INDONESIA
Aussie cooperation halted
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday that the nation is suspending cooperation with Canberra on people smuggling following allegations that Australian spies tried to tap his telephone and those of his inner circle. He told reporters in Jakarta that Jakarta would temporarily halt coordinated military cooperation with Australia, which includes assistance on people smuggling. “You are well aware that we are facing a joint problem of people smuggling that has been a problem for both Australia and Indonesia,” he said. He said that Canberra and Jakarta work together in an area called “coordinated military cooperation,” which involves patrols at sea. “I have asked for that to be halted until everything is clear,” he said.
PHILIPPINES
Jail hunting for escapees
It is 103 and counting — that is the number of prisoners on the loose after escaping Tacloban City Jail when a super typhoon devastated the central Philippines, flooded the prison and smashed open the main gate. The prisoners had been freed from their cells so that they could seek higher ground, but while some rode the water to the safety of the warden’s second-floor office, others followed the water out the front door. “They swam through,” warden Joseph Nunez said. “We are still missing 117.” That number had come down to 103 by late on Tuesday as some inmates turned themselves in and a team of correction officers, armed with M-16 rifles and 9mm handguns, hunted down a handful of others on the streets.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela charges dropped
The state prosecutor announced it had withdrawn charges of grave tampering and bigamy against Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, on Tuesday because of insufficient evidence. In July, Mandla — embroiled in a bitter family feud — was charged with tampering with the graves of his famous grandfather’s children, after he exhumed them without consent. “We have decided to drop the charges of grave violation because of insufficient evidence,” said Luxolo Tyali, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority. Mandla had also faced a long-standing charge of bigamy after his unceremonious separation from his first wife, Thando Mabunu, in 2008. “After studying the police docket on this matter, we also decided not to prosecute,” Tyali said. The 39-year-old is still facing a charge of pulling a gun on a motorist during a road rage incident last month.
BELGIUM
Widow sleeps with corpse
A Brussels widow slept next to her mummified husband’s corpse for a year, her landlord said after making the macabre discovery during an eviction, a Belgian daily reported on Tuesday. La Derniere Heure published striking pictures of a shawl-wrapped, emaciated body with a long white mustache, sunken eye sockets and protruding rib-cage, covered in a film of dried skin. The newspaper said the images were of a man who had died at the age of 73 after living in the Anderlecht district of the Belgian capital for a dozen years or so with his wife. According to initial medical tests, he died of natural causes a year ago. The gruesome find emerged because the rent on their apartment had not been paid since November last year and the landlord launched eviction proceedings. “I have seen dead people before ... but never in this condition,” the landlord was quoted as saying. “The lady slept next to her husband’s body.” Neighbors said the widow had told them her husband was away “receiving treatment.”
RUSSIA
Foreign activists get bail
A court on Tuesday granted bail to nine foreign Greenpeace protesters, the first non-Russians jailed and awaiting trial over a demonstration near a Russian oil rig to be made eligible for release. The decision came a day after the Primorsky court in St Petersburg refused to release an Australian activist and another court granted bail to three Russians, including prominent photographer Denis Sinyakov. The Primorsky court set bail at 2 million rubles (US$61,500) each for the activists from Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand and Poland. The court said they will be released if the bail is paid within the next four days.
UNITED KINGDOM
Train refuses obese man
A clinically obese Frenchman stranded in the US because he was deemed too heavy to fly finally took a plane to London on Tuesday — only to be refused travel home by the Eurostar cross-channel train. Kevin Chenais, 22, who weighs 230kg, arrived at London’s Heathrow airport with his parents after Virgin Atlantic agreed to fly him back from New York. He had been in the US since May last year for treatment for a hormone imbalance and had been set to return home on British Airways last month, but the airline refused to accept him as a passenger, saying he was too heavy. Chenais praised Virgin for flying him out from New York’s JFK airport and paying for the economy-class flights for him and his parents. Chenais and his parents were met at Heathrow by French consular staff who arranged for them to try for a Paris-bound Eurostar train later on Tuesday. However, Eurostar then said that he had been refused travel because of its regulations for evacuation procedures.
UNITED STATES
Senator’s son stabs him
The son of a state senator stabbed his father in the head and chest on Tuesday before apparently killing himself with a gun, according to initial reports from police. Authorities were still piecing together a motive and the circumstances that led to the stabbing of Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds. Deeds’ 24-year-old son, Gus, died at his home of a gunshot wound. Geller said Creigh Deeds and his son were the only people at the home and police were not looking for a suspect. The senator was in fair condition in hospital. He had previously been listed as critical. After the stabbing, Deeds was able to walk away from his rural home to a nearby road and a cousin who was driving by happened to notice the senator, police said.
CANADA
Anesthesiologist assaults 21
An anesthesiologist was found guilty on Tuesday of sexually assaulting 21 women while they were helplessly under anesthesia, but aware of what was happening. George Doodnaught was accused of kissing, fondling and forcing oral sex on the patients at North York General Hospital in Toronto during a four-year period that ended in 2010. The victims were aware of what was happening, but could not move, the court heard. The defense argued that the victims actually had vivid sexual dreams caused by sedatives and that Doodnaught could not have assaulted them undetected by others separated only by a surgical screen in the operating room. A researcher confirmed at trial that the drugs can cause hallucinations, but he added that it is unlikely that all of the women, who did not know each other, would come forward separately with similar accusations against the same doctor.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in