CHINA
Hu Jia’s wife missing
The wife of prominent jailed rights activist Hu Jia (胡佳) has gone missing ahead of her husband’s expected release and may have been taken into custody, a Hong Kong newspaper said yesterday. Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕) boarded a flight from Shenzhen on Sunday, but did not exit from the passenger arrival area after it landed later in Beijing, the Oriental Daily said. “She may have been taken away by Chinese authorities,” the paper said, quoting unnamed sources. Hu is expected to be released on Sunday after serving a prison term of three-and-a-half years for subversion.
AUSTRALIA
Flights suspended by ash
Virgin Australia plans to suspend flights into and out of the southern city of Adelaide when an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano returns to Australian airspace. Volcanic ash grounded hundreds of flights and stranded thousands of passengers last week when it hovered over several Australian cities and New Zealand. By Friday, all flights were running normally, but the ash has lapped the globe again and should begin causing problems again today. The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center said yesterday that the ash could also eventually disrupt air traffic in Sydney and Melbourne.
INDIA
Foreign chief off to Myanmar
Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna said he was heading to Yangon to engage with Myanmar’s newly elected, nominally civilian, government and enhance bilateral and strategic cooperation. The nation and Myanmar have developed deep economic and security ties over the past decade. New Delhi has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach in dealing with Yangon’s military rulers than sanctions. Krishna told journalists that he hoped to promote ties in the fields of information technology, industry and infrastructure development in Myanmar.
AUSTRALIA
Abbott calls for plebiscite
Australians may be asked to vote on whether or not they support a carbon tax to combat climate change after opposition leader Tony Abbott yesterday called for a plebiscite on the issue. Abbott said Prime Minister Julia Gillard went into the election promising no carbon tax, but later reversed her decision. Abbott, who plans to introduce a private members’ bill on a plebiscite, said it should take place within 90 days of passing parliament. For the bill to be passed it must receive the backing of the key independents whose support allowed Gillard to take power. The final outcome of the plebiscite would be non-binding on the government. Gillard yesterday dismissed Abbott’s plebiscite push as a stunt.
NEW ZEALAND
Quake losses soar: Key
Prime Minister John Key yesterday said the bill from the devastating Christchurch earthquakes had soared to NZ$25 billion (US$20.2 billion), far more than previously thought. Earlier official estimates of rebuilding put the costs of the quakes in September and February — the second of which claimed 181 lives — at NZ$15 billion. Key told reporters during a visit to Canberra the costs had risen, without specifying whether that was due to a third powerful tremor that hit Christchurch last week. “It is going to cost in the order of 8 to 9 percent of GDP, round about NZ$25 billion, so it’s a very major event,” he said. Key was greeted with a 19-gun salute and a marching band playing Waltzing Matilda as he arrived at Parliament House in the Australian capital yesterday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Church considers gay clergy
The Anglican Church was yesterday set to approve controversial guidelines allowing openly homosexual clergy to become bishops. In a paper that was due to be published yesterday, the church was to seek to move in line with the Equality Act by updating its rules to permit celibate homosexual men to be promoted. The paper, entitled Choosing Bishops — The Equality Act 2010, provides legal guidelines for those considering candidates for promotion and spells out that sexuality must not be a factor in the final decision. The guidelines will be presented before the church’s General Synod next month.
UNITED KINGDOM
Winehouse cancels concerts
Singer Amy Winehouse is canceling part of her European tour, her representatives said on Sunday, after she was booed for being late and stumbling onto stage during a concert in Serbia. Winehouse was to cancel appearances in Istanbul yesterday and in Athens tomorrow, according to a statement from publicity company Outside Organization. The Serbian concert late on Saturday began a 12-date tour of Europe. Winehouse, who has publicly struggled with drugs and alcohol, was jeered as she performed in Belgrade. Winehouse was almost an hour late, before stumbling to the stage and appearing unable to remember the lyrics to her songs. She dropped the microphone and occasionally disappeared, with her band playing instead. Serbian media described the concert before about 20,000 fans as a “scandal” and a “disaster.”
