UNITED KINGDOM
Mongol warrior vies for prize
Metalwork, multicolored mutts and a Mongol warrior are in the running for the country’s quirkiest literary award, the Diagram Prize for year’s oddest book title. The six finalists announced on Friday include 8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings, canine personality guide What Color is Your Dog? and Managing a Dental Practice: The Genghis Khan Way. Also in the running are organ procurement study The Generosity of the Dead, romance novel The Italian’s One-Night Love Child and Myth of the Social Volcano, a look at demographics in China. The prize, run by trade magazine The Bookseller, was founded in 1978. Its rules say the books must be serious and their titles not merely a gimmick. The winner will be decided by public vote and will be announced on March 25. The award carries no cash prize, but prize administrator Philip Stone said last year’s champion, Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, saw its sales leap from half a dozen copies a week to 95 copies in the seven days after winning. “You can’t buy that kind of publicity,” he said. Other previous champions include Bombproof Your Horse, Highlights in the History of Concrete and The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification.
UNITED STATES
Baby duct-taper charged
A California woman is under arrest after authorities said she duct-taped her two-year-old son. San Bernardino County deputies say 19-year-old Danyella Higgins was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of cruelty to a child. Deputies went to the woman’s home after a photo was sent to her friend showing her two-year-old son with duct tape around his hands, feet and mouth. The recipient called authorities. The San Bernardino Sun says Higgins told authorities she was taping up a window and thought it would be funny to tape up her son. Authorities said he was found in a playpen with bits of tape still clinging to him. The boy was turned over to the county child welfare agency.
UNITED STATES
Verizon drops 911 calls
Regulators said Verizon Communications’ networks may have dropped a “truly alarming” number of wireless emergency calls during a snow storm last month and asked the carrier to investigate. Reports indicate Verizon’s network failed to connect 10,000 calls to 911 numbers in Washington’s suburbs during the Jan. 26 storm, the Federal Communications Commission said in a letter to the carrier that was released by e-mail.
AUSTRALIA
Justice sought for Assange
The country’s ambassador to Sweden has written to the country’s justice minister seeking assurances that Julian Assange, WikiLeaks -editor-in-chief, would be treated justly under Swedish and international law, should he be extradited there. Assange, an Australian citizen, is currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual molestation made by two women in August last year, which he denies. He will learn his fate on Thursday, when English magistrate Howard Riddle will deliver his judgment on the extradition warrant. In his letter to Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask, ambassador Paul Stephens writes of the government’s “expectation that, should Mr Assange be brought into Swedish jurisdiction, his case would proceed in accordance with due process and the provisions prescribed under Swedish law.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was