SUDAN
Presidents’ oil talks fail
The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan failed on Friday to resolve an oil dispute that has led to the shutdown of the South’s crude output and threatened both countries’ economies. The row centers on how much landlocked South Sudan, which became independent last year, should pay to send its oil exports through Sudan to a Red Sea port. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, using a walking stick, and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir met on the sidelines of a meeting of East African officials in Ethiopia. However, the talks broke down when Kiir pulled out.
FRANCE
CEO charged over implants
Authorities have filed preliminary charges against the former head of a now-defunct company accused of supplying potentially faulty breast implants affecting thousands of women. A judge in the southeastern city of Marseille placed Poly Implant Prothese founder and chief executive Jean-Claude Mas under investigation for “involuntary injury,” defense lawyer Yves Haddad said on Friday. The judge’s decision to release him on 100,000 euros (US$130,000) bail caused indignation among women who regard themselves as his victims. Mas was arrested on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
‘Barefoot Bandit’ sentenced
A federal judge on Friday sentenced “Barefoot Bandit” Colton Harris-Moore to six-and-a-half years in prison for his infamous two-year, international crime spree of break-ins and boat and plane thefts that ended in 2010. He earned his nickname because he committed several of the crimes without wearing shoes. Harris-Moore addressed the court shortly before US Judge Richard Jones imposed the sentence, which will be served concurrently with state prison time. Harris-Moore said he is remorseful and it’s “no stretch of the imagination to say that I am lucky to be alive.”
UNITED STATES
Demi Moore has convulsions
Actress Demi Moore suffered convulsions and seemed only semi-conscious after smoking an undisclosed substance before being rushed to hospital earlier this week, according to the tape of a medical emergency call released on Friday. “She smoked something, it’s not marijuana, but it is similar to incense. She seems to be having convulsions of some sort,” a female friend of Moore told emergency services when calling for an ambulance on Monday. The tape shed the first official light on the emergency that sent recently separated Moore to the hospital, and later to seek treatment for what her spokeswoman has described only as “exhaustion.” Celebrity Web site TMZ.com has reported that one of the friends at Moore’s home on Monday told paramedics the actress had been inhaling nitrous oxide.
UNITED STATES
Cat has knee replacement
Because Cyrano weighs more than 9kg, amputating his cancer-weakened leg was out of the question. So the tubby tabby’s owners turned to doctors and engineers at North Carolina State University to get him back into mice-catching trim. On Thursday, the 10-year-old cat from Upperville, Virginia, received what doctors believe is the country’s first feline total knee replacement. Veterinarian Denis Marcellin-Little and NCSU engineer Ola Harrysson are pioneers in osseointegration, a process that fuses a prosthetic limb with living bone. In 2005, Marcellin-Little performed the world’s first surgery to fuse leg implants with a cat’s bone tissue, so Cyrano’s owners turned to him for help.
‘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