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.
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