China
Trial of Bo’s wife opens
The murder trial of the wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) will start next Thursday in Hefei in east China. The date is a sign the case is advancing before China’s once-a-decade political transition.
Gu Kailai (谷開來)and a family aide, Zhang Xiaojun (張曉軍), are accused of poisoning British businessman Neil Heywood, an associate of the Bo family. The official Xinhua news agency said Gu had a falling out with Heywood over money and worried that her son’s safety was threatened. The murder case is at the center of a political scandal that has highlighted factions in the Chinese leadership ahead of the power handover to a younger generation of leaders later this year.
Australia
Birds’ heads torn off in zoo
Nine birds, including an endangered swift parrot, had their heads smashed in or ripped off and more than 60 animals were missing yesterday after vandals went on the rampage at an Australian zoo. Police said “a number of animals escaped their enclosures, with most being recaptured,” adding that two chainsaws were also stolen from the zoo complex.
Two rare swift parrots and a yellow-tailed black cockatoo, were among the animals still on the loose in what was described as a devastating blow for the zoo’s breeding program.
Philippines
Mine waste spill contained
A waste spillage at the Philippines’ largest gold mine has been contained after the slime threatened to contaminate one of the country’s largest rivers, the government said yesterday. The Padcal mine, located near the major northern mountain resort of Baguio, would remain closed until the safety and integrity of its tailings pond was assured, civil defense office administrator Benito Ramos said. The accident came amid intense public debate about the mining industry in the Philippines, which is believed to have some of the biggest mineral reserves in the world.
Myanmar
Myanmar frees bomber
Myanmar’s president on Friday pardoned a cancer-stricken man sentenced to death for killing 10 people in a festival bombing two years ago, the latest of hundreds of prisoners to be freed under the country’s reformist government. Phyo Wai Aung, 33, who has liver cancer and is paralyzed from below the waist, was released four days after a visit to Yangon’s Insein Prison by UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana. President Thein Sein, a former junta general credited with pushing through speedy reforms in Myanmar, has declared several amnesties since May last year, including the release of at least 650 political prisoners, whose freedom had been demanded by Western governments in order for sanctions to be eased.
United states
Delay in flight operations
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the US will delay flight operations by Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys in Okinawa until the Japanese government agrees that the hybrid aircraft is safe. Panetta told Pentagon reporters Friday that US officials are completing a safety report and will provide Japanese leaders with details on two recent Osprey crashes. His comments came after he met here with Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto, who then left the Pentagon for a flight on an Osprey. The tilt-rotor Osprey can take off and land like a helicopter but also has wings and can fly like a plane.
PERU
Bull terrorizes village
A bull that bolted from a barn caused panic in a village near Lima, damaging a police car and slightly injuring a woman before its capture, police said on Friday. Weighing in at 500kg, “David” escaped on Thursday night after a fight with another bull in Villa El Salvador, a village near Lima, barn owner Jonas Pareja said. The animal headed to a nearby hill, but later roamed the streets of the village, causing an uproar among residents, who quickly fled their homes. Before being cornered by police on Friday morning, the bull slammed into a woman, who was slightly injured, and also badly damaged a police patrol car. “The bull is usually easygoing, but the escape stressed him out and caused some problems,” the owner said.
SYRIA
Reuters blog hijacked
Hackers took over the blogging platform of the Reuters news agency and posted “fabricated” stories said to include an interview with a Syrian rebel leader, the company said on Friday. “Reuters.com was a target of a hack on Friday,” a statement from parent firm Thomson Reuters said. Among the fake postings was a purported interview with the head of the Free Syrian Army, who was quoted as saying that rebel forces were pulling back after clashes in the city of Aleppo. Reuters said it did not carry out that interview, that the posting has been deleted and that the blogging platform was taken offline as it addresses the problem. Opposition fighters told a news conference on Friday in Iraq they would not withdraw from Aleppo, the northern city which has been under attack by regime forces.
UNItED STATES
Plane delayed by bee swarm
A beekeeper says he had to be called in to gather up a swarm of thousands of bees that delayed a Delta Air Lines flight from Pittsburgh International Airport to New York. Master beekeeper Stephen Repasky tells KDKA-TV he was called out on Wednesday when the bees gathered on the wing of the plan as crews were getting ready to fuel the plane because they are a protected species that cannot legally be killed. Repasky says such swarms form when colonies become too large and the queen bee leaves half of her bees behind to find a new home. Some swarms can contain 25,000 to 30,000 bees. Repasky says it is likely there is a wild honeybee colony at the airport somewhere.
UNItED STATES
Accused killer fined for hair
The army psychiatrist accused of a massacre on a Texas military base was fined US$1,000 on Friday for refusing to shave before a military hearing. Major Nidal Hasan, who could face the death penalty if convicted, is accused of opening fire at the Fort Hood army base on Nov. 5, 2009, in an attack that killed 12 soldiers and a civilian, and wounded 32 others. The shooting jolted the military and prompted calls for stronger safeguards against possible internal security threats and “homegrown” terror attacks. Military Judge Colonel Gregory Gross has warned Hasan that he could be forcibly shaved if he continues to ignore grooming standards.The FBI alleges Hasan had contacts with US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, a key leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed in a drone strike last year. Hasan, who was born in Virginia to Palestinian parents was set to deploy to Afghanistan weeks after the massacre. He was shot by police officers as they tried to halt the carnage. He was left paralyzed from the neck down.
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