SOUTH AFRICA
Pistorius trial postponed
A judge yesterday postponed the murder trial of athlete Oscar Pistorius, who has been charged with shooting dead his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, until Aug. 19. Pistorius, 26, has admitted shooting Reeva Steenkamp, 29, four times through a locked bathroom door on Feb. 14 at his home in Pretoria. His lawyers have said Pistorius was acting in self-defense against what he thought was an intruder. The judge postponed the case after his lawyers asked for more time to prepare.
CHINA
Ex-Anhui official probed
Former Anhui Province vice governor Ni Fake (倪發科) is under investigation for alleged disciplinary violations, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Ni is being probed for “suspected serious disciplinary offenses,” Xinhua said. The phrase is a euphemism for corruption in the state media. The brief dispatch cited a statement released by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The report offered no other details about what the alleged wrongdoing entailed.
AUSTRALIA
Mystery man baffles police
Sydney police were yesterday trying to work out what happened to a mystery Asian man who hammered on the door of an elderly couple’s house naked and covered in blood, pleading for help. The man, who does not speak English, staggered to the home on Monday night with significant head injuries before collapsing on the doorstep. “I was shaking like a leaf,” an elderly woman who lives at the home and did not want to be identified, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “But we couldn’t just leave him there to die.” Reports said he told police through an interpreter that he was mugged, stripped, tied up and locked in a car trunk before being dumped. Police said the man had no identification. He is in stable condition in hospital and police are waiting to formally interview him.
INDIA
Actress found dead
Bollywood actress Jiah Khan has been found dead at her home in Mumbai, police said yesterday. A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the body of the 25-year-old actress was found in her apartment late on Monday. Khan, whose real name was Nafisa Khan, was born in New York and grew up in London before moving to Mumbai. Khan began her career in Mumbai’s film industry in the 2007 Hindi film Nishabd, in which she portrayed a teenager in love with her best friend’s father, played by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The movie received average reviews because of its provocative storyline, but Khan was praised for her bold acting. In her brief career she performed with other top Bollywood stars, including Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar. Khan last appeared in the 2010 comedy Housefull, in which she played a supporting role.
JAPAN
Old Tokyo bomb destroyed
A bomb squad has destroyed an unexploded bomb left over from World War II that was found in Tokyo. The work left crowds of commuters temporarily stranded yesterday as local lines and the long-range bullet trains were halted as a safety precaution. The bomb found at a construction site was reportedly Japanese and about 40cm long. It was destroyed on the site, which was sealed off. Most of the old bombs found in Tokyo and other cities were dropped by the US, but some were buried or lost by the Imperial Army as well.
MEXICO
Missing activists found slain
Three farming activists from among a group of eight people who went missing last week have been found brutally murdered, authorities said on Monday. Authorities found the three in Guerrero State, apparently beaten to death along a highway, friends said. Another four of the eight who were apparently abducted escaped earlier in the day, while the last man in their group remains missing, one of those who escaped told media. On Thursday last week, members of the Emiliano Zapata Farmers’ Union blocked a highway in Iguala demanding that the government give them fertilizer. Hours later, their families reported them missing.
UNITED STATES
Teacher wins pregnancy suit
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, violated anti-discrimination laws when it fired teacher Christa Dias after she became pregnant via artificial insemination, a federal jury said on Monday as it awarded her more than US$170,000. Dias’ attorney, Robert Klingler, said she was fired in October 2010 after informing two schools of her pregnancy because she was pregnant and unmarried. Dias, who is not Catholic, testified that she did not know artificial insemination violated church doctrine or her employment contract, adding that she though the clause about abiding by church teachings meant she should be a Christian. Steven Goodin, the attorney for the archdiocese and the schools, said Dias was fired for violating her contract and that Dias, who is gay, never intended to abide by it.
UNITED STATES
Dad dresses as Nazi in court
A man who gave his children Nazi-inspired names on Monday appeared dressed in a full Nazi uniform at a hearing in Flemington, New Jersey, to secure visitation rights to his youngest son. Heath Campbell — father of Adolf Hitler Campbell, 7; JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 6; Honzlynn Jeannie Campbell, 5; and Heinrich Hons Campbell, 18 months — appeared before the court in a bid to win the right to see Heinrich Hons, who was taken into care by social services shortly after his birth in November 2011. Heinrich’s elder siblings had already been taken into care in 2009. “I’m going to tell the judge: I love my children. I wanna be a father, let me be it,” Heath Campbell told NBC10 before the hearing. “Basically, what they’re saying is because of my beliefs and I’m a Nazi, that us people don’t have any constitutional rights to fight for our children.” Asked whether dressing up as a Nazi was likely to help his case, Heath Campbell was confident it would not be held against him, saying: “If they’re good judges and they’re good people, they’ll look within, not what’s on the outside.”
UNITED STATES
Man charged for ricin letters
A Mississippi man suspected of sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and two other officials was charged in a five-count federal indictment made public on Monday that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted. The indictment, dated May 31, charges 41-year-old James Everett Dutschke with developing, producing and stockpiling the poison ricin; threatening the president and others; and attempting to impede the investigation. The indictment also alleges that Dutschke mailed the letter in part to retaliate against a rival. Arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow at the US District Court in Oxford. Dutschke has been jailed without bond since his arrest. George Lucas, Dutschke’s lawyer, told reporters in an e-mail that his client will plead not guilty to all the charges.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion