NEPAL
Yadav to be treated in Japan
President Ram Baran Yadav was to fly to Japan yesterday for medical treatment after he was diagnosed with intestinal problems, a spokesman said. The 70-year-old fell ill two days earlier and was admitted to a hospital in the capital late on Saturday, his press adviser, Rajendra Dahal, told reporters. X-rays showed a dark “stain in his large intestine,” Dahal said. “The doctors suggested to us to seek treatment abroad. So he is leaving for Japan this afternoon for further treatment.” Yadav was elected president by parliament in July 2008 after the 240-year-old monarchy was abolished.
NEW ZEALAND
Briton survives 15-story drop
A British man who survived a fall from a 15th-story apartment balcony was “extraordinarily” lucky to be alive, officials said yesterday. The 20-year-old, identified by local media as Tom Stilwell from Brighton, was in a stable condition after his plunge on Sunday morning, Auckland Central Hospital said. Police said he found he was locked out of his 14th-floor apartment when he returned home from going out with friends. He woke a neighbor on the 15th floor, telling her he wanted to clamber down from her balcony onto his own. The neighbor, Geraldine Bautista, said the man appeared “tipsy” and she allowed him into her apartment, intending to point out to him how foolhardy his plan was. Instead, she said he immediately tried to lower himself from her balcony and slipped as she tried to grab him. “I thought I was dreaming. It happened so fast. It happened within seconds,” she told the New Zealand Herald. St John Ambulance medical director Tony Smith said the man’s fall was broken by an adjacent roof, although he still dropped 13 stories. “Survival from falls of that height are extraordinarily unusual,” he said. Stilwell suffered back and neck fractures as well as internal injuries, a broken wrist and grazes, but was awake and able to laugh about his ordeal, his roommate, Beth Goodwin, told Fairfax Media.
AUSTRALIA
Scammers rake in millions
Australians were fleeced out of more than A$93 million (US$90 million) last year by scammers, and officials yesterday said they believe it was just the tip of the iceberg. The money lost on scams was up 9 percent from the previous year with a big jump in online shopping scams, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a new report. The biggest fraud was people being asked to pay to access a share in a sum of money they are told they are owed, with gullible Australians handing over more than A$30 million. This was followed by A$23.3 million being sent to someone they think they are in an online relationship with, but is in fact a con. Online shopping fraud, using increasingly sophisticated fake logos, e-mails or Web sites, raked in more than A$4 million.
EGYPT
Morsi makes allies governors
President Mohamed Morsi put Islamist allies in key positions across the country as he braces for protests on the first anniversary of his inauguration at the end of the month. Seven of the new governors listed by the state news agency are members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The newly appointed Luxor Governor Adel Mohamed al-Khayat is a member of the Building and Development Party, established by Al Gamaa al-Islamiya, an Islamist group that was involved in attacks in Luxor that killed about 60 tourists in the late 1990s, but later renounced violence.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the