CHINA
Forbidden City thief jailed
A Chinese farmer has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for stealing works of art and jewels from the Forbidden City last year, his lawyer said yesterday, in a rare theft at the ancient imperial palace. Shi Baikui (石柏魁), 27, from Shandong Province, was arrested in May last year at an Internet cafe in Beijing more than 48 hours after committing the theft. According to Xinhua news agency, Shi broke into the heavily guarded former home of Chinese emperors in May last year, where he stole nine valuable items, including gold and jewels. Police managed to recover six of the stolen items, but three pieces worth an estimated 150,000 yuan remain missing, Xinhua said. News reports at the time said the stolen items — valued at up to 10 million yuan — dated from the early 20th century and included jewelry boxes and women’s make-up cases. Shi’s theft is the fifth on record at the Forbidden City.
NEPAL
Hydro project endangered
A Chinese company building a crucial hydroelectric power plant in power-starved Nepal has threatened to pull out, an official said yesterday. Energy Ministry spokesman Arjun Karki said China Three Gorges International Corp has sent a letter to the government expressing concern over a parliamentary committee order for the company to suspend work while it investigates possible irregularities in the granting of the firm’s license. The company said in the letter that it could pull out of the project. The parliamentary Natural Resources and Means Committee said it was probing the government’s decision to grant the project to the Chinese company without calling for international bidding.
AUSTRALIA
Concert played on bridge
A group of Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians scaled the city’s Harbour Bridge for an exclusive concert yesterday to celebrate the sweeping structure’s 80th birthday. Known as the “Grand Old Dame” of Sydney, or more colloquially “The Coathanger,” the bridge was officially opened to traffic on March 19, 1932, joining the harbor’s northern and southern shores for the first time. It was an ambitious project that took eight years to complete, with construction of the 1,149m span claiming the lives of 16 men. To celebrate its 80th anniversary, 11 brass section musicians from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra — also turning 80 this year — climbed to the top of the bridge’s 134m high arch to perform for a select group of guests. “The musicians performed Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man plus the theme music from the movie Chariots of Fire” a spokeswoman said.
ISRAEL
Palestine not viable: report
A government report says the Palestinian Authority is not economically stable enough for statehood. The report is set to be presented this week to donors to the Palestinian Authority. They include the US, the EU, the World Bank and the IMF. The report says Palestinian “financial stability is now challenged.” It cited a shortfall of foreign aid and lack of development in the private sector. Last year, the IMF said Palestinian financial institutions were ready for statehood. Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib rejected the Israeli report, citing statements by the IMF and others. “As Palestinians, we are ready for statehood,” he said. “Our institutions are ready.” Donors have given billions of dollars to the Palestinians since 1993.
MEXICO
Ten human heads found
Authorities in a town in Guerrero State made a grisly discovery on Sunday, finding 10 severed human heads near an open-air market, officials said. “They were the severed heads of 10 people, three women and seven men,” police spokesman Arturo Martinez Nunez said. A prosecutor’s office official in Teloloapan, the town where the remains were found, said they were found beside the open-air market. Messages against La Familia drug cartel were found with the heads, authorities said. La Familia is a criminal group active in the nearby state of Michoacan and has frequent turf battles with other crime gangs. President Felipe Calderon has launched a military crackdown against the cartels battling it out for control of the lucrative drug trade, in which about 50,000 Mexicans have lost their lives since 2006.
UNITED KINGDOM
Road privatization mulled
Sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and private investors could take control of the nation’s main roads, Prime Minister David Cameron was to announce in his pre-budget speech yesterday. Tolling could also be introduced to help fund new roads as the government seeks to repair infrastructure, Cameron was expected to say, according to his Downing Street office. Cameron has already asked the Department for Transport and the Treasury to carry out a feasibility study on the proposed changes to road financing, results of which will be announced at the end of the year. “We need to look urgently at the options for getting large-scale private investment into the national roads network,” Cameron was to say in his speech. “Road tolling is one option — but we are only considering this for new, not existing, capacity.” He was to argue that much of the nation’s infrastructure is already funded by the private sector and question why the nation’s roads still rely on public finances. Motoring group AA warned that the proposals could be “the thin end of the wedge,” opening the way for a surge in tolling.
BOSNIA
Two killed by landmine
Two men in their 20s died on Sunday, when a landmine left over from the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War exploded while they were cutting wood in a zone clearly marked as dangerous, authorities said. The fatal accident took place near the northeastern town of Lukavac, national television cited the local civil protection authority as saying. The two men, aged 27 and 28, were collecting wood despite the area being marked as infested with anti-personnel mines laid during the inter-ethnic conflict, which claimed about 100,000 lives, the authorities said. The devices, laid up to 20 years ago, still cover an estimated 1,400km2, 2.8 percent of the national territory. Since the end of the war in 1995, about 580 people have been killed in such landmine explosions. Last year there were five fatalities.
GUINEA-BISSAU
Ex-military chief shot dead
The former head of military intelligence, Colonel Samba Diallo, was shot dead at a bar near his residence in the capital, Bissau, late on Sunday, hours after a presidential election, witnesses and a security source said. Diallo was among the military officials deposed and temporarily jailed in an April 2010 coup within the military that ousted army chief of staff Jose Zamora Induta. A nearby resident said that soldiers fired on Diallo just before midnight and his body was taken away. Another witness said he saw Diallo’s body at a hospital, and a security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the killing.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in