INDIA
Death of gangster probed
Police in Mumbai on Wednesday said they were investigating the death in Thailand of a senior gangland figure wanted over the murder of a lawyer who represented a Mumbai attacks suspect. Bharat Nepali was suspected of masterminding the murder of Shahid Azmi, who was acting for one of three men accused of involvement in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Azmi was shot dead in February last year by armed men who burst into his office. “We have got some information that he [Nepali] has been killed,” a senior police official said on condition of anonymity, after the Times of India daily said the 44-year-old Mumbai underworld don was shot dead in Bangkok. The officer confirmed that he was killed in November last year, but did not comment on the newspaper’s claim that the delay in identifying Nepali was because he had been living in Bangkok under his real name.
AUSTRALIA
Fisherman swims ashore
A fisherman who swam for six hours to reach shore after a rogue wave knocked him out of his boat said on Wednesday that he survived on “adrenaline” and “sheer determination.” Andrew Wilson, 25, was on his own and was not wearing a life jacket when the wave sent him over the side of his boat on Tuesday off the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. Police launched an air and sea search for Wilson after his boat was spotted, unmanned and with the engine still running, Tweed Heads Police Inspector Darren Steel told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Searchers found no sign of the missing man, Steel said, but he turned up ashore after swimming 7.5km, clambering over rocks and then knocking on a stranger’s door seeking help. Wilson was treated at a hospital for cuts and exposure, then released. Later, he told Nine Network television he realized as soon as he was in the water that he was going to have to swim for it. Strong currents pulling him away from shore meant he could not rest even for a short time.
CHINA
Solar flare causes disruption
The largest solar flare in more than four years has caused disruptions to shortwave radio communications in the country, state media reported. The solar flare, a huge explosion on the sun’s surface caused by magnetic activity, affected transmissions in the south on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the China Meteorological Administration. NASA said Monday’s solar flare was the largest in four years and the event sparked predictions of heightened northern hemisphere aurora activity. Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system and the radiation they emit can trigger radio blackouts and other phenomena on Earth, NASA said.
PAKISTAN
Immunity hearing delayed
A court has delayed a hearing on whether a US citizen detained for fatally shooting two Pakistani men has diplomatic immunity. Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik says the court will wait until March 14 to allow the government more time to prepare its opinion on whether the US embassy worker qualifies for diplomatic protections. The decision was made at a short hearing yesterday. The government had requested an adjournment to complete its opinion. The US said Raymond Davis shot the armed men in self-defense as they tried to rob him on Jan. 27 and that his detention was illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.
GERMANY
Noisy kids get own law
The Cabinet on Wednesday adopted draft legislation aimed at battling a growing tide of complaints against noisy children, in what is a rapidly aging society. The legislation aims to make it easier to build creches in residential areas following a spate of objections against the din of children at play. Some of these complaints have resulted in kindergartens being refused planning permission or childcare centers having to build noise-protection walls so as not to disturb locals. Many are from people in their 30s and 40s, including couples with children, worried about the value of their property falling if a noisy new kindergarten springs up nearby, experts said. In a statement, Federal Minister for the Environment Norbert Roettgen said: “This is a clear legislative signal in favor of a child-friendly society.” The law comes as the country struggles to encourage more births as Europe’s top economy faces a demographic time bomb — just 14 percent of the population is less than 14 years old.
SPAIN
Cyclist hops up tallest hotel
A Polish stunt cyclist has hopped up 921 steps to the top of Europe’s tallest hotel, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “taking the stairs.” Krystian Herba said it took him 19 minutes, 27 seconds on Wednesday to get to the peak of the 186m-tall, 52-story Gran Hotel Bali in the eastern resort city of Benidorm. Herba does not pedal, but rather bounces his way up, taking usually two steps at a time, but sometimes three. He said the journey went perfectly, adding: “I am tired, but very happy.” For his next trick, Herba plans to take on the 63-story Messeturm, a skyscraper in Frankfurt, Germany.
