CHINA
Toddler awakes from coma
Xinhua news agency reported that a toddler who fell 10 stories and survived after being caught by a passer-by woke up from a 10-day coma yesterday. The two-year-old girl, nicknamed Niu Niu, was left unattended and fell from her family’s apartment window in Zhejiang Province on July 2 and had been been unconscious since the fall. Xinhua said she opened her eyes and called out to her parents. The girl was in critical condition with serious internal injuries when she was taken to hospital, but Xinhua quoted a doctor as saying that her heartbeat, blood pressure and pulse are all normal now and “we can assume she’s out of danger.”
HUNGARY
‘Hamburger tax’ passed
Parliament on Monday voted in favor of a so-called “hamburger tax” on foodstuffs with high sugar, salt and carbohydrate content in a new bid to boost government finances. The new levy, to be enforced from Sept. 1, will also target products containing more than 20mg of caffeine per 100 millilitres of the product. Consumers will have to pay 5 forint (US$0.03) per liter on high-sugar drinks, 250 forint per liter on so-called energy drinks and 100 to 200 forint on cakes and biscuits, under a bill approved with 255 votes for, 54 against and 36 abstentions. “Studies have shown that in recent years there has been an increase in Hungary of health problems related to excessive consumption of fat and salt,” Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said.
SPAIN
Surgeons in transplant first
Surgeons performed the world’s first double-leg transplant on Monday on a man whose legs were amputated above the knee after an accident, officials said. The man had faced life in a wheelchair because prosthetic limbs were unsuitable, the health authority in Valencia said. “It is the first time in the world that such a transplant has been carried out,” it said in a statement after the surgery, carried out in the La Fe hospital. Neither donors nor the patient were identified, but the health authority promised further details later this week.
FRANCE
Museum loses rhino head
Thieves stole a rhinoceros head from a museum in Blois, the latest in a string of raids thought to be fuelled by an international trade, police and museum sources said on Monday. Staff at the natural history museum discovered the exhibit was missing on Saturday morning following a break-in. The head, weighing about 100kg and dating back to the 19th century, had been dragged along the floor. Museum curator Jean-Louis Pointal said it was the latest in a string of rhinoceros head thefts in recent months. Thieves hit Rouen in France in March, Liege in Belgium in June and Brussels last week.
SWITZERLAND
Rights investigator criticized
A UN human rights investigator says he regrets posting an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog, but he has rejected calls to resign his role investigating Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. US academic Richard Falk says publishing the cartoon showing a dog wearing a Jewish skullcap and a US flag eating human bones while urinating on a statue representing justice “was a mistake and I regretted it.” The 80-year-old Falk says he did not initially see what he termed “the anti-Semitic connotations” of the picture. He said the cartoon issue was being used by his critics as a pretext to call for him to resign or be fired from the unpaid post.
UNITED STATES
Bail for musician increased
A judge on Monday increased bail for a rock band bassist accused of stealing prescription painkillers from a pharmacy just hours before a show. Attleboro police said Coheed and Cambria bassist Michael Todd showed a Walgreens pharmacist a note on his smartphone on Sunday afternoon, saying he had a bomb and demanding prescription drugs. The 30-year-old California resident fled with six bottles of Oxycontin, taking a cab that dropped him at the tour bus at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, where his band was to open for Soundgarden that night, police said. He was tracked down and arrested before the show. Attleboro District Court Judge Daniel O’Shea increased bail from US$10,000 cash to US$25,000 cash or US$250,000 surety, citing Todd’s out-of-state address and criminal record, including a previous drug conviction and arrest for reckless driving. Todd initially denied involvement in the robbery but changed his story when police confronted him with the surveillance photos, according to the records.
UNITED STATES
Door-breaker blacked out
The attorney for a man charged with smashing glass doors and breaking into the New York City theater where David Letterman tapes his television show said the man was drunk and doesn’t recall the incident. James Whittemore was arraigned on Monday on burglary and criminal mischief charges. The 22-year-old “certainly didn’t plan this” and doesn’t even remember how he got to the Ed Sullivan Theater early on Sunday, his lawyer said. A criminal court complaint says Whittemore used a metal stanchion to break several of the theater’s glass doors. Letterman poked fun of the incident on Monday night’s Late Show with David Letterman. “How’d you folks get in?” he asked the audience in his opening monologue. “This is the Late Show, not just a talk show, ladies and gentlemen, this is an active crime scene,” he joked. His category for the Top Ten List was “Top Ten Excuses of the Guy Who Broke into the Sullivan Theatre.” Number 10 was “When did stupid human tricks become illegal?”
UNITED STATES
Aerialists arrested for stunt
Aerialist Seanna Sharpe knew she’d leave in handcuffs, but she still scaled a 90m tower of the Williamsburg Bridge to stage her performance over the city’s East River. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sharpe and an artist and magician friend walked onto the bridge just before 7pm on Monday. There, Sharpe gave a daring but brief performance, flipping and flying without the use of a harness or safety tether. The 24-year-old Brooklyn resident was arrested along with her friend, whom police identified as Thomas Skinner, 27, of North Carolina.
UNITED STATES
Sheriff’s shorts go bilingual
The Arizona sheriff famous for making prisoners wear pink underwear is introducing a Spanish-language version of the shorts he sells to the public. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio began issuing pink underwear to inmates more than 15 years ago to cut down on theft. He began selling them to the public after speaking about them on national television. The versions that went on sale on Monday are imprinted with Vamos Jose! The original shorts, also US$15, feature a sheriff’s star and a “Go Joe” logo. Vamos translates to “We go” in English. A similar-sounding word, vamanos, means “Let’s go!” in Spanish. A more accurate translation of “Go Joe!” would be Andale, Jose!
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of