CHINA
US, Chinese work together
The US and Chinese militaries are finishing up a modest disaster-relief exercise meant to build trust between armed forces that often view each other as adversaries. Not a full-fledged operation, the two-day exercise that ended yesterday saw officers from the US and Chinese militaries sitting around a table discussing how they would respond to an earthquake in a fictional third country. US Major General Stephen Lyons said the exercise is a step toward the day when the two militaries will operate side-by-side in a humanitarian operation. Though Washington and Beijing have talked about improving military cooperation for more than a decade, distrust runs high and disagreements over Taiwan, North Korea and China’s claims to disputed territories in the East and South China seas remain potential flashpoints.
CHINA
Sex slaver gets death
A man who imprisoned six women as sex slaves underground and killed one of them was sentenced to death yesterday in central China, Xinhua news agency said. Li Hao (李浩) was convicted of abducting the six women in August 2009, holding them in his basement and raping them “many times,” Xinhua said. He killed one of them in 2010 and had three of the women kill another last year, it reported.
JAPAN
Talking robot going to space
A small humanoid robot that can talk will be sent into space to provide conversational company for a Japanese astronaut on a six-month mission, according to new plans. The miniature robot is to arrive at the International Space Station next summer, a few months ahead of astronaut Koichi Wakata, Japan’s Kibo Robot Project office said on Thursday. At 0.34m tall and weighing about 1kg, the little android is programmed to recognize Wakata’s face and to communicate in Japanese, the project office said. A cartoon sketch of the space buddy was released on Thursday and showed a black-and-silver figure with bright red boots. Mission organizers are asking for suggestions from the public for a name for the robot, which is also to have a twin brother on Earth doing public relations.
MACAU
City awaits ‘Broken Tooth’
The Asian gambling mecca of Macau is bracing for the release of a notorious organized crime boss who was at the center of the gangland violence that plagued the city in the late 1990s. Wan Kuok-koi (尹國駒), also known as “Broken Tooth Koi,” is scheduled to be released from prison today after serving most of a 15-year sentence. Wan was convicted in 1999 of loan sharking, money laundering and being a gang leader. As head of Macau’s 14K triad, Wan waged a brutal war with rival gangs.
UNITED STATES
Suspect signs cards
George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watchman charged with murdering black teenager Trayvon Martin, will mail signed thank-you cards to people who send donations to his defense fund, his defense team said on Thursday. Zimmerman’s defense fund, which opened in May, has received US$140,000 in seven months, but is now running lower than ever “and new funds must be raised to support George’s living expenses and legal costs,” reads a statement on the George Zimmerman Defense Fund Web site. The site, managed by Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, said that it “will begin sending Thank You Cards to people who have contributed to the Defense Fund. Each card will be personally signed by George.” The Web site promises that donations “will be used for George Zimmerman’s ongoing living expenses, legal costs, and fees,” and the funds “are being administered by a third-party administrator.”
UNITED STATES
Bush senior hospitalized
Former US president George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Texas because of complications from bronchitis, a hospital spokeswoman said on Thursday. Bush, who is 88, was in stable condition at Methodist Hospital in Houston and was expected to be released within 72 hours, the spokeswoman, Stephanie Asin, said. She declined to say exactly when Bush had been hospitalized, saying only that he has been “in and out” of the facility for treatment of complications related to his bronchitis.
FRANCE
Airline cleared over crash
Continental Airlines was cleared on Thursday of criminal responsibility for the Concorde crash in Paris in 2000 that killed 113 people, with a French court also absolving a mechanic at the US airline of involuntary manslaughter. The appeals court ruling, over a decade after the accident that helped to spell the end of the supersonic airliner, found Continental civilly responsible, opening the door to compensation payments to the families of those killed and to the Concorde’s operator, Air France. Rejecting an alternative scenario presented by the airline’s lawyer, the court confirmed that the crash was caused by a metal strip that fell from a Continental DC-10 aircraft onto the runway just before the Concorde took off. The court found that Continental welder John Taylor had flouted industry norms and used titanium to forge the piece, which shredded the Concorde’s tire, causing bits of rubber to damage the plane’s propulsion system and spark the fatal fire. However, it ruled that this was not criminal — as neither Taylor nor Continental could have predicted the devastating result.
CANADA
FBI tip-off led to arrest
Canadian police were tipped off by the FBI to a possible security breach by a Canadian navy intelligence officer who later pleaded guilty to espionage, documents made public say. Redacted versions of three search warrants were released on Thursday after the prosecution consented to their release. The warrants were used to obtain evidence against Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle, who pleaded guilty last month to passing classified information to Russia. Delisle worked at a naval intelligence center in Halifax, Nova Scotia and had access to secret data. One document said police opened an investigation into Delisle’s activities after it received a letter late last year from FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi alerting them of a possible security breach involving a Canadian military officer.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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