VIETNAM
Same sex marriages mulled
The government is considering whether to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights, positioning it to become the first country in Asia to do so. The Ministry of Justice’s proposal to include same-sex couples in the country’s marriage law has surprised gay-rights activists. No one knows whether it will survive long enough to be debated by the National Assembly next year, but supporters say the fact that it is even being considered is a victory in a region where simply being gay can result in jail sentences or whippings with a rattan cane.
INDONESIA
Rescue effort saves whale
Rescuers and navy divers on Saturday helped a sperm whale return to the sea after it was stranded in shallow waters off the coast of West Java Province for four days. The 11m whale had been stuck near Pakis Jaya beach since Wednesday, attracting residents who paid US$0.50 each for boat rides close to the animal, thereby hampering rescue efforts. “We gradually pulled the whale into deeper waters with a tugboat. When it reached a depth of 20m we released it back into the sea,” Benvika from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network said.
CHINA
Serial killer to be executed
Xinhua news agency says a serial killer in Yunnan Province has been sentenced to death for murdering 11 people. A court in Kunming found Zhang Yongming (張永明), 56, guilty on Saturday of killing his victims between 2008 and this year. He showed no remorse in court. Xinhua said Zhang strangled his victims and used various methods, including dismembering and burning the bodies, to destroy evidence. It said he had been sentenced to death in 1979 for another homicide, but was released after his sentence was reduced. Xinhua earlier said authorities fired or disciplined 12 police officers for inadequately investigating the murders.
MYANMAR
Earthquake rattles country
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake yesterday shook an area near the Indian border. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 68.4km. The country’s meteorological and seismic agency put the magnitude at 5.8 with an official saying no casualties or damage had been reported. The quake occurred at 8:51am. The official said the epicenter was about 215km northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. The area affected is not densely populated.
UNITED STATES
Alleged scammer arraigned
A woman who lived for months with the corpse of a companion was arraigned on Friday on charges of cashing his pension and Social Security retirement checks. Linda Chase, 71, appeared in court three weeks after police found the remains of Charles Zigler in a chair in the living room of their Jackson house, 64km south of Lansing, in southern Michigan. Police entered the home on July 6 after Zigler’s relatives said they had not heard from him and could not get inside. Chase has said she did not want to part with the body and talked to it while watching stock car races on TV. Chase is not charged with any crimes related to Zigler’s death or her failure to report it. Police believe the 67-year-old died of natural causes in December 2010, although Chase said it was last year. Chase is charged with forgery for converting checks worth US$28,000 intended for Zigler. A judge released her after advising her to appear for all court dates.
UNITED STATES
Church rejects black couple
A Mississippi couple got the shock of their lives when the pastor at the church they attended told them the wedding they planned could not be held there because they are black, ABC television reported on Saturday. Pastor Stan Weatherford told the network there had never been a wedding for blacks at the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, since it was opened in 1883. He said some of the white congregation so virulently opposed the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, who are black, that they threatened to have him fired. “My nine-year-old was going to the church with us. How would you say to your nine-year-old daughter, ‘We cannot get married here because, guess what sweetie, we’re black,’” Charles Wilson told ABC’s affiliate WAPT-TV. The would-be groom told WAPT that the couple intended to join the church as members after their wedding, which was planned for July 20. Until they got the bad news that forced them to move their ceremony to another church, where it was held on July 21.
PERU
Mountaineers found dead
A pair of US mountaineers who went missing on a climb earlier this month have been found dead, authorities said on Saturday. Rescuers found the remains of Ben Horne, 32, and Gil Weiss, 29, beneath the 6,200m Palcaraju peak in Ancash, in the north, police said. The pair apparently died trying to climb to the peak, but the exact cause of their death was not immediately clear.
MEXICO
Huge pot haul in graveyard
Soldiers found more than 2 tonnes of marijuana hidden in graves in a cemetery in the northeast, the defense ministry said on Saturday. Soldiers on patrol in the village of Los Villa Nueva, just outside the border town of Ciudad Camargo, found 241 packages of marijuana hidden in two graves under stone slabs. The Mexican military said the total find weighed 2,241kg. The area surrounding Ciudad Camargo is one of the most violent districts in the country, as the remnants of the once powerful Gulf drug cartel battle the paramilitary Zetas gang for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US. Ciudad Camargo is about 775km north of Mexico City, just south of the Rio Grande, the river marking the border between the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and the US state of Texas.
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