MALAYSIA
Tanker hijacked: IMB
Pirates have hijacked a Singapore-owned oil tanker in the Nigerian port of Lagos — the third attack in just more than two weeks in the Gulf of Guinea, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said yesterday. The vessel, which had 23 crew on board, was laden with fuel, the bureau’s Kuala Lumpur-based piracy reporting center said, adding that the pirates were sailing the ship into the open sea. It did not say how the pirates hijacked the tanker on Tuesday evening. Pirates hijacked and looted two oil tankers off nearby Togo last month. The two ships and all crew members were later freed.
CHINA
Monastery raided: report
A US broadcaster says hundreds of Chinese police raided a Tibetan monastery where two Tibetans set themselves on fire in June to protest what activists say is Beijing’s heavy-handed rule. Radio Free Asia said yesterday that security forces took away five monks during Saturday’s raid at the Zilkar monastery in Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The broadcaster cites an India-based Tibetan with sources in the region as saying that at least three of the monks were seized for providing foreign media agencies with details about the June self-immolation protests by a herder and a migrant carpenter. A woman surnamed Zhang who answered the phone at the local government office said she had not heard about the incident.
AUSTRALIA
Doctor banned for gay ‘cure’
A doctor has been severely reprimanded and banned from working as a general practitioner after prescribing a drug to a boy who came to him for help to “cure” his homosexuality. A Health Care Complaints Commission committee found Mark Craddock guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct over his treatment of the 18-year-old at a 10-minute consultation at his home in early 2008. Both men were at the time members of the Exclusive Brethren, a conservative Christian group whose members shun television, radio and the Internet and do not vote. The commission said Craddock failed to take a physical exam or medical history of the patient and did not refer him to a counsellor or psychologist. Instead, he prescribed cyprostat, a drug used to treat prostate cancer and manage sexual deviation by reducing testosterone, the commission alleged.
SPAIN
Bullfights back on TV
State TV will start airing live bullfights again after the new conservative government lifted a six-year ban on the tradition that has been hard hit by declining popularity and the economic crisis. The first fight was to be broadcast on the widely watched RTVE last night from the northern city of Valladolid. The live transmissions were halted in 2006 by the previous socialist administration, which said they were costly and coincided with youth TV viewing hours. New Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is a bullfighting fan.
NETHERLANDS
Police free break-in pianist
Police arrested and then released without charge a homeless man who triggered an alarm after breaking into a music shop to play the piano and get some sleep. The 60-year-old man, who once studied music and is now homeless, smashed the music shop’s window in the northern town of Assen in search of a place to sleep on Sunday. A spokesman for the police in Assen said he played well. “He told my colleagues he had studied the piano for seven years,” Dirk Neef said. The man was released without charge on Monday.
UNITED STATES
Man tries to eat fake bills
Authorities say a 35-year-old man tried to swallow several counterfeit US$50 bills after he was caught trying to use the bogus money at a western New York amusement park. The Sheriff’s Office says deputies were called to Darien Lake Theme Park and Resort on Sunday night after Larry Jones bought french fries with a US$50 bill. Deputies say a park employee determined the bill was counterfeit and called security. While being taken away, deputies say Jones stuffed five counterfeit bills into his mouth and tried to eat them. Security officers retrieved the bills before Jones swallowed them. Jones was charged with possessing forged currency and tampering with evidence.
SOUTH AFRICA
Buffalo sells for US$3.25m
The Stud Game Breeders’ Association said a young buffalo bull sold at auction for a record 26 million rand (US$3.25 million). Owner Jacques Malan of Lumarie Game Farm says the four years and 10-month-old bull “Horizon” has horns measuring 130.5cm long. He said on Tuesday that he applied a knowledge of genetics garnered from his father since childhood aiming “to breed back the old giants of the bush of Africa, which have been hunted out over past centuries.” Horizon will be used for breeding. The association said it is the most expensive wild animal ever sold in South Africa.
HONDURAS
Deal on private cities signed
The government has signed a deal with private investors for the construction of three privately run cities, with their own legal and tax systems. The memorandum of agreement signed on Tuesday is part of a controversial experiment meant to bring badly needed economic growth to the small Central American country. Its weak government and failing infrastructure are being overwhelmed by corruption, drug-linked crime and lingering instability from a 2009 political coup. Both sides hope to begin work on the first city in coming weeks and say the project could create 5,000 jobs over the next six months. The project is opposed by civil society groups, including indigenous Garifuna people who say they do not want their land to be used for the project.
VENEZUELA
Massacre ‘probe’ rejected
The government came under renewed pressure on Tuesday over its assertion that an alleged massacre of about 80 Yanomami indigenous people did not take place. An umbrella grouping of indigenous communities called Coiam urged the government to keep probing. The attack is alleged to have been perpetrated by illegal Brazilian gold miners in July in the south. Several government ministers have said investigators who traveled to the remote area on Friday found no evidence of any violence. However, Coiam said the team of prosecutors and military police never made it to the area in question and was in no position to say no crime took place. Survival, a London-based NGO, said it took five or six days of hiking to reach the Yanomami community in question and there was no way the government team could have made it there and back so fast.
UNITED STATES
Memorial set for Armstrong
The country will have a chance to say goodbye to Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, in a memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral on Sept. 13. The 10am service will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the Web sites of the cathedral and space agency. Armstrong died on Aug. 25 and had a private service in Ohio.
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