AUSTRALIA
New Cabinet sworn in
Prime Minister Julia Gillard swore in her new Cabinet yesterday, as two major opinion polls showed her government faced likely defeat at elections in September. A poll by Sydney-based market researcher Newspoll published in the Australian newspaper yesterday found support for Labor was trailing opposition leader Tony Abbott’s conservative coalition 44 percent to 56 percent. A poll by Sydney-based Galaxy Research published in News Corp newspapers yesterday found the coalition was leading Labor 54 percent to 46 percent.
ANTARCTICA
‘Shackleton’ team ashore
An exhausted British-Australian expedition recreating Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 crossing of the Southern Ocean in a small boat made landfall yesterday after a perilous 12-day journey. Led by renowned adventurer Tim Jarvis, the team of six reached Peggotty Bluff on rugged South Georgia, where they landed their vessel in the same place Shackleton and his men beached the James Caird nearly 100 years ago. The next leg will see three of the team tackle a two-day climb to 900m over the mountainous, crevassed interior of South Georgia. Jarvis said the boat trip, using only the equipment, navigational instruments and food available to Shackleton, was extremely tough, describing it as “truly about endurance — mental as much as physical. There was just no way to keep dry. The waterproofing with wax didn’t work,” he said.
CHINA
‘Crazy English’ Li divorced
A Beijing court has granted a divorce to a US woman and her celebrity-entrepreneur husband in a high-profile case that highlighted the often-hidden problem of domestic violence. The case began when Kim Lee posted graphic photographs of the injuries she said came from her husband, Li Yang (李陽) on her microblog in 2011. Li Yang’s chain of English language schools, “Crazy English,” is a household name in the country. The photographs went viral. Xinhua news agency said the divorce was granted on Sunday on the grounds of domestic abuse and the court approved Lee’s request for a three-month restraining order against Li. Reports said the court ordered Li to pay his former wife 50,000 yuan (US$8,000) compensation for mental anguish, as well as child support. She will also have custody of their three daughters and receive properties worth more than 12 million yuan.
JAPAN
Chinese fishermen released
The coast guard has released the captain and crew of a Chinese boat who was arrested for illegal fishing southwest of islands claimed by both countries. Coast guard official Yasuhiko Oku said the captain and 12 crewmembers of the 100 tonne boat were released on Sunday after the Chinese consulate in Fukuoka guaranteed payment of a ¥4 million (US$44,000) bail.
SOUTH KOREA
Joint naval drill starts
The country launched a joint naval exercise with the US involving a US nuclear submarine yesterday. A defense ministry spokesman confirmed the three-day drill was underway in the Sea of Japan (known as the “East Sea” in the country), off Pohang. Although military officials said the drill was scheduled before the North threatened to detonate its third nuclear device, the presence of the submarine has been seen as a warning to Pyongyang. The USS San Francisco, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, is joined in the drill by a 9,800 tonnes Aegis destroyer, the USS Shiloh.
UNITED KINGDOM
Malala recovers post-surgery
Doctors said on Sunday that Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban in October last year, has had successful surgery on her skull. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham said the 15-year-old had undergone two operations on Saturday to insert a titanium plate into her skull and fit an electronic device in her left ear to restore her hearing. A hospital spokeswoman said the schoolgirl’s medical team were “very pleased” with her progress following five hours of surgery.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man tasered outside palace
A man who was shocked by police with a Taser stun gun as he waved large knives outside Buckingham Palace was charged yesterday with affray and possessing a bladed weapon in public. Talhat Rehman, 54, was seen ranting and pressing one of the knives to his chest outside the palace, just before noon on Sunday.
UNITED STATES
Crash leaves eight dead
A tour bus collided with a car and pickup truck, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens of others on Sunday night on a Southern California mountain highway, authorities said. California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez confirmed the deaths and said 38 people were taken to hospitals with injuries. He also said the bus driver reported having brake problems as it headed down the mountain on two-lane State Route 38, rear-ending a sedan then flipping over and hitting a pickup truck that was pulling a trailer. The bus was carrying a tour group from Tijuana, Mexico.
RUSSIA
Filin heads to Germany
Bolshoi Ballet artistic director Sergei Filin left a Moscow hospital yesterday morning to move to a clinic in Aachen, Germany, for further treatment after he suffered serious eye damage in an acid attack. Filin, wearing dark glasses and supported by his wife, was set to have his first medical examination in Germany later yesterday. “I feel good, I would even say excellent. If only my eyes saw a bit better,” Filin told journalists outside the hospital, describing his vision as “foggy and blurred.” “I sometimes open my eyes, but what I see is only just enough to be able to sense objects or to wash, that is the maximum,” he said in televised remarks. The 42-year-old has already undergone five operations on his eyes since being rushed to hospital on Jan. 17 after being splashed in the face with sulphuric acid.
ITALY
Revellers flock to Venice
About 70,000 revellers, many wearing elaborate costumes and masks, thronged Venice’s St Mark’s Square on Sunday to watch the traditional “flight of the angel,” a highlight of the annual Carnival. Marta Finotto, a 20-year-old student, had the honor of performing the stunt, gliding on a harness from the 99m belltower of Saint Mark’s Basilica to a stage below, wearing a black top hat and a red gown with matching boots. The Venice Carnival, which began on Jan. 26, winds up on Feb. 12.
CUBA
Fidel Castro casts vote
Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance in Havana on Sunday to vote in parliamentary polls. The 86-year-old’s visit to the voting precinct in El Vedado neighborhood was the main event in Sunday’s elections, during which Cubans chose 612 members of the National Assembly as well as deputies of local legislatures. He had not been seen in public since Oct. 21 last year, fueling rumors that his health had worsened.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema