AUSTRALIA
Nurse in coma after drink
A nurse suffered brain damage and kidney failure after drinking a cocktail called jungle juice in Lombok, Indonesia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday. Jamie Johnston, 25, was flown to the Royal Darwin Hospital from Bali in a coma after ordering a jug of arak — a rice wine popular throughout Southeast Asia — mixed with fruit juice to share with her mother. The daily said the batch was contaminated with methanol, a toxic chemical often used as an anti-freeze or in paint, which was linked to the deaths of four foreign tourists in 2009 in Bali. Johnston’s mother, Lyn, who was not affected, told the newspaper that test results had shown her daughter suffered methanol poisoning after drinking the cocktail on Sept. 20 at the Happy Cafe restaurant.
AUSTRALIA
House passes carbon tax
The House of Representatives has narrowly passed legislation that would introduce an unpopular carbon tax on major polluters. The legislation scraped through the parliament’s lower chamber yesterday with a 74-72 vote. Its passage through the Senate next month is guaranteed by an alliance between the ruling Labor Party and the environmentally focused Greens party, ensuring that the tax starts on July 1. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has defended introducing the new tax in a volatile global economic environment, saying that any delay would increase the cost of reducing the nation’s carbon gas emissions.
PHILIPPINES
HRW accuses army of lying
A US-based human rights group is accusing the Philippine army of fabricating stories that some children it has taken into custody are communist “child warriors.” The military says 215 New People’s Army child soldiers have surrendered, 121 have been captured and 12 have been killed between January 1999 and January this year. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that at least 12 children have been falsely labeled child soldiers by the military. It says the army made the claims to score propaganda points against the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, its armed wing. The group yesterday urged the government to immediately end the military’s harassment of the children and their families. The army has denied the group’s report.
PHILIPPINES
Arroyo may face charges
President Benigno Aquino III says his administration will be filing major corruption charges against his predecessor next month. Aquino yesterday refused to provide details of the complaints the government is preparing against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Arroyo won a seat in the powerful House of Representatives after her stormy nine-year term ended last year. She has been implicated in corruption scandals, but steadfastly denies any wrongdoing. Aquino suggested the government wanted to protect witnesses by not divulging details of the complaints.
VIETNAM
Flood death toll rises to 34
The death toll from the worst seasonal flooding in more than a decade has climbed to 34 people, mostly children, the government said yesterday. The worst floods since 2000 have also submerged more than 60,000 homes and caused US$45 million in damage to crops and infrastructure along the southern Mekong Delta since late August. In the worst hit-province of Dong Thap, six people — including five children — have drowned over the past two weeks, bringing the death toll there to 13.
UNITED STATES
California gun law tightened
California Governor Jerry Brown said he has signed a measure that bans the open carrying of handguns in his state. The law, AB144, makes it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed and unloaded gun in a public place. The governor’s office made the announcement in a statement early on Monday morning. Brown has been rushing to sign dozens of measures sent to him by lawmakers. Top California law enforcement officials supported the legislation. The Los Angeles Times reported that Brown said he had “listened to the police chiefs.” Supporters say the only person who knows whether the gun is loaded is the person carrying the gun. Opponents say the bill is one of many assaults on the public’s Second Amendment rights.
UNITED STATES
South Korea’s Lee arrives
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has arrived for a state visit expected to coincide with congressional approval of a US-South Korea trade pact. US President Barack Obama will host Lee for talks at the White House and a state dinner today. The South Korean leader will also address a joint session of Congress. South Korea is a staunch US ally. Talks between the two leaders will likely focus on the trade pact, which both chambers of Congress planned to vote for later yesterday. The presidents will also discuss the next steps in dealing with nuclear-armed North Korea. Tomorrow, the two presidents will travel to a General Motors auto plant in Detroit. Supporters of the trade pact say it will generate billions in US exports and tens of thousands of jobs.
CANADA
Murder probe investigated
A public inquiry is asking why it took so long for authorities to catch the man convicted in what police call the country’s worst serial murder case. Robert William Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of drug-addicted prostitutes from Vancouver. He slaughtered the women at his pig farm in the suburbs. A further 20 counts were suspended after the convictions. Pickton was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Commissioner Wally Oppal said on Tuesday the inquiry also will examine whether women like the ones Pickton chose as his victims are treated equally by the justice system.
CANADA
Flight strike feared
The Conservative government moved on Tuesday to prevent a strike today by Air Canada flight attendants by sending the matter to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for review. Labor Minister Lisa Raitt said that referring the matter to the labor board would prevent nearly 7,000 flight attendants at the nation’s largest airline from going on strike today. Her comments come after members of the union rejected a second tentative agreement supported by union leaders. The referral buys the government time as it looks to pass back-to-work legislation. Parliament resumes sitting next week. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, the union announced that its negotiators were prepared to resume talks and called on Air Canada to address more of the issues that have upset the airline’s flight attendants over the past decade. About 3,800 Air Canada customer sales and service representatives held a three-day strike in June, but Raitt introduced back-to-work legislation two days into it. Union leaders had predicted a revamped offer would be approved. Air Canada has said it would allow customers booked for travel over the next several days to change dates free of charge.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of