MALI
Sinking toll climbs to 39
The death toll from one of the nation’s worst ever river boat sinkings has jumped to 39, including many children, local officials and state media said on Sunday. Rescuers were still hunting along the Niger River for the missing after Friday night’s tragedy, while survivors hailed local villagers for preventing an even heavier death toll. The state broadcaster ORTM said the search for more bodies would continue yesterday. At least 210 people survived.
CAR
France may boost troops
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says Paris may increase its troop presence in the country to back an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. During a visit to Bangui on Sunday, Fabius said the 450 French soldiers now based at the airport “will be involved in operations to restore security.” A senior French diplomat says the number of troops could grow to 700, though they will not be involved in front-line operations.
AUSTRALIA
Labor leader favors women
New Labor leader Bill Shorten yesterday appointed 11 women to his frontbench and described Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s inclusion of just one as “ridiculous.” Shorten, who won a vote to become opposition leader on Sunday, unveiled a new 30-person Cabinet, including ex-health minister Tanya Plibersek as his deputy, ex-finance minister Penny Wong as Senate leader and nine other women — a balance he described as “particularly pleasing.”
THAILAND
Sex show owner arrested
Authorities yesterday said they had arrested the owner of a sex show visited by pop singer Rihanna — he latest crackdown inadvertently triggered by the singer’s tweets. The Phuket bar owner as been charged in connection with the lewd performance, district chief Veera Kerdsirimongkol said. “It was the result of the visit by Rihanna. The authorities will be more strict toward inappropriate shows or wildlife attractions,” he said.
CHINA
UN protests draft rule
The UN AIDS agency yesterday condemned a draft regulation to ban HIV-positive people from spas and public bathhouses, as campaign groups expressed outrage over the proposal. The proposed Ministry of Commerce rule is the latest instance of longstanding discrimination against HIV-positive people in the country. A draft was posted online by the State Council and orders spas and similar establishments to prominently display signs prohibiting “people with sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and infectious skin diseases.” Hedia Belhadj, country coordinator for UNAIDS, yesterday there is no risk of transmission of HIV in a spa or bathhouse setting. She urged that “any other policies preventing people living with HIV from accessing public or private services also be revised”.
EGYPT
US citizen dies in jail
The government said a US citizen it detained in the Sinai Peninsula last month for violating curfew was found dead on Sunday in his jail cell, the second foreigner to die in detention in recent weeks. The US embassy in Cairo confirmed that an American citizen held prisoner in Ismailia died from an apparent suicide. It had no further comment. The US Department of State identified the American as James Lunn, but denied he was a retired US Army officer, as security officials had claimed.
UNITED STATES
Jackman raises US$1.85m
Hugh Jackman threw himself a birthday party with 4,500 guests, but they had to pay to attend. The actor spent his 45th birthday on Saturday at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, where he sang, danced and told stories for “One Night Only,” a benefit concert that raised US$1.85 million for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. “This is probably the most narcissistic way to spend your birthday,” he said after the show. “I chose my favorite songs and told stories about my life.” The organization provides healthcare and other services to entertainment industry workers and retirees.
GERMANY
Popcorn and ads don’t mix
Eating popcorn in the cinema may be irritating not just for fellow moviegoers, but for advertisers: Researchers from Cologne University have concluded that chewing makes people immune to film advertising. The reason why advertisements manage to imprint brand names on our brains is that our lips and tongue automatically simulate the pronunciation of a new name when we first hear it. Every time we reencounter the name, our mouth subconsciously practices its pronunciation. However, according to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, this “inner speech” can be disturbed by chewing, rendering the repetition effect redundant.
FRANCE
FN wins in by-election
The far-right Front National (FN) won a bellwether by-election on Sunday, cementing the party’s status as a political force to be reckoned with by capitalizing on economic gloom and fears of rising crime. The party’s candidate, Laurent Lopez, garnered 53.9 percent of the vote in the second round of the by-election in the southeastern town of Brignoles, officials in the Var department said. When Lopez made it into the run-off after the Oct. 6 first round vote, it sent shockwaves across the nation and prompted calls by the ruling left for a “republican front” to stem the party’s progress. The left, which had no candidate, had urged voters to choose the center-right UMP candidate Catherine Delzers, who Var officials said received 46.1 percent of the vote in Sunday’s ballot.
ISRAEL
‘Terror tunnel’ found
The government on Sunday froze the shipment of building materials into Gaza after discovering a sophisticated “terror tunnel” into the Jewish state from the Palestinian territory, said Guy Inbar, spokesman for the defense ministry unit responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories. He did not say how long the ban would remain in force. Officials said that a tunnel running 450m into Israel and allegedly intended as a springboard for militant attacks had been uncovered by troops. Exposing the tunnel “prevented attempts to attack Israeli civilians and soldiers,” Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Moore sculpture stolen
A Henry Moore sculpture has been stolen from a Scottish park, police said on Sunday, the latest of several thefts of his works in recent years. The 1950 bronze, entitled Standing Figure, was one of four Moore works in the Glenkiln Sculpture Park near Dumfries in southwest Scotland. Moore, who died in 1986 aged 88, was widely regarded as Britain’s best 20th-century sculptor. Police Scotland said the theft took place between Thursday and Friday, and they were “conducting enquiries” and appealing for information on any “suspicious activity” in the area.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not