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.
‘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