RUSSIA
Putin slams customs video
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticized a group of customs officers for a video clip they posted on YouTube celebrating the lavish lifestyle they said comes with their government jobs. The mock rap video made in the port city of Vladivostok shows customs officials in sunglasses driving a Rolls Royce and drinking champagne surrounded by scantily clad women. “You can’t even imagine how the customs officials have fun,” officers sing in chorus as a topless woman clutches customs forms to her breasts. Putin condemned the bling-filled video’s tongue-in-cheek look at corruption. “I like to joke and laugh a little myself, but this kind of creativity should be saved for a talent show,” he said. The average monthly salary for customs officials — US$1,000 — is also the size of the average bribe in the country, according to a recent report in financial daily Vedomosti.
UNITED KINGDOM
Warhol self-portrait sold
A colossal self-portrait by “pope of pop” Andy Warhol sold for ￡10.8 million pounds (US$17.4 million) at Christie’s in London on Wednesday, doubling pre-auction expectations. The recently discovered 1967 piece, which measures 0.05m2, depicts Warhol with a hand to his mouth in what the auction house called “one of the most representative and iconic images of the artist.” “It has been an incredibly exciting journey to work with a previously unknown work by Andy Warhol, particularly one with such historic importance,” Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s Europe, said. The painting is one of 11 large-scale self-portraits executed in 1967, a time when Warhol had established himself as the most important figure in the Pop Art movement.
UNITED STATES
‘Get out more, Kim’: Crowley
The State Department suggested on Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il get “out more often” and open up his country after one of his sons apparently attended an Eric Clapton concert. “KimJong-il’s son attended an EricClapton concert in Singapore? Actually, the DearLeader himself would benefit from getting out more often,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley tweeted on Twitter. “Of course, there is nothing preventing Kim Jong-il from opening up North Korea so his people could enjoy Clapton, and maybe get more to eat.”
UNITED STATES
Freed Bolivian lions arrive
Twenty-five lions rescued from circuses in Bolivia under a law banning the use of wild animals for public shows arrived in their new open-air home in Colorado on Wednesday, organizers said. The 13 male and 12 female lions arrived in Denver after being transported in special cages on a cargo flight from Bolivia, The Wild Animal Sanctuary said. “As each lion entered their new home they felt grass on their toes for the first time ever,” the sanctuary said. “The lions were kept in the family groups they were rescued with and after close observation will be released into four different prides in 20 acre habitats with underground dens, shade structures and play structures to help them with enrichment and exercise.”
UNITED STATES
Hair aid discovered
US researchers looking at how stress affects the gut stumbled upon a potent chemical that caused mice to regrow hair by blocking a stress-related hormone, a study on Wednesday said. While the process has not yet been tested in humans, it grew more hair in mice than minoxidil, the ingredient in Rogaine, a popular treatment for baldness, the study in the online journal PLoS One said. Researchers from University of California Los Angeles and the Veterans Administration discovered the chemical compound “entirely by accident,” the study said.
UNITED STATES
‘Klepto the cat’ caught
A thieving feline has been caught on camera, stealing more than 600 items from neighbors’ homes in San Mateo, California, reports said on Wednesday. Dusty the cat burglar was videoed by a night-vision camera carrying everything from a bath sponge and a toy dinosaur to a neighbor’s bikini top down the street. Infrared video of Dusty showed it carrying a string of stolen goods in his mouth, including one item of clothing so big and long that the cat’s back feet were splayed as it hobbled along the sidewalk, dragging its bounty. Neighbors have re-named Dusty “Klepto the cat” after he was caught red-pawed following an investigation by Animal Planet, which featured him in one of its TV shows this week.
UNITED STATES
Dog rats out owner
A sheriff’s deputy didn’t need a drug dog to point out a stash during a recent traffic stop. The driver’s dog did it for him. KGW-TV reports Sherman County sheriff’s Sergeant John Terrel was pulling over a pickup truck on Feb. 9 when he saw a sock fly out the window. It turned out to be stuffed with marijuana and hashish. The driver told Terrel he was trying to hide the sock, but his pit bull mix grabbed it and wouldn’t let go, enjoying a tug-of-war game. The dog won the tussle and tossed the sock out the window, and the 32-year-old driver was indicted on drug possession charges.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
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