PHILIPPINES
Dutch activist deported
A Dutch activist blamed for making a policeman cry was deported and permanently banned from the country, the immigration bureau said yesterday. The bureau said Thomas van Beersum was deported on Wednesday after the authorities had picked him out from a photograph that went viral showing him allegedly haranguing a uniformed police officer at an anti-government protest in Manila last month. Van Beersum is an “undesirable alien” who violated the terms of his tourist visa by joining a protest, immigration bureau spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang said. “The activities he engaged in do not fall under those of a regular tourist, which are health, business or pleasure,” she added. The activist was photographed yelling at a weeping riot policeman at an anti-government protest during President Benigno Aquino III’s annual policy address to parliament on July 22. Photographs of the incident, showing policeman Joselito Sevilla crying as he held back Van Beersum and other activists, spread around the world on the Internet, and provoked heated debates on social media sites. The policeman later said he was crying from exhaustion and hunger after a long stint securing the area for Aquino’s speech.
SOUTH KOREA
City trials electrified road
The southern city of Gumi has begun testing an “electrified road” that allows electric public buses to recharge their batteries from buried cables as they travel. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which developed the system, said yesterday it would be tested over the next four months on a 24km route. Pick-up equipment underneath the bus, or the Online Electric Vehicle, sucks up power through non-contact magnetic charging from strips buried under the road surface. It then distributes the power either to drive the vehicle or for battery storage. As a result it requires a battery only a fifth of the size of conventional electric vehicles.
UNITED KINGDOM
Zookeeper punches seal
A zoo said on Wednesday it has suspended one of its animal keepers for allegedly punching a seal. The animal, an American fur seal, has been examined by a vet and appears well, but an investigation is under way. The incident occurred at Bristol Zoo in western England while the seal was being weighed, a spokeswoman said, without giving further details. “A senior animal keeper at Bristol Zoo Gardens has been suspended pending further investigation of an alleged animal welfare incident that has recently come to light,” the zoo said in a statement. The zoo’s chief vet Michelle Barrows had examined all the seals “and all individuals are behaving normally, engaging happily and playfully with keepers and guests in their enclosure,” the statement said. The animal remains on full public show.
AUSTRIA
Opera stars take a dip
A Mozart opera performed at a premier music festival has made an unscheduled splash after a boat carrying three singers overturned and dumped them into a lake. The Bregenz Festival features an open-air stage on Lake Constance and this year’s production of The Magic Flute has the Queen of the Night and two other characters approaching it by boat, but on Tuesday the vessel flipped, dumping the three in shallow water. Nobody was hurt and the opera continued after a short pause. Queen of the Night Kathryn Lewek made light of things, tweeting: “My Bregenz contract stated I must not be afraid of heights and be physically fit — but nothing about swimming.”
UNITED STATES
Severed foot found in Jersey
New Jersey State Police say a coastal fisherman has found a high-top sneaker on the beach, with the remains of a foot inside. Police said some of the toes still had nail polish on them, but they say the gender and age of the victim have not yet been established. The discovery was made early on Tuesday afternoon at an inlet in Ocean City, about 16km south of Atlantic City. Police said the remains of the right foot have been sent to the state anthropologist for examination.
UNITED STATES
Teen admits strangling girl
A teenager on Wednesday admitted to strangling a 12-year-old girl who disappeared last fall while out riding her bike, leading to a massive search that ended when her body was found in a recycling bin several blocks from her home in Clayton, 40km south of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Justin Robinson, 16, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the death of Autumn Pasquale after agreeing to have his case moved to adult court. County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said the boy admitted luring the girl to his home to trade bike parts, but declined to discuss a motive. Under a plea agreement, Robinson faces a 17-year prison sentence with no chance of parole for more than 14 years. His brother Dante, who was 17 at the time, is also charged with murder. His case is pending in juvenile court. Authorities credited a tip from the suspects’ mother with helping solve the case. They said she saw something in one of her sons’ Facebook postings that gave her cause to call the police.
UNITED STATES
Shark found on NY subway
The New York City Transit Authority said a conductor found a small dead shark aboard a subway train in Queens on Wednesday. The conductor asked passengers to leave the car and closed it. The train continued to the end of the line and a supervisor then put the shark in the trash. Photographs on the blog Gothamist depict the shark. It appears to be about 1.2m long, has a cigarette in its mouth with a fare card and Red Bull can nearby. Transit officials say they are aware of the pictures, but are making no effort to find the person who posted them. The transit authority said it has “better things to do.”
UNITED STATES
Diner finds maggots in meal
A restaurant says it has switched vendors after a customer found a cluster of maggots in his sandwich at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. Weekly traveler Joel Woloshuk told WSB-TV on Tuesday that he bought a sandwich from Cafe Intermezzo and realized the white specks on top of it were maggots — not parmesan — when they began moving. In a statement to WSB-TV, the cafe’s president said the case was isolated and could not have originated at the restaurant. He said the restaurant switched bread vendors and “not a single crumb” from the original bakery remains.
UNITED STATES
‘Macchiato madam’ sues city
A Seattle woman accused of using her espresso stands as drive-through brothels is suing the city to recover US$250,000 she says was wrongfully seized by police. Carmela Panico owns the Java Juggs and Twin Peaks, where customers are served by “bikini baristas.” She was arrested in June and accused of promoting prostitution, but has not been charged. The cash was seized in a search of her home in Washington State. Coffee shops in the Seattle area introduced bikini baristas several years ago, hiring attractive young women to serve up coffee wearing G-strings and pasties.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese