PHILIPPINES
Fire razes shantytown
About 10,000 people lost their homes and one child was killed when a fire swept through one of the country’s largest shantytowns in Manila yesterday, arson investigator Catherine Albino said. The authorities had yet to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed about 500 houses in the Bahay Toro slum, Albino said. Firemen battled for more than three hours before the blaze was brought under control.
NORTH KOREA
Food needs being assessed
The UN said on Monday it had begun a new assessment of the impoverished country’s food needs. The country has reportedly asked the US and other nations to consider resuming food aid. US handouts were suspended in 2009 after monitors of its distribution were expelled. Last Thursday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization began a joint mission to assess food needs in the country, said Bettina Luescher, the WFP’s spokeswoman in New York. WFP’s current food aid operation is only 20 percent funded, she said. It requires about US$4 million a month.
CHINA
Smoking on way out
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is ordering makers of films and TV shows to limit the amount of smoking depicted on-screen, the latest effort to curb rampant tobacco use in the country with the largest number of smokers in the world. The order, viewed yesterday on its Web site, orders producers to minimize plot lines and scenes involving tobacco and show smoking only when necessary for artistic purposes or character development.
HONDURAS
Air crash kills 14 people
A small commercial airliner crashed on Monday near the capital, killing all 14 people aboard, including a senior government official and a top union leader, authorities said. Two Americans and a Canadian were listed as passengers on the Central American Airlines’ flight to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, said Melvin Duarte, spokesman for the Attorney General’s office. US and Canadian embassy officials said they would release details on the victims after notifying their families. The Let L-410 Turbolet crashed on Monday morning in the town of Las Mesitas, about 5km south of the airport. It was carrying two pilots and 12 passengers, including Assistant Secretary for Public Works Rodolfo Rovelo, United Workers Federation of Honduras leader Jose Israel Salinas and former economy secretary Carlos Chain, airline manager Felix Pacheco said.
UNITED STATES
Composer Shearing dies
British-born jazz pianist and composer George Shearing, known for his Lullaby of Birdland that paid tribute to Charlie Parker, died on Monday, his agent said. Manager Dale Sheets said Shearing “passed away in New York this morning at 1:05am of congestive heart failure.” He was 91. Shearing, who was blind from birth, emigrated to the US in 1947 and formed a jazz quintet that recorded numerous hits. He became a superstar of the jazz world a couple of years after he arrived in the US, although he was already hugely popular in England. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
ITALY
Berlusconi trial date set
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will go on trial for abuse of power and buying underage sex in April, a judge ruled yesterday. Judge Cristina Di Censa, the examining judge at the court in Milan, fixed the date for the first hearing in a fast-track trial for April 6. “We didn’t expect anything else,” Berlusconi’s lawyers said on hearing the news. Berlusconi will be tried by three female judges. Di Censa upheld requests by Milan magistrates to fast-track a trial against the 74-year-old leader on allegations he paid for sex with a nightclub dancer called “Ruby the Heart Stealer.”
UNITED STATES
Condom finder released
Health officials have released a mobile phone application to help people in New York City find free condoms. The app is designed to locate the five nearest venues that distribute official NYC Condoms in jazzy wrappers printed with colorful subway maps or other city themes. People can manually enter addresses or use their phones’ GPS technology. The app provides the hours of operation for each location and directions by foot, car or public transportation. It also offers tips on condom usage.
UNITED STATES
Airport worker admits theft
A supervisor at a New Jersey airport has admitted accepting bribes and kickbacks from a subordinate who stole money from passengers during security screenings. Michael Arato of Ewing also admitted on Monday in federal court that he regularly stole from passengers who went through his checkpoint at Newark Liberty Airport. Prosecutors say the 41-year-old Arato permitted a worker he supervised to steal US$10,000 to US$30,000 in cash from travelers’ bags over 13 months. In exchange, the subordinate would give some of the money to Arato. The subordinate, who was not named, cooperated with the investigation that led to Arato’s arrest in October. Arato faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and is to be sentenced on May 24.
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