SOUTH KOREA
Human flesh pills banned
The government says it’s strengthening customs inspections in a crackdown on the smuggling of Chinese-made capsules filled with powdered human flesh. The Korea Customs Service yesterday said it has discovered 35 attempts to smuggle from China about 17,450 such capsules disguised as stamina boosters since August last year. Customs officials say the capsules were made from dead babies and infants in northeastern China, and that ethnic Koreans living there tried to smuggle them into the country. The officials say some people believe the capsules are a panacea for disease, but an investigation shows they contain superbacteria and other harmful ingredients.
AUSTRALIA
Captive begs for his life
A new video has emerged of an Australian kidnapped by suspected Muslim extremists in the Philippines, with the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday saying it proved he was still alive in late March. Warren Rodwell, from Sydney, was seized from his home in Ipil on Dec. 5 and a January video showed the 53-year-old pleading with authorities to do all they could to secure his freedom. The department said Philippine authorities had received a second recording of the former soldier, confirming he was alive on March 26. The Australian Broadcasting Corp said the new video showed him holding up a newspaper dated March 26 while making a plea for a ransom payment to be made to save his life. In the January video, Rodwell said his captors were demanding US$2 million.
UNITED STATES
Hostage pleads to Obama
In a video released on Sunday by al-Qaeda, hostage Warren Weinstein said he would be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group’s demands. “My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” Weinstein said in the video. “If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die.” Weinstein was abducted in August last year in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Maryland, is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors. In a video message posted on militant Web sites in December, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the US stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.
AUSTRALIA
‘Globetrotting’ dinosaurs
Scientists yesterday said a new fossil discovery suggested dinosaurs were cosmopolitan globetrotters, unlike the “unique weirdos” of the nation’s current wildlife. Palaeontologist Erich Fitzgerald said an ankle bone fossil found 87km from Melbourne indicated that meat-eating dinosaurs known as ceratosaurs lived in what is now Australia some 125 million years ago. He said the finding suggested that back then continent had the same large, well-known predators such as tyrannosaurs and allosaurs that are found elsewhere in the world. “The dinosaurs we see here are not unique weirdos like modern koalas and kangaroos on a global scale,” Fitzgerald said. The discovery adds to the picture about dinosaurs in eastern Gondwana, the continent which broke into Australia, Antarctica and India between 80 and 130 million years ago.
FRANCE
Vaccine targets meningitis
Researchers said yesterday they were a step closer to developing a vaccine against the type of meningitis that mostly affects Europe and North America and kills hundreds every year. A trial in adolescents in Australia, Poland and Spain showed them developing an immune response without serious side-effects, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal. After taking the drug, the test group generated antibodies that were active against 90 percent of strains in the meningitis B group affecting the US and Europe. Meningitis, an inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord, mostly targets teenagers — with a fatality rate of between 5 percent and 14 percent. Many survivors suffer permanent neurological damage and limb or hearing loss.
IRAN
Eleven ‘traffickers’ executed
Nine men were hung in a prison in Tehran after they were convicted of trafficking “glass,” or methamphetamine, a statement from the Tehran prosecution office said. Seven of the men had been sentenced to death after a consignment of 500kg of the drug was seized in a cargo ship bound for Southeast Asia, the statement carried by local media said. In a separate case, two brothers, Bahman and Behzad Nabavi, were executed after being convicted of trafficking more than 420kg of “glass,” the prosecutor’s office said.
LIBYA
Leader suffers from hernia
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Sunday he had undergone a hernia operation and a doctor at the hospital where he was treated said he was recovering well. “The doctors here agreed on what the doctors in Tripoli said — for an operation for this hernia,” the chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, looking tired and wearing a dressing gown, told reporters at the -Benghazi hospital. Abdel Jalil said he had the operation on Saturday night. Abdel Jalil was born in 1952. He served as justice minister under former leader Muammar Qaddafi, but resigned early last year and joined the revolt.
UAE
Arab news channel launched
A new pan-Arab news channel partly backed by Abu Dhabi has hit the airwaves. Sky News Arabia began broadcasting on Sunday evening from Abu Dhabi, which hopes to rival nearby Dubai as a media hub. The Arabic-language network will compete for viewers with established services such as Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and Saudi-backed Al--Arabiya, broadcasting from Dubai. Sky News Arabia is a partnership between the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp and British Sky Broadcasting, whose biggest shareholder is media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The channel has been in the works for more than two years. It says its news management is separate from Sky’s London headquarters.
GERMANY
Police overwhelm shooter
Police say a SWAT team overwhelmed an unidentified man who fired several shots inside a church. Police say officers stormed the church in Siegen on Sunday afternoon about six hours after the man had locked himself inside the building. A church employee was initially threatened by the man, but managed to escape, leaving the attacker by himself inside the building for hours. Reports said the man was injured during the raid and was hospitalized. Police said the man fired “several shots,” but his motive remained unclear.
UNITED STATES
Wife sees husband’s death
An army nurse showed no alarm or discomfort before suddenly collapsing during a Skype video chat with his wife, who saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him, his family said on Sunday. Captain Bruce Kevin Clark’s family released a statement describing what his wife saw in the video feed recording her husband’s death in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. It was not clear how the bullet hole got in the closet. “Clark was suddenly knocked forward,” the statement from the family said. “The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of Clark’s wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole.” The statement says the Skype link remained open for two hours on April 30 as family and friends in the US and Afghanistan tried to get Clark help. In the statement, Susan Orellana-Clark said she was providing details of what she saw “to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties.” The Pentagon said previously that Clark’s death remains under investigation.
CANADA
Israeli president visits
Israeli President Shimon Peres arrived on Sunday for a four-day visit to the close ally of the Jewish state, his embassy said. Peres plans to discuss recent developments in the region with top officials, including Iran’s controversial nuclear program and Israel’s relations with its neighbors, according to information given earlier by the president’s office. Yesterday, Peres, 88, was scheduled to meet Governor General David Lloyd Johnson — who represents Queen Elizabeth II, the titular head of the country — and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a keen backer of Israel, officials said. He is also set to meet other senior politicians and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec during his visit.
UNITED STATES
Girl, 14, arrested over killing
Indianapolis police said a 14-year-old girl found covered in blood faced a preliminary murder charge in her four-year-old cousin’s stabbing death. Police spokesman Kendale Adams said on Sunday the girl was arrested after being questioned by officers. She is being held at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center. Prosecutors will determine whether she will be formally charged in the death of Leon Thomas III. Officers were called about 11pm on Saturday to an Indianapolis apartment, where they found the bleeding boy. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Police later found the 14-year-old girl, covered in blood and walking along a nearby street. Adams said the boy and his 11-year-old sister were at their grandparent’s apartment at the time of the attack. No additional details were released.
PERU
People warned from beaches
The Ministry of Health is urging people to stay away from Pacific beaches from Lima northward after recent large-scale deaths of pelicans and dolphins. Neither the health ministry nor the oceanographic institute has determined the cause of the deaths, and there is no indication the deaths of the birds and the mammals are related. Saturday’s warning did not indicate why it might be dangerous to visit beaches. The agricultural safety service ruled out on Friday that the pelicans could have died of avian flu, which could be contagious to humans. Since February, 877 dolphins and, more recently, at least 1,200 pelicans have been found dead on the nation’s beaches for unexplained reasons.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of