SERBIA
Aussie arrested after biting
An Australian national has been arrested for biting off part of a waiter’s finger in an argument, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred in Novi Sad on Friday when the 26-year-old, identified only by his initials S.M., entered a cafe with his own bottle of liquor and wanted to drink it, a police statement said. The young man attacked the waiter who asked him to put the bottle away, it added.
RUSSIA
Smoking ban takes effect
A law that bans smoking in public places has taken effect, a contentious move in a country with one of the highest smoking rates in the world. The ban, which came into force on Saturday, prohibits smoking in workplaces, schools, universities and on public transportation. More restrictions will be applied next year. Authors of the ban have pointed to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who die of smoking-related illnesses every year. The measure has been approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin. Cigarettes are much cheaper than in the US and Europe, with the price of a pack starting at about US$1. About 40 percent of the population smoke.
AUSTRIA
Bank employee loses cash
A bank employee has found himself in hot water after he unloaded bags containing 90,000 euros (US$117,000) from his car boot to fix a puncture — only to see the money to fall into a river below. The incident reportedly happened on May 7 as the employee was transporting the cash from a small bank branch in Obertauern in Salzburg Province to the main office in Radstadt, the daily Salzburger Nachrichten reported on Saturday. As he was repairing the flat tire, the bags of money which he had placed on a steep slope slipped into the river below, the worker said. The police, fire department and mountain rescue teams conducted a thorough search of the waterway, but were only able to recover 3,000 euros, the Austria Press Agency said. No witnesses have confirmed the employee’s story, but the police said no criminal investigation has been launched.
SOMALIA
Drone crashes in Puntland
An official in the semi-autonomous Puntland region said a surveillance drone has crashed. Ports and Anti-piracy Minister Saeed Mohamed Rage said on Saturday the drone crashed in Qaw Village, about 20km west of Bossasso. The US military flies aerial surveillance drones from Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles to monitor piracy off the East African coast, but Rage said it is not clear whose drone crashed. The US also flies drones that occasionally fire at Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels in south and central Somalia. The al-Shabab rebels on Tuesday posted pictures on Twitter of what they claimed was a surveillance drone that had crashed.
EGYPT
Court convicts lawyer
A court has convicted a Coptic Christian lawyer in Assiut on charges of blasphemy and sentenced him to one year in prison with hard labor. The verdict against Roman Murad Saad was handed down on Saturday. It is the latest in a surge of blasphemy cases following the nation’s 2011 uprising. Saad was sentenced in absentia. If he is arrested or surrenders to authorities, he will be given a retrial and will have to pay 10,000 Egyptians pounds (US$1,400) in fines. Court officials say Saad was found guilty of ridiculing the Koran, at a lawyers’ union library.
UNITED STATES
Morgue fridge for sale
New York’s Office of General Services has turned to eBay in an attempt to sell off a huge, steel morgue refrigerator now located at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital. Bidding on Saturday afternoon was up to US$475 for the four-drawer unit. Buyers have to be willing to remove the fridge themselves from the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. Office of General Services spokeswoman Heather Groll told the New York Post that the ad is no hoax. She says the agency does get unusual surplus items to sell from time to time, including barber chairs from prisons and police cars.
UNITED STATES
Disabled pig lands book deal
In many circumstances, a piglet without the use of its hind legs would be put down, but Chris P. Bacon’s unusual condition has made him an international star and an inspiration to those with disabilities. When Chris was born in Florida, a woman brought him into Len Lucero’s veterinary office, assuming the animal would be euthanized. However, Lucero brought it home and built a wheelchair out of some of his son’s toys so Chris could move around, then found a dog-sized harness and cart. Chris is now 10kg. His Facebook page and Web site recently helped him land a three-book publishing deal.
UNITED STATES
New lanes protect whales
An effort to avoid large ships striking and killing endangered whales has led to new traffic lanes off the California coast. The changes that started on Saturday affect ship traffic in and out of San Francisco Bay, the Santa Barbara Channel and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Migrating blue, fin and humpback whales are prone to strikes since they are lured to the California coast in years where there is plentiful krill to feed on. All three species are endangered.
CHILE
Neruda’s ‘killer’ sought
Forty years after the death of poet Pablo Neruda, a judge has issued an order for police to make a portrait of and find the man who prosecutors allege may have poisoned him. Neruda’s death was attributed at the time to prostate cancer, but the case’s plaintiff lawyer, Eduardo Contreras, says there is new evidence showing he was likely murdered by agents of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Contreras said Sergio Draper, who originally testified that he was with Neruda at the time of his death on Sept. 23, 1973, is now saying there was another doctor named “Price” with the poet. However, Price did not appear in any of the hospital’s records as a treating doctor and Draper said he never saw him again after the day he left him with Neruda. Moreover, Price’s description of a blond, blue eyed, tall man, matches Michael Townley, the CIA double agent who worked with the secret police under Pinochet.
COLOMBIA
Deal with NATO planned
The defense ministry later this month is to sign a cooperation agreement with NATO, in hopes of joining the international military alliance, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday. Santos said the army could become an international player if his government can bring off a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and end Latin America’s longest-running insurgency. “If we can achieve peace, the army will be in a place where it will be able to distinguish itself internationally as well. We are already doing it on many fronts,” Santos said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was