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.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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