AFGHANISTAN
Bomb kills three soldiers
A roadside bomb attack killed three NATO troops in the east of the country, one of the deadliest flashpoints in the 10-year war against Taliban insurgents, the military said yesterday. NATO’s US-led International Security Assistance Force did not release the nationalities of the soldiers or give further details of the incident, which happened on Tuesday. The deaths take the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan to 561 so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on figures from independent Web site iCasualties.org. A total of 711 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan last year, the highest annual total since the US-led invasion in 2001 ousted the Taliban from power.
CHINA
Tiger escapes from zoo
A rare Siberian tiger escaped from a zoo in Anhui Province, frightening locals in a downtown public park before she was shot dead by more than 12 police, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The nine-year-old big cat fled her cage in Wuhu city when a zookeeper there forgot to lock the gate properly after feeding time, Xinhua said, citing zoo officials. The tiger had a bad temper, “probably caused by mating anxiety,” the zoo officials told Xinhua, which said that further investigation is underway. No one was hurt in the incident. The tiger’s escape was the latest in a string of cases involving tigers escaping from zoos in the country over the past few years, according to local media reports. In January, a tour bus driver was mauled to death by a tiger at a breeding center in the northeast after he got out of his vehicle to check on a mechanical problem and was dragged off to a wooded area by the hungry cat.
NEW ZEALAND
‘Sparta’ leaves Antarctica
The patched-up Russian fishing boat Sparta completed temporary repairs and set sail from the Antarctic yesterday, ending a 12-day battle to stay afloat in icy waters, rescue officials said. “Repairs on the stricken vessel Sparta are complete. She is now heading north to rendezvous with her sister ship, Chiyo Maru No. 3, in the open ocean,” rescue coordinator Tracy Brickles said. The Sparta, with a crew of 32, had been stranded near the Antarctic ice shelf for 12 days after being holed below the waterline while heavy ice prevented nearby vessels from giving immediate assistance. Pumps and fuel dropped from a New Zealand Air Force Hercules helped keep the vessel afloat until a South Korean icebreaker reached it on Christmas Day with equipment to speed up repairs. “The Korean icebreaker Araon will escort Sparta and open an ice lane to allow both vessels to make their way from the ice shelf,” Brickles said. The Sparta is expected to make its way to New Zealand, 2,000 nautical miles (3,700km) away, for permanent repairs.
INDONESIA
Mudflows kill four
Officials say fast-moving mudflows streaming from the mouth of a volcano in the Molucca Islands have killed four villagers. About 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama sprang back to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal eruption. Government spokesman Yusuf Sunnya said yesterday that days of heavy rains triggered flows of cold lava, rocks and other debris that slammed into villages near the base on Tuesday night. He said four people were killed and more than a dozen others were hospitalized with injuries ranging from broken bones to head wounds.
ITALY
Pirates hijack cargo ship
Pirates have hijacked a cargo ship with 18 crew on board at dawn on Tuesday off the coast of Oman in an area notorious for attacks by pirates, officials said. The Enrico Ievoli, carrying a cargo of caustic soda from the United Arab Emirates to the Mediterranean, was boarded by pirates at about 4am, said the Naples-based owner of the ship, Marnavi. “There were 18 people on board,” including six Italians, five Ukrainians and seven Indians, Marnavi director Domenico Ievoli said. Ievoli said the ship’s Italian captain, Agostino Musumeci, had told him: “The pirates are on board, but we are all fine.” A foreign ministry spokesman said the navy, which thwarted a pirate attack against the same ship in 2006 near Yemen, had been alerted. “Together with the crisis unit, I am closely following the hijacking of the Ievoli,” Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said in a message on Twitter, calling for “strict discretion to ensure a positive outcome.” However, the captain’s wife, Rita Musumeci, said she had been told of the hijacking by journalists and that she had received no official word from the government. “It’s shameful. No one from the state has called us. They’re warm with their families. What do they care?” she was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.
