UNITED STATES
France, US more humble
France’s reputation for chauvinism took a hit on Thursday after an opinion poll revealed that only 27 percent of its people think French culture is better than all others. Seventy-three percent of French respondents to the ongoing Pew Research Center survey of US and European attitudes disagreed that “our culture is superior to others,” the polling institute reported. Forty-nine percent of Americans believed US culture was the best, even if “our people are not perfect,” followed by Germans at 47 percent, Spaniards at 44 percent and Britons at 32 percent. When set against past surveys, it appears “Americans are now far less likely to say that their culture is better than others; six-in-10 Americans held this belief in 2002,” the pollsters said.
ARCTIC
Lemmings puzzle scientists
Part of the Arctic’s greening could come from lemmings, surprised researchers have found. In past years, satellite images have shown a perceptible growth in grasses and shrubs in parts of the Arctic, a phenomenon pinned on global warming. University of Texas scientists counted plant cover and biomass in a huge area in coastal Alaska where brown lemmings have been monitored for more than 50 years in a project to understand their boom-and-bust population cycles. On small plots that had been fenced off to exclude the lemmings, certain plant types called lichens and bryophytes had increased, the researchers found. However, where the lemmings scampered unhampered, there was an increase in grass and sedge — curiously, the very same plants that lemmings feed on. The reason for this is unclear. The paper appeared yesterday in Environmental Research Letters.
UNITED KINGDOM
Great robber Ronnie retires
Ronnie Biggs, infamous for his role in Britain’s 1963 Great Train Robbery, made his last public appearance in London on Thursday where he launched an updated version of his autobiography. Biggs, 82, who is unable to walk or talk after suffering a series of strokes, announced his retirement through his son Michael, who spoke on his father’s behalf. “This is his last press appearance, he’s really retired from public life now,” Michael Biggs said. Ronnie Biggs was part of a 15-strong gang that held up a mail train in 1963, making off with almost £2.6 million, worth about £40 million today (US$63 million). He was jailed for 30 years, but escaped prison after just 19 months. After 35 years on the run, he returned to Britain in 2001 to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after his health deteriorated dramatically. Michael Biggs said Odd Man Out: The Last Straw was his father’s opportunity to set the record straight.
UNITED STATES
Economy snuffs out parties
There may be one silver lining to the economic cloud hanging over the nation this holiday season: Fewer businesses will hold holiday parties this year than at any time in nearly a quarter-century, according to a survey of corporate holiday party plans released on Thursday. The 23rd annual survey by Amrop Battalia Winston found only 74 percent of the companies polled will have parties this year. That’s down from 79 percent last year, 81 percent in 2009 and 2008, 85 percent in 2007 and 95 percent in 2006, the survey found. Of the 26 percent of companies not holding a holiday party this year, more than a third said such an event would be inappropriate in this troubled economy.
UNITED STATES
Jobseekers lured and shot
Two jobseekers who were lured to Ohio by an online ad for a cattle farm caretaker were shot in an apparent robbery plot, the local sheriff said on Thursday. One ended up buried in a shallow grave, while the other managed to escape and hide in the woods. The unusual case began to unravel in rural Noble County on Nov. 6, when a terrified and blood-soaked man from North Carolina knocked on a door and asked for help, Noble County Sheriff Stephen Hannum said in a press release. He was shot just 16km from the sheriff’s office. Five days later, after the story hit the press, a woman from Boston called and said her twin brother was missing. He had also answered a job ad on Craigslist, and she was “very sure” it was the same one the other man had answered, Hannum said. The sheriff’s department searched the woods and found a hand-dug shallow grave. The search intensified and on Tuesday, cadaver dogs found the body of a man buried in a shallow grave.
UNITED STATES
Natalie Wood case reopened
Homicide detectives have reopened their investigation of Natalie Wood’s death nearly 30 years after the actress drowned in the waters off Southern California in one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries. The renewed look at Wood’s Nov. 29, 1981, death was prompted by new information detectives received about the case, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said on Thursday. Wood, a three-time Oscar nominee famous for roles in West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause and other Hollywood hits, was 43 when she died. Wood’s drowning sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but widower Robert Wagner and Wood’s sister have dismissed any suggestion that there was foul play. Wood drowned after a night of partying with Wagner and Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken on the couple’s yacht. Her death was ruled an accident and it was determined that she had been drinking before her death.
VENEZUELA
Soldiers to police streets
President Hugo Chavez ordered thousands of National Guard soldiers into the streets of the capital and surrounding states on Thursday, urging them to help outgunned police curb widespread violent crime. More than 3,200 troops were deployed to the streets of Caracas as well as the surrounding states of Miranda and Vargas, according to General Miguel Vivas Landino, commander of the new security force. The country has one of Latin America’s highest murder rates. The government has not released official statistics tallying annual killings for several years, but statistics released by human rights groups and academic organizations indicate it has become one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America. From 1998 through last year, the yearly homicide rate tripled, rising from 19 for every 100,000 residents in the South American nation to 57 per 100,000, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory.
UNITED STATES
Casting assistant is molester
A newspaper report says a casting assistant who helped choose child actors for Cheaper By The Dozen 2 and other child-friendly movies is a convicted child molester. The Los Angeles Times reports that 35-year-old Jason James Murphy has worked with children in Hollywood for a decade by using the name Jason James. Murphy served five years in prison for the 1996 crime of kidnapping and molesting an eight-year-old boy in suburban Seattle and underwent counseling.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
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