PHILIPPINES
Workers plunge to death
A service elevator with construction workers plunged 25 floors at a building site in Metro Manila yesterday, killing 10, officials said. The workers were installing glass windows on a high-rise condominium under construction when the platform gave way, sending them tumbling down from the 32nd to the seventh floor, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay said. He said that one worker was in critical condition. Police chief Froilan Bonifacio said the deaths were a result of a “freak accident.”
CHINA
Official gets tough sentence
A former top court official in southwestern China has received a suspended death sentence on graft charges, state media said on Wednesday. Zhang Tao (張濤), former vice president of the high court in the city of Chongqing, was convicted of accepting bribes and sheltering criminal gangs over a 10-year period, the official Xinhua news agency said. He was “sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve” by a court in the neighboring province of Guizhou, it said. Such rulings are typically commuted to life in prison. Zhang is one of the highest-ranking officials ensnared in the crackdown, which gripped the nation with revelations of a thriving underworld in Chongqing led by mob bosses who acted with impunity under the protection of corrupt officials.
NEW ZEALAND
Surgery may delay ‘Hobbit’
Filming of the widely anticipated Hobbit movies will be delayed because director Peter Jackson is recovering from surgery for a perforated ulcer, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Jackson, who directed the hit Lord of the Rings film trilogy, was admitted to a hospital in Wellington on Wednesday with acute stomach pains. “Sir Peter is currently resting comfortably and his doctors expect him to make a full recovery,” spokeswoman Melissa Booth said. “The surgery is not expected to impact on his directing commitment to the Hobbit beyond a slight delay to the start of filming.”
CHINA
Fugitive a Web sensation
A microblog purportedly set up by a longtime fugitive attracted more than 10,000 followers within hours before it was shut down, state media reported yesterday. A Sina.com microblog in the name of Lai Changxing (賴昌星), a property investor who is accused of smuggling goods worth billions of dollars into China was set up early on Wednesday, the Global Times newspaper reported. “In Vancouver” was the only posting on the microblog before the account — marked with a “V” sign to indicate its user’s identity was authentic — was shut down by noon, the report said. However, within seven hours it had already attracted 13,000 followers, the report said. Lai fled to Canada after he was accused of smuggling US$8 billion-worth of oil, cars and cigarettes into the city of Xiamen, the report said. No extradition treaty exists between China and Canada, the report said.
NEW ZEALAND
Missing cat returns ‘fixed’
A valuable pedigree cat that went missing from its home turned up two days later a little different — it had been surgically castrated. Owner Michelle Curtis said she was furious when her Siamese-Bengal cross came home “fixed.” “I couldn’t believe someone took my cat and got him fixed. I don’t know why they would do that,” Curtis told Bay of Plenty Times newspaper. Curtis said she had been considering using him as a stud cat. “What am I supposed to do now? I can’t exactly get someone to sew them back on,” she said.
GERMANY
Oven builders memorialized
A memorial site and educational center to open in Erfurt this week on International Holocaust Remembrance Day documents the role played by a maker of crematoria in the mass execution of Europe’s Jews and others. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s top men dreamed up the horrors of the Holocaust, but without the support of engineers and industrialists like Topf & Sons, they would never have succeeded in murdering millions. Through technology developed and products built in the Topf & Sons factories, Auschwitz was equipped with four crematoria that resembled factories where as many as 8,000 corpses could be burned in a day. The new memorial site uses original documents and artifacts to show the production of the Auschwitz ovens. The exhibit was to open yesterday.
SYRIA
Dam to be built on border
Damascus and Ankara will lay the foundation stone of a dam on their common border on Feb. 6, Turkey’s Ambassador to Syria Omer Onhon said. The two Mediterranean neighbors are discussing details of tenders and financing for the dam on the Orontes River, Onhon said in an interview in Damascus. Technical committees from the two countries will decide whether the dam will be built by Ankara or Damascus, or by both countries, he said. The two countries are engaged in negotiations over water-sharing issues and are building gas pipelines.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela in hospital
The African National Congress (ANC) called for calm yesterday after former president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital for what his foundation described as “routine tests.” ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu urged “South Africans ... not [to] press any panic buttons, as there is no reason for that whatsoever.” The foundation said in a statement that the 92-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was in Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg for routine tests, but that his health was not in jeopardy. The Star newspaper reported yesterday that Mandela had been seen by a lung specialist, Michael Plit. The doctor declined to comment on Mandela’s condition.
