RUSSIA
Scores rescued from ice floe
Emergency services rescued 675 fishermen on Sunday from an ice floe that was drifting out to the Sea of Okhotsk. None of the rescued ice fishermen required medical treatment, the emergency services on Sakhalin Island said. About half of the 675 fishermen were picked up by helicopters and the others by boat. Ice fishermen routinely get stranded on ice floes in the country, especially in the spring as temperatures rise. Sunday’s operation was unusual only in the high number that had to be rescued. One of the rescued fishermen, Vladimir Vasilenko, said they should have known better than to go out on such a day. “Of course the wind was blowing from the shore. We should have thought that something could happen,” he said in a televised interview. “We also heard on the radio that it was the last chance for fishermen, and so we went fishing.”
FRANCE
Minimal interest in elections
Three weeks before the presidential election, a record number of voters are thinking of abstaining, testimony to widespread frustration with a lackluster campaign. An IFOP poll on Sunday said a record 32 percent of voters could abstain in the first round, up 3 percentage points from two weeks ago. Political analyst Vincent Tiberj, writing in Le Monde daily, said that voters seem to be bored with the campaign that had “failed to live up to its promises.” Neither President Nicolas Sarkozy nor Socialist Francois Hollande has excited much passion. With neither candidate likely to win an outright majority in the first round of voting, a second round, with just two candidates, will take place on May 6.
AFRICAN CONTINENT
High oil prices stunt growth
Developing countries in Africa received less in overseas aid last year than they paid for oil imports, International Energy Agency (IEA) figures showed yesterday. Sub-Saharan Africa received about US$15.6 billion in overseas development aid last year, but this was outweighed by the US$18 billion cost of importing oil. Even though overseas aid has increased, poor nations are effectively “running to stand still” in development terms, because they are paying so much for energy imports. With oil prices likely to remain high, the only answer is for developing countries to move to cleaner renewable sources of energy, IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said. When industrialized economies were developing, oil was the equivalent of US$13 a barrel, but now developing countries must pay US$120 to US$130, which leaves developing countries “hamstrung,” Birol said, adding that clean energy was imperative if more people were to be lifted out of poverty.
UNITED STATES
Skin cancer on the rise
Skin cancer is on the rise among young adults, according to a study published yesterday that suggests indoor tanning beds and childhood sunburns may be to blame. Between 1970 and 2009, the rate of melanoma among women increased eightfold and it quadrupled among men, according to the research by Mayo Clinic experts who studied all medical records for a county in Minnesota over that timespan. However, death rates from melanoma fell during the same period, suggesting that early interventions may be helping to save some lives, the researchers said. Although the study did not focus on reasons for the increase, lead investigator and Mayo Clinic dermatologist Jerry Brewer said other researchers have found that people who use indoor tanning beds are 74 percent more likely to get melanoma than non-tanners.
MEXICO
Miguel de la Madrid dies
Former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who was faulted for his slow response to a massive 1985 earthquake, has died, sources close to his family told local media. He was 77. Born in Colima in the east on Dec. 12, 1934, De la Madrid studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and at Harvard University, going on to serve as finance minister from 1978 to 1981. Elected president in 1982, he opened up the economy, knocking down tariff barriers and bringing the nation into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor to the WTO, in 1986. However, his administration was also criticized for its handling of the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1985, killing at least 6,000 people by the official count, and more than 30,000 by some estimates. Even as citizens mounted their own relief operations to help the homeless in the face of government inaction, De la Madrid barred the military from taking part and refused international aid.
UNITED STATES
Sandler sweeps razzies
Comedian Adam Sandler and his movie Jack and Jill swept the annual Razzies on Sunday, winning a record-breaking 10 awards for the worst film and performances of last year. The Golden Raspberry Foundation said the cross-dressing comedy, in which Sandler played both the male and female lead parts, was the first film in the 32-year history of the Razzies to sweep all 10 dishonorable categories. Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino was also declared a winner in the contest that was created as an antidote to the love-fest that engulfs Hollywood around awards season that ends with the Oscars in late February. This year, the awards were handed out on April Fool’s Day in a change of tradition that for years saw the Razzies announced on the eve of the Oscars.
JAMAICA
Huge marijuana bust
Two men have been arrested after police allegedly found nearly 453kg of marijuana in their car during a routine traffic stop in a southern parish. Authorities said on Sunday that police in the parish of Clarendon signaled the driver of a sedan to stop along a main road. Police allege that a subsequent search of the car led to the discovery of a large cache of marijuana packed in plastic bags. The motorist and a passenger were taken into custody.
UNITED STATES
Banjo picker remembered
Earl Scruggs was remembered as an influential, helpful and humble banjo player who put his own mark on bluegrass music. About 2,300 mourners attended Scruggs’ public funeral on Sunday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, where he played his songs for years on the Grand Ole Opry country music show and recorded his final album. On Sunday evening, the Academy of Country Music paid tribute to Scruggs at its annual awards show in Las Vegas. “No one will ever play the banjo like Earl,” Charlie Daniels, better known for his fiddle and guitar playing, told mourners in Nashville. Daniels recalled that when he was a young studio musician, Scruggs invited him to join the Earl Scruggs Revue. Scruggs, a four-time Grammy winner, died on Wednesday last week at age 88. The pioneering banjo player and his pickin’ partner Lester Flatt, a guitarist, had teamed up for 20 years to become the most famous duo in bluegrass history. Flatt and Scruggs were best known for their song The Ballad of Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion