JAPAN
World’s oldest dog, 26, dies
The world’s oldest dog according to Guinness World Records has died in Japan at the age of 26 years and eight months. Owner Yumiko Shinohara told reporters at her home in Sakura, a city outside Tokyo, that Pusuke, a fluffy tan Shiba mix, died on Monday after suddenly falling ill and refusing to eat. Shinohara told TV network FNN that she “would just like to thank him for staying alive so long.” The report said Pusuke’s life span would have been the equivalent of about 125 years for a human. According to Guinness, the dog was born on April 1, 1985. Pusuke was recognized as the world’s oldest living dog last December. The Guinness record for canine longevity is 29 years, set by Bluey, an Australian cattle dog who died in 1939.
AUSTRALIA
Health executive on the run
A senior Queensland Health executive was being hunted yesterday after A$16 million (US$16.1 million) went missing from the government department, furious state Premier Anna Bligh said. Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel Barlow, is wanted for alleged fraud with police applying to freeze his assets, including a luxury inner-city apartment and several expensive cars, including a Mercedes. “It is suspected that this individual has embezzled up to A$16 million with one payment of A$11 million stolen in the last two weeks alone,” Bligh said in a statement. “I am furious at the individual and, if there have been structural failings that allowed this to happen, I will tear those structures down.” Morehu-Barlow, 36, was employed as a finance manager in Queensland Health’s community services branch. Bligh said it could be the most serious case of fraud ever in Queensland’s public administration with the government tipped off late on Thursday after a departmental officer noticed a discrepancy in payments. Morehu-Barlow was at work on Thursday but he failed to turn up yesterday.
SOUTH KOREA
Train kills railway workers
Five railway workers in South Korea were killed early yesterday when a Korea Airport Railroad train ploughed into them as they worked on the tracks, authorities said. The victims were working on a drain to prevent the tracks from freezing during winter near Incheon Airport when the train struck them early yesterday, Korea Railroad Corp said. Another worker was seriously injured, while a seventh managed to avoid the oncoming train. The group allegedly entered a section of the track without informing the train control center, the company said. Services on the 61km line connecting Seoul to the airport returned to normal after a 15-minute delay, it said.
GAZA STRIP
Air strike kills grandfather
Three Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed one Palestinian and wounded at least 10 others, medical sources said yesterday. The house of a Palestinian family was hit in the east of Gaza City, near a training center of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, killing a grandfather and wounding seven children, several of them seriously. The two other overnight strikes also targeted training centers of the brigades, the medics said on condition of anonymity. An Israeli Army spokeswoman confirmed that two raids had taken place, but said they were in response to rocket fire against Israeli territory on Thursday night. She said the strikes “targeted centers of terrorist activity” in the Gaza Strip. Earlier on Thursday, two Gaza militants were killed in an Israeli strike.
UNITED STATES
Gingrich flunks on fashion
Newt Gingrich may be the opinion-poll leader among Republican presidential hopefuls, but his style of dress fails to impress the daily diary of the US fashion industry. Women’s Wear Daily gave the paunchy former speaker of the House of Representatives a C-minus in its “man of the week” feature on Thursday, saying “there’s almost nothing right” about his casual shirt-and-slacks outfit. “The black belt separating the pastel blue short-sleeve dress shirt from the beige pleated slacks accentuates his less-than-svelte middle,” it said, deconstructing a photo of the politician holding a hand over his heart. Trying to be helpful, the WWD Web site suggested that a dark V-neck sweater would “minimize his girth without compromising his accessibility,” while darker color trousers would be “always slimming.”
CUBA
Pope to visit
Pope Benedict XVI will visit this spring, a senior Roman Catholic Church official said on Thursday. “On Monday, Dec. 12, the Holy Father will make public the date of the visit and the schedule,” said Monsignor Jose Felix Perez, executive secretary of the Cuban Bishops Conference. “It will be a moment for energizing the faith in Cuba. It will give strength and vigor to the faith in Cuba,” Perez said. “The visit should be one of peace and reconciliation.” The cleric said Benedict’s trip would be a continuation of the historic visit in 1998 by Pope John Paul II that helped ease decades of tensions between the Vatican and the country under former president Fidel Castro, although the two never severed ties.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cat mummy found in walls
A mummified cat entombed in the walls of a recently unearthed 17th century English cottage has historians speculating whether the building might once have played a part in the country’s most notorious witch trials. Nearly 400 years after the “Pendle witches” were hanged on the moors outside nearby Lancaster for witchcraft, workers on an engineering project in the shadow of Pendle Hill, Lancashire, uncovered the old cottage with the cat bricked up inside its walls. Some historians have speculated as to whether the cottage could have been the fabled meeting point of the Pendle witches. “This could well be the famous Malkin Tower — which has been a source of speculation and rumor for centuries,” Pendle witches expert Simon Entwistle said. The find, right in the heart of witch country, was incredibly rare, and was made just a few months before the 400th anniversary of the infamous trial, he said. According to historians, 12 local women were charged with causing death by witchcraft and after a string of trials, 10 of them were hanged on the nearby moors on Aug. 20, 1612.
UNITED KINGDOM
Poets boycott literary prize
Two authors shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry have withdrawn, saying they objected to investment company Aurum Funds sponsoring the award. The Poetry Book Society, which runs the annual award for a collection of poetry, lost funding from the Arts Council England as part of government spending cuts. Australian John Kinsella, who was shortlisted for his latest work, Armour, said he had withdrawn on ethical grounds as “an anti-capitalist in full-on form.” He did not have any specific objections against Aurum Funds, but added that hedge funds were “at the very pointy end of capitalism, if I can put it that way.” Kinsella joins Alice Oswald, who withdrew earlier this week for similar reasons. She had been shortlisted for Memorial.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in