CHINA
Man accused of killing wife
Chinese authorities on Friday captured a man they suspect fatally stabbed his pregnant wife and six of her relatives, including two elderly grandparents and two young nieces. Police in the nation’s northwest autonomous region of Ningxia announced the arrest of 24-year-old Ma Yongdong (麻永東) late on Friday night on its official microblog. State media said the suspect had quarreled on Monday with his wife, Lan Xiaohong (蘭小紅), who was six months pregnant. They said he found her later that day at her parents’ home in a village in Pengyang County, and that he clashed with his in-laws before killing all seven victims with a knife.
INDIA
Bootleg liquor kills dozens
A batch of toxic bootleg liquor killed at least 32 people, mostly poor laborers, and sickened dozens more in northern India, police said yesterday. Police officer Arvibnd Sen said the victims bought pouches of tainted liquor on Thursday from a shop in Adampur village in Uttar Pradesh. They started falling sick immediately after drinking the liquor and were taken to local hospitals. Sen said yesterday that 32 people were dead by Friday night. He said another 50 people were treated in hospitals, and some of them have gone blind because of the toxic brew. Police arrested the shopkeeper, whose son also died after drinking the tainted liquor, Sen said. He said eight state government officials and four police officers have been suspended as authorities investigate the deaths and possible negligence of duty by the officials in allowing the liquor to be sold.
PHILIPPINES
Horror truck kills at least 20
A truck carrying hog feed smashed into the rear of a passenger bus on a remote downhill provincial road in Quezon province early yesterday, setting off a series of wrecks that left at least 20 people dead and injured 44 others, police said. The bus driver lost control of his vehicle after the first collision and hit two buses and four vans coming from the opposite direction before toppling over on the narrow downhill road, about 115km southeast of Manila, Atimonan town police chief Jonar Yupio said. Parts of the bus pinned many of the victims and others were killed by flying metal debris, including the engine. All those killed — including four children, the truck driver and his assistant — were in either the truck or the first bus that was hit. Social workers said a one-year-old girl was among the survivors. Rescuer Jun Panuil said he found the baby muddied and covered in blood from other victims on the side of the road near the bus. He said the blood had made rescuers suspect the child was seriously hurt, but she had only a few scratches. Yupio said it was dark and raining when the accident occurred early yesterday, shortly past midnight. He said the bus and truck involved in the first collision rolled over before stopping on their sides.
UNITED STATES
Firefighter faces no charges
A 49-year-old female veteran firefighter who accidentally ran over and killed a Chinese teenager after a plane crash at San Francisco airport will not face charges, prosecutors said on Friday. Ye Mengyuan (葉夢園), 16, had been rescued alive from the Asiana plane and placed near one wing. She was run over by a fire truck, which lacked infrared equipment that could have spotted her under a layer of fire retardant foam. Ye was one of three people killed in the disaster, which left more than 180 injured after the South Korean airline’s Boeing 777 crashed on landing in San Francisco from Seoul.
UNITED STATES
Bag fetus probe continues
An autopsy of a fetus found in a teenage girl’s shopping bag at a New York City lingerie store was inconclusive and more tests will be needed to determine how the fetus died, the New York medical examiner’s office said on Friday. Preliminary reports from detectives said that the fetus was born alive and possibly had been asphyxiated, but New York Police Department chief spokesman John McCarthy said the case was still being investigated and police were awaiting the medical examiners’ determination of the cause of death. The case began on Thursday when a security guard stopped Tiana Rodriguez and Francis Estevez, both 17, to examine their bags at a Victoria’s Secret store in Manhattan. Rodriguez told detectives she was carrying the remains because she had delivered a day earlier and did not know what to do, authorities said.
VENEZUELA
More held in cocaine bust
Authorities on Friday arrested four more people linked to a foiled attempt to smuggle 1.3 tonnes of cocaine into Paris from Caracas on an Air France jet. The latest arrests raised to 28 the number of people taken into custody in the country since French authorities seized the shipment last month, the largest bust ever on French soil. The four worked at Maiquetia International Airport, which serves Caracas and where the Air France flight originated on Sept. 11. Those detained include eight members of the National Guard, various airport officials and an Air France employee.
ARGENTINA
Protest to free Arctic 30 held
About 100 protesters staged an action at a local Shell gas station on Friday to demand that Russia release 30 Greenpeace activists jailed after protesting the oil giant’s Arctic drilling operations. Four demonstrators scaled the station’s roof in Buenos Aires, while 30 of them wore handcuffs to express solidarity with the 28 activists and two freelance journalists who are under arrest in Russia. “Camila and Hernan, prisoners of the oil companies,” read a banner in support of Camila Speziale, 21, and Hernan Perez Orsi, 40, two Argentines in Russian custody. The Russian authorities charged the 30 Greenpeace members with piracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
RUSSIA
Lost Putin crane is found
One of the Siberian cranes that President Vladimir Putin helped teach to fly south last year lost its flock along the way, but has been found and taken to Moscow. In September last year, Putin flew on a motorized hang glider as part of a project to teach the endangered birds who were raised in captivity to later follow the aircraft on their migration south to Central Asia. One of the cranes was recently spotted in the Tyumen region of Siberia and identified by a tag on its right leg as belonging to “Putin’s flock.” The crane was flown to Moscow and its arrival on Friday was covered by state media. The white bird, called Raven, will spend the winter at a wildlife reserve.
MOLDOVA
Cat caught smuggling weed
A cat has been busted for smuggling pot into a prison. Guards became suspicious about the feline, which routinely entered and left the prison through a hole in a fence, when they noticed its odd collar. On closer inspection, they found two packets of marijuana attached to it. The Department of Penitentiary Institutions said on Friday that someone in Pruncul Village was using the cat as a courier to supply inmates with dope.
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