NORTH KOREA
Kim’s yacht sails to burial
Pyongyang has put Kim Jong-il’s yacht in the family mausoleum and had to build a railway to get it there, a report said yesterday, as the nation prepares to mark one year since the late leader’s death. The reclusive state has been putting together a collection of some of Kim’s possessions at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, which houses the preserved body of his father, Kim Il-sung, Yonhap news agency said. Quoting unidentified South Korean officials, Yonhap said that the embalming of Kim Jong-il’s body, which is eventually expected to be laid next to that of his father in the imposing structure, is almost complete. To get to the palace, the yacht was sailed from the eastern port of Wonsan 1,500 nautical miles (2,778km) around the Korean Peninsula to the western port of Nampo, from where it was towed 44km inland to Pyongyang. Power lines had to be taken down, a temporary rail track was laid and part of the wall of the mausoleum knocked down to get the boat inside, the report said. The North has reportedly set Dec. 1 to 20 as a mourning period for Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack on Dec. 17.
AUSTRALIA
Phones to light up harbor
Sydney’s world-famous New Year’s Eve fireworks will go interactive with a smartphone-powered light show, officials announced on Thursday. The light show, described by City of Sydney officials as a “world first,” will run through an app on iPhone and Android smartphones that will illuminate the screens with color at scheduled intervals leading up to midnight. The city is hoping to attract more than 1 million people to the harbor foreshore to witness the fireworks, and organizers want the crowds to hold their phones aloft to form a synchronized wave of color. “In a city of great diversity we come together at New Year’s Eve to embrace the future and celebrate all that we are and the potential that tomorrow holds,” Kylie Minogue, the event’s creative ambassador, said in a video message at the official launch.
INDONESIA
Mafia boss caught in Bali
Italian police have arrested a fugitive Mafia boss living in a luxury home on the island of Bali in a joint operation with Indonesian authorities, police said yesterday. Antonino Messicati Vitale has served 10 years in prison in the past for Mafia association and is wanted on new charges of extortion. He is believed to be head of the Sicilian Mafia clan of Villabate, which was at the center of a bloody gang war in the 1990s. Messicati Vitale, whose father Pietro was gunned down in 1988, was one of the most high-profile Mafia bosses still on the run. Investigators tracked Messicati Vitale by bugging and wiretapping his family and allies and then tracking a group of his relatives who traveled to Bali.
GUATEMALA
McAfee out of hospital
US Internet security guru John McAfee was discharged from a Guatemalan police hospital on Thursday after being admitted with what his lawyer called “heart problems,” a hospital official said. The official, Oscar Gonzalez, told reporters that tests showed McAfee was likely suffering from “anxiety and high blood pressure” but did not reveal any cardiac malfunction. McAfee is to be deported to Belize over a murder probe. McAfee, who had been on the run for weeks from Belizean authorities, was taken back to a detention facility in Guatemala City once doctors determined the 67-year-old American’s life was not in danger, Gonzalez said. The software pioneer applied for asylum in Guatemala after fleeing across the border over the weekend, but that request was rejected. He is wanted for questioning over the murder last month of his US expatriate neighbor in Belize.
VENEZUELA
New fears for Hugo’s health
The rumor mill over the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is again spinning wildly as cancer-related treatment has forced the leftist anti-US firebrand to skip another international summit. Chavez, 58, has repeatedly claimed to have beaten an unspecified cancer in his pelvic region that was diagnosed in 2011 and shrugged off his illness to see off a unified opposition and secure another six-year term on Oct. 7. Weeks after his hard-fought re-election, Chavez said that “God willing” he would attend yesterday’s Mercosur summit and preside over Venezuela’s hotly anticipated debut outing as part of the group, which it joined in July. However, on Thursday, hosts Brazil announced that the bombastic and once-omnipresent Venezuelan leader would have to forego the gathering as he is still in Cuba receiving treatment. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, who was also promoted to vice president after the election, was due to take Chavez’s place alongside the leaders of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in the meeting of the South American trading bloc.
UNITED STATES
Defense goods man charged
A New York man has been criminally charged with illegally exporting defense articles and goods with military applications to Taiwan and China, one day after prosecutors announced charges against four people over exports to China and Iran. Mark Henry was accused of trying to ship military-grade material used to coat rocket nozzles to Taiwan, and microwave amplifiers that have military applications to China, without first getting licenses from US government agencies. Henry, 49, operated an export company known as Dahua Electronics Corp from April 2009 to September this year.
AUSTRIA
Bus driver finds US$500,000
Vienna’s transport authority says a city bus driver checking a bag left behind by a passenger had the surprise of his life — 390,000 euros (US$504,000) in neatly stacked 500-euro bills. Transit authority spokeswoman Anna-Maria Reich says the driver handed the stash to police, who tracked down the owner, an unidentified elderly woman. However, the driver has nothing to show for his honesty beyond praise from superiors. Weeks later, the owner has not contacted him to offer a reward. The incident happened last month and Reich confirmed details first reported on Thursday by several Austrian tabloids. It was unclear why the woman was carrying so much cash.
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