UNITED KINGDOM
Art seeds up for auction
Anyone who missed the chance to romp among the handpainted ceramic sunflower seeds created by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) at the Tate Modern in London will soon get an opportunity to do so in their own homes — at a cost of up to £120,000 (US$191,000). A sackful of the seeds will be sold at a Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art next month. A single seed claimed to be from the exhibit appeared last autumn on eBay — presumably pilfered from an earlier showing of the work — and eventually sold for £28. That would make the 100kg of seeds being offered at Sotheby’s a bargain.
UNITED KINGDOM
Charles a ‘pommie bastard’
Prince Charles fondly recalled how he was called a “pommie bastard” while a student in Australia before offering his support to the flood-ravaged nation at a dinner in London on Wednesday. The heir to the throne told guests at an event to mark Australia Day that the good-natured abuse he received during a six-month spell at Timbertop, Victoria, in 1966, made him a stronger person. “I’ve been through my fair share of being called a ‘pommie bastard,’ by God it was good for the character,” the prince said during the celebration at the Australian High Commission in London. “If you want to develop character, go to Australia.”
MEXICO
Smugglers take pot shots
Drug smugglers trying to get marijuana across the Arizona-Mexico border are apparently trying a new approach — a catapult. National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence on Friday evening last week. Tucson TV station KVOA said Border Patrol agents working with the National Guard contacted Mexican authorities, who went to the location and disrupted the catapult operation. The 3m-tall catapult was found about 20m from the US border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora. The catapult was capable of launching 2kg of marijuana at a time, the officer said.
UNITED STATES
Cases of pre-diabetes rocket
About one in three adults have so-called pre-diabetes, a 39 percent jump over 2008 estimates, the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report. The condition signals higher-than-normal blood sugar, and it can lead to diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Pre-diabetes now affects about 79 million people, the CDC said. Almost 26 million Americans have diabetes, though about 7 million are undiagnosed, the Atlanta-based agency said. Half of Americans aged 65 and older have pre-diabetes and more than a quarter are diabetic, the CDC said. The higher estimate was determined using a new method for testing blood sugar levels, which may capture more people, the agency said.
UNITED STATES
Chinese man fined, jailed
A Chinese business executive has been sentenced in Massachusetts to more than eight years in federal prison for conspiring to export sensitive military products to military agencies in China. Alex Wu (吳振洲) was also ordered on Wednesday to pay a fine of US$15,000, a special assessment of US$1,700 and to forfeit US$65,881. Federal prosecutors say Zhen traveled to the US every year using business visas as an owner of Chitron Electronics Inc of Waltham, Massachusetts. The 46-year-old used the company to procure military electronics components, sensitive electronics used in military phased array radar, electronic warfare and missile systems.
UNITED STATES
Missionary fatally wounded
A woman described by police as a missionary has died at a Texas hospital after her husband brought her mortally wounded over a Rio Grande bridge from Mexico. Police in Pharr, Texas, say Nancy Davis’ husband told investigators that she had been shot in the head by gunmen in a pickup truck as the couple traveled about 112km south of the Mexican border city of Reynosa. Pharr police said the 59-year-old died about 90 minutes after her husband drove the couple’s truck against traffic across the Pharr International Bridge.
MEXICO
Rebels mourn mediator
Leftist Zapatista rebels have expressed their condolences over the death of retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz, who served as a mediator in peace talks between the Mexican government and the guerrillas. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation praised Ruiz for his “fight for peace with justice and dignity for Indians.” Ruiz died on Monday of complications from diabetes at the age of 86. A brief armed uprising by the Zapatistas in 1994 ended in an uneasy truce.
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
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