CANADA
Long road for Libya: Baird
Libya faces a long transition from dictatorship to democracy or “from [Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi to [principal author of the US Declaration of Independence and third US president] Thomas Jefferson,” Ottawa’s top diplomat said on Monday after meeting with Libyan rebels in Benghazi. “The National Transitional Council represents the best hope for the future of Libya,” Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird told journalists in a conference call after meeting with the rebel group.
GERMANY
More people die of E. coli
A killer strain of E. coli bacteria has claimed four more lives, bringing the death toll to 47, German health authorities said yesterday. All but one of the fatalities from enterohaemorrhagic E. coli were in the country, the other being a woman in Sweden who had recently returned. The outbreak, blamed on organic vegetable sprouts grown in the north, has made about 3,800 people ill in 16 countries, 850 of them seriously, the WHO has said. The daily numbers of reported cases have steadily decreased since peaking at the end of last month.
UNITED STATES
Gaga sued over donations
Pop superstar Lady Gaga has been sued over sales of her wristbands for Japan’s earthquake relief efforts in a class action that claims that not all the proceeds went to victims as she had promised. Michigan legal network 1800LAWFIRM also alleges that Gaga and other companies involved in the sale and marketing of the US$5 white and red “We Pray for Japan” wristbands overcharged buyers on shipping costs and “artificially inflated reports of total donations.” Lady Gaga, 25, and her representatives did not return calls for comment on Monday. The federal class action lawsuit was filed in Michigan on Friday while the Born This Way singer was in Japan for a benefit concert for victims of the March earthquake and tsunami.
UNITED STATES
Heff takes on new playmate
Meet Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s new girlfriend, almost the same as the old one. Two weeks after Hefner was dumped by Miss December 2009 just before their wedding, he said on Monday that he was now dating Miss November 2010. The 85-year-old magazine mogul moved on to Shera Bechard after Crystal Harris had second thoughts about becoming the third Mrs Hugh Hefner. Bechard, a 27-year-old French-Canadian model and fledgling actress, moved into the Playboy Mansion in April. Harris said she got jitters about living a tightly regimented life among dozens of attractive young women at the Playboy mansion, and left Hefner days before their scheduled June 18 wedding. Initially heartbroken, Hefner has taken a more philosophical stance, saying last weekend that “staying single is probably for the best.”
GERMANY
Firm puts cellphones in tins
A chemicals company said on Monday its managers have started keeping their mobile phones in biscuit tins during meetings to guard against industrial espionage. “Experts have told us that mobile phones are being eavesdropped on more and more, even when they are switched off,” said Alexandra Boy, spokeswoman for Essen-based specialty chemicals maker Evonik. Biscuit tins have a so-called Farraday cage effect, she said, blocking out electromagnetic radiation and therefore stopping people from hacking into mobile phones, not only for calls, but also to get hold of e-mails.
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
‘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
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