Supreme Court of a ruling that upheld its banning, her lawyers said yesterday. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest in November, has sent her team of lawyers to the capital Naypyitaw to submit the appeal, said one of the lawyers, Nyan Win. The legal move appears to be largely symbolic, since Myanmar’s courts invariably adhere to the junta’s policies, especially on political matters.The party lost its legal status because it failed to re-register in order to take part in general elections that month, claiming the balloting would be neither free nor fair. The elections were swept by a party close to the ruling military junta and the opening session of the new parliament is scheduled for Jan. 31.
PHILIPPINES
Heavy rains, floods kill 42
Sustained heavy rains and floods in the center and south of the country have killed 42 people and damaged more than 1 billion pesos (US$23 million) of crops and infrastructure, disaster officials said yesterday. Floods and landslides caused by more than two weeks of heavy rains have displaced almost 400,000 people, Benito Ramos, head of the government’s disaster agency, told reporters. Major rice and corn production areas in the north and west of the country have been spared. “Our soldiers are using helicopters to deliver relief goods and survey areas for clearing and rehabilitation,” Ramos said, appealing for food, water, medicines and warm clothes.
SRI LANKA
Floods displace 1 million
Authorities yesterday gathered emergency food, clothing and bedding for almost 1 million people forced out of their homes by flooding over the last week. At least 18 people have died during the monsoon flooding, in which the center and east of the country have been worst hit, the government said. Rising water levels and continued rain have swamped vast tracts of land and cut off towns and villages. “About 533,000 people have been displaced in Batticaloa district alone, where we have set up 225 camps to accommodate them,” a spokesman said, adding that a total of 955,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.
MALAYSIA
Rare cat caught on camera
One of the world’s rarest wild cats, an elusive creature once thought to be extinct, has been spotted in camera traps in Borneo for the first time since 2003, researchers said yesterday. The Bornean bay cat, a long-tailed reddish or gray feline the size of a large domesticated cat, was sighted in the northern highlands of Malaysia’s Sarawak State, the forest department said yesterday. Three photographs showing two or three individuals were captured, research officer Wilhelmina Cluny said. “This species is very secretive ... it was classified as extinct until a photograph of it was taken in 2003,” she said.
INDONESIA
Salesman admits to rapes
An Indonesian toy salesman has admitted to raping at least 96 boys, police said yesterday. The 34-year-old man was arrested last week in Jakarta after a complaint was filed by the parents of one of the alleged victims, investigator Reynold Hutagalung said. The teenage boy said he was abducted by the salesman and held for 45 days, during which time he was repeatedly raped and forced to perform sexual acts on other men. The man admitted to raping at least 96 boys over the past two years, Hutagalung said.
BELGIUM
Actor calls for beard protest
One of the nation’s most popular actors has called on his countrymen to stop shaving and grow beards to protest a political stalemate that has left the country without a full government for seven months. Benoit Poelvoorde, who has appeared in movies including Coco Before Chanel and It Happened Close To You, made the appeal on Wednesday on RTL television. “Let your beard grow to show solidarity,” he said. There has been a deadlock since the general election last June over enacting more self-rule for Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia.
ANGOLA
Railway reopens
A railroad destroyed during the 27-year civil war officially reopened yesterday, ending a near two-decade long closure of the 112-year-old line originally built by Portugal. The 424km-long track between Luanda and the eastern city of Malanje was one of three major railway routes wrecked by the conflict and it eventually closed in 1992. The route is the first major line to re-open under a US$4 billion rail project carried out by Chinese firms since the end of Angola’s 1975-2002 civil war. Domingos Jorge Sassassa, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Malanje, said the railway’s closure destroyed a major transport link with the capital and its re-opening would be a major boost for businesses in the region.
GERMANY
Tanker capsizes on Rhine
A tanker loaded with sulfuric acid capsized early yesterday on the Rhine River and two crewmembers were missing, authorities said. There was no immediate word on why the ship capsized near St. Goarshausen, the shipping office in Bingen said. The other two crewmembers were rescued. The shipping office said there were no indications the acid was leaking. However, authorities have closed the river to shipping as they work to secure the tanker and find the missing crewmembers. The ship was on its way from Ludwigshafen to Antwerp in Belgium. The accident happened on a picturesque stretch of the Rhine near the famed Loreley cliff.
NIGERIA
Man has 65 cocaine pellets
A London-bound passenger has been arrested at the main airport in Lagos after having allegedly swallowed 65 pellets of cocaine weighing 950g, the national anti-drug agency said on Wednesday. “He was detected during the screening of passengers,” the agency said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Scientists modify chickens
European scientists have found a way to genetically modify chickens so that they don’t transmit bird flu, according to research published yesterday in the journal Science. Bird flu, also known as H5N1 avian influenza, usually afflicts poultry but can cross over to humans and cause lethal respiratory problems and other complications. The first cases detected in humans were in Hong Kong in 1997. A wider global outbreak took hold in 2004 and cases have flared across parts of the world ever since. Scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh said the modified chickens could get bird flu but could not pass it on to other chickens. However, one of the researchers — Laurence Tiley, of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine — said the research was still in its early stages, and the birds they developed are not intended to be eaten by people.
IRAQ
Two killed as Biden visits
Police officials said three explosions in Baghdad killed two people as US Vice President Joe Biden meets with Iraqi leaders to discuss Washington’s troop exit. Three mosques — two Sunni and one Shiite — were targeted by the roadside blasts yesterday morning, they said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Eleven people were also wounded. Violence in Iraq has dropped to all-time lows, but bombings like yesterday’s show the lingering security challenges the country will face when US troops go home at the end of this year. Officials said Biden’s visit would center on whether to keep any US troops in the country past the Dec. 31 departure date.
UNITED STATES
Fonda finds corpse: police
Los Angeles police said actor Peter Fonda discovered a dead body in a car and they are investigating the death. Sergeant Carlton Cook at the West Los Angeles Community Police Station said the Easy Rider star called police on Wednesday after he spotted a car parked on the side of Sunset Boulevard. Cook said the 70-year-old Fonda was not a suspect. The call was first reported by TMZ, which said Fonda got out of his car and found the man slumped over in the front seat.
UNITED STATES
Baby has unique birthday
Tyler Ashton Marx’s lucky number is going to be one, or 11, or maybe both. The son of Jared and Leslie Marx was born at 11:11am on Jan. 11, 2011, at St Luke’s Meridian Medical Center in Meridian, Idaho. Jared Marx is serving in Iraq and watched his son’s birth over the Internet. Leslie Marx told KTVB-TV that Tyler was born just as the clock switched to 11:11am. However, Tyler Marx isn’t the only one in the family with a memorable birthday. His older sister was born on Sept. 9, 2009, or 9/9/09. A Minnesota couple’s daughter was born on Tuesday with one less one. Amy Zeller and Codjo Mensah welcomed Flora Mensah to the world at 1:11am.
UNITED STATES
Bad data used for forecast
River forecasters for the National Weather Service underestimated the flood level that a major river would reach during Nashville’s fatal May floods because they relied on inaccurate data from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the service concluded in a report released on Wednesday. The report found that forecasters ignored two models that showed more accurate flood predictions for the Cumberland River in favor of a model that relied on inaccurate and untimely information from the corps. The weather service continued to use that data despite observations on the ground that proved their flood predictions were inaccurate. That meant the weather service failed to warn of major flooding in Nashville until after it had already taken place. The flooding last May killed 22 people around the state and caused more than US$2 billion in damage in Nashville alone.
MEXICO
Drug war deaths hit 34,612
A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in the four years since President Felipe Calderon declared a stepped-up offensive against drug cartels. Such killings jumped sharply last year to 15,273, compared with 9,616 deaths in 2009. Officials said the rate of killings grew in the first half of the year, but then stabilized and began to decline in the final quarter of last year. Government security spokesman Alejandro Poire presented a new government database on such crimes on Wednesday.
‘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