AUSTRALIA
Shark kills diver
Police say a man has been killed by a shark while diving with his brother off a beach in southwest Australia. It’s the fourth fatal shark attack in the country since September, all of them off the continent’s southwest corner. Police spokeswoman Sergeant Naomi Smith said the two men were diving from a boat off Stratham Beach, about 230km south of Perth, the Western Australia state capital, when one of brothers was attacked mid-morning.
SOUTH KOREA
Casino workers nabbed
Two casino workers were arrested on Friday on suspicion of using hidden cameras to rig the outcome of games in a scam that netted them at least US$620,000. A maintenance manager identified only as Hwang and a staff member surnamed Kim were accused of setting up tiny video cameras at casino tables to enable crooked gambling at the Kangwon Land Casino, police said. Kangwon Land, in the eastern mountain resort of Jeongseon, is the only one of the country’s 17 casinos allowed to accept domestic gamblers. Hwang, 42, allegedly asked Kim to install the cameras on the shoes of the croupier which deal cards and helped an unidentified gambler cheat dozens of times since 2009.
SOUTH KOREA
No kids at Gaga show
Youths aged under 18 have been banned from attending an upcoming concert by US pop diva Lady Gaga after it was rated unsuitable for younger audiences, organizers said on Friday. Lady Gaga will begin her third concert tour, The Born This Way Ball, on April 27 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The show had an initial age rating of 12 and older, but the Korea Media Rating Board, a state watchdog, has adjusted it upwards, said event organizer Hyundai Card. “Our company will respect the board’s decision and refund all ticketholders younger than 18,” a Hyundai Card official said.
AUSTRALIA
Abbott sorry over gaffe
Opposition leader Tony Abbott backpedaled on Friday after derogatory comments about the clothes and appearance of Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister. The furore began when well-known Australian feminist Germaine Greer told ABC television that Gillard wore unflattering jackets and had a “big arse.” “Every time she turns round, you’ve got that strange horizontal crease, which means they’re cut too narrow in the hips,” Greer said. “You’ve got a big arse, Julia. Just get on with it.” While meeting the public at a community forum on Thursday the issue came up and Abbott responded: “I know, I know, I know. Germaine Greer was right on that subject.” On Friday he said he regretted the remark after it was widely played on television. “It was an off-the-cuff remark responding to an observation of a member of the public and I shouldn’t have said it and I regret it,” he said.
CANADA
Ship heads for west coast
The government is monitoring an unmanned Japanese ship which was swept into the ocean during last year’s tsunami, and will not allow it to wash ashore on the west coast, the government announced. “The government of Canada will ensure the vessel does not wash ashore on the Canadian coast,” Transport Canada said in a statement. However, it added it will not prevent private parties from trying to take control of the ship, which is currently drifting 1,500km north of Vancouver.
MEXICO
Town police chief killed
Authorities said gunmen burst into the home of a small town’s police chief and killed him in the northern state of Durango. A statement from state prosecutors said police chief Macario Parada was already wounded from a shootout and was recovering at home when the attackers struck in the town of Ocampo. Prosecutors said the assailants kidnapped police officers assigned as Parada’s bodyguards before the attack on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Houston’s mother proud
Cissy Houston said in her first interview since daughter Whitney’s death that she’s “very proud” of her and did the best she could raising her. Houston talked to My9 on Thursday for an interview set to air tomorrow. The interview took place at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where Whitney first wowed a congregation as a girl and where her funeral was held on Feb. 18. Houston said her daughter “accomplished a whole lot in the short time that she had here” and “was a very wonderful person.” She said she does not blame herself for what happened to her because she knows she did the best she could.
UNITED STATES
Life sentence urged for Bout
Federal prosecutors asked a judge in New York to sentence a Russian arms dealer known as the Merchant of Death to life in prison. Prosecutors called Viktor Bout a “businessman of the most dangerous order” in court papers filed on Friday. They said Bout conspired to sell missiles to an “avowed terrorist organization seeking to kill Americans.” Defense attorney Albert Dayan said in court papers that the case against Bout was “the product of outrageous, inexcusable government conduct” and that his client was innocent. He called on the judge not to sentence Bout and to dismiss the indictment.
GUATEMALA
Drug proposal opposed
Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega issued a joint statement after meeting on Friday, saying they do not support Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina’s proposal to legalize drugs, but would continue to support regional efforts to fight drug trafficking. The leaders said they want to present a united front as Western Hemisphere leaders look for ways to fight drug trafficking at the Summit of the Americas in Colombia next month. Perez made his drug legalization proposal in February.
ARGENTINA
Menem ordered to stand trial
Former president Carlos Menem was on Friday ordered to stand trial for obstruction of justice in a probe of the 1994 bombing of a building housing Jewish charities that killed 85 people. Justice officials said Judge Ariel Lijo ordered the trial for Menem, president from 1989 to 1999, and former judge Juan Jose Galeano, who was in charge of the investigation for 10 years, but was dismissed from the case in 2004. About 300 people were wounded in the attack that leveled the seven-floor Argentine Jewish Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires. No one has ever been convicted in the bombing. Menem, 81, was initially charged in 2009 with concealing and tampering with evidence and abusing authority to cover up what was then called a “Syrian connection.” Prosecutors now say there is evidence that state intelligence services and security forces covered up and erased tracks for local accomplices of the attackers during the Menem administration.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was