NEPAL
Man bites snake to death
A man who was bitten by a cobra bit it back and killed the reptile in a tit-for-tat attack, the Annapurna Post reported yesterday. The daily said Mohamed Salmo Miya chased the snake, which bit him in his rice paddy on Tuesday, caught it and bit it until it died. “I could have killed it with a stick, but bit it with my teeth instead because I was angry,” the 55-year-old Miya, who lives in a village about 200km southeast of Kathmandu, was quoted by the daily as saying.
TONGA
NZ officer beaten to death
A New Zealand policeman died yesterday from injuries sustained after being beaten in a police cell, with two local officers among those arrested over the death, officials said. Kali Fungavaka, who reportedly had won an award for bravery in 2006, had traveled to the Pacific nation for a funeral and was arrested for “minor drunkenness” on Saturday morning, local police said. Fungavaka was assaulted by another prisoner in the cell and suffered head injuries, with medics turning off life support late yesterday, they said, adding that investigations into his death were continuing.
SYRIA
Army storms Damascus
Government forces backed by tanks stormed Daraya, on the outskirts of Damascus, yesterday after 24 hours of artillery and helicopter bombardment to drive out rebels, opposition sources said. The bombardment killed at least 15 people and wounded 150 in Daraya, the sources said. Troops were conducting house-to-house raids in the conservative Sunni Muslim town and making their way to the town’s center, meeting light resistance from rebels who appear to have largely withdrawn from the area, activists in Damascus said. Other activists said the army was also shelling parts of the suburb from Qasioun, which overlooks Damascus, and from Republican Guard barracks situated near a hilltop presidential palace.
SOUTH AFRICA
Women need training: Zuma
President Jacob Zuma has provoked anger by claiming that it is “not right” for women to be single and that children are important to give them “extra training.” Zuma has a history of making controversial remarks about gender and sexuality. His latest gaffe came in a TV interview in which he discussed his daughter’s marriage. “Kids are important to a woman because they actually give an extra training to a woman, to be a mother,” he told SABC3. The comments, made during women’s month, have generated anger. Kubi Rama, chief of operations at the nongovernmental organization Gender Links, said: “It raises serious questions about his commitment to equality.”
ISRAEL
Donkeys outfitted with Wi-Fi
Call it back to the future: An attraction meant to immerse tourists in a biblical experience has outfitted its donkeys with wireless routers. At the historical park of Kfar Kedem, visitors dressed in biblical robes and headdresses ride donkeys through the rolling hills of the Galilee, learning how people lived in Old Testament times. However, they can also surf the Web while touring the land of the Bible on one of the oldest forms of transportation. The device slung around the donkey’s neck like a feedbag is actually a Wi-Fi router. Park manager Menachem Goldberg said on Wednesday he hoped the melding of old and new would connect the younger generation to ancient Galilee life — while allowing them to share, tweet and snap the experience instantly to friends.
PERU
Machu Picchu to get airport
President Ollanta Humala announced plans on Wednesday to build an international airport near the southern city of Cusco to boost tourism to the legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. The current Cusco airport, long unable to handle major flights from abroad, only operates with limited daytime flights and is limited by its location in a city, surrounded by hills. Large aircraft cannot fly into the facility. Humala said the government will invest US$460 million in the project, not including compensation to the farming communities whose land will be seized.
UNITED STATES
Serial killer house on sale
The childhood home of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is for sale in northern Ohio. The three-bedroom, 202m2 home on a private wooded lot in Bath, near Akron, was the site of Dahmer’s first murder, in 1978. He moved to Wisconsin in 1982 and went on to kill 16 more people before his crimes were discovered in 1991. The current owner is musician Chris Butler. The asking price is US$329,000. Butler believes the right buyer will be someone who appreciates the home’s 1950s vintage style. The ranch-style house was built in 1952, and a year later featured in the Beacon Journal for its modern style, open layout and floor-to-ceiling windows. Butler said he could not understand at first why the house had been on the market for six months at a price that seemed low for the neighborhood.
UNITED STATES
Columbus made personal
A Japanese artist is inviting the public to have an intimate view of explorer Christopher Columbus high above a busy intersection in Manhattan. Tatzu Nishi is constructing a living room around the statue, which is perched on a six-story column in Columbus Circle, where five busy streets intersect. “Discovering Columbus” will run from Sept. 20 to Nov. 18. Visitors will climb stairs to reach the living room — complete with couch, coffee table and lamps — where they will have a bird’s-eye view of the city and Central Park. However, some Italian-Americans say his new project makes a mockery of Columbus. “Encasing this majestic statue in a cocoon of conceptual art demeans the community and trivializes history,” said Rosario Iaconis, chairman of the Italic Institute of America, an education think tank.
FRANCE
Prisoners grow cannabis
Warders in a French jail where prisoners are allowed to grow their own produce have been left red-faced after the discovery of cannabis plants among the flowers and vegetables. The plants, which had reached a height of around 80cm before being spotted at the weekend, were found in vegetable patches located in the exercise courtyard of the Saint-Martin-de-Re prison in the west of France, regional official of the prison officers’ union Christophe Beaulieu told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Forbes lists powerful women
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are the world’s most powerful women, according to Forbes magazine’s annual survey. Following the two stateswomen was Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Newcomers to the list included singer Jennifer Lopez, former US Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard Co and Marissa Mayer of Yahoo Inc. Lady Gaga was ranked at 14 and aged 26 is the youngest. The oldest, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, 86, was placed as No. 26.
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