AUSTRALIA
Oil-for-food director fined
A former managing director of a wheat exporter has been fined A$100,000 (US$106,000) and banned from being a company director for two years for his role in paying U$200 million in kickbacks to Iraq’s former regime under the discredited UN oil-for-food program. Andrew Lindberg, former head of the now defunct monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd, was yesterday sentenced for breaches of corporate law. It was part of a plea deal with corporate regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission that ends a case that began in 2007.
PHILIPPINES
Gunmen kill soldiers, child
Gunmen believed to be followers of a local political warlord killed three soldiers in an ambush in the south that also left a child dead, the military said yesterday. The soldiers were aboard a military truck on routine security patrol in the mainly Muslim city of Marawi when they were attacked on Wednesday night, regional army battalion commander Colonel Daniel Lucero said. He said the ambush triggered a 30-minute gunbattle, during which three soldiers were killed and 10 wounded. A child aboard a vehicle that was caught in the crossfire was also killed, while three civilians were wounded, the army said. Lucero said the men behind the attack were believed to be members of a private militia controlled by a local political warlord he did not name.
FRANCE
Bel sorry over gaffe
For a company that produces a cheese called The Laughing Cow, its sense of humor seemed in poor taste. The processed cheese giant Bel has narrowly avoided a mass boycott by shoppers after a supposedly humorous summer promotion was slammed as offensive to people with learning difficulties. With its famous Mini Babybel — round, red wax-covered processed cheeses ubiquitous in lunchboxes worldwide — the company was giving away ink stamps for children. One read: “Des vacances de malade mental,” meaning loosely “having a mental holiday” or literally “holidaying like a mentally ill person.” Associations for parents of children with learning disabilities immediately expressed outrage and threatened a boycott of the company and all its products. Company director Etienne Lecomte told Le Parisien he profusely apologized for the “extremely clumsy” campaign.
RUSSIA
Underground sect found
Seventy members of an Islamist sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan, local media said. The sect members included 20 children, the youngest of whom had just turned 18 months. Many of them were born underground and had never seen daylight until the prosecutors discovered their dwelling on Aug. 1 and sent them for health checks. A 17-year-old girl turned out to be pregnant. The group — known as the “Fayzrahmanist” sect — was named after its 83-year-old organizer Fayzrahman Satarov, who declared himself a prophet and his house an independent Islamic state, according to a report by state TV channel Vesti. Satarov was described as a former deputy to a Sunni Islamic cleric in the 1970s. His followers were encouraged to read his manuscripts and most were banned from leaving their eight-story underground bunker, Vesti said. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the sect. No arrests have been made although police are likely to look into suspicions that some of the children were being abused.
RUSSIA
Cow goes to new heights
A cow which was not “in the mood” ambled to the top story of an apartment building to escape a bull which was, and had to be led back down by firefighters, authorities said. The cow was discovered bellowing on the top of a stairwell in the five-story building in the village of Lesogorsk last month, with the probable cause of the cow’s distress an amorous bull at the bottom. “The bull was very loving and had paid excessive attention to the cow during the summer grazing,” the Irkutsk regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement. It took firefighters about three minutes to get the cow downstairs by roping its horns and pulling, according to the statement, which suggested members of the crowd that gathered should have done the job themselves. “When we arrived there were dozens of people outside the building. There were members of the local administration, police and many bystanders,” it quoted fire station shift chief Yevgeny Smirnov as saying. “In principle, they could have done without us.”
UNITED STATES
Policeman saves moose
A moose was freed from a strange backyard entanglement thanks to a brave Utah deputy and a pair of cutters. Sergeant Lane Findlay found himself face to face with the moose whose antlers were wrapped up in a backyard swing set in Ogden, 64km north of Salt Lake City, this weekend. He said the moose appeared in distress and was bleeding. Findlay said he handed his mobile phone to an onlooker and asked the person to shoot video, telling him: “If something happens to me, give this to my wife.” The video shows the moose twisting in an attempt to free its antlers from the metal chains of the swing as Findlay cautiously approaches with the cutters. He clips the chain links one by one until the moose finally pulls free and wanders off with minor injuries. “Pretty crazy stuff,” he said. “This is certainly a first for me, and hopefully a last.”
UNITED STATES
Romney ‘quip’ offends state
Mitt Romney jokingly said the government needs to do a better job managing debt or it could end up like Greece, or closer to home, California. The Republican presidential hopeful told an audience in Iowa that he worries the US is on a pathway to crippling debt and is scaring off foreign investors. Romney pointed to problems in Italy and Spain. He then suggested that Californians know a thing or two about debt. The state is facing the prospect of tax increases and spending cuts to deal with its budget problems. Romney aides say he had made the joke before and clearly was kidding. California was not laughing. A spokesman for the state’s Democratic governor dismissed Romney’s quip as “a paper-thin Republican talking point” that does not stand up to scrutiny.
UNITED STATES
Teen wins texting contest
The reigning 17-year-old champion of cellphone texting has retained the title of fastest texter in the country. Austin Wierschke of Wisconsin won after eight rounds at the texting competition on Wednesday in New York’s Times Square. He gets US$50,000 in prize money, which he said he will put away for college. Eleven contestants from around the US competed, all using the same type of phone. The competition tested three skills: speed, accuracy and dexterity. There were three rounds, including texting while blindfolded and with hands behind their backs. The annual competition is sponsored by cellphone maker LG Electronics.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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