NORTH KOREA
Foot-and-mouth spreads
Foot-and-mouth disease has spread across the country following its first outbreak in Pyongyang late last year, the nation said. The official Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday that thousands of animals, including cows and pigs, have died. Agriculture Ministry official Ri Kyong-gun told KCNA that quarantine officials are working to prevent the spread of the virus.
SRI LANKA
Cargo ship detained
The navy yesterday detained a foreign cargo ship and its Russian crew for allegedly failing to rescue a man who fell overboard, an official said. Navy spokesman Kosala Warnasuriya said the DD Vigor, registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines, was impounded while leaving the island after failing to report or attempting to rescue its second engineer. “We don’t know the exact circumstances, but it transpired that the vessel failed to report the matter to the authorities on Thursday,” Warnasuriya said. “The seaman was lucky to have been saved by a bunkering vessel.”
EAST TIMOR
Ancient carvings found
Scientists hunting for fossils of giant rats stumbled on unique rock carvings up to 12,000 years old, Australia’s research agency said. The experts were digging in Timor’s Lene Hara cave, a treasure trove of fossils and rock art, when they chanced upon a group of stylized human faces etched in the rock. “Looking up from the cave floor at a colleague sitting on a ledge, my head torch shone on what seemed to be a weathered carving,” said Ken Aplin of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation. “I shone the torch around and saw a whole panel of engraved prehistoric human faces on the wall of the cave.”
AUSTRALIA
Cyclone traumatizes crocs
A group of ferocious crocodiles were so traumatized by a maximum-strength cyclone last week that they hid under water and stopped eating, wildlife park officials said yesterday. Bob Flemming from Townsville’s Billabong Sanctuary in the northeast said the 12 saltwater crocodiles, some more than 4m long, took days to recover from Tropical Cyclone Yasi.
SOUTH KOREA
‘Arms fraud’ investigated
The defense ministry is investigating a US arms dealer and its local agency for supplying sub-standard parts for anti-aircraft guns safeguarding Seoul’s skies, news reports said yesterday. The investigation followed complaints by the army that some of the Oerlikon 35mm twin cannons had defective barrels that cracked when fired, Yonhap news agency said. Out of the 72 barrels on 36 Oerlikons deployed to guard key sites including the presidential office, 49 turned out to be sub-standard, Yonhap and Hankook Ilbo newspaper said. A defense ministry spokesman said police were investigating the “arms provision fraud” case, but declined to give details. The reports said a US dealer signed a contract in 1998 with the arms procurement agency to import barrels for the anti-aircraft guns by 2003. However, its local agency allegedly arranged for an unqualified local firm to make sub-standard gun barrels, ship them to Hong Kong and import them back to the country as apparently authentic products, earning millions of dollars. “The investigation will also look into allegations of bribery involving local procurement officials,” an unidentified defense ministry official was quoted as saying.
POLAND
Russia to absolve Poles
Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw says a political decision has been made to declare the more than 20,000 officers and others killed in the 1940 Katyn massacre by Soviet secret police innocent of any crimes against the Soviet Union. The step by Russia’s government would help solve an issue that has soured relations between Warsaw and Moscow for decades. Russian Ambassador Alexander Alekseev said on Thursday that Russian lawyers are seeking to determine the best way to declare the Katyn victims innocent. They were executed on fabricated charges of being enemies to the Soviet state. The Soviets falsely blamed the Katyn massacre on the Nazis for years, but in November, Russia’s lower house of parliament said the killings were ordered by then-Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
RUSSIA
Snow draws mini-skirts
Too much snow and not enough good men — so says a squad of mini-skirted, high-heeled young women wielding snow shovels in St Petersburg. Seven women dressed for maximum hotness came to the frigid square in front of Kazan Cathedral on Thursday to chip away at snow and ice and demand better city snow removal. They’re affiliated with XZ, a local group that uses beautiful women to draw attention to social problems. Spokeswoman Eva Tornado claimed that tourism experts say foreign visitors avoid St Petersburg in the winter because of the city’s problems in dealing with its snow. “We’d like more foreign men to come to the city,” she added.
SOUTH AFRICA
Reassurance on Mandela
President Jacob Zuma has reassured the nation about the health of former president Nelson Mandela, but cautioned that it should not be a surprise to hear the aging anti-apartheid icon has to seek medical treatment from time to time. The 92-year-old Mandela’s two-night hospitalization last month to be treated for an acute respiratory infection set off a media frenzy. Referring to Mandela by his clan name, Zuma said he wanted “to assure the nation that Madiba is receiving very good medical care, and is comfortable ... We need to accept the reality that president Mandela, who is loved by all of us, young and old, men and women, black and white, is not young anymore.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Pets could prevent love
Britons are famously devoted to their pets, but a new survey ahead of Valentine’s Day shows their furry friends may be standing in the way of love. Eighty percent of dog owners for example said they would not date someone who didn’t like their pet and nearly 20 percent of the 3,000 pet owners surveyed would rather have an animal companion than a relationship. As many as 36 percent of all owners stroked their furry friends more than they touched their partners, while 12 percent felt that owning their cat or dog was damaging their relationship.
ISRAEL
Terror threat warning issued
A warning had been issued of a possible terror threat against Israelis traveling in several countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, Armenia, Mali, Azerbaijan, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Venezuela, according to a text message from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Israelis were told to exercise caution in the coming week, which marks the anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008. The Lebanese Islamic militia Hezbollah blames Mughniyeh’s death on the Mossad.
UNITED STATES
Radar requested for drug war
Six senators from states that border Canada called on Thursday for the deployment of military radars against low-flying aircraft used to smuggle illegal drugs into the country. The lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that the move was needed to help counter “the increased rate of drug smuggling across our northern border.”
UNITED STATES
Child sex CD leads to arrest
Police say a CD found by an Ohio toddler showing another child being sexually abused in Palm Springs, California, about six years ago has led to a man’s arrest. Police say 42-year-old Canton, Ohio, resident Jeffery Roderick was being held under US$1 million bond on a charge of pandering sexual material involving a minor. The FBI and Palm Springs police also are investigating. Police say the toddler found the CD lodged under a drawer in his home. Authorities say it shows Roderick sexually abusing the previous homeowner’s one or two-year-old granddaughter. Roderick was arrested last month. The public defender’s office said it had no comment.
UNITED STATES
Plane attacker sentenced
A Frenchman convicted of shoving a Delta flight attendant after he was caught smoking in the airplane toilet was sentenced on Thursday in New York to time served, the New York Post reported. Franck Lebrun, 34, was ordered to pay a US$500 fine and sentenced to six months probation, as well as the six days jail he has already served, the report said. He admitted grappling with an air hostess and other personnel on Jan. 8 when he was flying from Nice, France, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. He had drunk heavily before sneaking into the bathroom for an illegal smoke. His attorney said Lebrun was “incredibly embarassed and ashamed for what he’s done — he’s just mortified,” the Post reported.
UNITED STATES
‘Granddad bandit’ takes plea
The pot-bellied man dubbed the “Granddad bandit,” accused of robbing banks in 15 states, pleaded guilty on Thursday in an agreement calling for a 25-year prison sentence, authorities said. Michael Mara, 53, admitted in a federal court in Virginia that he robbed 26 banks, making off with US$84,000 over nearly two years, all while living with his unsuspecting wife, whose grandchildren referred to him as “Grandpa Mike.” Prosecutors and Mara’s lawyers negotiated a plea agreement, which are typically approved by judges. Sentencing is scheduled for May 11. Surveillance video of his robberies showed a bespectacled, seemingly mild-mannered older man passing notes to bank tellers demanding money. When he received the money, he would collect the note and quietly walk away. Investigators named him the “Granddad bandit” to generate publicity, which worked. In August last year, they received a tip from the public and then arrested Mara at his home in Louisiana.
MEXICO
Gunmen kill seven in bar
Six women and a man were shot dead in a bar in Ciudad Juarez late on Thursday after gunmen stormed the building, police said. The evening murders came after a bloody day that also saw eight suspected drug cartel members and one soldier killed in a shootout in the north--central state of Zacatecas. The killings in the Juarez bar also left two other women seriously injured, in the city, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema