NEW ZEALAND
Island mystery ‘solved’
A researcher yesterday claimed to have solved the riddle of a mystery island shown on Google Earth and world maps which does not exist, blaming a whaling ship from 1876. The phantom landmass in the Coral Sea is shown as Sandy Island on Google Earth and Google maps and is supposedly midway between Australia and New Caledonia. However, according to Australian scientists, who went searching for it last month, it could not be found. Intrigued, Shaun Higgins, a researcher at Auckland Museum, started investigating and claims it never existed, with a whaling ship the source of the original error. “As far as I can tell, the island was recorded by the whaling ship the Velocity,” Higgins told ABC radio, adding that the ship’s master reported a series of “heavy breakers” and some “sandy islets.” “My supposition is that they simply recorded a hazard at the time. They might have recorded a low-lying reef or thought they saw a reef. They could have been in the wrong place. There is all number of possibilities,” he said. “What we do have is a dotted shape on the map that’s been recorded at that time and it appears it’s simply been copied over time.”
SINGAPORE
Workers injured as rig tilts
About 90 workers were injured yesterday when an oil rig being built at a shipyard tilted to one side, the Ministry of Manpower said, amid reports of explosions and snapping cables. One worker was in critical condition and 22 others were seriously injured during the incident at the Jurong Shipyard, the ministry said in a statement. “Preliminary findings indicate that the jack-up mechanism of one of the legs of a three-legged jack-up rig had failed, causing the rig to tilt to one side,” the ministry said. “Some 90 workers have been sent to four hospitals — the majority had minor injuries with one worker in a critical condition and 22 seriously injured.”
THAILAND
Briton dies after chase
A 28-year-old British man has drowned after jumping into the sea in the resort town of Pattaya after being chased by a group of Thai men wielding sticks and knives, police said yesterday. The man, and two other Britons, aged 29 and 30, leapt into Pattaya Bay late on Sunday morning after being chased through a restaurant by several Thai men who they had argued with the previous night. A fishing boat was only able to rescue the victim’s two companions. Police said the Thai men alleged the British trio were drunk and had destroyed property in a hotel in the early hours of Sunday, prompting the argument and chase when the two groups met again several hours later. No arrests have been made so far in connection with the incident.
JAPAN
Troops receive drink ban
US troops in Okinawa, southern Japan, have been banned from drinking off base, a US military statement said, following a spate of crimes including the alleged rape of a local woman. The move is the latest clampdown by military commanders on their sometimes rowdy charges as they look to contain seething anger in their host community. “Drinking alcohol in off-base establishments is prohibited for all service members on Okinawa,” the US Forces in Japan said on Facebook over the weekend. “On base alcohol sales will cease at [10pm] each night, which includes clubs” and shops. The statement also said drivers departing base will be subject to breathalyzers while passengers and pedestrians may also undergo “sobriety tests.”
SOUTH AFRICA
Natural wonder inaugurated
Table Mountain was formally inaugurated as one of the world’s new seven wonders of nature at a ceremony on Sunday, a move officials hope will bring major economic benefits to the area. The mountain, which towers over Cape Town, was crowned one of the natural wonders last year after a global poll that allowed anyone in the world to vote via telephone, text messages or social media networks. Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille said she expected the listing of Table Mountain to “bring tremendous direct economic and socio-economic benefits” to the city and the country. The impact has begun to show already, with officials saying they received a record number of visitors to the mountain last month.
IRAN
Programmer escapes death
Authorities have suspended the death sentence for a computer programmer convicted on charges of running a pornographic Web site after he “repented for his actions,” his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday. Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian citizen and Canadian resident, was arrested in 2008 while visiting relatives in Iran, according to Amnesty International. Although authorities accused him of running a pornography site, Amnesty has said the charges appear to stem from a software program created by Malekpour that was used without his knowledge to post pornographic images. Such images are illegal in the Islamic republic. Malekpour’s lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, told Mehr news agency that his client had repented for his actions after his death sentence, issued by the Revolutionary Court, was confirmed by the Supreme Court.
UNITED STATES
Rare hymn book to be sold
Congregants of one of the nation’s oldest churches have voted to auction off a 372-year-old hymn book that is expect to fetch between US$10 million and US$20 million at auction. Members of the Old South Church in Boston authorized the sale of one of its two copies of the Bay Psalm Book, which was published in 1640. It is among the first books ever published in North America, and only 11 copies remain. Board of Trustees Chairman Phil Stern says the church wants to continue growing its endowment and take care of some “critical capital needs.” He says although there was loud opposition to the sale, the vote was not close, with 271 votes cast in favor and 34 against.
DOMINICAN Republic
Magician’s head set on fire
An American magician was recuperating on Sunday after a local television show host lit his head on fire with a flammable cologne. Wayne Houchin said he is receiving treatment for burns that doctors are cautiously optimistic will not result in scars. During an appearance on the Dominican Republic’s Closer To The Stars TV program on Nov. 26, guest host Franklin Barazarte abruptly doused the US magician’s head with Agua de Florida, a flammable cologne commonly used in Santeria rituals. A video of the incident shows the magician’s head bursting into flames as Barazarte runs his hands over Houchin’s hair. It is unclear why the TV host doused his head in the liquid and what ignited it. The incident was not broadcast on television, but a video of it has appeared on the Internet. Houchin said Barazarte’s actions were completely unexpected and he considers it a criminal attack.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.