COOK ISLANDS
Aitutaki has first bank heist
The remote Pacific island of Aitutaki was reeling after its first ever bank heist, the local mayor said yesterday. Thieves broke into the local branch of the Bank of the Cook Islands in the dead of night last week and emptied its safe, taking savings belonging to the community, Aitutaki Mayor John Baxter said. He said the tiny island, about 3,200km northeast of New Zealand, was abuzz with speculation about the crime, which reportedly netted about NZ$200,000 (US$170,000). Police, including a retired detective, had been flown in from the capital, Rarotonga, to investigate, he said. Baxter said the police had already cleared local youths in the deeply religious community of any involvement in the crime. Aitutaki is a magnet for cruising yachts, and Baxter said police were investigating whether the thieves could have moored a boat, carried out the heist, then sailed away.
AUSTRALIA
Beer cooler driver fined
A man had his driving license suspended for 10 months and was fined after he was caught driving a scooter made of a motorized beer cooler capable of carrying several dozen drinks — after knocking back a few. The unconventional scooter featured a cooler box mounted on a wheeled frame and powered by a 50cc engine, complete with a steering handlebar. The cooler doubled as a driver’s seat and was able to hold up to 48 bottles of beer. Chris Petrie, 23 and from the northeastern state of Queensland, bought the vehicle over the Internet for A$600 (US$630). While assembling it at a friend’s house, the two sampled a few beers before Petrie decided to drive it home, according to a local TV station. He was caught by the police en route and found to be more than three times over the legal blood alcohol limit, and was charged with drinking and driving, and driving without a license.
NORTH KOREA
Kim Jong-il holidays
Kim Jong-il enjoyed a summer holiday sailing on his yacht and staying at his coastal villa as the country struggles to recover from devastating floods, a report said yesterday. Kim has been staying in the northeastern port of Hamheung since early this month and sailing as he has done in previous years, South Korean news agency Yonhap said. It is not clear whether the reclusive leader has now left the villa to return to Pyongyang. The holiday shows Kim has not changed his lavish lifestyle despite international sanctions banning the sale of yachts and other luxury goods to the regime, Yonhap said. South Korean officials declined to confirm the report. Last year, the country made a failed attempt to buy two luxury yachts worth more than US$15 million.
CAMBODIA
‘Avatar’ villagers protest
More than 100 villagers dressed as the forest people from the hit film Avatar protested in the capital yesterday against the destruction of the country’s Prey Lang forest. With their faces painted blue and green and donning hats made of leaves, the demonstrators called for an end to the exploitation and deforestation of the largest lowland evergreen forest remaining in Southeast Asia. Joined by monks and environmental activists, villagers from the forest gathered outside Phnom Penh’s royal palace for a religious ceremony before spreading out across the city to distribute leaflets about Prey Lang. They say the forest, a source of livelihood for about 200,000 mainly Aborigines, is under threat from illegal logging and a spate of concessions granted for rubber plantations and mineral exploitation.
UNITED KINGDOM
Girls’ diet book sparks furor
Fancy putting your daughter off her food? Then buy her Maggie Goes on a Diet, a children’s book aimed — according to Barnes & Noble, one of the many booksellers on whose Web site it is currently listed — at six-to-12-year-olds. It has been written and self-published by Hawaii-based author Paul Kramer, whose previous titles include Do Not Dread Wetting the Bed, in which little Cynthia “chases away the pee-pee monster.” The book tells the story of 14-year-old Maggie, who according to its blurb “is transformed from being overweight and insecure to a normal-sized teen who becomes the school soccer star.” It is not out until October, but so disquieting is the cover image that perhaps, in this case, it is allowed to judge the book by it. Maggie is depicted as dumpy, pigtailed, wearing an unflattering jumper and staring into the mirror, presumably dreaming of a thinner self who will one day wear the pink prom dress she is holding to her chest.
FRANCE
Actor accused of urinating
An airline passenger said her Paris-to-Dublin flight was delayed for nearly two hours after celebrated French actor Gerard Depardieu urinated on the plane ahead of takeoff. France’s Europe-1 radio aired an interview with the passenger, identified only by her first name, Daniele, saying that Depardieu appeared inebriated and announced: “I need to piss, I need to piss.” The passenger said when the cabin crew told him to remain seated during takeoff, “he stood up and did it [urinated] on the ground.” A spokeswoman for City Jet, the Dublin-headquartered airline that operated the Tuesday evening flight, confirmed that such an incident had taken place. However, spokeswoman Karen Gillo said on Wednesday privacy issues prevented her from naming the passenger, who was escorted off the plane along with his two traveling companions and their luggage. Calls for comment from Depardieu’s agent went unanswered on Wednesday.
