CHINA
Airport ‘bomber’ arrested
A disabled man who bombed Beijing airport to protest police brutality has been formally arrested, his lawyer said yesterday, in a case that highlighted popular resentment toward low-level authorities. Ji Zhongxing (冀中星), a 33-year-old former driver who said a 2005 beating left him paralyzed, set off a small explosion on July 20, destroying his hand and injuring an officer. He was arrested on Monday on suspicion of bombing, said his lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan. The act carried a potential sentence of three to 10 years’ jail because it caused little damage, Liu said.
PAKISTAN
Musharaff to be indicted
Prosecutors will next week charge former president Pervez Musharraf with criminal conspiracy and the murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, lawyers said yesterday. Musharraf has been under house arrest since April. He appeared before an anti-terrorism court in person yesterday. Indicting a former army chief would be an unprecedented move in a country ruled for more than half of its life by the military. It would be seen by many as a challenge to the armed forces’ power. “Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman fixed the next hearing on Aug. 6 for General Musharraf’s indictment,” prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar said.
CHINA
Toxic dumpling trial starts
A man went on trial yesterday for poisoning frozen dumplings that were exported to Japan, state media reported, in a case that raised tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. Factory worker Lu Yueting (呂月庭) was said to have injected pesticide into the dumplings because he was unhappy with his pay and did not get on with his coworkers at the Tianyang Food Plant in Hebei Province. Ten people fell ill in Japan, including a small child. Lu went on trial at the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei, Xinhua news agency reported. The poisoned dumplings caused Japanese consumers to avoid Chinese frozen food, which temporarily disappeared from stores. Concerns over Chinese food imports were compounded in late 2008 after six Chinese infants died and almost 300,000 were made ill by milk powder laced with the industrial chemical melamine.
GREECE
Monks attack bailiffs
A group of monks on the monastic sanctuary of Mount Athos who are facing eviction attacked court bailiffs with rocks and gasoline bombs on Monday, civilian authorities on the peninsula said. No one was injured in the incident outside the administrative offices of 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery, and no arrests were reported. The bailiffs withdrew from the site. Cellphone video of part of the incident, taken by the monks, showed the court-appointed bailiffs using a small earth-moving machine in an unsuccessful attempt to force their way into the grounds of the office at Karyes, the capital of the all-male sanctuary from where its 20 monasteries are run. About 100 monks in the Esphigmenou monastery have been involved in a years-old dispute with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, over his efforts to improve relations with the Vatican. The monks have defied court orders to leave the monastery and allow church-appointed replacements to take over the site and the Karyes offices. The Esphigmenou monks, who say they are safeguarding centuries-old Orthodox traditions, have refused to leave the complex, and receive food and other assistance from supporters in other parts of the nation.
UNITED STATES
Verdict due in Manning trial
US soldier Bradley Manning was due to learn yesterday whether he will be convicted of aiding the enemy — punishable by life in prison without parole — for sending classified government documents to the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks, a military judge said on Monday. The charge of aiding the enemy is the most serious of 21 counts Manning is contesting. He also is charged with eight federal Espionage Act violations, five federal theft counts and two federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, each punishable by up to 10 years; and five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, punishable by up to two years each. Manning has admitted to sending more than 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables and other material to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in early 2010.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cash bonds for visas
The Home Office confirmed it will demand a £3,000 (US$4,350) refundable bond for visas for “high-risk” visitors from six former colonies in Africa and Asia. A statement on Monday says Britain will go ahead with the pilot scheme which has caused outrage, charges of discrimination and warnings of retaliation and that the move will hurt trade. The statement sent by e-mail did not say when the pilot would start. It said if the scheme is successful Britain would like to apply the bond “on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country.” The countries affected are Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Britain’s Home Office said it hopes the bond system deters overstaying of visas and recovers costs of foreign nationals using public services.
UNITED STATES
Fire leads to snake surprise
Firefighters at a home to put out a blaze and discovered more than flames — 28 snakes, six of them deadly. The owner did not have a permit for the six venomous snakes — five rattlers and a gaboon viper — and he may face misdemeanor charges. The snakes were inside cages in a separate room and were removed as firefighters put out the kitchen blaze on Friday in Utah. All of the snakes survived. “I don’t think firefighters were ever in danger from the snakes, except for the creep factor,” North Davis fire chief Mark Becraft said.
UNITED STATES
Arrest made in paint attacks
Police arrested a female suspect on Monday after three Washington landmarks, including the Lincoln Memorial, were vandalized with green paint. Police said the woman arrested was 58-year-old Tian Jiamel. She has been charged with defacing property.
UNITED STATES
Comet may have fizzled out
Astronomers slated to meet this week to discuss observing plans for Comet ISON may not have much to talk about. The so-called “Comet of the Century” may already have fizzled out. “The future of comet ISON does not look bright,” astronomer Ignacio Ferrin, with the University of Antioquia in Colombia, said in a statement on Monday. Ferrin’s calculations show the comet has not brightened since mid-January. That may be because the comet is already out of ice particles in its body, which melt as the comet moves closer to the sun, creating a long, bright tail. Another theory is that the comet is covered in a layer of silicate dust that snuffs out water vapor and other gases that brighten the comet.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number