UNITED KINGDOM
Royals to attend Bond film
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, will attend the world premiere of the newest James Bond film, Skyfall, at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 23, producers said on Friday. The premiere will benefit charities that support former and current members of Britain’s intelligence agencies. The Bond film franchise has a history with Britain’s royal family. Over the years, many of them — including Princes William and Harry — have attended premieres and used the event to help support various charities.
UKRAINE
Sleeping Beauty reinvented
A Ukrainian-Canadian artist is presenting an interactive art project called Sleeping Beauty, in which five attractive young women take turns sleeping under dim lights in Kiev’s top gallery, each under a pledge to marry the visitor who wakes her with a kiss. Any unmarried museum-goer can kiss the woman in the hope of making them fall in love and awaken. Taras Polataiko, a Ukrainian-born artist now based in Canada, says the goal of his exhibit is to recreate the famous fairy tale and witness the birth of love. However, it also has political undertones, symbolizing the patience of the Ukrainian people trapped by what he calls the oppressive government of President Viktor Yanukovych, and the hope that the nation will one day awaken to true freedom. The exhibit ends today, and so far only one Sleeping Beauty has woken up to a kiss — only to discover that her Prince Charming was actually a princess. It is unclear what the two women will do now, given that Ukraine forbids same-sex marriage and that Princess Charming has a boyfriend.
AUSTRALIA
PM’s father passes away
Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday said she would leave APEC talks in Russia early because her elderly father had passed away at home. In a statement, the prime minister said John Gillard died yesterday morning in Adelaide and she planned to travel home as soon as possible “to grieve with my family.” He was 93. “He has battled illness in recent years, but his death is a shock for me and my family,” she said. Trade Minister Craig Emerson will now take her place in the remaining APEC forums, Gillard said. The Labor leader has often spoken of her family and the benefit of the education she received in Australia. Gillard said that her father, who worked as a psychiatric nurse in Australia, had been her inspiration. “He taught me that nothing comes without hard work and demonstrated to me what hard work meant as a shift worker with two jobs,” she said.
AFGHANISTAN
Prince back in uniform
Prince Harry is back in Afghanistan to serve as a military helicopter pilot four years after his previous deployment there had to be cut short, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday. The 27-year-old will spend four months based at Camp Bastion in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. The ministry said Harry’s squadron “will provide surveillance, deterrence and, when required, close combat attack capabilities.” The third in line to the throne has made no secret of his desire to return to Afghanistan and serve his country. In 2008, he had to be hastily withdrawn from Afghanistan when a news blackout surrounding his deployment was broken. Officials have taken a different approach to the prince’s new deployment, releasing photographs and video of him in Afghanistan from the start.
MEXICO
Police seize weapons cache
A family of suspected drug traffickers lost an arsenal after their nine-year-old boy took a gun to school, leading police to a house full of lethal weapons. Classmates of the youngster spotted a loaded pistol in his school bag and alerted authorities, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hermosillo said on Friday. Police raided the boy’s home after confiscating the weapon, which was loaded with bullets known as “cop killers” designed to penetrate bullet-proof vests. At the house, police found 13,000 rounds of ammunition, various pistols and rifles, including AK-47s, as well as an Uzi submachine gun. There were also military uniforms, dozens of portable radios and two money counting machines.
VENEZUELA
Authorities hold US captain
Authorities have detained the captain of a US-flagged cargo ship after three rifles were found onboard, US officials said on Friday. The Ocean Atlas vessel arrived in the western port of Maracaibo on Aug. 29 and was held two days later, an official posted at the US embassy said, adding that the captain was arrested shortly after docking his ship. A US State Department spokesman said the crew was also detained. “We are in contact with the government of Venezuela on this matter, and we’re working to provide all appropriate consular assistance at the earliest opportunity,” Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. He said that the arrests were linked to customs declarations for the rifles, used for “self-protection.” “Piracy has been a major topic in recent months and years, and so that’s something we’ve been combating,” the spokesman added. The arrests come just a month after Venezuelan authorities detained another US citizen for trying to “illegally” enter the country from Colombia.
CHILE
General’s prejudice blasted
The government is criticizing one of its top generals for discriminating against gays and religious groups in his orders to military recruiters. Army Commander Cristian Chateau had signed a document asking recruiters to be “especially concerned” about finding soldiers who are “morally and intellectually prepared” for military service. He said they should exclude people with physical, mental or socioeconomic problems, criminal behavior, drug use, homosexuals, conscientious objectors and Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Defense Minister Andres Allemand said on Friday that such ideas are completely opposed to government policy and said he has asked for a full military review of the matter.
JORDAN
Teenager stabs missionary
A teenager stabbed to death a Texas missionary living in the kingdom during an argument that broke out when she caught him stealing from her apartment, police said on Friday. The 17-year-old confessed to the Tuesday night killing of Cheryll Harvey, 55, in her fourth-floor apartment in the town of Barha north of the capital, Amman, police official Abdul Wali Shakhanbeh said. Harvey, a native of Texas, had been teaching English in Jordan for the past 24 years, according to police records. The US-based Baptist Press said her teaching was in connection with the Jordan Baptist Society. Violent crime is rare in Jordan, a country closely controlled by the security forces and with tight-knit family connections. Shakhanbeh said the boy could not be named until he is put on trial for premeditated murder. No trial date has been set, he added.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese