MONGOLIA
Australian cleared of graft
An Australian lawyer who had been barred from leaving the country has been cleared of involvement in a corruption case and will soon be able to leave the country, her employer said yesterday. SouthGobi Resources, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian resources giant Rio Tinto, said the Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) had ended its questioning of its chief legal counsel, Sarah Armstrong. The Australian was barred from boarding a flight from Ulan Bator to Hong Kong in October as authorities probed a corruption case.
AUSTRALIA
Scottish boy dies in outback
A 14-year-old Scottish boy has died in searing heat in the harsh outback while hiking with his father, police said. Ewan Williamson, who arrived in the country in the middle of the month, collapsed four hours into the walk in the Cape Range National Park on Friday with little water or shade as temperatures soared above 40oC. In naming the boy who died in hospital, police said late on Sunday that his father alerted authorities who located the pair 20km south of Exmouth. The cause of death is yet to be determined, but reports said he was severely dehydrated.
GERMANY
Dead man rides subway
A 65-year-old man thought to be sleeping while sitting upright on a Berlin underground train as it cross-crossed the capital was actually dead, police said on Sunday. “It’s tragic,” a Berlin police spokeswoman said. “We don’t know how long he was sitting dead on the train nor do we know the exact cause of death yet. There are no indications of foul play. He seems to have died of natural causes.” The man was found in the U-8 underground train line that runs all night at the Weinmeisterstrasse station at 5:45am, when a rail worker tried wake the man up by gently shaking him. Medics were called in, but could only pronounce the man dead.
UNITED STATES
License 48 years late
After spending nearly a half-century as husband and wife, Bob and Norma Clark are finally married. The couple from Redlands, California, celebrated their 48th anniversary in August, and last month, they were getting their end-of-life documents in order and sought a copy of their marriage license for Social Security purposes. The Clarks, who met in college, took their vows in August 1964, shortly after Bob had served in the army during the Cuban missile crisis. However, when clerks at the Hall of Records in San Mateo County tried to pull the license last month, they came up empty. On Nov. 21, the couple made their marriage legitimate, obtaining their license at the San Bernardino County Hall of Records, with the maid of honor and a junior usher from the original wedding serving as witnesses.
UNITED KINGDOM
Hillsborough single No. 1
A charity single for the families of those killed in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, featuring Paul McCartney and Robbie Williams, has claimed the country’s coveted Christmas No. 1 spot, officials announced on Sunday. The Justice Collective’s cover version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother sold more than 269,000 copies. Funds raised from sales will go toward meeting the families’ ongoing legal costs. Ninety-six Liverpool fans were crushed to death in the Hillsborough soccer stadium disaster in Sheffield, England, in April 1989. A report in September concluded that 41 of those who died could have survived if they had received medical treatment more quickly.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
Uncontrolled fires burned through bushland in the Australian state of Victoria yesterday, forcing communities to evacuate and authorities to warn of a “catastrophic” fire danger rating for today. Amid temperatures that exceeded 40°C in parts of the state, two large bushfires were raging near the towns of Longwood and Walwa. The fires had destroyed at least two structures and were expected to continue to spread today as heat and wind pick up, authorities said. The Longwood fire had grown to more than 25,000 hectares in size, while the Walwa fire was 10,000 hectares and has created its own weather system, with a pyrocumulonimbus
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