ISRAEL
Nation joins CERN
Israel has become an associate member of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), opening the way for full membership in 2013, a foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday. “The association agreement, valid for two years, was signed on Friday by the director-general of CERN, Rolf Heuer, and the ambassador of Israel to the United Nations agencies in Geneva Aharon Leshno-Yaar,” spokesman Jonathan Rosenzweig said. Israel previously held special observer status at the organization, which is best known for its “atom-smasher,” the so-called Large Hadron Collider, which lies in a tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border.
UNITED KINGDOM
Gay marriage mulled
The government has drawn up plans to introduce same-sex civil marriages before the next election in 2015, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said on Saturday. “I am delighted to announce today that in March, this government will begin a formal consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage for same-sex couples,” she told her Liberal Democrat party’s annual conference in Birmingham Civil partnerships for same-sex couples were introduced in Britain in December 2005, giving them similar rights to married heterosexual couples. However, the partnerships cannot legally be referred to as marriages.
TANZANIA
Charges filed in boat deaths
Four people have been charged with negligence over last week’s boat accident off the tourist haven of Zanzibar which killed 203 people, a prosecutor said on Saturday. Boat captain Said Adallah Kinyanyite, who is still at large, his assistant Abdallah Mohamed Ali, one of the boat owners Yusuf Suleiman and Silima Nyange Silima, a Zanzibar port official were charged on Friday. Zanzibar prosecutor Ramadhan Nassib said they were charged with “causing death by negligence.” The suspects will reappear in court today. The MV Spice Islander capsized early on Saturday last week, but rescuers saved 619 passengers of the more than 800 on the severely overloaded boat.
DENMARK
Royal couple go down under
Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian-born wife, Crown Princess Mary, are to return to her homeland in November for their first official visit in six years, the Australian government said yesterday. The Danish royals will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra during their tour from Nov. 19 to 26, which Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said would be hosted by the government. “I look forward to welcoming the Crown Prince and Princess to Australia,” Gillard said in a statement. “This is their first official visit to Australia since 2005.” Since then, the pair have been to Australia twice in a private capacity. US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit earlier the same week.
UNITED STATES
Air show death toll raised
Reno police say a total of nine people died in the crash of a World War II-era plane during an air race. The deaths include seven who were killed on the tarmac, including the pilot, and two others who died at hospitals. The new death toll was announced at a briefing with local and federal investigators. Investigators say they are examining the site, gathering information and are encouraged by the large number of photos and videos available to them. They have not speculated on a cause but organizers pointed to a possible mechanical failure.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the