UNITED KINGDOM
Woman demolishes factory
It was a daily reminder of the death of her father in an industrial accident, but a mother of two said she felt relief after she was given the chance to demolish the factory where he was killed. Sarah Griffiths won a competition to lead the demolition on Sunday of a tower owned by Campbell’s Soup food manufacturer. It was the site where her father, Mick Locke, was fatally scalded in 1995 in a steam accident. After she triggered the series of explosions which downed the factory in King’s Lynn, England, the 41-year-old Griffiths said the event had given her a “chance of closure.” The site was being cleared for a new commercial and retail development.
FRANCE
Two pandas welcomed
Two Chinese pandas got a red-carpet welcome on Sunday when they arrived in Paris for a new life in a country zoo after Beijing put aside its differences with France and extended the hand of bear diplomacy. The giant black and white bears arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport from Sichuan Province in the “Panda Express,” a Boeing 777 specially decorated with a panda motif. China’s ambassador to Paris, a French MP and zoo staff were on hand to greet the pair before they were whisked off in a truck with a police escort to their new home among the chateaux of the Loire valley. Huan Huan (Happy) and Yuan Zi (Chubby) are the first pandas sent to France since 1973, when Yen Yen — who lived till 2000 — was given to then-president Georges Pompidou along with another panda, which died shortly after arriving.
JAPAN
Naked corpse found
Tokyo police yesterday were investigating after finding the body of a naked man whose genitals had been sliced off with a kitchen knife, media reports said. The corpse of the 49-year-old man, who had been stabbed several times in the chest and stomach, was found lying on a bed in an apartment in the west of the city, NHK reported. The man’s genitals were discovered under the bed and a blood-covered knife was also found in the room, Jiji Press said, citing police sources. A spokeswoman for Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers were investigating an unnatural death.
VIETNAM
Dissident released
Authorities have released a French-Vietnamese dissident who spent 17 months in jail after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the government. Lawyer Tran Vu Hai said yesterday that 56-year-old Pham Minh Hoang was freed from jail on Friday and would now serve three years of house arrest. Hoang holds dual citizenship. He was sentenced to three years in jail after an August trial in which he was found guilty of posting 33 articles criticizing the one-party Communist system, as well as of holding membership in a banned group and recruiting others to join it. An appeals court in November reduced his sentence to 17 months, citing his cooperation with police and his commitment to renounce the banned group.
AUSTRIA
Farmer crushed by cow
A farmer has died after being crushed by a cow, authorities in the northwestern Upper Austria province said. The accident happened early on Sunday as the 31-year-old woman worked at her farm, they said. She apparently was crushed against a trough or a wall by the animal and died of her injuries at the scene.
ISRAEL
War games postponed
Defense officials say Washington and Jerusalem have postponed their largest-ever war games to avoid aggravating mounting tensions between Iran and the international community. The missile defense exercise, “Austere Challenge 12,” was scheduled for April to improve defense systems and cooperation between the two forces. Defense officials said yesterday the drill would not take place before the second half of this year. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision, which they said was taken on Sunday.
IRAQ
Bomb targets minority group
A car bomb targeting an internally displaced persons camp for a tiny minority group near the main northern city of Mosul killed five people and wounded six others yesterday, officials said. The 8am blast in the town of Bartala, in Nineveh Province north of Baghdad, occurred inside the al-Ghadir camp housing displaced members of the Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin, according to an army official and a medic at Mosul General Hospital. The Shabak community numbers about 30,000 people living in 35 villages in Nineveh, and many want to become part of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shiite Islam and local beliefs.
CANADA
Liberals backs marijuana bill
The Liberal Party overwhelmingly passed a motion on Sunday proposing the legalization of marijuana on the last day of its national convention, at which Michael Crawley was chosen as its new leader. The motion says that, if elected, a Liberal government “will legalize marijuana and ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution and use, while enacting strict penalties for illegal trafficking, illegal importation and exportation, and impaired driving.” Under the motion, the Liberals also promised an amnesty for all citizens previously found guilty of simple or minimal possession of marijuana and to clear the offenses from their criminal records. The motion passed with 77 percent of the vote.
SOMALIA
Crew freed after ransom
Pirates have freed the 18-man crew of a Maltese-flagged chemical tanker after the payment of a US$4 million ransom, the maritime editor of the Somalia Report said yesterday. Andrew Mwangura, an authoritative source on piracy, said the crew — three Turks and 15 Georgians — sailed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa in a tugboat after their release last week, while the tanker, the MV Olib G, was abandoned off the coast. The Greek-owned and operated chemical tanker was seized in the Gulf of Aden while on its final trip before the scrapyard, according to Mwangura, a former regional maritime official.
DENMARK
Danes slash catering budget
Copenhagen, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, will reduce servings of meat and serve tap water, rather than bottled water, at the summits it will host for the bloc’s leaders, TV2 reported. The government plans to spend about 35 million euros (US$44 million) on its six-month presidency compared with the 115 million euros that Poland spent during its term in the second half of last year, the broadcaster said, citing data from the foreign ministry.
‘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