AUSTRALIA
New dingo inquiry scheduled
The father of a baby who vanished in the Outback says he is confident that a new inquiry into the tragedy will officially rule that a dingo took his daughter. The disappearance of nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain in 1980 divided Australians between those who believed a native dog, known as a dingo, killed her and those who believed she was murdered by her mother. A coroner in February will review the finding of the third inquest that failed to determine a cause of death. Michael Chamberlain said yesterday he is confident the new inquiry will blame a dingo.
BANGLADESH
Hyacinth helps families
Ask a farmer in the country’s deep south about the water hyacinth and he will say it is a curse. The floating plants form broad green blankets that strangle waterways and create a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. However, for Minati Mondol, a 55-year-old widow in the Agailjhara area of Barisal district near the Bay of Bengal, the hyacinth stands for the hope embodied by Christmas. Mondol is part of a group of artisans who turn the stem of the plant into Christmas figures, stars, streamers and gift cards for buyers in Europe and North America. “My family was so poor we used to boil and eat the roots and flowers of the water hyacinth,” Mondol said. “Now we make stars and angels out of water hyacinth and eat rice three times a day.” Although most of the women have never seen the inside of a church, they have plenty to cheer about during the festive season.
CHINA
Official denounces religion
A Chinese Communist Party official says growing religious practice among members is threatening its unity and leadership. Zhu Weiqun (朱維群) reinforced the demand that party members not believe in religion or engage in religious practice. He said religious practice is a growing trend, especially in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, and must not be tolerated. Zhu’s stern remarks to the party’s 80 million members appear in the latest edition of its main theoretical journal, Qiushi, and were reported yesterday by Xinhua news agency. The remarks come amid a spike in tensions between Beijing and the Vatican and crackdowns on independent churches, Buddhist monasteries and religious practice among Uighur Muslims in the northwest.
SOUTH AFRICA
ANC power struggle grows
Firebrand party rebel Julius Malema mocked South African President Jacob Zuma at a provincial conference over the weekend, local media said, in the latest sign of a growing power struggle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) ahead of its leadership election next year. Malema, currently appealing a five-year suspension from the ANC, led supporters at a conference on Saturday in singing “The shower man is giving us a hard time,” the Sunday Times said. The paper showed a photograph of a beret-clad Malema cupping his hand over his head to imitate a shower. The reference was to Zuma’s admission in a 2006 rape trial — in which he was acquitted — that he did not use a condom during sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive, but took a shower afterward in the hope of reducing the risk of infection. Malema was attending an ANC conference in his home province of Limpopo, where he still commands wide support. The ANC last month expelled the 30-year-old leader of its powerful youth wing for five years for dividing the party and bringing it into disrepute.
UNITED STATES
Man charged with burning
Police on Sunday arrested a handyman suspected of brutally burning an elderly woman to death, dousing her with flammable liquid and setting her on fire in a New York City elevator. Security video cameras caught images of a man attacking Deloris Gillespie, 73, as she attempted to leave an elevator in her Brooklyn apartment building. He allegedly covered the victim with the flammable liquid then set her ablaze, local media reported. The man had a strong smell of gasoline when he walked into a nearby police station early on Sunday, local media reported, adding that he told police the victim owed him US$2,000 for work he had done for her. Isaac did not confess to any crime, police said, but now faces charges murder and arson charges.
UNITED STATES
Woman’s bones identified
Bones found in a coastal wetland on New York’s Long Island last week are the remains of missing prostitute Shannan Gilbert, investigators confirmed on Saturday. The New Jersey woman disappeared in the spring of last year after fleeing from a client’s home in Oak Beach, a small community on one of the barrier islands that line Long Island’s Atlantic coast. She was last seen racing into the night toward the marsh, where her remains were discovered on Tuesday. A cause of death has yet to be determined. Police who were hunting for Gilbert wound up finding 10 other sets of human remains that had been discarded along a nearby beach parkway over two decades.
GREECE
Suicides jump by 40%
Painful austerity measures and a seemingly endless economic drama is exacting a deadly toll on the nation. Statistics released by the Ministry of Health show a 40 percent rise in those taking their own lives between January and May this year compared to the same period last year. Before the financial crisis first began to bite three years ago, Greece had the lowest suicide rate in Europe at 2.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. It now has almost double that number, the highest on the continent, despite the stigma in a nation where the Orthodox Church refuses funeral rights for those who take their lives. Attempted suicides have also increased. Psychiatrists have reported a 30 percent increase in demand for their services over the past year with most patients citing anxiety and depression brought on by financial fears.
UNITED STATES
Boehner opposes extension
The fate of an expiring tax break for 160 million workers was in doubt on Sunday after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner declared his opposition to a two-month extension passed overwhelmingly by the Senate. Boehner said on NBC’s Meet the Press program that the two-month renewal would create added uncertainty for workers and employers and that Congress should delay its holiday break to ensure that a one-year extension was passed.
CHILE
Separated twin dies
The director of a children’s hospital says a baby girl who was surgically separated from her conjoined twin has died. Hospital director Osvaldo Artaza said Maria Jose Paredes Navarrete died on Sunday night due to general organ failure. Doctors separated her late on Tuesday from her twin sister Maria Paz, who continues clinging to life. The public has closely followed the condition of the 10-month-old girls.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing