CHINA
Railway official probed
Beijing is investigating a third senior railway ministry official this year over allegations of corruption as the government tries to crack down on graft, one of the main triggers of public discontent, according to media reports. Su Shunhu (蘇順虎), deputy director of the transportation bureau under the Ministry of Railways, had been placed under shuang gui, meaning he is required to confess to authorities within a prescribed time and place, the financial newspaper Economic Observer said on its Web site. The report said investigators were looking into allegations Su received a house in Beijing as a gift in exchange for helping a coal mine in the northern province of Inner Mongolia transport coal by rail in the face of a rail cargo glut.
PHILIPPINES
Militants free hostage
Police said al-Qaeda-linked militants have freed a businessman they had kidnapped nearly three months ago on a restive southern island. Police regional operations chief Felicisimo Khu said restaurant owner Nelson Lim was unharmed when he was handed over late on Thursday by his abductors to Vice Mayor Edsir Tan of the Sulu provincial capital of Jolo. Khu said yesterday that investigators were looking into reports that Lim’s family had paid a ransom to the Abu Sayyaf group.
AUSTRALIA
Forklift drops pricey wine
A winemaker said yesterday he was “numb” after a malfunctioning forklift destroyed more than A$1 million (US$1.1 million) of his prized shiraz. About 462 cases of the 2010 Mollydooker Velvet Glove Shiraz, which sells for A$185 a bottle, smashed to the ground as it was being loaded for export to the US. It cost winemaker Sparky Marquis one third of his annual production. “So how do I feel? Gut-wrenched, shocked, numb,” he told reporters. “When they opened up the container they said it was like a murder scene. There was red everywhere. But it smelled phenomenal.”
BANGLADESH
Brick tied to man’s penis
Police said on Thursday they were investigating the case of a man forced to parade naked through his village with a brick tied to his penis as punishment for kidnapping and marrying a minor. The punishment was meted out on Saturday last week to the 30-year-old man by the local council in a village 30km south of Dhaka. Police said he had kidnapped and then forcibly married a 12-year-old girl, who later managed to escape. “The council chief and some village elders beat him and made him parade with a brick tied to his penis at a river ghat [steps] under the full gaze of at least 200 people,” police sub-inspector Binoy Krishna Kar said. Village courts are legal in Bangladesh, but only empowered to settle disputes related to land ownership, inheritance and other minor issues. They are proscribed from handing down physical punishment.
AUSTRALIA
Helicopter crash kills two
Two people died yesterday after a helicopter crashed in strong winds and heavy rain on Sydney’s north shore, police said. The aircraft came down in rugged bushland and plunged off a cliff face on a day when a severe weather warning was in place and the country’s largest city grappled with what was forecast to be its wettest July in 52 years. “A helicopter crashed in bushland. At this stage we can only confirm two dead, hopefully there are not more,” acting superintendent Michael Banfield said, adding that they were still trying to track down the owners of the chopper.
UNITED STATES
Evolution debated in Texas
The debate over teaching evolution in public schools flared up again at the Texas State Board of Education on Thursday, with supporters and opponents sparring at a meeting over supplemental science materials for the upcoming school year and beyond. The Republican-dominated board drew national attention in 2009 when it adopted science standards encouraging schools to scrutinize “all sides” of scientific theory, a move some creationists hailed as a victory. The board’s new chairwoman, former biology teacher Barbara Cargill, disputes the theory of evolution. First elected in 2004, she was appointed chairwoman earlier this month by Governor Rick Perry, who is considering a run for president.
CANADA
Commander admits affair
Former top officer in Afghanistan Brigadier-General Daniel Menard pleaded guilty on Thursday to having an affair with a corporal under his command on active duty, media reports said. At a court-martial in Montreal, Menard admitted to having had an “intimate personal relationship” with the corporal and to trying to impede the military police investigation into the affair. Public broadcaster CBC and other outlets reported the pleas and said four obstruction of justice charges had been dropped shortly before the hearing on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Art dealer given 16 years
A former art dealer convicted of defrauding a number of investors was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Thursday for his elaborate multimillion-dollar scheme. Judge William Smith imposed the sentence on Rocco DeSimone, 58, in Providence District Court. Prosecutors said DeSimone deserved a stiff sentence because he is a “career con man” and criminal who bilked his victims of more than US$6 million, saddling them with “broken dreams, empty bank accounts and untold distress.” DeSimone was also ordered to pay more than US$6 million in restitution and sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison term.
UNITED STATES
Lohan slapped with lawsuit
Lindsay Lohan was sued on Thursday for US$1 million for allegedly assaulting an employee of the California rehab center where she spent three months in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. Dawn Bradley claimed in a civil lawsuit, which was posted on celebrity news Web site TMZ.com, that Lohan yelled at her, threw a phone, grabbed her wrist and twisted it when asked to submit to a breathalyzer test in December at the Betty Ford Center near Palm Springs. Bradley claimed she suffered “significant injury” to her wrist as well as “post-traumatic stress syndrome requiring several therapy sessions.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Fifth hospital patient dies
Police questioned a 27-year-old nurse yesterday after a fifth patient died at a hospital where detectives believe saline solution was deliberately contaminated with insulin. Police arrested Rebecca Leighton on Wednesday on suspicion of murder over the deaths of three patients given the contaminated solution at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport. Police believe someone deliberately tampered with a batch of saline and nine other patients may also have been affected. One of them, a 41-year-old man, has been described as in a critical condition. Investigators will also review previous deaths at the hospital for any evidence of foul play.
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