ROMANIA
Witches face prison time
There’s more bad news in the cards for the country’s beleaguered witches. A month after authorities began taxing them for their trade, soothsayers and fortunetellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don’t come true. Witches say they shouldn’t be blamed for the failure of their tools. “They can’t condemn witches, they should condemn the cards,” queen witch Bratara Buzea said. “I will fight until my last breath for this not to be passed.” Sometimes, she said, people don’t provide their real identities, dates of birth or other personal details, which could skew predictions.
FINLAND
Scientists brew old grog
Scientists say they hope to re-brew an old ale after studying ancient beer found in a 19th century shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The VTT Technical Research Center says it hopes to determine the recipe used in the brewing of what is “one of the world’s oldest preserved beers.” Divers Found five bottles of dark, foamy beer in July last year while salvaging champagne from the wreck near the Aland Islands.
UNITED KINGDOM
Grandmother foils robbery
A 71-year-old grandmother who “clobbered” a gang of sledgehammer-wielding thieves with her handbag credited her “mother’s instinct” for spurring her into action, media reported yesterday. Ann Timson was captured on video hitting three of the six helmet-clad robbers, causing one to fall off his moped as he tried to make his escape during the botched raid on a jewelry store in Northampton. “I saw a kid run up to the doorway of the jeweler,” she said. “Three lads followed him and when I saw their arms going, I thought the kid was being beaten up. My mother’s instinct kicked in and I ran across the road shouting at the lads to stop it. As I got closer I saw it was a robbery, and then I was even more angry. One of the gang shot off ... I clobbered him with my shopping. I landed several blows against one lad ... and brought him to the ground. He raised a hammer to me so I kept hitting out. It seemed to be over in seconds.” The would-be robbers dropped their loot. Four suspects have been arrested.
RUSSIA
Elderly woman hires hitman
A 70-year-old woman has been charged with offering to pay 30,000 rubles (US$1,025) for the murder of her former lover, a policeman less than half her age. “The woman plotted the murder of a 32-year-old policeman with whom she had an intimate relationship some time before,” a spokesperson for the regional investigative committee in Murmansk said. Police ensnared the woman after sending an officer posing as a hired killer to meet with her. She was arrested while trying to pay for the crime.
HUNGARY
‘Flying Gizi’ at it again
The country’s notorious octogenarian thief is not ready for retirement. The 84-year-old woman, known as “Flying Gizi,” whose criminal record goes back to the 1950s, is again in custody, police said on Tuesday. Fejer County police spokeswoman Agnes Szabo said the burglar, whose real name is Gizella Bodnar, is suspected of taking about 15,000 forints (US$75) from a home in Bicske. Bodnar, who has been convicted of more than 20 crimes and has spent nearly 18 years in prison, got her nickname because she enjoyed taking flights after successful break-ins. She eluded capture for years, as police never imagined that the cat burglar would travel so far to commit her crimes.
AUSTRALIA
Plane crashes, none hurt
A light plane crashed into a Sydney street yesterday, cutting power to thousands of people, but miraculously causing no injuries. A man, a woman and a dog emerged unhurt after the plane came down in the western suburb of Smithfield, plowing through power lines and ending up on its roof close to homes and an elementary school. The crash knocked out power to 7,000 homes and businesses, while police closed a road to deal with the single-engine aircraft, which was badly damaged. In December, a student pilot practicing maneuvers crash-landed in a garden outside Sydney, startling a woman who was hanging out her washing.
MALAYSIA
Ultrathin condoms missing
Police said on Tuesday they were investigating the disappearance of more than 700,000 ultrathin condoms that went missing in transit to Japan. Sagami Rubber Industries, Japan’s first condom maker, said last week that the shipment was loaded into a container at its factory in the north, but that it was empty with the locks replaced when it arrived in Tokyo. “We take the matter of the missing condoms very seriously ... we are investigating the matter,” a police spokesman said. Sato Koji, manager of the Sagami rubber factory in Perak, said they had lodged a police report over the loss of the shipment. Officials at Sagami’s head office have said that the prophylactics, which it bills as being 14 percent thinner than conventional ones, are worth US$1.5 million at Japanese retail prices. Freight forwarders say goods being shipped out of Malaysia go missing routinely and that many cases are inside jobs.
AUSTRALIA
Abbot puts foot in mouth
Gaffe-prone opposition leader Tony Abbott was engulfed in a new row yesterday over an unguarded comment about a soldier’s death in Afghanistan. Abbott hit out at media after TV station Channel Seven showed him saying: “Shit happens,” while discussing the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney during an October visit to troops in the country. “It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?” Abbott said, during a filmed conversation with military officials. A furious Abbott accused Channel Seven of taking his remarks out of context and stared silently at journalist Mark Riley for some 20 seconds during an interview about the footage. “I’ve given you the response you deserve,” he said finally, when pressed for an answer. Abbott, who came within just one vote of becoming prime minister after elections in August last year returned a hung parliament, has a long history of verbal missteps. Last year Abbott, dubbed the “Mad Monk” after once training to become a priest, stunned voters by admitting his unscripted remarks were not to be trusted.”
TURKMENISTAN
Horses have beauty contest
Once prized by Alexander the Great for their speed and stamina, the country’s thoroughbred horses are being groomed for a series of beauty contests, ordered by a presidential decree published on Monday. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who enjoys sweeping powers in this desert nation of 5 million and is known for his deft horsemanship, said national beauty contests for the ancient Akhal Teke breed should be held every April. The best horses of the breed, distinguished by shimmering coats, long delicate necks and legs and popularly revered as “the wings of the Turkmen,” will be chosen “to promote the glory of the heavenly racehorse worldwide,” the decree said.
UNITED STATES
Buttocks jab proves fatal
A woman who had a cosmetic injection in her buttocks at a hotel near the Philadelphia airport died on Tuesday, prompting a police investigation. Detectives said the woman and three companions traveled from London and were staying at the Hampton Inn in Philadelphia. Two of them had traveled to the city in November to have their buttocks enlarged and, on Monday, one received another injection while the other had a hip augmentation. Detective Joseph Murray said the 20-year-old woman who had the buttocks injection later complained of chest pains and trouble breathing. She was then taken to the hospital where she died. Her name was not released.
UNITED STATES
Cull aims to boost safety
Officials enforced a goose no-fly zone around New York’s JFK and La Guardia airports last year by killing 1,676 of the birds blamed for endangering aircraft, a report said on Tuesday. The report from US Department of Agriculture details the 1,509 wild geese slaughtered in New York City itself and 167 more in nearby Nassau County last summer. The round-up and gassing of the birds removed 89 percent of the population surveyed in the environs of the two airports, according to the report, which was presented in November but only found and posted online by the New York Times on Tuesday. The war on geese started after the January 2009 drama in which a packed US Airways airliner collided with a flock of the migratory birds before safely crashing into the Hudson River.
UNITED STATES
Reunion proves difficult
The mother of a 23-year-old woman snatched from a New York City hospital when she was an infant says their reunion was a miracle but their relationship is difficult. Joy White told NBC television on Tuesday that she and her daughter Carlina White are like strangers. She says she wants to spend time with her so they can get to know each other. Joy White says she understands why her daughter, who lives in Atlanta, would want to continue her relationship with the people who raised her. Ann Pettway of Raleigh, North Carolina, is being held without bail on charges she kidnapped Carlina in 1987. The FBI says Pettway took the newborn after her own efforts at childbearing failed.
UNITED STATES
Court rejects term for bite
A New Jersey appeals court has rejected a 15-year prison sentence for a man convicted of biting off a police officer’s fingertip. Rafael Pichardo was convicted of aggravated assault for attacking Atlantic City officers during a 2007 confrontation at the Casbah nightclub in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. While resisting arrest, Pichardo bit Officer Dean Dooley, severing the top of his gloved left index finger. A judge imposed the 15-year term, however, an appellate panel ruled on Tuesday it was too severe and ordered resentencing.
BOLIVIA
Film buffs set for marathon
A cineplex on Tuesday announced a film marathon competition likely to test the endurance of even the most avid cinephile. The challenge is to watch the most uninterrupted movies without leaving the theater and without falling asleep, said organizers of the contest sponsored by the Megacenter cinema concern. Megacenter’s chief executive Jose Luis Gomez, said that his cineplex would show continual screenings of movies and that any contestant leaving the theater for more than five minutes at a time would be eliminated. The winner is to receive one-year free pass, the company said.
‘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