SRI LANKA
Elephant census in August
The government is planning its first-ever census of elephants as the animals increasingly come into conflict with villagers, a top official said yesterday. Government wildlife director Chandrawansa Pathiraja said a head count would start in August to aid better planning of conservation and minimize clashes between elephants and humans. “We will carry out the census within a 48-hour period,” Pathiraja said. “We expect dry weather at this time.” The local elephant population is believed to have dwindled to about 4,000 from an estimated 12,000 in 1900.
SOUTH KOREA
Suspected wife killer arrested
A middle-aged man has been arrested 12 years after allegedly killing his wife and storing her body in a large cardboard box at his daughter’s home, police said on Tuesday. The daughter called police on Saturday after finding a woman’s body inside a box wrapped in 10 layers of plastic at her home in Seoul. Fingerprints showed it was her mother. The suspect, identified only as Lee, 51, was found at Bucheon, southwest of Seoul, and is being investigated for murder, Yonhap news agency quoted investigators as saying. Lee told reporters he “kept the body because I was sorry to my dead wife and daughter. I wanted to keep the body forever.”
INDIA
Minister read wrong speech
Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, 78, is battling to save his reputation after mistakenly reading from the speech of his Portuguese counterpart at a UN meeting in New York. Krishna read the first three minutes of the wrong text last week before one of his officials stepped in to point out his error, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. “On a more personal note, allow me to express my profound satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the -Portuguese-speaking countries, Brazil and Portugal, together here today,” Krishna told the UN according to PTI. The minister later brushed off Friday’s gaffe, telling reporters in New York that “there was nothing wrong in it.” The Hindustan Times on Tuesday teased Krishna by suggesting that the very public muddle-up allowed the nation to acknowledge its debt to Portugal, which was once a colonial ruler of Goa and other parts of the country. “If we junk the colonial baggage, there is a lot we can thank the Portuguese for,” it said, mentioning Goa’s famous food. “The least we can do is read out their speeches once in a while.” Nirmala Sitharaman, spokeswoman for the opposition BJP, said the speech mix-up proved the government’s “level of incompetence has reached to its optimum.”
NEW ZEALAND
Hiker tells of survival
A British hiker said yesterday he had survived in the wilderness for more than five days without food before attracting rescuers with a makeshift sign pleading “help.” James Esbester, 30, went missing last Thursday in the South Island’s rugged Kahurangi National Park after becoming disorientated while climbing a hill on a trek he intended to last only half a day. Esbester said he feared he would perish before a rescue helicopter spotted him in fading light late on Tuesday about 10km from where he originally became lost. He was suffering mild dehydration when a helicopter carrying out its final sweep for the day found him on Tuesday. Esbester said the crew winched him to safety and fed him tea before taking him to hospital, where he was discharged after a few hours’ observation. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a cup of tea taste so good,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Flatulence cited in murder
A man accused of stabbing a friend to death and injuring three other people at a party because people were making fun of his flatulence has pleaded not guilty. The Hartford Courant reported that Marc Higgins pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges in New Britain, Connecticut, on Monday. Police say the 21-year-old Higgins was “very drunk” at a Bristol house party last month and was ridiculed because of flatulence. Police said one woman even slapped him because of it. Police said at that point he stormed out of the party and returned about 45 minutes later with three knives and started stabbing people indiscriminately. Matthew Walton died of his wounds. Three others were injured. Higgins told police he was angry and wanted to show that people shouldn’t make fun of him.
ARGENTINA
Gay cruise set to sail
Latin America’s first official gay cruise will leave Buenos Aires next month for two cities in Uruguay, one of the organizers said on Tuesday. “Ego is the first cruise for gays and lesbians in Latin America,” said Jorge Giorno, who owns the Thesys organizing firm. He noted demand was “very high” since Buenos Aires passed a measure in July last year legalizing gay marriage. The ultra-modern cruise ship is 220m long and features 1,000 rooms, seven bars, four restaurants, a casino, a discotheque and four swimming pools. “We are getting calls from around the world,” Giorno said. Buenos Aires is considered a prime location for the gay community. The country’s gay law amended the phrase “husband and wife” to “contracting parties” in the Civil Code. It also extended equal rights to homosexual couples in matters of adoption, inheritance and social benefits.
SWEDEN
Taxi ride lands pair in court
A pair of Parisian taxi drivers may pay a heavy price — jail — for driving a group of illegal Afghan immigrants from France to Sweden, according to court documents made available on Tuesday. Frenchman Bruno Dacher, 32, and Portuguese Fredrico Silva da Conceicao, 48, have been charged with human trafficking and “risk between six months to six years in prison” prosecutor Jorgen Larsson said in Malmo, where the two men will be tried. Customs authorities arrested the pair on Dec. 29, after they had crossed the bridge linking Copenhagen and Malmo with eight young Afghan clients. The drivers had charged their passengers 2,500 euros (US$3,375) for the 1,300km trip. The pair denies any wrongdoing, Larsson said, adding, “they said it was a taxi run just like any other.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Army sorry for e-mail layoffs
The military apologized on Tuesday for using e-mails to tell several dozen long-serving soldiers that they were being laid off. The Army said an “administrative error” meant the soldiers were not told in person that their contracts would be ended because of cutbacks. Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox said he was “furious that such a situation should occur ... I want to know how this was allowed to happen and what measures will be put in place to prevent this from happening again.” Media reported that the soldiers were 38 warrant officers with more than 20 years’ service who are on rolling short-term contracts. The Sun newspaper said one received the news while serving in Afghanistan.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion