CHINA
Foreign TV shows restricted
New rules banning foreign television shows from being shown at primetime have been issued as the country tries to encourage domestic programming, state media reported yesterday. Foreign television series must be capped at a total of 50 episodes and the running time for an imported series must not exceed 25 percent of the total time a given channel dedicates to broadcasting such shows, the China Daily reported.
SOUTH KOREA
Tycoon sues little brother
The chairman of Samsung Electronics has been sued by his elder brother over a multimillion dollar inheritance, a law firm said yesterday. Lee Maeng-hee, 80, has sued Lee Kun-hee, 70, for the return of a huge number of shares inherited from their late father, said a spokesperson for the law firm, Hwawoo. Hwawoo, which has formed a team of 10 lawyers to represent Maeng-hee, declined to give details. Yonhap news agency, citing court records, said the total value of the assets claimed by Lee Maeng-hee from his brother is about 700 billion won (US$623 million). Lee Maeng-hee said that after their father’s death in 1987, his younger brother took over the shares that he had held under the names of other people, including Samsung executives.
AUSTRALIA
Queen’s mooner fined
A Sydney man has been fined A$750 (US$800) for mooning Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, during a royal visit. Barman Liam Lloyd Warriner was sentenced yesterday in a Brisbane court on a charge of creating a public nuisance for baring his buttocks to the 85-year-old British monarch and her 90-year-old husband in October last year. Prosecutors had asked for a A$1,000 fine. Warriner admitted holding the nation’s flag clenched between his bare buttocks and running as the royal couple’s motorcade drove past well-wishers. Warriner said outside court yesterday that he would do the same thing to “any self-important, self-propagating elitist.”
SOUTH KOREA
Woman dies to be with dog
A woman apparently mourning the death of her pet dog has committed suicide after leaving a note requesting she be buried with the animal, police said yesterday. The 25-year-old surnamed Kim was found dead at her home in the southern city of Busan on Monday after apparently burning coal briquettes in the bathroom, a Busan police official said on condition of anonymity. Kim was clutching the dead dog when a co-worker found her body in the bathroom, whose windows and door were sealed with tape, he said. Kim, who had owned the dog for the past four years, had not been to work since Thursday.
AUSTRALIA
Qantas parody shut down
Qantas has had a parody public relations account for the airline on social media site Twitter shut down, saying yesterday it was “causing confusion” for customers. The account, @QantasPR, was started following the carrier’s dramatic 48-hour grounding of its worldwide fleet in October last year over an industrial dispute with its staff. Using the distinctive red and white “Flying Kangaroo” icon as its profile image, the account lampooned the airline and was followed by thousands of the microblogging site’s members. Twitter users criticized Qantas for the move, with one person sarcastically thanking the airline because he was “genuinely unable to differentiate between your company and a joke.”
BRAZIL
Reporter shot dead
A reporter was shot dead by unknown assailants, the second journalist in less than two weeks to be gunned down in the country. Paulo Rodrigues, 51, editor of the Mercosul News Web site, died in Ponta Para, in the southern Mato Grosso do Sul state, late on Sunday night after being shot several times by two men on a motorcycle, the Web site said. “Initial reports indicate that the crime against the journalist could be politically motivated, but police do not rule out other theories,” it said. Last week, Mario Lopes, 50, the editor of the Web site Vassouras na Net, which criticizes local politicians, judges and police, was shot dead with his girlfriend in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
UNITED STATES
Hammer attack investigated
Authorities were investigating a 14-year-old girl’s actions before they say she attacked two students with a hammer at Columbine High School in the first assault with a weapon since the deadly shootings there in 1999. Investigators on Monday were trying to gather additional details, including where the girl got the hammer, said John McDonald, Jefferson County School District’s executive director of security and emergency management. It was unclear what sparked the attack on Monday morning at the school outside of Littleton, about 21km southwest of downtown Denver, Colorado. The 14-year-old targeted a 15-year-old girl in a hallway leading to bathrooms, Jefferson County sheriff spokesperson Jacki Kelley said.
UNITED STATES
Intruder robs justice
US Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed last week by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said on Monday. The 73-year-old Breyer, wife Joanna and guests were confronted by the robber on Thursday night in the home Breyer owns on the Caribbean island of Nevis, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. The intruder took about US$1,000 in cash and no one was hurt, Arberg said. She said the robbery was reported to local authorities, but she did not know whether an arrest has been made.
MEXICO
Tourist arrivals grow
Ignoring gruesome news stories of ongoing drug violence, the country, for the third consecutive year, saw an increase in foreign visitors, government tourism figures out on Monday showed. About 22.6 million foreigners visited the country last year, just slightly less than the record 23 million in 2008, the office of Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara said in a statement. The figure is 2 percent higher than 2010 and 5.7 percent higher than 2009, the statement said.
UNITED STATES
‘Costa’ faces more charges
Passengers aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized off Italy last month have amended their lawsuit to bring additional charges of negligence against the ship’s captain and crew. The lawsuit in a state court in Florida, where the cruise operators are based, now includes 39 plaintiffs, each of whom is seeking individual damages for unique losses and injuries, their attorney Mark Bern said in a statement. “The plaintiffs will seek punitive damages as a result of the nature of the conduct of the Costa Concordia’s officers and staff, which demonstrated a reckless disregard for human life and property,” the statement said on Monday.
‘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