TUNISIA
Ben Ali on trial ‘in absentia’
Former autocratic ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose ouster triggered a series of Arab world uprisings, went on trial in absentia yesterday in the first of what will likely be a long series of court proceedings five months after he went into exile. The Tunis Criminal Court is hearing two embezzlement, money laundering and drug trafficking cases against Ben Ali. It follows the discovery of about US$27 million in jewels and cash plus drugs and weapons at two palaces outside Tunis after he flew to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.
SOMALIA
Somaliland seeks status
The semi-autonomous region of Somaliland appealed to African nations to grant it recognition as a sovereign state and called for international help to deal with piracy off its coast. “We need more support from African states,” Somaliland Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdillahi Omar said in an interview on Wednesday last week in the capital, Hargeisa. “We need recognition, cooperation and assistance from African states.” The region, a former British colony, declared independence from Somalia in 1991, following the ouster of former Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. No sovereign state has formally recognized the area as independent. In March, the region opened a maximum-security prison built with UN funding to incarcerate pirates convicted of attacks off the coast of Somalia.
EGYPT
Woman announces bid
The online biography of Bothaina Kamel reads: “Journalist, mother & Egyptian presidential candidate.” Not a lot of people can say that. In fact no one can — Kamel is the first to run for the presidency in the history of her country. The 49-year-old announced her candidacy on Twitter and her presence on the social networking site is no accident. She presented a popular call-in radio show for its young demographic for six years, talking them through their problems.
UNITED STATES
Sextuplets born in Alabama
Father’s Day came early for an Alabama man whose wife gave birth to sextuplets. More than 50 medical professionals helped deliver the six babies born on Saturday to Heather and Mitchell Carroll at the Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham. The five girls and one boy were born after 28 weeks in the womb. Hospital officials say they are in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit. A doctor said their mother was also stable and resting.
UNITED STATES
Four killed in pharmacy
A gunman fatally shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb on Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong. The killings took place at about 10:20am inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, Long Island. Suffolk County Police Department Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone said the pharmacy opened for business at 10am and investigators’ initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath, and that the motive was robbery.
BRAZIL
Pro-marijuana marches held
Demonstrators held marches on Saturday calling for marijuana to be legalized after the country’s top court ruled the gatherings could go ahead in the name of freedom of speech. The demonstrations were held in 40 towns and cities, according to local media. Most were small affairs, with around 2,000 marching in Sao Paulo. Some people were seen smoking marijuana, but there were no immediate reports of arrests. Possession and use of marijuana remains illegal and some commentators and social groups said they believed the marches violated a law on justifying crimes. However, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the right to freedom of expression was more important and the marches could be held.
UNITED STATES
Police ignore cat burglar
A prolific cat burglar has stolen hundreds of precious possessions from homes near San Francisco, but police are staying off the case because the burglar really is a cat. Dusty, a five-year-old feline from San Mateo, has taken hundreds of items during his nearly nightly heists. Jean Chu told the San Francisco Chronicle that her cat has pilfered gloves, towels, shoes and more since she adopted him from the Humane Society. Dusty has a special love for swimsuits. Neighbor Kelly McLellan says he stole her bikini — on two separate trips. She said he appeared focused on keeping the ensemble. Experts say Dusty’s predatory instincts have gone astray.
UNITED STATES
Marilyn Monroe dress sold
The legendary white dress seen billowing under Marilyn Monroe in an iconic image of 1950s Hollywood has sold at auction for US$4.6 million, shattering estimates. The dress, worn by the star in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, had been expected to fetch between US$1 million and US$2 million. The sale on Saturday, part of a collection of Hollywood memorabilia held by actress Debbie Reynolds, saw Monroe’s “subway” dress — now cream colored from age — sold for US$4.6 million (or US$5,520,000 with added fees). The entire sale, which included other Monroe garbs, was valued at US$22.8 million, Nancy Seltzer, a spokeswoman for auction house Profiles in History said in an e-mail. Signed by the US designer William Travilla, the pleated ivory dress was the highest value feature of the auction.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese