THAILAND
US man pleads guilty
A US citizen pleaded guilty in a court yesterday to charges of insulting the monarchy, an offence under controversial lese majeste laws. Thai-born Joe Wichai Commart Gordon was arrested in May while on holiday in the kingdom and accused of posting material deemed offensive on his blog and posting a link to a translation of a banned book, while living in the US. “I do not want to fight this case. I plead guilty to all the accusations,” the 55-year-old car salesman who lives in Colorado told Bangkok’s Criminal Court.
CHINA
‘Richest village’ gets high
One of the country’s tallest buildings has opened for business in the nation’s “wealthiest village” of Huaxi, officials and state press said yesterday. The Longxi International Hotel is 328m high and cost US$470 million to build, an official said. Huaxi is still classed as a village in Jiangsu Province despite having expanded significantly over the years. Dubbed a “model socialist village,” Huaxi’s wealth is based on the collective funds of registered households who have amassed money in industries such as steel and textiles. Most household revenues are reinvested into further projects on a mandatory basis, keeping the cycle going. “The building is a symbol of collectivism,” the paper quoted Zhou Li (周麗), Huaxi’s Chinese Communist Party deputy secretary, as saying. The building includes a revolving restaurant, a rooftop swimming pool, mall, theater, spa and an ox made of a 0.91 tonnes of gold on the 60th floor.
JAPAN
Quake rattles Fukushima
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit the Fukushima area yesterday, but the nuclear plant there that was crippled by a huge quake and tsunami in March remained stable, officials said. The offshore quake struck at 11:45am beneath the Pacific off Fukushima Prefecture at a depth of 30.2km, the US Geological Survey said. A tsunami was not expected, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, while there were no reports of damage. Nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said that the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant remained stable.
JAPAN
Airfares offered to foreigners
The country will offer 10,000 foreigners free airfares to visit the country next year, in an attempt to boost the tourism industry, which has been hit by the ongoing nuclear disaster, a report said yesterday. The Japan Tourism Agency plans to ask would-be travelers to submit online applications for the free flights, detailing which areas of the country they would like to visit, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The agency will select the successful entrants and ask them to write a report about their trip, which will be published on the Internet. The program, which would require travelers to cover other costs is subject to government budgetary approval.
VIETNAM
Mekong flood toll hits 24
The toll from the worst floods to hit the Mekong Delta in a decade reached 24, most of them children, the government disaster authority said yesterday, as it reported a further six deaths. The Hanoi-based national flood and storm control committee said 21 of those killed were children who drowned in floodwaters. The flooding, which began in the middle of last month and is expected to last until late this month, has so far inundated about 60,000 homes in the country and damaged more than 6,900 hectares of rice fields.
ITALY
Pope takes aim at the Mafia
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called for a common front against the Mafia during a visit to Calabria on Sunday — and for a renewed commitment to Christian values. Addressing 50,000 faithful in Lamezia Terme, he said he understood that Calabria lay on uncertain, shifting ground, “but not just from a geological perspective.” He urged local people, who have to contend with high youth unemployment and the influence of the Calabrian local Mafia, the Ndrangheta, to set aside personal interests in favor of the common good. Plagued by the activities of the Ndrangheta, Calabria also suffers from 26 percent youth unemployment, with many young people forced to migrate to the more prosperous north or overseas in search of work.
IRAN
Military pans US protests
A military commander said in Tehran on Sunday that the protests spreading from New York’s Wall Street to other US cities are the beginning of an “American Spring,” likening them to the uprisings that toppled Arab autocrats in the Middle East. General Masoud Jazayeri of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the protests against corporate greed and the gap between rich and poor are a revolution in the making that will topple what he called the Western capitalist system. Jazayeri said US President Barack Obama’s election promises of change have reached a dead end.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fox sorry over scandal
Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox on Sunday apologized for a row over his friend’s reported influence over government policy, but vowed to fight his case in parliament yesterday. Fox said it was “a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend,” in a statement issued on Sunday. But the minister said he would answer “all questions” about friend Adam Werritty’s involvement in government business, including Afghanistan and Libya, during the scheduled House of Commons defense questions yesterday.
TUNISIA
Police break up Islamist mob
Police on Sunday broke up a mob of angry Salafists intent on attacking a TV network that aired a film on the Iranian revolution, raising fears of unrest with historic polls only two weeks away. The crowd targeted Nessma TV for airing Persepolis — an award-winning animation film they say is offensive to Islam — in the latest attack by conservative Muslims against signs of secularism. Nebil Karoui, the head of the private channel, told reporters that the mob had attacked his offices and tried to torch it, but he then clarified that he only feared they would do so. The interior ministry’s spokesman, Hichem Meddeb, confirmed the incident and said about 100 people had been rounded up.
SOUTH AFRICA
Tutu backs Iranian bishop
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Sunday called on Iran to free a pastor who faces the death penalty for refusing to give up Christianity and return to Islam. “I would like to appeal to the Iranian authorities to free Yusef Nadarkhani, and allow him and all other members of minority religions in Iran to worship God,” Tutu said in a statement. “Forcing anybody to renounce his or her faith is an utter violation of our universal human and religious values, and a renunciation of God.”
UNITED STATES
Dissident Amish steal hair
County sheriffs in Ohio are investigating a bizarre rash of home invasions in which Amish farmers are getting their beards cut off. Members of a dissident Amish group called the Bergholz Gang are suspected of bursting into the homes of mainstream Amish and cutting — or attempting to cut — the facial hair of their targets. The intruders then returned to their leader, hair in hand, to prove that his orders were being obeyed to the letter, the Intelligencer: Wheeling News-Register newspaper reported, quoting sheriffs. One of four Amish men arrested over the attacks has been released as a result of mistaken identity, but at least two of the others are expected to be charged, the paper said. It said the assaults — which have also targeted the long tresses of Amish womenfolk — were motivated “for some reason” relating to faith. The Amish regard uncut beards and hair as expressions of faith.
UNITED STATES
WikiLeaks link targeted
Authorities have obtained a secret court order to force search giant Google and Internet service provider Sonic to hand over information from the e-mail accounts of Jacob Appelbaum, a volunteer for whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said on Sunday. Sonic said it resisted the order, but lost the legal battle and had to pass on the information on e-mail addresses Appelbaum had corresponded with over the past two years, the WSJ said. Appelbaum, 28, has not been charged for any criminal conduct, while the WSJ said Google and Sonic had called for him to be informed of the secret order targeting him.
CHILE
Students plan more rallies
Students protesting to push for free higher education on Sunday said they were calling a new national strike on Wednesday and Thursday next week, while the government slammed them as inflexible. Student leader Camila Vallejo said the Students’ Confederation had decided to boycott more negotiations with the government because it has not moved toward their demand. The government said there was no hope for dialogue. The student movement had been “taken over, co-opted and directed by the most radical, most intransigent and most ideologically fueled groups,” government spokesman Andres Chadwick said. The student groups want free public education through university-level studies. At the moment, only about 40 percent of students qualify for free education based on parents’ income.
UNITED STATES
Zsa Zsa Gabor in hospital
Ailing actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was recovering in hospital on Sunday after losing consciousness and was to undergo minor surgery, in the 94-year-old’s latest health scare, her spokesman said. The actress was due to undergo an operation to re-attach a tube that had come loose in her stomach, causing internal bleeding, said her husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt. Doctors expressed “guarded optimism” about Gabor’s recovery, her publicist John Blanchette said.
UNITED STATES
Civil rights icon marks 90th
President Barack Obama and Stevie Wonder are among those wishing civil rights icon the Reverend Joseph Lowery a happy 90th birthday. On Sunday night in Atlanta, Lowery was praised for his living legacy as he continues to fight against hunger, poverty, racism and injustice. He has lived to see an end to segregation and the rise of the nation’s first black president, and says there is still work for him to do on issues of social justice and equality.
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