SWEDEN
House with skeleton for sale
A real-estate agent has an unusual piece of property up for sale — a five-bedroom house, complete with medieval tomb and skeleton in the cellar. The central Visby town house on the Baltic island of Gotland was built in 1750 on the foundations of a Russian church. The kitchen lies on the presbytery and the tomb containing the skeleton — visible through a glass pane — is in the cellar. The real-estate agency’s owner, Leif Bertwig, said there is no reason to be afraid as the skeleton “lies in consecrated soil and rests in peace.” Bertwig said on Wednesday the remains likely belong to a Russian man who died about 800 years ago.
GERMANY
Party poster draws criticism
A German far-right party is drawing criticism for its regional election posters with the slogan “step on the gas” — picturing their leader on a motorcycle apparently revving the engine. Martin Salm, head of the foundation that oversaw German compensation for Nazi-era slave laborers, said the signs appeared outside Berlin’s Jewish Museum on Wednesday. Given the Nazis’ use of gas chambers in the murder of 6 million Jews, Salm says the slogan is “disgusting, provocative and intolerable.” National Democratic Party leader Udo Voigt was quoted in Der Spiegel magazine saying that most people shown the poster saw no negative connotations and that “after 66 years, you have to stop worrying about things from the past.” The party has no seats in Berlin’s state legislature and is not expected to win any in the election.
VENEZUELA
Seven dead in prison riot
Seven prisoners died and 37 were wounded in a shootout between inmates at Cabimas Prison, a senior security official said on Wednesday. “We are dealing with seven deaths and three critically injured who we fear may also die,” Zulia State Security Secretary Odalys Caldera said. A dispute between two groups of inmates erupted during visiting hours while inmates’ relatives were at the prison, and the incident turned into a violent brawl involving knives and guns. According to Caldera, the situation is now “totally controlled.” Although Cabimas only has a capacity for 120 inmates, more than 500 are currently held there. Like many local it is plagued by overcrowding and violence.
UNITED STATES
Bachmann makes Elvis gaffe
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann got her Elvis Presley dates all shook up during a campaign stop on Tuesday in South Carolina. The congresswoman from Minnesota played the Elvis tune Promised Land at a local restaurant and told the crowd of 300 that she wanted to say happy birthday to the king of rock ‘n’ roll. “Before we get started, let’s all say happy birthday to Elvis Presley today,” Bachmann said. However, Aug. 16 is the anniversary of Elvis’ death, in 1977, and someone in the crowd shouted back, “He died today.” Bachmann didn’t respond and launched into her speech. Bachmann corrected herself later as she spoke with reporters, noting the date marked Presley’s passing, not his birth.
UNITED STATES
Woman charged for abuse
Prosecutors say an Alaska woman committed child abuse by squirting hot sauce in the mouth of her adopted Russian son in a case that came under international scrutiny after a Dr. Phil episode. Cynthia Franklin told a jury on Wednesday that Jessica Beagley was punishing the boy for lying about getting in trouble at school. Franklin also said Beagley made the boy stand naked in a cold shower for getting in trouble. Beagley is charged with misdemeanor child abuse. Her lawyer says she was not being cruel when punishing her son, but was desperate to address difficult behavior. Dr. Phil viewers alerted Anchorage police after an episode aired that included a videotape of Beagley punishing her son.
UNITED STATES
Sewage kills elkhorn coral
Human sewage is to blame for a disease that is killing elkhorn coral, listed as endangered several years ago because of a massive die-off, researchers said on Wednesday. The coral lives in waters off south Florida and the Bahamas and was once the most prevalent in the Caribbean, but has been vanishing due to white pox disease, caused by the bacterium Serratia marcescens that is found in human and animal waste. Researchers analyzed the bacteria from a wastewater treatment facility in Key West, Florida and compared it to feces samples from local animals and birds. The type afflicting coral was found to match the kind found in human sewage. In the study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, researchers described their finding as “the first time a human disease has been shown to cause population declines of a marine invertebrate. These bacteria do not come from the ocean, they come from us,” said co-author James Porter of the University of Georgia. Serratia marcescens can cause a host of infections in humans, ranging from respiratory to urinary to skin, and has been linked to meningitis and pneumonia.
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