RUSSIA
Portly police officers warned
The Interior Ministry has issued a warning to its pudgy police officers — lose weight or get the sack. The move comes as the nation seeks to cut its bloated police force and improve its image among foreign tourists and investors. “The fat and paunchy will not get through,” Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev was quoted as telling a private meeting. The head of the Russian parliament’s security committee Vladimir Vasilyev, revealed earlier this week that Nurgaliyev had made the comment during a telephone conference. President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to cut the police force by a fifth, and increase its professionalism.
THAILAND
‘Ladyboy’ election confusion
Election officials manning voting booths were ordered on Friday not to laugh at “ladyboys” who this week said they were being marginalized in today’s poll because of confusion over their ID card pictures. It was the latest in a series of complaints by members of the Trans-Female Association of Thailand, which groups transgender people and transsexuals. Their ID cards, renewable every seven years, may show a woman’s face marked “mister,” or a boy’s face when the ID card holder looks like a woman. “In case of any problem in ascertaining the identity of voters, officials have a clear instruction to be polite ... and they must try their best to refrain from laughing,” Election Commission secretary Suthipol Thaweechaikarn said.
CHINA
Tibetan writer jailed
A young Tibetan writer has been sentenced to four years in jail after he co-wrote essays addressing Beijing’s policies in the Himalayan region since unrest erupted in 2008, a rights group said Saturday. Tashi Rabten (扎西熱丹), the editor of a banned magazine called Eastern Snow Mountain, was sentenced last month in Aba, Sichuan Province, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said. Tashi Rabten, who was set to graduate from university, had co-authored a collection of essays titled Written in Blood, the group said.
HONG KONG
Directors deny oppression
Chinese directors attending a Hong Kong documentary festival say they enjoy significant creative freedom despite outside opinion that they are subject to harsh censorship and oppression. Filmmakers Zhou Hao (周浩) and Ma Zhandong (馬占冬) said late on Friday that they can tackle most subjects they are interested in. Zhou’s recent film The Transition Period features a county Chinese Communist Party secretary’s drunken behavior. Ma’s One Day in May follows a family recovering from the 2008 Sichuan Province earthquake. The directors’ comments mainly apply to independent documentary makers who work outside the system, shooting without official permission and censorship. The downside is that their work does not receive a wide release in China.
PAKISTAN
Call for drone missions’ end
Officials say they have again asked the US to cease all drone operations from Pakistan’s Shamsi Air Base in a remote part of the country as part of a larger request that the US cease targeting militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas without notifying Islamabad in advance, first made early this year. The Guardian newspaper quoted the Minister of Defense Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar as saying on Wednesday that the Americans had to leave. The most recent request was made to outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta on Thursday.
GERMANY
Robots learn to cook
For your average robot, chess might be easy compared with simple everyday activities like frying a sausage, but that might be about to change thanks to software being developed by scientists in Munich. Researchers at the Technical University in Munich are using complex algorithms to teach robots to learn from their mistakes and perform routines humans can do in their sleep. The aim is to instill perception, manipulation and reasoning capabilities, enabling the machines to learn from their own experience and taking them a step closer to developing the self-awareness that so far has been reserved for humankind. Calculation models and controlling mechanisms programmed into the hardware help robot TUM-Rosie understand the nature and function of the cooking spoon it is handling, while TUM-James uses real-time sensing to do things like slice bread.
TUNISIA
Government starts shakeup
The interim government appointed a civil rights activist and lawyer as new junior minister of the interior on Friday as part of a shakeup amid worries of a power vacuum ahead of elections. State news agency TAP said Lazhar Akermi was appointed as junior minister charged with instituting reforms. Four Cabinet ministers were also replaced in a reshuffle. A popular uprising toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this year, unleashing pro-democracy movements across North Africa and the Middle East, but analysts fear a political and security vacuum ahead of October elections for an assembly to write a new constitution.
