CHINA
Craft successfully docks
The Shenzhou-10 spacecraft yesterday carried out a successful docking, state media said, two days after the launch of the country’s longest manned space mission. The spacecraft linked up with the Tiangong-1 module in an “automated docking,” Xinhua news agency said. Three astronauts, including China’s second woman in space, are spending 15 days in orbit as the country’s ambitious space program reaches another milestone. The docking success comes almost a year after the Shenzhou-9 performed China’s first manual docking with the same module. The maneuver last year tested a docking technique that is needed to be able to construct a space station, which China aims to do by 2020.
AUSTRALIA
Female Dalai Lama touted
The Dalai Lama waded into the nation’s bitter gender war yesterday, saying his successor as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans could be a woman. “If the circumstances are such that a female Dalai Lama is more useful, then automatically a female Dalai Lama will come,” he told a press conference in Sydney to launch a 10-day tour of Australia. The exiled 77-year-old was questioned about the gender conflict reignited by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard this week. He replied that the world faces a “moral crisis” of inequality and suffering, and needs leaders with compassion. “In that respect, biologically, females have more potential,” the Dalai Lama said. Labor Party leader Gillard claimed on Tuesday that the conservatives would marginalize women and set back abortion laws if they win elections in September.
TUNISIA
Feminist activists jailed
A court sentenced three European feminist activists to four months in jail on Wednesday after they demonstrated topless in central Tunis last month against the Islamist-led government, one of their lawyers said. Marguerite Stern and Pauline Hillier of France, and Josephine Markmann of Germany, all members of the Femen protest group, appeared topless on May 29 to call for the release of fellow activist, Amina Tyler of Tunisia, who was detained last month. “The judge sentenced the three Femen activists to four months and one day in prison for an attack on public morals and indecency,” lawyer Souheib Bahri said. Tyler, 18, was arrested in Kairouan on May 19 after she hung a feminist banner from the wall of a mosque and tried to bare her breasts.
GERMANY
Sex trade on the increase
With bum bags strapped around their waists, sex workers wait by the roadside close to Hackescher Markt, one of Berlin’s busiest shopping districts. It is a familiar sight just before dark in the capital of a country that has been dubbed “Europe’s biggest brothel.” The sex trade in Germany has increased dramatically since prostitution was liberalized in 2002 — more than 1 million men pay for sex every day, according to a documentary, Sex — Made in Germany, aired this week on Germany’s public broadcaster, ARD. Based on two years of research using hidden cameras, the film by Sonia Kennebeck and Tina Soliman exposed the “flat-rate” brothels where men pay 49 euros (US$65) for as much sex as they want. Germany’s law governing the sex trade is considered one of the most liberal in the world. It was passed by the former coalition government in a bid to strengthen the rights of sex workers. Since then, red light districts have become even more prominent in cities such as Berlin.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cheetahs outpower Bolt
Cheetahs can generate four times the maximum power output of Usain Bolt when they sprint and have a maneuverability unmatched by any other animal when hunting, according to scientists who tracked the big cats. “[Cheetahs] are getting lateral accelerations bigger than a motorbike can achieve,” the Royal Veterinary College’s Alan Wilson said. “They’re operating at the extreme of athletic performance.” His team attached collars, enabled with GPS and accelerometers, to five wild cheetahs in the Okavango Delta in Botswana and tracked the animals for a year. The study found that, though the cheetahs can run at great speeds, they mostly choose not to when hunting. “What they can do is accelerate and maneuver really rather well, better than anything else that’s been measured in a large animal and that’s probably much more critical in terms of capturing a large animal,” Wilson said. The cheetahs were able to accelerate by up to 3m/s and slow down by 4m/s in a single stride. At their greatest acceleration, the animals’ muscles produced a power output of 100 watts per kilogram — four times greater than the power produced by Usain Bolt when he ran the 100m in the world record time of 9.58 seconds.
MEXICO
Police look into death movie
Police said on Wednesday they are investigating the recording and sale in local markets of a grisly video that shows a mob beating and burning to death three men suspected of raping and killing an Indian woman in southern Mexico. A voice on the video says: “Gasoline on everything!” as the beaten suspects lie on the ground. Then the tape shows a man in flames, tied to a tree, writhing as he apparently burns. One suspect is heard crying and pleading for mercy while voices in the background speak the Indian language of Tzotzil. Tzotzil is spoken in the highlands of the southern state of Chiapas, where tapes of the attack were being sold in street markets for 15 to 20 pesos (US$1.15 to US$1.50) apiece. The Chiapas State Attorney General’s office said all three men died. It is investigating both the mob attack and the sale of the video.
UNITED STATES
Police pull over child driver
Police in Louisiana said they pulled over a 10-year-old boy who was driving an SUV on a major highway. A Kenner Police news release says the boy’s grandmother and another woman in the vehicle were arrested early on Wednesday when the car was pulled over. Police say they told officers they had the boy drive because they were drunk. The child’s grandmother, 54-year-old Brenda Byrd, and 48-year-old Sheila Joiner were booked with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a motor vehicle. The young driver and a 15-year-old passenger were later released to family members. Police had responded to a call about an SUV being driven recklessly.
UNITED STATES
‘1984’ surges in popularity
The nation’s book-buyers are reading up on being watched. Sales for dystopian classics such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World have been strong since news broke last week that the US government had vast surveillance programs targeting telephones and Internet records. Several editions of Orwell’s 1984, about an all-seeing government, were among top Amazon.com’s top 200 sellers as of Wednesday morning. Huxley’s story of a mindless future ranked No. 210 and was out of stock. A perennial favorite of futuristic horror, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, was ranked No. 75.
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