AUSTRALIA
Baby killer sentenced to life
A vengeful man who wrote on his Facebook page he was “bout to kill ma kid” minutes before stabbing his two-year-old daughter to death was jailed for life yesterday. Consumed by hatred and a desire to punish his ex-partner Rachelle D’Argent, Ramazan Acar, 24, kidnapped daughter Yazmina from her Melbourne home in November last year. The Victorian Supreme Court heard that as well as posting the disturbing Facebook message, Acar sent taunting text messages to D’Argent before killing his daughter.
SOUTH KOREA
Military cyber unit to expand
The defense ministry said yesterday it would expand its cyber warfare unit to help combat growing Internet attacks from North Korea. The ministry said its cyber command, launched in January last year, would increase the number of personnel from 400 to 500, following an earlier announcement that it would open a cyber warfare school next year. North Korea reportedly maintains elite hacker units. Seoul accused Pyongyang of staging cyber attacks on Web sites of major government agencies and financial institutions in March this year and in July 2009.
CHINA
Tree-climbing robot created
Inspired by tiny caterpillars, Treebot may be China’s new answer to forest preservation. The slinky robot grips trees with spidery legs to climb and is equipped with a camera to spot any dangers to forests high amidst the leaves. Its segmented body allows it to negotiate complex branches and make turns. Xu Yangsheng (徐揚生), a professor at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, said nature gave him the idea for his creation. “I used to basically observe how inchworms actually walk on the trees and I like this idea very much,” he said. Treebot’s camera transmits images in real time and it can support a solar cell, so potentially there would be no need to halt its work to recharge. And while it weighs in at only 600g, it can carry three times its weight.
AUSTRALIA
Doctor jailed for bodily harm
A doctor who unnecessarily removed a woman’s clitoris during genital surgery and indecently assaulted two other patients while conducting pelvic examinations was jailed yesterday for two years. The doctor, 60, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted by a jury of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on the widow by cutting out her clitoris without consent during a procedure in 2002. He was also found guilty of indecently assaulting two other patients while carrying out internal pelvic examinations. Defense lawyers told the court the man was suffering from major clinical depression, a personality disorder and impotence at the time of the offenses.
RUSSIA
Submarine delivery nears
A nuclear submarine will be delivered to India by the end of the year, navy commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as saying yesterday by state news agency RIA. New Delhi sees Moscow as a strategic counterweight to China, but India has been upset by repeated delays to major weapons orders from Moscow, including the Admiral Gorshkov heavy aircraft carrier. The date for delivering the Nerpa submarine to India has repeatedly been put back. “We shall definitely supply this vessel to the customer by the end of this year,” Vysotsky said. Vysotsky said an fully trained Indian navy crew were ready to receive the submarine, which some media reported last year had already been handed over to India.
BOLIVIA
UN convention renounced
The government has informed the UN that it is renouncing the world body’s anti-drug convention because it classifies coca leaf as an illegal drug, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The decision comes after a proposal by President Evo Morales to remove language obliging countries that have signed the convention to ban the chewing of coca leaves was rejected following US objections. Bolivian officials contend that coca leaf in its natural form is not a narcotic and forms an age-old part of Andean culture. Morales is a former coca growers’ union leader who has campaigned for the leaf’s traditional uses. Coca is a mild stimulant with high religious and social value in the Andean region. While it fights hunger and alleviates altitude sickness, it is also the raw material of cocaine.
IRAQ
Government takes over fund
The UN Security Council has welcomed the Iraqi government’s takeover of a multibillion-dollar fund established after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled in 2003 to ensure that proceeds from the country’s gas and oil sales are used to restore the country’s economy. The council adopted a resolution in December ending UN oversight and international management of the Development Fund for Iraq on Thursday. Council members in a statement late on Thursday welcomed the Iraqi government’s “assumption of full autonomy over the proceeds” of the fund and the transfer of oversight from the International Advisory and Monitoring Board to the government’s Committee of Financial Experts.
UNITED STATES
Holder ends CIA probes
The Department of Justice has dropped nearly all the probes into CIA agents over alleged abusive interrogation techniques and will instead focus on the deaths of two detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday. “The department has determined that an expanded criminal investigation of the remaining matters is not warranted,” Holder said in a statement. Holder had in 2009 directed Assistant Attorney John Durham to review the CIA interrogations of more than 100 detainees at secret sites overseas to determine whether any laws were broken. “Durham and his team reviewed a tremendous volume of information pertaining to the detainees ... I have accepted his recommendation to conduct a full criminal investigation regarding the death in custody of two individuals,” Holder said.
RUSSIA
Scientology books banned
A court in a Moscow suburb has banned works by the founder of the Church of Scientology, officials said on Thursday. The Shchyolkovo court ruled that What is Scientology? and other books by L. Ron Hubbard “contain calls for extremist activities,” the Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement. It said that once the court decision comes into force, scientology books will be put on the federal list of extremist materials banned for release throughout Russia. The court made the ruling following a request by local prosecutors. Attempts by the authorities to ban scientology literature have been overturned recently. In May, the Justice Ministry removed Hubbard’s books from the list of banned literature after a decision by a court in Siberia was overturned. Scientology officials said they would protest the latest decision. “There have been many legal violations, the case is unfounded and the trial was hasty,” the group’s attorney Sergei Korzikov said. “We could not defend our legal interests.”
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