JAPAN
Renowned designer dies
Industrial designer Sori Yanagi, whose kitchen and homeware stood at the vanguard of contemporary design for decades, has died of pneumonia, his office said yesterday. He was 96. Yanagi won worldwide acclaim for his Butterfly Stool exhibited at the XI Triennale of Milan in 1957 and subsequently went on to become a giant in the world of industrial design. Yanagi originally studied oil painting, but was heavily influenced by French architect Le Corbusier and shifted his focus to designing furniture and everyday items, such as tableware and cooking utensils. His style, which he applied to items ranging from light fittings and record players to the holder for the Olympic flame at the 1964 Tokyo Games, was a modern take on the traditional Japanese aesthetic of simplicity.
Photo: AFP/Yanagi Design Office
CHINA
Microblog registry begins
Shanghai began requiring microblog users to register under their real names yesterday, state media said, the latest local government in the country to implement the rule after a spate of violent protests. Beijing and Guangdong Province have also ordered users of weibos — microblogs similar to Twitter — to register using their real names, as authorities tighten their grip on the Internet. The move comes amid a surge in social unrest that has been concentrated in the wealthy manufacturing heartland of Guangdong. Residents protesting against land seizures and a power plant in the province recently posted photographs and reports of their demonstrations on weibos, defying official efforts to block news of the incidents. With more than half a billion people in the country now online, authorities are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets. Shanghai said the new rules aimed to “foster a healthy Internet culture” and improve management over social networking, Xinhua news agency reported.
CHINA
Super-fast train tested
The country launched a super-rapid test train over the weekend that is capable of traveling 500kph, state media said yesterday, as the country moves ahead with its railway ambitions despite serious problems on its high-speed network. The train, made by a subsidiary of CSR Corp Ltd, the country’s largest train maker, is designed to resemble an ancient sword, Xin-hua news agency reported. The railway industry has had a tough year, highlighted by a collision between two high-speed trains in July that killed at least 40 people. Construction of new high-speed trains has since been at a near halt. In February, then-minister of railways Liu Zhijun (劉志軍), a key figure behind the boom in the sector, was dismissed over corruption charges that have not yet been tried in court.
INDONESIA
Elephant kills farmer
A rampaging wild elephant has trampled a farmer to death on Sumatra Island. Nyak Cut, a paramedic, said three farmers in Geumpang village in Aceh Province were trying to drive away a herd of wild elephants from their fields on Saturday when one of the animals charged, sending the men fleeing. Cut said one of the farmers, 60-year-old Mohammed Amin, was trampled to death after he stumbled and fell. He said villagers have threatened to kill the elephants if authorities fail to protect their farms. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild. They are threatened by their shrinking habitat, with jungles being cleared for commercial farming or felled for lumber. The elephants sometimes venture into inhabited areas in search of food.
INDONESIA
HIV infection investigated
The government is investigating the case of an Australian who is believed to have been infected with HIV while getting a tattoo in Bali, an official said yesterday. “We received a report about this case from the health ministry yesterday and officials will be visiting tattoo parlors today to verify this claim,” Bali Health Department Director Nyoman Sutedja said. “At this point, we are still investigating. We can’t say for sure if the patient caught the virus from getting a tattoo or sexual contact.” There are currently 4,200 HIV/AIDS cases in Bali, Sutedja said. Australian health authorities on Friday said a patient diagnosed with HIV probably contracted the virus while being tattooed on the island.
JAPAN
Yasukuni shrine scorched
Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine, often seen as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression, had its main wooden gate set on fire early yesterday in a suspected arson attack, a shrine official said. A small fire scorched the Gate of Gods, which stands about 13m tall and 28m wide, at about 4am, the official said. The gate, built in 1934 and adorned with huge gold-leaf chrysanthemums on both portals, was not seriously damaged as a shrine security guard quickly put the blaze out, she said. “We believe it was arson because our security footage shows somebody spraying liquid on the gate before the fire started,” she said. Police later found two glass containers that appeared to have contained some kind of fuel oil, local media said. The media also reported that a posting on Twitter, apparently by a South Korean resident of Japan, had threatened a fire at the shrine.
NETHERLANDS
Fight diverts flight
Airport police say they have detained a Finnish man who fought with crew members aboard a flight from the Spanish island of Tenerife to Finland. A spokesperson said the crew overpowered the 57-year-old passenger and diverted the flight to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, where he was taken into custody on Sunday. Spokesperson Martijn Peelan said the man argued with his wife and the fight escalated when the crew intervened. Police are questioning the suspect and several witnesses.
UNITED STATES
Seven bodies found in Texas
Police found seven bodies in an apartment on Sunday in Texas after what officials described as a Christmas Day murder-suicide. Two handguns were discovered at the apartment in Grapevine, near Dallas, and there were no signs of forced entry. “We believe the shooter is one of those dead in the apartment,” Grapevine Police Lieutenant Todd Dearing said. All seven people were found near a Christmas tree in a living room area of the two-story apartment. “It’s a great tragedy, something our department has not seen before,” Grapevine Police Sergeant Robert Eberling said. “You read about these types of reports, but they always seem to happen somewhere else.” Dearing said that authorities believe it was a family Christmas gathering, with the victims ranging in age from 18 or 20 to their 50s or 60s.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was