CHINA
Zhou attends event
Former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang (周永康) was all smiles yesterday as he attended an alumni celebration at his former university, his first public appearance since overseas media reported that he was being investigated for corruption. Zhou, 70, one of the most powerful politicians of the past decade, attended an alumni celebration at the China University of Petroleum, according to photographs posted by the university on its Web site. He was seen beaming and shaking hands.
JAPAN
Yoshinoya helps farmers
Fast-food chain Yoshinoya yesterday said it would grow rice and vegetables in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Operator Yoshinoya Holdings said it had set up a joint venture with local farmers to grow rice, onions and cabbages in a 4.3 hectare field in Shirakawa, 80km from the plant. It will also build a facility to process vegetables for use in Yoshinoya restaurants, the firm said, adding strict radiation screening measures will be put in place. Farmers across Fukushima, a large area that was mainly unaffected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, have complained about plunging produce prices.
THAILAND
Flood fears voiced
The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department says floods have killed more than 20 people and affected areas across the country in the past two weeks, while concern is growing there could be a repeat of the 2011 floods that killed more than 800 people and devastated wide swathes of the kingdom. The department says 32 out of 77 provinces have seen flooding since the middle of last month and 23 people have been killed.
THAILAND
Pro-royalist sentenced
A court yesterday sentenced the founder of a pro-royalist protest movement to two years in jail for insulting the monarchy by repeating comments deemed offensive made by a political rival. Businessman Sondhi Limthongkul led so-called “yellow shirt” protests from 2005 to 2008 that undermined two governments. “The accused had no reason to repeat comments made by a political rival in a public space as repeating them made those words known to an even wider audience,” a judge told a Bangkok court.
PHILIPPINES
Lawmaker proposes at work
A politician stunned his girlfriend and won new fans with a nationally televised wedding proposal in the House of Representatives. Francisco Ashley Acedillo, 36, got down on bended knee during a break in a budget debate on Friday last week. Acedillo yesterday said he lured his girlfriend of three years, Maria Paz Ocampo, 28, to Congress by telling her he was about to deliver an important speech. Acedillo said he was initially unsure of parliamentary protocol, but the House leadership gave him permission.
BANGLADESH
Lawmaker sentenced
An opposition member of parliament was sentenced to death yesterday for war crimes, becoming the first lawmaker to be convicted for offenses committed during the 1971 war of independence. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was “found guilty of nine charges of war crimes, including genocide” and was sentenced to death, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said.
ITALY
Knox retrial to see new DNA
A judge presiding over the retrial of US student Amanda Knox on Monday ordered new DNA tests on the knife that prosecutors say was used to kill her British roommate in 2007. Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty in 2009 of murdering 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. They were acquitted on appeal in 2011, but the acquittal was later quashed by the Supreme Court. Neither appeared in court on Monday for the first hearing in the retrial. Knox, now back home in Seattle, has said she will not be returning to Italy. Judge Alessandro Nencini will also hear new testimony from jailed Naples mafia member Luciano Aviello, who previously said his brother killed Kercher. The new checks on the presumed murder weapon will examine a trace that was not tested because experts said it was too small to produce reliable results.
MALI
Keita cuts France trip short
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was to cut short a visit to France yesterday amid renewed fighting between insurgents and the military at home. Insurgents launched a fresh attack against the Malian army in the rebel bastion of Kidal on Monday, the military told reporters, after weekend violence erupted following the breakdown of peace talks. Keita was to meet French President Francois Hollande yesterday morning as scheduled, but will then return home, shortening his trip by two days, a source in his entourage in Paris said.
UNITED STATES
BASE jumpers baffle police
New York security video footage shows two daredevils dressed in black floating in parachutes from a height of about 40 stories before landing on a street near the World Trade Center and disappearing into the night, police said on Monday. Investigators were studying that video and other footage to try to identify the parachutists and determine which high-rise they leapt from at about 3am. The jumpers landed about two blocks from each other on West Street.
UNITED STATES
Sentenced man married
The bride wore white; the groom wore shackles. The marriage of Danne Desbrow and his fiancee, Destiny, came just minutes after he was sentenced to 53 years to life in prison for first-degree murder, the Union-Tribune San Diego reported on Monday. San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson officiated at both events. She even baked a cake for the Sept. 17 ceremony, the newspaper said. Desbrow was sentenced for the 2003 killing of Kevin Santos. His defense attorney argued Desbrow was defending himself in a fight. During the two-month trial, Desbrow proposed to his girlfriend. The two met in high school, but lost contact after she became pregnant at 16, the paper said. They reunited in January after the mother tracked down Desbrow so their son could meet his father.
RUSSIA
Pussy Riot member given IV
Jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been put on an IV drip in hospital on the eighth day of her hunger strike, a prison doctor said on Monday. Tolokonnikova went on hunger strike on Sept. 23, releasing an open letter in which she described harrowing conditions at her prison and claimed she had received death threats over her complaints. The head of her penal colony, Alexander Kulagin, said on state TV that she would be force-fed glucose via her drip if her health worsened. “We are primarily humane people and therefore we will use [this] if her state of health gets worse,” he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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