PHILIPPINES
Dogfighting ring busted
An animal rights group yesterday said it helped police bust a South Korean syndicate operating a massive dogfighting ring and rescued 300 pitbulls. Two South Korean nationals and several Filipinos were arrested in the Friday raid at a 2 hectare farm in the city of San Pablo, just south of Manila, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) said. Many of the dogs were severely injured, with ripped ears and tongues, including 20 that needed to be euthanized, it said. “This appears to be a large operation and these South Koreans need to be punished,” PAWS program director Anna Cabrera said.
FRANCE
Jade seal auctioned
A carved jade seal used by the Chinese emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820) was sold on Saturday at an auction in Toulouse for almost 700,000 euros (US$934,000), the auction house said. The seal is carved with dragons and four characters in the style of stamps from the Han era signifying “graceful trees providing pleasant shade,” according to the Saint Aubin auction house in the southwestern city. The 6.7cm2 seal appeared to be unique, it added. Also under the hammer was an 1807 letter from Josephine de Beauharnais, wife of former emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, addressed to the great diplomat and foreign minister Talleyrand, in which she confided concerns over her marriage. “I no longer have the courage that I had previously, what little that I still have diminishes every day and I foresee that I will be very unhappy this summer if I must go far from the emperor,” she wrote in the two-page letter that sold for 17,700 euros. Talleyrand had earlier organized a ball in Warsaw, where Napoleon met Maria Walewska, with whom he had a liaison.
JAPAN
Tsunami projections revised
A 35m tsunami could hit the coast in the wake of a massive earthquake, an expert panel has said after revising its worst case scenario projections following last year’s disaster. If a magnitude 9 earthquake struck in the Nankai Trough off the country’s central to western regions, huge swathes of the Pacific coastline could be inundated, with 20m-plus waves hitting areas from Tokyo down to the southwestern island of Kyushu. At the town of Kuroshio, in southwestern Kochi Prefecture, the tsunami could reach 34.4m — the highest level projected under the scenario, the Cabinet Office panel said late on Saturday. At the now offline Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Shizuoka Prefecture, the tsunami could be as high as 21m, breaching the 18m breakwater that operators are currently constructing, the panel said.
THAILAND
Mafia boss arrested
Police have arrested a wanted Italian Mafia boss after he flew to Bangkok airport, Italian media said on Saturday. Vito Roberto Palazzolo, from Terrasini near the Sicilian capital Palermo and considered to be a leading member of the Cosa Nostra Sicilian Mafia for whom he laundered money, was arrested on Friday. He was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 to nine years in jail for association with the Mafia and had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko. South African authorities had declined to extradite the 64-year-old. Italian media reported that Thailand had agreed to his extradition to Italy, but that his lawyers said he was a South African national, even though he had assumed it under another identity.
BRAZIL
Decision on jet deal nears
Defense Minister Celso Amorim said in remarks published on Saturday that the country was in the “final chapters,” of awarding a lucrative jet fighter deal and should decide within a few months. The Rafale fighter, made by French firm Dassault Aviation, is up against US aviation giant Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and Swedish manufacturer Saab’s Gripen jet for a tender from the country to supply 36 multi-role combat aircraft. The contract has been variously valued at between US$4 billion and US$7 billion. “We are entering the final chapters,” Amorim told the magazine Istoe. “I have an expectation that the matter can be resolved in this semester [first half of the year],” he said. A senior government source said on Monday last week that President Dilma Rousseff would decide which fighter jet to buy after a visit to Washington this month and the French presidential election in next month. Amorim has previously said June was a likely date for the announcement. Last year, the country delayed a decision on the purchase following a major budget cut, but the jets are needed to beef up the country’s air force.
UNITED STATES
Mason ‘companion’ arrested
A woman who said comedian Jackie Mason roughed her up during a domestic dispute has been arrested on an assault charge stemming from the incident, police in New York said. Police said on Saturday that Mason’s 48-year-old “companion” scratched and bruised his arm at about 6:30am on Friday as he attempted to call a doorman to have her removed from his Upper East Side apartment. Initially, police said the woman had reported being roughed up by the comedian, who is known for one-man shows on Broadway like Politically Incorrect. Mason has not been charged. It was not immediately clear if the woman had a lawyer. A phone number listed under her name was not in service.
AUSTRALIA
Scary Spice mulls switch
Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown says she is considering turning her back on Britain to become an Australian citizen. The singer, 36, has spent much of the past 18 months commuting between London, Los Angeles and Sydney, and recently made the country her permanent base. She is a judge on the hugely popular talent show X Factor Australia. “I would love to become an Australian citizen,” she told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph, adding that her 13-year-old daughter was at a local school and doing well. “I’ve set up shop here. We are all really happy and settled. Hopefully you are going to want me here for a long time.” Brown, or Mel B, made her name as “Scary Spice” in the massively popular 1990s group Spice Girls, which also featured Victoria Beckham, wife of English soccer superstar David Beckham.
UNITED STATES
Wife hampers probe
The Department of Justice says the wife of a missing diplomat in the Caribbean has acknowledged hampering the investigation into his disappearance nearly two years ago. Justice officials say Abby Hogan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and said she repeatedly provided false information to federal agents and withheld relevant information. Her husband, 49-year-old James Hogan, was the vice consul in Curacao. He vanished in September 2009 after leaving their house late one night. Hogan entered her plea on Friday in a federal courthouse in Florida where she lives.
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