HONG KONG
Dissident sent to Taiwan
A prominent US-based Chinese dissident was denied entry to Hong Kong on Friday and deported to Taiwan. Yang Jianli (楊建利) was refused entry into Hong Kong when he arrived on a flight from the US via Taiwan, public broadcaster RTHK reported late on Friday. Yang was scheduled to attend a two-day academic forum, according to RTHK. An immigration department spokesman declined to confirm Yang’s deportation, saying it would not comment on individual cases. US permanent resident Yang spent five years in jail in China on charges of spying and illegal entry in a case which sparked criticism from the US and the UN. He was released in 2007. The activist fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.
PHILIPPINES
US envoy texts apology
The US ambassador to the Philippines has apologized for his controversial remark that 40 percent of male tourists visit the country for sex, the foreign department said yesterday. Harry Thomas sent the apology through a cellphone text message to Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario on Friday, a spokesman said. In a statement, the US embassy confirmed that Thomas had expressed “deep regret” for his remark. Last month, Thomas sparked a furor when he said: “Forty percent of foreign men who come to the Philippines, including from the US, come for sex tourism.” Government officials quickly disputed the claim, complaining that the envoy’s remark had hurt the Philippines’ image. “I am sending you a response expressing regret for my comments. I should not have used the 40 percent statistic without the ability to back it up,” the spokesman quoted Thomas as saying in his text message.
CHINA
Holiday crashes kill 56
Three major road accidents in China killed 56 people on the last day of a week-long holiday, including 35 people who died after a bus collided with a car on a northern expressway, state media reported yesterday. The Xinhua news agency said that the bus flipped over after crashing into a car in the port city of Tianjin on Friday afternoon, injuring 18 others. Xinhua cited a Tianjin traffic official as saying the bus was speeding and that many passengers were thrown out of the vehicle when it hit the car and rolled over. In eastern Anhui province, at least 10 people died and 19 were injured in a 24-vehicle pileup on an expressway as foggy weather reduced visibility, the Beijing News daily said. Eleven people in a van were killed after a truck crashed into the vehicle in central Henan Province, the newspaper said. Friday was the end of a week-long holiday to mark China’s National Day.
UNITED STATES
Fukushima rules relaxed
Washington has eased its advice for travelers to the environs of the nuclear plant that suffered meltdown after the March quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. The Department of State on Friday advised US citizens to avoid going within 20km of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant — in line with Japan’s own no-go zone. The previous US travel alert of July 19 recommended staying at least 80km away. The latest announcement said Americans staying for more than a year within that area should consult with local authorities on radiation levels. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate from around the plant following the quake. The nuclear crisis is the worst radiation leak since Chernobyl.
UNITED STATES
One of ‘Cuban Five’ freed
One of the so-called “Cuban Five,” convicted of spying in the US for the Cuban Castro government, walked out of federal prison on Friday, the first of the group to complete sentences imposed a decade ago. Rene Gonzalez, 55, served about 13 years of a 15-year sentence, with time off for good behavior and including time behind bars awaiting and during trial. His attorney, Phil Horowitz, said he picked up Gonzalez at the prison at about 5:30am. Gonzalez, a Chicago native who has dual US and Cuban citizenship, must now serve three years’ probation in the US, unless his attorney can persuade a Miami federal judge to let him return to Cuba. Gonzalez and the other four Cubans were convicted in 2001 of being part of a spy ring known as the “Wasp Network” that sought to infiltrate and report on South Florida US military installations, Cuban exile groups and politicians opposed to the government of then-Cuban president Fidel Castro.
SERBIA
Nobel hoax fools media
The Internet hoax about this year’s Nobel Literature Prize was slick, and down fell the victims: Serbian TV, radio and the state-run news agency. Just before the Swedish Academy announced this year’s winner — Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer — on Thursday, unknown hackers said on what looked like an official Nobel Prize Web site that it was Serbian writer Dobrica Cosic. The site included a photo of the 90-year-old Cosic, quotations from one of his books and a description heralding him as “the last dissident of the 20th century, witness of a declining era, as well as the prophet of an emerging one.” The false info quickly appeared on Serbian outlets, including Belgrade’s B-92 radio and TV and the state-run news agency. “Someone has really tried hard to carry out the elaborate hoax,” B-92 said after withdrawing the news from its programs. Cosic briefly served as the president of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, in 1992 when he was hand-picked by late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
NETHERLANDS
Trains get urine bags
The Dutch national railway has an unusual solution for passengers who need the bathroom on a train line designed without them: plastic bags. The rail operator underlined that the bags, introduced on Friday, are for use in emergencies only, when a train has stopped and passengers can’t be evacuated. The idea has been met with incredulity by politicians and the general public already unhappy with the short-haul “Sprinter” trains’ bathroomless design. The bags have a cup-shaped plastic top and contain a highly absorbent material that turns urine into a gel-like mixture. After use the bags can be sealed and thrown in the trash.
AUSTRIA
Arnie visits museum of self
Arnold Schwarzenegger, former body-builder, California governor and film star, visited the new museum of his life in the house where he was born in Thal, southern Austria, on Friday. “For me, the museum is a symbol of will, that anyone has an opportunity in life,” Schwarzenegger said at a brief ceremony. Arnie also inaugurated a giant bronze statue of himself at the height of his body-building career, before he made his way to Hollywood. The museum opened its doors on July 30 — Schwarzenegger’s birthday — and has since seen more than 5,000 visitors, according to creator Peter Urdal, a former classmate.
UNITED STATES
Amish attack beards, hair
A group of religious castoffs has been attacking fellow Amish, cutting off their hair and beards in an apparent feud over spiritual differences in the deeply traditional community in Steubenville, Ohio, a sheriff said on Thursday. Members of a group of families disavowed by mainstream Amish have cut the beards off men and the hair off a half-dozen or more men and women, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. He said the cutting was apparently meant to be degrading. The attacks occurred over the past three weeks in the heart of Ohio’s Amish population, one of the largest in the US. A 57-year-old woman blamed her sons and a son-in-law for an attack on her husband and said they were involved in a cult. She pointed at her husband’s ragged, short beard, then took off a bandanna and showed bare patches on her scalp. “They did this to me,” she told deputies, according to a Sept. 6 report. It is common practice for married Amish to have beards, and “Likewise, women do not cut their hair based on biblical teaching,” said Donald Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown College and an expert on Amish life. He said Amish-on-Amish violence “is extremely rare.”
UNITED STATES
Undie Run sets record
A protest of Utah’s “uptight” laws that featured people running through the streets of Salt Lake City in their underwear has set a new world record. Guinness World Records says the Utah Undie Run broke the previous record for largest gathering of people wearing only underpants by 1,720 people. Records officials say 2,270 people stripped to their underwear during the Utah Undie Run on Sept. 24. The previous record of 550 people was set last year in Britain. Utah Undie Run organizers are planning another run in August. The event’s goal is to protest the state’s conservative politics. Organizers prohibit nudity. Participants donned bras, panties, nightgowns, swimwear or colorful boxer shorts.
UNITED STATES
Muslim drivers suspended
Hertz has suspended 34 Muslim shuttle drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for praying on company time. The company says the drivers are required to clock out, under terms of a settlement two years ago with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Drivers told the Seattle Times they were sent home last week for praying. Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, is trying to get them back on the job. The union represents about 79 drivers at Hertz who earn between US$9 and US$10 an hour. About 70 percent of them are Muslims. Observant Muslims pray five times a day.
UNITED STATES
Senior punched over singing
A 42-year-old man has been convicted of punching a 79-year-old man through a plate glass window after complaining about the older man’s karaoke singing at a western New York bar. The Ontario County District Attorney’s Office says a jury Thursday convicted Paul Collen of the town of Naples of second-degree assault. Prosecutors say Collen was at the bar at the Naples Hotel last March when he punched the 79-year-old man in the face, breaking his nose and facial bones. Authorities say the punch sent the man’s head through a plate glass window. The assault occurred during one of the bar’s weekly karaoke nights. Officials say Collen complained about the man’s singing, then began punching him before several patrons stepped in to stop the assault. He faces up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 26.
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
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the