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.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
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