CHINA
Mental health law passed
China yesterday adopted a law to protect for the first time the rights of the mentally ill after years of accusations that psychiatric hospitals are used to lock up people against their will and silence dissidents. Human rights advocates called the hard-fought for law, which has been debated for more than two decades, significant, even though they say it still falls short of international standards as it allows for involuntary commitment without judicial review. “The most important thing that this law does is it will allow civil society to step in to monitor and press for improvement in the management of mental health in China, including ... pushing for greater transparency and progressive curtailment of police rights,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
PHILIPPINES
Storm leaves six dead
Tropical Storm Son-Tinh has left six people dead and nine missing in the country and is heading toward Vietnam and southern China. Civil defense chief Benito Ramos said yesterday the fatalities included an 88-year-old woman who died of hypothermia and a 77-year-old man hit by a falling tree in central Philippines More than 30,000 people stranded at seaports and airports were expected to resume their journeys after storm warnings were lifted yesterday and floodwaters began subsiding.
SOUTH KOREA
Gas leak delays launch
The nation was forced to postpone its third attempt to launch a satellite into space from its own soil because of a last-minute technical glitch. Space agency chief Kim Seung-jo said engineers found a gas leak in the link between the two-stage rocket and the launch pad just hours before yesterday’s planned lift-off. The South has tried unsuccessfully two other times to launch a satellite. In 2009, the rocket failed to deploy the satellite in orbit. In 2010, the rocket carrying the satellite exploded just two minutes after lift-off. Kim said it would take at least another three days to try again.
PHILIPPINES
Reward for thief’s head
Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has offered a US$121,000 reward for the decapitated head of the alleged leader of a gang of car thieves. Duterte, known for being tough on criminals, told a news conference in Davao on Wednesday that he would give 2 million pesos (US$48,400) if suspect Ryan Yu is arrested and 4 million pesos if he’s killed. He said he would add another 1 million pesos if Yu’s decapitated head was delivered to him “in ice.” Davao police chief Ronald de la Rosa said yesterday that many interested parties had sent text messages wanting assurance they would receive the reward.
MEXICO
US returns artifacts
The US has returned more than 4,000 artifacts to Mexico, some more than 1,500 years old, that were brought across the border illegally, US customs officials said.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Thursday that the artifacts had been seized at the border and inside the US in more than a dozen operations in recent years. The artifacts include five pre-Columbian statues, 26 ceramic fragments dating back 1,500 years, and an Aztec whistle.
CANADA
Feathered fossils found
Scientists have unearthed the first fossils of a feathered dinosaur ever found in the Americas, the journal Science reported on Thursday. The 75 million-year-old fossil specimens, uncovered in the badlands of Alberta, include remains of a juvenile and two adult ostrich-like creatures known as ornithomimids. Until now feathered dinosaurs have been found mostly in China and in Germany. Francois Therrien, curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, and the co-author of the study, said the discovery revealed another fascinating fact — the existence of early wings in dinosaurs that were too big to fly.
JAPAN
US seeks to soothe anger
The US yesterday issued its most high-level apology yet to Japan over the alleged rape of a woman in Okinawa by two servicemen. US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told an audience in Tokyo of Washington’s sorrow, the latest move to soothe anger at a time of heightened anti-US feeling on the island. The US put all 47,000 military personnel — in Okinawa and elsewhere — under an indefinite nighttime curfew in response to the alleged rape, following the arrest of two servicemen last week. The rape case came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which has seen angry demonstrations against the US deployment to the island of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft, which local activists charge has a poor safety record.
UNITED NATIONS
UN expert asked to resign
Canada has said a UN rights expert should resign over his call for a boycott of companies taking part in Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories. The appeal by Richard Falk, the UN special investigator on human rights in the occupied territories, also provoked a sharp response from Israel and the US, which said it would “poison the environment for peace.” Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said on Thursday that the remarks were “both offensive and unhelpful.” Falk has “not only done a disservice to the UN, but also to the Palestinian people,” he added. Earlier this week Falk said the UN General Assembly and civil society should boycott firms that help build and maintain Israeli settlements.
UNITED STATES
Dead star earns US$210m
From beyond the grave Elizabeth Taylor has overtaken her close friend Michael Jackson to become the top- earning dead celebrity. The estate of the actor, who died last year, earned US$210 million in the past 12 months largely due to Christie’s record-setting auction of her jewelry and art collection, according to Forbes’ annual poll of the richest dead celebrities. Taylor’s auction, which included a Van Gogh that fetched US$24.6 million, helped her push Jackson into second place. Her fortunes were also boosted by sales of her perfume, “White Diamond,” which earned US$75 million last year.
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