JAPAN
Rocket launch suspended
The country suspended the launch of its next-generation solid-fuel rocket yesterday just seconds before lift-off after engineers discovered a technical glitch, the space agency said. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) had planned to launch the Epsilon rocket from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima, in the southwest, using just two laptop computers in a pared-down command center. However, the countdown was automatically stopped just 19 seconds before the planned blast-off “as an emergency measure due to some abnormal positioning” of the rocket, a JAXA spokeswoman said. At the control center, only eight workers were engaged in the launch operation, compared with about 150 people usually needed when JAXA launches its mainstream H2-A rocket.
INDIA
Sonia Gandhi out of hospital
Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi has been discharged from a hospital after falling ill during a nine-hour debate in parliament, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said yesterday. Gandhi underwent a series of medical tests during the five hours she spent in the hospital late on Monday and was then allowed to return home, he told journalists. Gandhi, 67, had been suffering from fever for two days, but still decided to deliver Monday’s parliamentary speech in support of a landmark bill that proposes to provide cheaper grain to more than 800 million across the country.
INDONESIA
Asylumseeker plan ‘crazy’
A senior lawmaker yesterday described as “crazy” a plan by Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott to pay Indonesians for unseaworthy boats to stem the flow of asylumseekers. “The idea is degrading and offensive to the dignity of Indonesians,” said Mahfudz Siddiq, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs commission. “Obviously he [Abbott] doesn’t understand diplomacy or bilateral cooperation.” Abbott’s A$440 million (US$400 million) scheme would include a capped government buy-back plan for the vessels and stipends for Indonesian “wardens” in 100 villages to provide information to Australia and bounty payments for information leading to successful smuggling prosecutions.
CHINA
Internet attack ‘largest ever’
The nation has been hit by the “largest ever” attack on its Internet structure, crashing the country’s .cn servers, a government-linked agency said. The national domain name resolution service came under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack for about two hours early on Sunday, the China Internet Network Information Center said in a statement. A second wave of the assault two hours later grew into “the biggest of its kind ever,” the center said, without giving any indication of who might have been responsible.
CHINA
City ‘roasts’ ‘Rubber Duck’
Shanghai has served up a “roasted” version of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s giant yellow duck, complete with drumsticks and crispy brown skin. Hofman’s Rubber Duck installation gained rave reviews when a 16.5m tall version arrived in Hong Kong this summer. Hundreds of thousands of people viewed it against the backdrop of the skyscrapers that line the city’s Victoria Harbour. Not to be outdone, Shanghai has unveiled its own version on the Huangpu River, which forms its waterfront Bund District. Shanghai’s duck is actually a working ferry boat, which state media said will carry passengers and host cultural performances including poetry reading.
UNITED STATES
Zimmerman fees sought
George Zimmerman’s attorney has told a newspaper that he plans to ask the state of Florida to cover US$200,000 to US$300,000 of his legal expenses. The Orlando Sentinel said Mark O’Mara told the newspaper on Monday evening that because Zimmerman was acquitted, state law requires Florida to pay all his legal costs. The 29-year-old Zimmerman was acquitted last month of all charges including second-degree murder in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, last year.
YEMEN
Al-Qaeda denies US claims
Al-Qaeda has denied US allegations that it is plotting massive attacks that prompted the closure of Western missions in the country this month, in a statement posted online. The extremist network also denied reports confirmed by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi that US intelligence services had intercepted a conversation between al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A source close to Hadi quoted him as saying on Friday that in the alleged conversation between the al-Qaeda leaders al-Wuhayshi told al-Zawahiri he would be hearing of something “that will change the course of history.”
IRAN
US pastor’s appeal rejected
A court has rejected an appeal by a US pastor to reduce his eight-year prison sentence, a human-rights group representing his family in the US said on Monday. The decision by a two-judge panel on the Tehran Court of Appeals came on Sunday, but the panel refused to provide Saeed Abedini’s lawyer with a copy of the ruling, the Idaho Statesman reported. Abedini is of Iranian origin and had lived in Boise, Idaho, with his family since 2006. He has been jailed in Iran since September last year on charges that he attempted to undermine state security by creating a network of Christian churches in private homes, charges he rejects.
RUSSIA
Gay blood ban proposed
Parliamentarian and Moscow mayoral candidate Mikhail Dyegtyaryov has said parliament should ban blood donations from homosexuals, news agencies said on Monday, upsetting activists angry at a nationwide ban on gay “propaganda.” Dyegtyaryov said the proposed move would help staunch Russia’s HIV-AIDS epidemic. However, many experts say Russia’s high drug addiction rates pose a greater HIV threat. Gay activists say that the propaganda law has increased discrimination and emboldened vigilante-style attacks. Gay rights advocate Yelena Kostyuchenko, who said she regularly gives blood, said on Twitter on Monday that she had been asked to donate that day. “Next time I’ll say: ‘I’m sorry, I’m a lesbian, I don’t deserve to give blood for your family members. Keep looking,’” she wrote.
MALTA
Illegal migrants rescued
The military yesterday rescued 84 migrants from a large dinghy that was adrift and sinking about 18 nautical miles (33km) from the island, a spokesman said. The migrants, who had alerted the authorities by satellite phone, were transferred onto a patrol boat in rough seas and taken into port. Most of the arrivals are African refugees and migrant workers who crossed the Mediterranean from Libya. This was the first arrival after a lull of almost three weeks. More than 1,000 migrants arrived last month over just a few days, prompting the government to pressure the EU for assistance.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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