HONG KONG
Bounty offered for marriage
Tycoon Cecil Chao (趙世曾) has offered a US$65 million “marriage bounty” to any man who can win the heart of his lesbian daughter, the South China Morning Post said yesterday. Chao announced the financial reward of HK$500 million after his daughter, Gigi, married her same-sex partner of seven years in France earlier this year, the paper said. “I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor. The important thing is that he is generous and kind-hearted,” 76-year-old Chao was quoted as saying. “Gigi is a very good woman with both talents and looks. She is devoted to her parents, is generous and does volunteer work.” He also rejected “false reports” that Gigi, 33, had married abroad, saying she was still single. Same-sex marriages are not recognized in Hong Kong. Chao is well known in the territory’s social circles and regularly appears at public events with his latest young girlfriend. He reportedly once claimed to have had intimate relations with 10,000 women.
SOUTH KOREA
Shoe thief hates high heels
A man, upset by women whose footwear made them taller than him, has been arrested for stealing high-heeled shoes and dumping them in parks, police said yesterday. The 24-year-old, identified only by his surname, Lee, had stolen dozens of pairs of high heels from schools, restaurants and homes in his neighborhood in Busan in recent months. “We’d first looked into the possibility of sexual perversion,” a spokesman at Busan Yeongdo police station said. “But Lee said he did it because he didn’t like women wearing heels to look taller than him when he’s so short.” Lee, who stands 1.65m tall, was caught because he made the mistake of repeatedly dumping a number of shoes in one particular park that was monitored by CCTV cameras.
SOUTH KOREA
North warned for meddling
The government yesterday threatened a strong military response to any provocative act by North Korea aimed at influencing the South’s presidential election in December. The warning, issued at a top-level security meeting convened by President Lee Myung-bak, came as tensions have risen along the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas. “The government has decided to urge North Korea to stop immediately its attempts to influence the presidential election, which have recently been on a sharp increase,” presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha said. “The military reaffirmed that it will keep its guard high in case the North carries out calculated provocative acts and would retaliate strongly if the North does so.” The North has already begun a state media campaign against the ruling New Frontier Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, daughter of South Korea’s former military ruler Park Chung-hee.
INDONESIA
Eight dead after ferry sinks
A passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank west of Java yesterday morning, and at least eight people were killed, officials said. More than 200 crew and passengers were evacuated after the accident, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan, who initially said the second vessel was an oil tanker. It wasn’t immediately clear if all of them were OK, and a search for others is in progress where the accident occurred in the Sunda Straits. “So far it’s still unclear how many passengers were on board the ferry,” Ervan said, adding it had about 30 crewmembers.
UNITED STATES
Hollande plays it safe
French President Francois Hollande showed a fine understanding of US politics on Tuesday when he refused to endorse a US presidential candidate. Asked by a reporter at the UN General Assembly in New York whether he backed Democratic US President Barack Obama or Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney for the White House, a smiling Hollande shot back: “Who do you think?” “Are you aware that Mitt Romney never ceases to attack socialist Europe at his campaign rallies? Yes, that’s why I’ll be careful not to say anything at all on this subject because, as you’d imagine, if a socialist supported one of these two candidates, that could cost him dear,” he said. “So I suppose I should endorse Mitt Romney,” Hollande joked. “But I won’t.”
UNITED STATES
Dolphin shot and killed
Officials say someone shot and killed a bottlenose dolphin in Louisiana. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Tuesday that the dolphin had been shot on its right side just behind its blowhole. The bullet was found in its lung. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is offering a US$1,500 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or people who shot the dolphin. The dolphin’s body was found on Saturday in a state wildlife refuge. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 forbids harassing, harming, killing or feeding wild dolphins. Violations can be prosecuted either civilly or criminally, with maximum penalties of a year in jail and US$100,000 in fines.
BRAZIL
Anti-Islam film banned
A court on Tuesday banned an online anti-Islam movie that had spawned violent protests across the Muslim world and gave YouTube 10 days to pull the film’s trailer from its Web site. The decision by a state court in Sao Paulo, home to a large Middle Eastern immigrant community, came hours after President Dilma Rousseff criticized Islamophobia in Western countries in a speech at the UN. The lawsuit against the controversial film was brought by a Muslim group, the National Islamic Union, against YouTube owner Google Inc for posting on the Internet a film it said was offensive and a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion. In his decision, Judge Gilson Delgado Miranda said the case juxtaposed freedom of expression and the need to protect individuals or groups of people from action that might incite religious discrimination.
GREECE
Unions stage general strike
The country faced a paralyzing general strike yesterday as unions took to the streets to protest against a new round of sweeping austerity cuts to be brought in next month to unlock vital EU-IMF loans. The strike was expected to bring the country to a standstill, disrupting flights, confining ferries to port, halting train services and shutting down the public sector, including museums. Traders have also been called to close their businesses for the day. It is the third general strike this year, but the first to test the resolve of the coalition government that took over in June to keep the recession-mired country in the eurozone as it rushes to finalize a package of about 11.5 billion euros (US$15 billion) in extra cuts. Another 2 billion euros must be raised from taxes under the austerity measures due to be introduced to parliament early next month by the three-party coalition government headed by conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
‘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