UNITED STATES
Sandler a Razzie favorite
Adam Sandler has shattered a Hollywood awards season record. He has picked up 11 nominations for the Razzies, an Academy Awards spoof singling out the year’s worst movies. That more than doubled the previous record of five Razzie nominations held by Eddie Murphy for 2007’s Norbit. Among Sandler’s acting, producing and writing nominations on Saturday: worst actor for both Jack and Jill and Just Go with It — and worst actress for Jack and Jill, in which he plays a family man and his own twin sister. Sandler also had two nominations as worst screen couple opposite Jennifer Aniston or Brooklyn Decker in Just Go with It and opposite Katie Holmes, Al Pacino or himself in Jack and Jill. As a producer, Sandler was credited with worst-picture and worst prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel nominations for both Bucky Larson and Jack and Jill. He also shared in worst screenplay nominations as a writer on both movies.
UNITED STATES
Oscars to be auctioned
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not pleased with plans to auction off 15 Oscar statuettes from such films as Citizen Kane, Wuthering Heights and Little Women. However, the academy says its hands are tied in blocking tomorrow’s sale by Nate D. Sanders Auctions because the statuettes were awarded prior to 1950, when a “winners agreement” was instituted banning the sale of Oscars. “Oscars should be won, not purchased,” the academy said in a statement, adding that it had no “legal means of stopping the commoditization of these particular statuettes.” The Sanders Co expects its total Oscar inventory, which includes Herman Mankiewicz’s 1941 screenplay award for Citizen Kane, to command more than US$1 million.
NEPAL
Smallest man measured
Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a 72-year-old man from a remote valley in the southwest of the country, was yesterday measured by Guinness World Records experts investigating his claim to be the shortest man ever recorded. Dangi, who claims to be 56cm tall, was in high spirits as he looked forward to a third and final measurement. “They have already measured me twice yesterday. They didn’t tell me what height they recorded, but everyone is sure of my height and I’m confident I’m going to get the record,” Dangi said through an interpreter. If his height is verified, Dangi will take the world’s shortest man title from Filipino Junrey Balawing, who measures 59.93cm. He will also be declared the shortest human adult ever documented, taking the accolade from India’s Gul Mohammed, who was measured at 57cm before he died in 1997 aged 40.
CHINA
Hebei outbreak not SARS
An outbreak of fever in Hebei Province is under control, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. The illness was caused by the Adenovirus Type 55 and was not SARS or avian flu, it said. As of Saturday there were no deaths among patients admitted to the 252 Hospital in the city of Baoding, with most suffering from a mild fever and none “critically ill,” according to the statement issued late yesterday. The ministry did not specify how many patients were being treated at the hospital.
HONG KONG
Dolphin cargo challenged
Hong Kong Airlines was under pressure yesterday to stop its live dolphin cargo business after an internal memo describing a recent delivery from Japan to Vietnam was leaked to Chinese media. More than 2,800 people have signed an online petition at change.org calling for an end to the flights, citing a China Daily report about a Jan. 16 delivery of five dolphins from Osaka to Hanoi. The dolphins are believed to have come from the Japanese town of Taiji, the scene of an annual dolphin slaughter depicted in Oscar Award winning documentary The Cove, the report said.
HONG KONG
Tsang sets up review panel
Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) will set up an independent panel led by former chief justice Andrew Li (李國能) to review the conduct of senior public officials, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Tsang, under criticism for accepting trips on private yachts and jets owned by tycoons, wrote in a commentary published in the newspaper that recent events had taught him “a painful lesson,” and the need for tighter scrutiny of the actions of the territory’s top officials. The committee will begin its review today and conclude its study before Tsang’s term as chief executive ends on June 30, the paper said. A group of lawmakers identified as the League of Social Democrats filed a complaint against Tsang on Friday with the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
UNITED STATES
Naked man steals fire truck
A naked man stole a fire truck at a Port Royal, South Carolina, apartment complex and sped away, killing a pedestrian who was walking on a sidewalk, authorities said on Saturday. The fire engine driver, identified as 26-year-old Kalvin Hunt, drove about 2km on Friday before he hit a man, careened off the road and crashed into some trees, authorities said. Hunt, who was pinned inside the fire truck, was freed by rescue workers and then started assaulting two police officers, deputy police chief Dale McDorman told the Beaufort Gazette. Justin Miller, 28, of Port Royal, was killed when he was hit as he walked with his brother, Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen said on Saturday. Hunt had not been charged on Saturday in Miller’s death, said Lance Corporal Judd Jones of the South Carolina Highway Patrol, which is investigating.
UNITED STATES
Lin inspires ice cream
NBA star Jeremy Lin has inspired his own flavor from ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s, but waffle cone pieces have replaced fortune cookie bits in “Taste the Linsanity.” The Boston Globe reported the switch in the limited-release item. In tribute to Lin, Ben and Jerry’s created a frozen yogurt that includes lychee honey swirls and a waffle cookie. Initial batches included pieces of fortune cookies mixed into the yogurt, but the cookies became soggy and two pints were returned, Ben and Jerry’s general manager for Boston and Cambridge Ryan Midden told the Globe. “There seemed to be a bit of an initial backlash about it, but we obviously weren’t looking to offend anybody and the majority of the feedback about it has been positive,” Midden said.
UGANDA
Poison coke kills producer
A US TV producer found dead on a hotel balcony in Kampala last week died after taking contaminated cocaine, police and a private investigator said on Saturday. An official toxicology report confirmed the narcotic was in Jeff Rice’s blood, dispelling initial suspicions the father-of-two known for his work on the US show The Amazing Race, had been poisoned by attackers. Rice, who was found slumped over a table bleeding through the nose and mouth, died of asphyxiation, a post mortem showed. Drug users who fall unconscious risk inhaling vomit. Rice’s assistant, identified by police as Kathryne Fuller, was found unconscious at the same time Rice’s body was discovered on Feb. 18. She is now conscious, but paralyzed down the right hand side of her body. Ugandan police said on Saturday they had arrested a man who confessed selling drugs to the pair, who had been in the east African country working on a documentary.
UNITED STATES
Tax, wage fraud soars
The government said the number of identity theft complaints involving tax and wage fraud is soaring even as law enforcement tries to crack down. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officials said that 24 percent of the nearly 279,000 identity theft complaints it received last year came from people concerned their Social Security numbers had been stolen and used to fraudulently file for tax refunds or apply for jobs. The agency said that was 8 percent more than the year before. David Torok of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said the trend had continued into this year. The number of complaints filed with the FTC on any issue has risen from 35,000 a week to 50,000. He said most of the additional complaints were over tax and wage identity theft.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of