UNITED KINGDOM
Michael arises, virtually
Pop singer Janet Jackson has revived the spirit of her late brother Michael on stage with a virtual duet, two years after the King of Pop’s death. The singer took her “Number Ones: Up Close & Personal” Tour to London’s Royal Albert Hall on Thursday, where she served up a career-spanning set of her hits. Opening the show with the video of her 1980s electro funk Nasty, she treated fans to a virtual collaboration with Michael on their 1995 hit Scream.
UNITED KINGDOM
Church to review gay issue
The Church of England is to review its approach to same-sex relationships, newspapers reported yesterday — an issue that has threatened to tear the global Anglican communion apart. The Bishop of Norwich in eastern England, the Right Reverend Graham James, has said bishops now accept they have a responsibility to look at the issue and clarify the position on gay partnerships. The review would be completed next year and then followed by a year-long consultation, the Times newspaper reported.
DR CONGO
Troops raped 121, UN says
Troops under a former rebel commander raped 121 women in the South Kivu region between June 11 and June 13, a UN spokesman said on Friday. Shortly after the attacks, area lawmaker Jean-Marie Ngoma said Colonel Niragire Kifaru and the roughly 200 fighters under his command were responsible. Colonel Vianney Kazarama, spokesman for the armed forces in South Kivu, had previously denied that Colonel Kifaru was involved in the rapes. Kazarama admitted that Kifaru had deserted and “taken to the bush, because he wanted troops [being integrated into the regular army] to be taken into consideration, because they had no water and nothing to eat.”
UNITED STATES
Gas prices affect holidays
Fewer Americans were expected to hit the road during the Independence Day weekend, consistently one of the heaviest travel periods of the year, but more are expected to fly to their holiday destinations. Between Thursday and tomorrow, 39 million people will travel 80km or more from home, according to AAA Independence Day forecast. That is a 2.5 percent decrease from last year. “AAA is projecting a slight decline in the number of Independence Day travelers mainly due to fuel prices being approximately US$1 per gallon [3.79 liters] higher than last year,” director of AAA Travel Services Glen MacDonell said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Man jailed for killing lesbian
A man accused in the sexual assault and stabbing of a lesbian couple in their Seattle home has been found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted murder, rape and burglary. A King County County Superior Court jury convicted Isaiah Kalebu on Friday, two days after jurors began deliberations. The 25-year-old faces life in prison for the July 2009 attack that killed Teresa Butz and injured her partner in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. Kalebu was accused of slipping into the couple’s home and repeatedly raping and stabbing them during a two-hour attack. Butz died naked and blood-soaked in the street in front of her home as neighbors tried to help. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty due to Kalebu’s history of mental illness.
ARGENTINA
Morales sorry for meeting
A leader of a Jewish group says that Bolivian President Evo Morales has apologized for meeting Iran’s defense minister. Aldo Donzis says Morales met with members of his group and said it was “a mistake” to have met with Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. That is because Vahidi is wanted in Argentina for allegedly helping plot the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. It killed 85 people, including six Bolivians. Donzis praises Morales for his humility for recognizing the error. Morales’ office has not confirmed the apology.
UNITED STATES
Workers may scrap vacations
Almost half of US workers would scrap or scale back their summer vacation plans to save money if the economy remains volatile, according to a survey. Younger workers are more apt to bite the bullet, and men are twice as likely as women to be expected to work on vacation, the poll by jobs Web site Glassdoor.com showed. “People are still pretty nervous about personal spending,” Glassdoor chief executive Robert Hohman said, saying the “stark” numbers of people willing to change vacation plans. However, 65 percent of employees are able to relax completely while on holiday. “It’s reassuring to see the majority of employees feel their employer supports their ability to ‘check out’ and recharge,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Schools show racial disparity
US schools with African-American students are twice as likely to have teachers with little experience as majority white schools in the same district, according to new data released on Thursday. The recently expanded Civil Rights Data Collection is a biennial survey of differences in educational opportunities and resources. “For the first time we have an incredible new source of data that tells us where opportunity gaps are in ways we have never seen before as a country,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali said.
‘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