CHINA
‘Jade Rabbit’ blasts off
A rocket carrying the nation’s first rover mission to the moon blasted off early yesterday. The rover, named “Jade Rabbit,” is scheduled to arrive on the moon in the middle of this month, Xinhua news agency said. If the rocket successfully soft-lands on the moon, China will become the third country to do so, after the US and the former Soviet Union. The Jade Rabbit will travel across the moon, examining its geological structures and beaming images back to Earth. It will also set up a telescope to survey the surface as well as observe the Earth’s plasmasphere, Xinhua said.
AUSTRALIA
Cold wait for crews
Two helicopter crews were stranded in Antarctica awaiting rescue yesterday, three of the group with “serious” injuries, after a chopper crash. The government’s Antarctic Division (AAD) said a pilot and two passengers were hurt when their Squirrel helicopter came down 150 nautical miles (278km) from Davis Station on Sunday night as it returned from a penguin colony surveillance mission near the Amery ice shelf. A second helicopter flying in tandem immediately set down to assist the injured trio, and its passenger and pilot were caring for them until a recovery and medical support mission could be scrambled. “Reports from the incident site are that all are warm and sheltered and being closely monitored. Communication is being maintained with Davis station,” the AAD said.
CHINA
Skull cache found in ruins
Archeologists have unearthed the skulls of more than 80 young women who may have been sacrificed more than 4,000 years ago, Xinhua reported yesterday. The skulls were found in what appears to have been a mass grave at the Shimao Ruins, the site of a neolithic stone city in Shaanxi Province. The women’s bodies were not present, Xinhua said, adding that archeologists concluded that the skulls were “likely to be related to the construction of the city wall” in “ancient religious activities or foundation ceremonies” before construction began. The Shimao Ruins cover more than 4km2 and were discovered in 1976.
AUSTRALIA
Bird captures camera theft
A sea eagle snatched a video camera that was recording crocodiles in the Kimberly region and captured fascinating footage of its 110km journey across the country. Wildlife rangers yesterday released video footage that reveals the bird’s caper. The bird’s flapping wings can be seen as it grabs the device and takes off, and the eagle later poses for a selfie, poking its face into the camera lens. Rangers set up the motion-sensor camera along the Margaret River in May, hoping to record images of crocodiles. The camera, which is about 10cm by 15cm long and 5cm wide, disappeared soon after and the rangers figured it had fallen into the water. The rangers recently found out the device had been found near the Mary River, about 110km away, ranger Roneil Skeen told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The rangers plan to bolt down their cameras from now on, Skeen said.
AUSTRALIA
Artist Martin Sharp dies
Psychedelic artist Martin Sharp, a founder of the controversial Oz magazine who designed posters and ablum covers for Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Bob Dylan, has died aged 71. His death on Sunday, after a long struggle against emphysema, was confirmed by artist and friend Garry Shead, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
UNITED KINGDOM
Scotland in mourning
Mourners lit candles as Scotland remembered those who were killed when a police helicopter plunged through the roof of a Glasgow pub, killing at least nine people, police said yesterday. Emergency service workers earlier began attempts to winch the police aircraft back through the roof of The Clutha, where it is feared further corpses may be found under its carcass, further raising the death toll. All three on board the helicopter and two men who were in the pub have been named. More than 100 people were watching a Glaswegian ska band in the popular live music bar on Friday night when the unexplained disaster struck. In sombre scenes, candles were lit in Glasgow Cathedral during a packed memorial service on Sunday.
ITALY
Seven killed in factory fire
A fire early on Sunday swept through an illegal, makeshift dormitory in a Chinese-run garment factory in Tuscany, killing seven people, firefighters said. The blaze, which partially collapsed the factory’s roof, broke out in a loft where 11 people were sleeping, fire inspector Stefano Giannelli said. Tuscany Governor Enrico Rossi said that numerous garment factories are in the hands of Chinese organized crime syndicates. “This is on all of our consciences. We need to see the situation for what it is. This is the largest concentration of black-market labor in Italy’s central north, probably all of Europe,” Rossi said on Sky TG 24.
CROATIA
Church wins marriage poll
A strong majority voted on Sunday to outlaw same-sex marriage in a referendum sought by a church-backed group, but strongly opposed by rights groups, nearly complete official results showed. A total of 65.76 percent of voters said they wanted to amend the constitution to include a definition of marriage as a “union between a woman and a man,” according to results from almost 99 percent of polling stations released by the electoral commission. Croatia’s constitution does not define marriage. Passions ran high ahead of the vote, with the church-backed “yes” camp citing the defense of traditional family values and their opponents accusing them of discrimination against gays.
UNITED KINGDOM
Lennon files auctioned
School files detailing the adolescent wrongdoings of “class clown” John Lennon fetched nearly £8,500 (US$14,000) each in an online auction on Sunday. The pair of detention sheets revealed that the Beatle received punishment for “fighting in class,” being a “nuisance,” “shoving” and showing “no interest whatsoever” during his time at Quarry Bank High School for Boys in Liverpool. The counterculture icon twice managed to accumulate three detentions in one day, according to the files kept on Lennon during the 1955-1956 school year, when he was 15.
HONDURAS
Defeated candidate protests
Defeated leftist presidential candidate, Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, led thousands of supporters onto the streets of Tegucigalpa on Sunday to protest an election result she called fraudulent. The demonstration by a crowd estimated at several thousand passed off peacefully, which analysts said offered some hope for political stability. The ruling National Party’s Juan Hernandez won last week’s election with 36.8 percent of the vote. Castro ran as the candidate of the Liberty and Refoundation Party — a coalition of leftist politicians, unions and indigenous groups founded by her husband.
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