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.
‘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