ITALY
Murder shocks tiny island
The tiny island of Lipari, an idyllic jewel off the north coast of Sicily, has been rocked by its first murder in 56 years. Part of the volcanic Aeolian chain of islands, which includes Salina, where the Oscar-winning film Il Postino was shot, Lipari draws boatloads of tourists to its beaches during the summer, but the population falls to 11,000 during the winter. On Christmas Eve, a cousin calling for Eufemia Biviano, 62, a cleaning lady who lived alone in an isolated house, found her lying in a pool of blood in her garage with her throat slashed. Lipari’s last murder was in 1955, when a woman was killed by two men and dumped in a well. “Here people leave their car keys in the ignition and many leave their front doors open,” Lipari Mayor Mariano Bruno said. A recent number of small thefts has triggered speculation that Biviano disturbed thieves, but nothing was stolen from the house. “It is possible someone was waiting for her and we are looking at her past,” a police officer said.
SWEDEN
Pedophile gets five years
A court on Tuesday sentenced a man to five years in prison for a series of sex crimes against children, including a rape in the Philippines, and the possession of more than 500,000 pornographic pictures featuring children. The Kristianstad district court found 45-year-old Patrick Johnsson guilty of raping a young child, planning further child rapes, aggravated child pornography, sexually assaulting children and making children pose for sexually explicit pictures.
ITALY
Fallen masonry probed
The culture ministry is investigating reports that bits of rock have fallen from the Colosseum in Rome. Witnesses reported seeing the fallen masonry on Sunday. News agency ANSA reported that another bit fell on Tuesday, but Colosseum director Rossella Rea denied it and blamed the false report on a “psychosis” that occurs every so often that Rome’s iconic stadium is crumbling. Environmental group Legambiente has frequently raised the alarm about the precarious state of the Colosseum, charging that exhaust fumes and vibrations from vehicles and a nearby subway are damaging the Colosseum’s travertine exterior, and its brick and tufa interior.
UNITED STATES
‘Tarzan’ chimp, 80, dies
A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah, the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies of the 1930s, has died at age 80. The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced on its Web site that Cheetah died on Saturday of kidney failure. Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb yesterday told the Tampa Tribune that Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh. She said he seemed to be tuned in to human feelings. Cheetah was the comic relief in the Tarzan series starring Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. Cobb said Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller’s estate in about 1960.
UNITED STATES
Filipinos on murder charge
Three brothers from the Philippines have been charged with the Christmas Day beating to death of their sister’s husband. Hudson County prosecutor Edward DeFazio told the Jersey Journal newspaper the killing resulted from “an ongoing family dispute.” DeFazio said 44-year-old Jeorge Alvendia was stomped and hit with a shovel in the garage of his Jersey City home. A criminal complaint said 44-year-old Elieser Paet beat Alvendia with a shovel while 37-year-old Francis Paet and 39-year-old Wilfred Paet kicked him. Authorities said Alvendia’s wife wasn’t home during the attack, but arrived soon after. The brothers were arrested and are being held on US$500,000 cash bail. It’s unclear if they have an attorney.
UNITED STATES
‘Justice fugitive’ pays fine
A French graffiti artist accused of tagging trains in Boston and New York paid a fine of US$2,500 to avoid a trial on vandalism charges in one case, Massachusetts prosecutors said on Tuesday. Maxime Bezat, 25, was caught at Newark airport in New Jersey on Dec. 3 while about to fly to Paris, where he is also sought for spray-paint vandalism. He was then brought back to Massachusetts. “The vandalism case was resolved today with a payment of US$2,500 restitution” to the Boston transit authority, said Jessica Pastore, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. A second “fugitive from justice” charge was dismissed, as Bezat — who is sometimes known as “Rask” — was transferred to New York on Tuesday to face charges there.
MEXICO
Poverty remarks cost job
An anti-poverty official has been fired after posting a comment on social media sites suggesting that poor people smell bad. The nation’s anti-poverty agency said Carlos Talavera has been fired as director of outreach brigades in the western city of Uruapan after a Facebook posting of his was re-tweeted on social media sites. The original comment appears to describe an event attended by poor people and reads roughly: “Truth is this smells impressively bad, poor things.” The social development department said on Tuesday that it “roundly condemns” Talavera’s comment. Talavera also apologized on his Facebook account.
VENEZUELA
Breast implant removal free
The public health service will remove for free French-made breast implants feared to be at risk of rupturing, Health Minister Eugenia Sader said on Tuesday. “Patients who wish to have breast implants made by the French company Poly Implant Prothese may head to hospitals with plastic surgery units to have them removed at no cost,” state news agency AVN quoted Sader as saying.
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
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