AUSTRALIA
Man stabbed in carjacking
Police yesterday arrested a man over the alleged stabbing of a chauffeur in front of shocked passengers at Sydney Airport in a carjacking gone wrong. Detectives said it appeared that the culprit, in his 20s, stole a rental car, but was forced to abandon it after he crashed into a mini-bus outside the arrival area at the domestic terminal on Monday evening. Barefoot, he ran from the wreckage to where the chauffeur was sitting in his own vehicle and tried to steal it, police said. “The chauffeur managed to kick the man away, however he was stabbed in the leg in the process,” police said in a statement. The man then sprinted toward a woman waiting nearby to load baggage into her car trunk, threatened to stab her and then fled in her silver Mercedes. Police said a man was arrested after a chase north of Sydney.
AUSTRALIA
Hogan settles tax suit
Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan has resolved his seven-year battle with tax authorities over alleged unpaid taxes dating back to his first international hit movie in the 1980s. Hogan and his friend and producer, John Cornell, said through their lawyer, Andrew Robinson, on Monday that the pair had reached a settlement with tax authorities to resolve more than A$150 million (US$156 million) in alleged unpaid taxes and penalties. Tax officials barred the Australian actor from returning to his Los Angeles home for two weeks over the matter in 2010, when he returned to Sydney for his mother’s funeral. Hogan’s lawyers eventually secured a deal that allowed him to leave Australia.
AUSTRALIA
NSW targets Hells Angels
New South Wales (NSW) is set to declare the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club a criminal organization within three weeks after a string of drive-by shootings believed to be linked to gang violence, police sources told the Australian yesterday. The state already bans motorcycle gang members, or “bikies,” from owning or operating tattoo parlors and barred them from wearing their colors at 58 pubs and other venues in Sydney’s red-light area of Kings Cross. Assistant commissioner Mal Lanyon told the newspaper that police were working on a declaration, but would not specify the club involved or when it would happen. If made a criminal organization, police could seek to ban individuals from the Hells Angels from associating and jail them for up to five years if they failed to comply. Wayne Baffsky, a lawyer for the club, said it would challenge any declaration in court.
JAPAN
‘The Cove’ to open park
The dolphin-hunting town of Taiji, made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, plans to open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with the creatures, a media report said. The town intends to section off part of the cove and turn it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Jiji Press news agency reported, calling it “a marine safari park.” The cove is the scene of an annual slaughter when the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and kill the rest for meat. Activists continue to visit the town to protest the hunt. Taiji, in Wakayama Prefecture, aims to officially launch the project within five years after negotiating with the local government, which manages the bay, and with pearl farmers operating there, Jiji reported.
UNITED STATES
Sailors died from impact
Two sailors killed in a mysterious crash at sea that reduced their vessel to ruins during a yacht race from California to Mexico died of blunt-force injuries, while a third crewman drowned, coroners reported on Monday. The finding of blunt-force trauma in two of the deaths aboard the 11m sailboat Aegean was further indication the impact was a powerful one. A fourth sailor was still missing as investigators sought to determine if the yacht struck another vessel, presumably a larger ship, or a land mass. Race organizers said the Aegean disappeared from satellite tracking at about 1:30am on Saturday. The US Coast Guard said bodies and debris from the yacht were found near the Coronado Islands off the northwestern coast of Mexico.
UNITED STATES
Woman allegedly bites dog
A young woman who allegedly bit her bulldog during a drunken argument with her mother was charged with animal cruelty and domestic battery, police said on Monday. Neighbors called police after hearing loud screaming and pounding coming from the family home in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. Police said 19-year-old Analise Garner hit and scratched her mother’s face and bit her on the right hand during the altercation. The family’s 36kg English bulldog had three bite marks on its back that were visible through its white fur. “The bulldog finally did bite her back in self-defense,” Sergeant Mike Smith said. “There were no charges against the dog,” he quipped.
MEXICO
Fund for victims passed
Congress passed a law on Monday to recognize and protect the rights of crime victims, a longstanding demand in a country where more than 47,500 people have died in five-and-a-half years of drug-related violence, and thousands more have disappeared. The law covers the dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing, whether they are ordinary civilians or are members of drug cartels and other crime gangs. It would also cover victims of other crimes, like extortion. The measure has now been approved by both houses of Congress and must be signed into law by the president, who supports the move.
UNITED STATES
Mother, son die in accidents
A Wisconsin woman and her adult son were killed in separate traffic crashes just hours apart in a Milwaukee suburb, police said on Monday. Mary Moore, 45, died after she was struck by a vehicle. A friend was speeding her son, Thomas Olson, 22, to the hospital to see her when he struck three parked cars and overturned, Deputy Chief Charles Padgett said. Olson was killed in the crash at about 5:30am on Sunday. Padgett said Olson knew his mother had been hit, but he was not sure if Olson knew she had died. The driver of the car Olson was riding in was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
UNITED KINGDOM
Firebombing husband jailed
A “wickedly irresponsible” husband who tried to firebomb his estranged wife’s home by driving a fully laden fuel tanker into the bungalow while she was inside has been jailed for seven years. Hugh Billington, 51, plowed the 7.5 tonne vehicle through the front wall of his former marital home in Wool, England, in a “futile act of revenge” and was also planning to kill himself in the attack. His former wife, Christine Billington, 53, who had taken out a restraining order on him, jumped out of a back window to escape.
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
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