PHILIPPINES
Mount Bulusan spews ash
A large ash explosion yesterday from Bulusan, a 1,559m volcano, drifted south to cover Irosin, a town of 46,000 people, said Harriet Sayson of the civil defense operations center in nearby Legazpi City. She said civil defense staff were in the town checking for damage or casualties, but none had been reported so far. No evacuations had been ordered, she added. State volcanologist Ramil Vaquilar said rumbling sounds accompanied an ash column that rose between 2km and 2.5km above the crater at 9:12am, adding that no further major activity had been observed since.
SINGAPORE
US ex-athlete sentenced
A judge has sentenced a former US football player for Florida State University to 16 months in prison for his involvement in a telephone scam. Judge See Kee Oon said yesterday that Kamari Charlton received about S$330,000 (US$259,000) from elderly Croatian immigrants living in Australia and Germany, who were tricked into sending money to him between 2008 and last year. The sentence includes five months Charlton has already served, and he could be released in July for good behavior.
JAPAN
Panda fever grips public
Panda fever gripped the country as the public awaited the arrival of a pair of five-year-old pandas at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. The pair, a male named Bili and a female named Xiannu, left their sanctuary in China’s Sichuan Province yesterday headed for Shanghai, from where they were to fly to Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government, which runs Ueno Zoo, will pay a giant price tag of US$950,000 per year for the next decade to lease the animals, with the money to be spent on wildlife protection in China.
AUSTRIA
Mogul wants to book Ruby
A news agency is quoting a quirky construction mogul as saying he won’t be taking actress Bo Derek to Vienna’s famous Opera Ball after all and that her replacement may be the teenager embroiled in a sex scandal surrounding Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Richard Lugner, a 78-year-old who loves the limelight, books a different celebrity for the fancy affair every year. Recent dates have included Paris Hilton and Dita Von Teese. Lugner announced last week that Derek would be next. The Austria Press Agency on Sunday quoted Lugner as saying he would cancel his contract with the 54-year-old because she wanted US$25,000 more than originally agreed to. Lugner said his team has almost completed negotiations with Karima el-Mahroug, an 18-year-old nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, who is at the center of a prostitution scandal that has sent Berlusconi to trial.
EGYPT
Political prisoners released
Following a pledge by Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, 108 political prisoners have been released, state television reported on Sunday. Shafiq was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA on Saturday that 222 prisoners would soon be freed, but did not say when. Shafiq had put the number of remaining political prisoners at 487, MENA said. Only a handful of people were detained during the a popular uprising that began on Jan. 25 and led to the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak, MENA quoted Shafiq as saying.
TURKEY
Erdogan fights dictator label
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Sunday to step down as chairman of the AK Party to prove he is not a “dictator” if the party finishes second in a June general election. Most opinion polls have shown that AK, which first came to power in 2002, is well ahead of its rivals in a campaign to win its third term. “If my party finishes second, I will leave my post as chairman. I will take to the road in Anatolia and join my people and work from there,” Erdogan said in a speech broadcast live by the news channel NTV. “Will those who accuse me of having dictatorial aspirations step aside if their party finishes second?” he said.
IRAN
Rafsanjani daughter held
Authorities have detained the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the most powerful opposition supporter inside the country’s clerical leadership, the official IRNA news agency said. The report said Faezeh Hashemi was arrested on Sunday while trying to cause unrest by chanting anti--government slogans in one of the main streets of Tehran. The opposition had called for a rally on Sunday to mark a week since the deaths of two people in Feb. 14 clashes.
ESTONIA
Disabled kids’ home burns
A fire raced through an orphanage for disabled children on Sunday, killing 10 of them, a rescue service spokesman said. There were 37 children and nine adults inside the wooden building when the fire started in the coastal town of Haapsalu, said Viktor Saaremets, a spokesman for the Western Estonia Rescue Services Center. “By the time rescue workers and firefighters arrived at the scene three or four minutes later, the building was completely in flames,” he said. Ten children were killed and one adult was injured, Saaremets said. The others were evacuated to a nearby building and were not hurt, he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
UNITED STATES
Oral sex linked to cancer
Scientists said on Sunday there was strong evidence linking oral sex to cancer, and urged more study of how human papillomaviruses (HPV) may be to blame for a rise in oral cancer among white men. Oral cancer because of HPV infection is now more common than oral cancer from tobacco use, which remains the leading cause of such cancers in the rest of the world. Researchers found a 225 percent increase in oral cancer cases from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men, Maura Gillison of Ohio State University said. “When you compare people who have an oral infection or not,” said Gillison, who has been researching HPV and cancer for 15 years, “the single greatest factor is the number of partners on whom the person has performed oral sex.” “When the number of partners increases, the risk increases,” she told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington.
MEXICO
Legislators seek game ban
Legislators in the border state of Chihuahua have asked federal authorities to ban a violent video game based on the drug cartel shootouts in Ciudad Juarez. About 6,000 people died in drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez in 2009 and last year, making the city one of the deadliest in the world. Ubisoft Corp says it will soon release Call of Juarez: The Cartel. Promotions show armed characters ready to open fire on a city street. The slogan on a Web site for the game reads: “Take justice into your own hands and experience the lawlessness of the modern Wild West.”
UNITED STATES
Shooter’s dad reclusive
Randy Loughner was always something of a recluse, but since his son’s alleged shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, the father has shut himself behind what one neighbor calls “an elaborate cage.” In recent weeks, Loughner has built a substantial wooden enclosure, more than 1.8m high, obscuring his front door and windows. The four horizontal windows on the garage door have been papered over, the diamond-shaped openings atop the block wall to his backyard closed off with little plywood plugs.
BRAZIL
Woman falls off float, dies
A 21-year-old woman fell to her death from a musical float during a practice run ahead of Rio de Jnmeiro’s Carnival parade, local media reported on Sunday. The accident took place near the tourist beach of Copacabana, south of Rio, when the “bloco” group of street performers was moving down the street to the rhythm of the samba. Witnesses quoted by local television and newspapers said the woman lost her balance, fell and died shortly after impact. Street parades, washed down with much beer, are traditional ahead of Rio’s Carnival on March 6 and March 7.
UNITED STATES
Todd Palin enters Iron Dog
Todd Palin is participating in the world’s longest snowmobile race, with his famous wife on hand to see him off at the start in Big Lake, Alaska. Palin and his racing partner took off late on Sunday morning in the 3,172km Iron Dog. Palin is a four-time champion of the Alaska race, which ends in Fairbanks, Alaska. Seeing him off was his wife, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee. Also on hand were daughters Bristol and Piper. Todd Palin, who last won in 2007, scratched from the race last year.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
A sign hanging from a rusty ice-green shipping container installed by Thai forces on what they say is the border with Cambodia reads: “Cambodian citizens are strictly prohibited from entering this area.” On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand’s military showed off its gains. Thai forces took control of several patches of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, which could amount to several square kilometers in total. Cambodian Kim Ren said her house in Chouk Chey used to stand on what is now the Thai
NEW RULES: There would be fewer school days, four-day workweeks, and a reduction in transportation services as the country battles a crisis exacerbated by US pressure The Cuban government on Friday announced emergency measures to address a crippling energy crisis worsened by US sanctions, including the adoption of a four-day work week for state-owned companies and fuel sale restrictions. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga blamed Washington for the crisis, telling Cuban television the government would “implement a series of decisions, first and foremost to guarantee the vitality of our country and essential services, without giving up on development.” “Fuel will be used to protect essential services for the population and indispensable economic activities,” he said. Among the new measures are the reduction of the working week in
RSS