MALAYSIA
Boys focus of college push
The government is mulling ways to encourage boys to take up higher education in a bid to improve a gender imbalance at universities, Deputy Minister of Education Wee Ka Siong said yesterday. Vocational training at schools will be introduced starting in 2013 so that pupils can hone practical skills, such as repairing cars, to prevent males from dropping out. “The gender imbalance is something that is a world phenomenon, but we have to find a way to balance it out,” Wee said. “[Vocational training] will curb this drop-out issue. We have to retain them in the system.” The ratio for university enrollment in July stood at 65 females to 35 males, with some universities recording a 70-30 imbalance in their latest semester intake.
UNITED STATES
Jamming reports denied
A defense official denied on Saturday that a military reconnaissance plane was forced to make an emergency landing in March because of North Korean GPS jamming, as South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reported on Friday. “We have no indication that any aircraft at the time of, or in the vicinity of, this alleged incident was forced to land on an emergency basis,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The newspaper, quoting a South Korean defense ministry report, said the North Korean jamming signals also disrupted the GPS devices of several South Korean navy boats and civilian aircraft.
INDONESIA
Rescue soldiers found safe
A rescue helicopter made an emergency landing while on a mission to find two missing foreign pilots whose plane went down in the east of the country, a military spokesman said yesterday. No one was injured. Military spokesman Rear Admiral Iskandar Sitompul said bad weather and thick fog had forced the Bell 412 carrying five soldiers to land in the mountain of Rumpius Karvak in Papua Province on Saturday afternoon. He said that all the soldiers were safe, and their helicopter safely arrived in the nearby town of Wamena at noon yesterday. Rescuers have spotted the wreckage of the single engine aircraft, belonging to Susi Air, in the mountains of Yahukimo District. Its pilots, identified as Australians, are feared dead.
UNITED KINGDOM
PM urged to push Russia
Four former foreign ministers have called on Prime Minister David Cameron to use his landmark trip to Moscow to challenge Russia over human rights, in comments published yesterday. Cameron will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today in the first prime ministerial visit since relations were severely strained by the assassination of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. In a letter to the Sunday Times, the four welcomed the visit, but said there were “a number of serious concerns” that he must address, including the “politically motivated” detentions of businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev; the death in custody of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and the “increasing hostility” shown to journalists and businessmen.
PAKISTAN
UN pledges flood aid
The UN says it will help victims of flooding in the south that has left about 200,000 people homeless. It said it would quickly begin distributing food, water and housing in Sindh Province. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani appealed for the international community to help in a televised address late on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Earhart goggles auctioned
A Northern California gallery plans to auction goggles it says were worn by famed aviator Amelia Earhart during an early plane crash. The auction in Oakland yesterday was also to feature negatives and photographs of Earhart, who disappeared while trying to circumnavigate the globe. Clars Auction Gallery is running the auction and says 18 of the photographs — the bulk of the lot — include shots of Earhart at a barbershop and making other preparations for the round-the-world flight, as well as the plane taking off on March 17, 1937. The gallery says the photos and goggles have been authenticated.
BOLIVIA
Crash survivor lived on urine
The sole survivor of a plane crash says he stayed alive for 62 hours after the accident by eating insects, drinking his own urine and painting an arrow in the ground with his blood to show rescuers where he was. Minor Vidal told the newspaper La Razon that he used skills he had learned from the Boy Scouts and while pursuing his love of camping and fishing. The 35-year-old pharmaceuticals and cosmetics salesman was traveling on an Aerocon flight from the eastern city of Santa Curz to Trinidad in the Amazon when the plane went down on Tuesday night. Vidal said he was seated in the back of the plane and found himself trapped amid the wreckage. A navy patrol boat spotted him on Friday on a river bank.
UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop to retire
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is planning to quit next year, almost a decade before he officially has to retire, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The 61-year-old leader of the worldwide Anglican church plans to pursue a life in academia, the newspaper said, after a turbulent decade mired by rows over homosexual clergy and female bishops. It said Williams would leave after the Diamond Jubilee celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the throne in June. Cambridge University is preparing to create a professorship for him when he retires, the newspaper said.
UNITED STATES
Woman allegedly rapes baby
An Ohio woman is accused of raping her 10-month-old son, videotaping it and sending it to her boyfriend in Michigan. Ashley Jessup, 24, was indicted in Columbus on Thursday on two counts of rape, one count of child endangerment and one count of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said the rape charge could land her life in prison. O’Brien told the Columbus Dispatch that Jessup e-mailed the videos to her boyfriend in Battle Creek, where his ex-girlfriend discovered them and contacted police. Jessup is being held in the Franklin County Correctional Center in lieu of US$1 million bond. The newspaper reported that it was not immediately clear who has custody of the child.
VENEZUELA
Shamans pray for Chavez
Shamans from tribes in the Amazon jungle held a ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace on Saturday to help President Hugo Chavez recover from his cancer treatment. Chavez, who insists that he was “not sick, but recovering” from cancer, greeted the shamans wearing a track suit in the colors of the the country’s national flag and wore a crown of feathers the visitors gave him. Members of the Yekuana, Jivi and Wayuu communities danced, sang and prayed as they invoked their ancestors to protect Chavez.
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
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