CHINA
Former official sentenced
A former vice mayor of Wenzhou was on Friday sentenced to three years in jail for abuse of power in a land deal, state media reported. A court jailed Ye Jiren (葉際仁) after he allotted a plot of land in Wenzhou to a private company against government rules for its use, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the court. The move caused a direct economic loss of 116 million yuan (US$19 million) for the government, the report said, but gave no further details. Authorities detained Ye in 2011 and gave the case to prosecutors last year, Xinhua said.
THAILAND
Exam ‘blinkers’ ridiculed
A university has taken drastic steps to stop would-be cheats by introducing makeshift “blinkers” for its examinees, thwarting students tempted by a furtive glance at their peers’ exam papers. The bizarre headgear — consisting of two A4 sheets of plain white writing paper attached by paperclips to a headband — was worn by nearly 100 students on Wednesday during a textile exam. It was the brainchild of a professor at one of Bangkok’s most famous universities who was concerned that his small exam room would encourage plagiarism. However, a photograph posted on Facebook of the students sporting the blinkers — which they made and customised themselves — during the exam at Kasetsart University, had by Friday stirred ridicule from the Thai press and social media. The controversy prompted the university to scrap the blinkers while the teacher behind the scheme toured television studios to explain the unusual measure. “It was for fun, relaxation and humor for the students. I want them to feel relaxed in their exams,” Nattadon Rungruangkitkrai said.
INDONESIA
Gunmen kill policemen
Motorcycle gunmen shot dead two policemen on the outskirts of the capital overnight, officials said yesterday, the latest in a series attacks against officers. The two gunmen drove up to a police station on the southwest of Jakarta and shot one policeman on the street in the back of the head, national police spokesman Ronny Sompie said. Four officers in a police car gave chase, but the driver was shot dead after crashing into the bike. One of the suspects drove off on the bike and the other ran away. The shooting at the Pondok Aren police station in Tangerang District was the latest in a series of attacks against police officers. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility.
THAILAND
Hostages freed in Nigeria
Four Thais held in an apparent ransom kidnapping in Nigeria have been freed unharmed, a spokesman for the kingdom’s foreign ministry in Bangkok said yesterday. A gang of armed kidnappers seized the four Thais and two Nigerians on a waterway while they were on their way to work at a state-owned fish farm in the African nation’s southern Rivers State, Nigerian officials said last week. “All of them are released,” ministry spokesman Manasvi Srisodapol said of the Thais. “The Thai Foreign Minister has talked with one of them. They are fine and will continue to work in Nigeria,” he added, without confirming whether a ransom was paid or the exact time of their release. It was unclear what happened to the Nigerian hostages. Kidnaps for ransom are common in the remote and gang-ridden area. Most kidnap victims in southern Nigeria are released unharmed after the payment of a ransom, unlike in the country’s north, where Islamist extremists have killed a number of their hostages.
CANADA
40 pythons found in hotel
Little more than a week after a giant python crushed two young boys to death, police have recovered 40 of the snakes from a hotel room. The reptiles were found in several plastic storage bins on Thursday night in a room in Brantford, Ontario, where a couple who had been evicted from their home were staying, police said in a statement. Officers have opened a probe into the incident but they did not say where the couple were at the time or whether the pair would be charged with breaking local laws that prohibit owning pythons. The snakes, which ranged in length from 0.3m to 1.4m, were in poor health and have been taken in by the Canadian Society for the Protection of Animals, where a veterinarian is monitoring them. The find comes 11 days after Connor and Noah Barthe, aged six and four respectively, died in the eastern town of Campbellton, New Brunswick, when an African python escaped from its terrarium and killed them. The boys had been enjoying a sleepover with a friend, whose father’s private menagerie of exotic animals included the python.
BAHAMAS
Cuban migrants deported
The government says it has deported 24 Cuban migrants to their homeland amid protests by supporters in South Florida. The Department of Immigration issued a brief statement saying the 24 were “successfully repatriated to Havana” early on Friday. No mention was made of calls by Cuban-Americans for the migrants to be allowed to seek refuge elsewhere. The South Florida-based Democracy Movement says some of the 24 had apparently been offered asylum by Panama. The group said 43 Cubans were detained under harsh conditions in a migrant detention center and in the main prison of the nation east of Florida. The islands have become a transit zone for migrants, mostly from Haiti and Cuba, seeking to reach the US.
BRAZIL
Scorned wife cuts off penis
A woman cut off her husband’s penis after she caught him cheating on her with a man, a report said on Friday. Upon learning of her husband’s indiscretion, the woman did not act at first, but days later proposed a sex game during which she tied him to their bed. As he lay still, she cut off his penis with a serrated knife, the G1 Web site of Globo TV reported. The act of revenge played out in Santos, which is 77km southeast of Sao Paulo. The organ could not be sutured back on because too much time had transpired, but the man’s life is not in danger. The woman has been arrested, G1 said.
MEXICO
‘White skin’ request riles
Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer’s casting call for an ad that specified that only light-skinned people need apply. The population is largely dark-skinned, but TV ads routinely feature light-skinned actors, sparking accusations of discrimination. The commercial has not yet been made, but a casting call for actors specified “nobody dark skinned” and requested “white skin.” The Catatonia ad agency said this week it regretted the situation and that a third company that sent out the casting call had used inappropriate language. Aeromexico also apologized and blamed Catatonia for the “discriminatory attitude” of the casting call. Most of the population carry some Indian blood, but Indians have suffered persistent racial discrimination since the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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