INDIA
Airline says no to men
Budget airlines are constantly on the lookout for ways to cut their fuel bills and India’s GoAir is no different. Its latest idea is to hire female-only cabin crew, refusing applications from their heavier male counterparts in a bid to limit fuel burn. The low-cost airline has calculated that the move will save up to 30 million rupees (US$500,000) a year, because women are on average 20kg lighter. Around 130, or 40 percent, of GoAir’s existing crew members are male, and they will keep their jobs. However, men will miss out in the future, as the airline presses ahead with ambitious expansion plans. The chief executive, Giorgio De Roni, said the decision was driven by the rupee’s sharp fall against the dollar over the past year. “The rupee’s fall has hurt the industry badly. All major expenses — aircraft leasing, spare parts and fuel costs — are linked to the dollar,” he told the Times of India. “We are looking at every possible way of cost-cutting to remain profitable.”
MALAYSIA
Orangutan goes on diet
An obese orangutan has been put on a strict diet by wildlife authorities after two decades of gorging on junk food handed out by tourists, a report said yesterday. Jackie reportedly weighs 100kg, twice the normal weight of an adult female in the rich jungle habitats of Borneo island. The 22-year-old ape was relocated more than three months ago by the wildlife department in the state of Sabah — which lies in the northeast of Borneo — because visitors to the Poring forestry park kept feeding her. Department director Laurentius Ambu was cited in a newspaper report saying that Jackie’s familiarity with her human carers led her to seek out tourists at the park’s visitors’ area. “I am glad that Jackie is a much happier orangutan now,” Ambu was quoted as saying in The Star. The primate’s new diet is said to include more leafy vegetables and fruit.
CAMBODIA
Site aims to preserve Angkor
Cambodia has joined hands with Australia in an effort to use the Internet to help preserve its fabled Angkor Wat temple complex, the Australian Embassy announced on Thursday. As part of a master plan to limit damage to the complex, a recently opened Web site, Angkor Sunset Finder, will give tourists recommendations for where in the 400km2 complex one can watch spectacular sunsets. A handful of well-publicized spots from which to watch the setting sun attract too many tourists, endangering the place’s physical and aesthetic integrity. The Web site at angkorsunsets.com allows visitors to select several criteria — including what kind of atmosphere, distance from gate and crowd conditions — to get a recommendation of alternative perches from a listing of 34 vantage points.
ITALY
Mafia abusing EU funds
The Mafia is ramping up investment in wind farms to launder money and benefit from EU subsidies, according to a Europol report published on Thursday. Europe’s policing agency said an analysis of the financial activities of the Mafia’s four groupings found wind farms to be the most popular target for dirty money within the renewable energy sector, itself a criminal favourite. “The Italian Mafia is investing more and more in renewable energy, especially in wind farms, to profit from generous European grants paid for by member states which allow them to mix dirty money with legitimate economic activities,” the report said.
GAMBIA
Internet laws sharpened
Lawmakers have introduced long jail terms for anyone convicted of going online to poke fun at the government or public officials. Under the new law, Internet users face up to 15 years’ imprisonment and US$90,000 fines for a raft of offences including spreading “false news” against or even “caricaturing” government functionaries and politicians. People taking to the Internet to impersonate public officials or to commit any offense already deemed criminal will also fall foul of the new sanctions. “In the recent past, some citizens have waged concerted efforts to pit the people and the security officials against their government,” Information Minister Nana Grey-Johnson told parliament before tabling the bill late on Wednesday. “They do this by inciting the people to engage in unpatriotic behavior, spreading false news and engaging in criminal defamation against government officials. Such tendencies, if unchecked, are a recipe for chaos and instability in any country.”
KENYA
Tribes urged to spend wisely
Members of Samburu and Masai tribes who received payment from the British government say that the estimated 5,200 Kenyans waiting for compensation from Britain for colonial-era acts of torture should spend the money wisely. Kipise Lourolkeek, one of the more than 220 Masai injured by ordnance and compensated by Britain in 2002, is urging the next beneficiaries to “live humbly.” Lourolkeek, who was paid more than US$211,000, says most of the cash is now gone, lost in part through frequent trips to the bar. Last month Britain announced a settlement to pay US$21.5 million to the 5,200 Kenyans who were found to have been tortured during the colonial era. That is about US$4,100 for each victim, a substantial sum in a country where per capita income is about US$1,800.
UNITED STATES
Man breaks his eating record
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut devoured 69 hot dogs, breaking his own record to win the traditional Fourth of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island for the seventh straight year. With thousands of spectators cheering him on, Chestnut downed the 69 dogs — and their buns — in 10 minutes, improving on his previous personal best of 68. He retained the Mustard Yellow International Belt for a seventh straight year, his title run surpassing that of Japanese speed-eating great Takeru Kobayashi, who won six straight Coney Island crowns before he was beaten by Chestnut in 2007. Matt “Megatoad” Stonie was a distant second, scarfing 51 hot dogs. Sonya Thomas retained the women’s title, downing almost 37 dogs to win by a fraction of a frankfurter. The “Black Widow” of competitive eating could not equal her feat of last year, when she matched her age by consuming 45 hot dogs.
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