AUSTRALIA
Taiwanese plunges off pier
A Taiwanese tourist had to be rescued by police after plunging off a pier while browsing Facebook on her smartphone, officials said yesterday. The woman was walking along a bay in Melbourne on Monday night when she became distracted by her Facebook feed and plummeted off the pier into the chilly water, Victoria State police said. A witness called for help and police rushed to the woman’s aid. They found her flailing around in the water, about 20m from the pier. “She was still out in the water lying on her back in a floating position because she told us later that she couldn’t swim,” Senior Constable Dean Kelly told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “She still had her mobile phone in her hand, and initially she apologized and said sorry.” The woman was taken to hospital for treatment. “With Facebook, or social media in general as far as we’re concerned, if you’re anywhere near the water just pay attention,” Kelly said. “Especially if you can’t swim.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Ronnie Biggs dies aged 84
Ronnie Biggs, one of the UK’s most notorious criminals, known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, died yesterday at the age of 84, his spokeswoman said. Biggs gained notoriety 50 years ago as one of an 11-member gang that tampered with railway signals and stopped a Royal Mail train, making off with £2.6 million (US$4.2 million). Biggs was caught and received a 30-year jail sentence, but escaped and spent 36 years on the run. He surrendered to police in 2001, but was freed in 2009 on health grounds.
SWEDEN
Airline competition a hit
Forty-two people legally changed their names to Klaus-Heidi to participate in a Lufthansa competition offering a flight to Berlin and a free apartment rental for one year, the German airline said on Tuesday. “This was on one condition: you had to change your name to Klaus-Heidi,” Lufthansa marketing specialist Magnus Engvall said. The response to the initiative, which was intended to promote the German airline’s Stockholm-Berlin route, exceeded all expectations the company had at the outset. “We had a scenario of zero people when we first started with the idea,” Engvall said. The airline said on its competition Web site it chose the name Klaus-Heidi simply because it was “a fusion between two very German names.” In addition to official proof of their new identity, participants had to send a motivation letter explaining why they wanted to move to Berlin. The winner of the competition, 24-year-old Michael Klaus-Heidi Andersson, will also get free German lessons and a bike.
SPAIN
Drug smuggling vet captured
Police said on Tuesday they had captured a Colombian vet who tried to smuggle liquid heroin by surgically implanting plastic bags of the drug into live Rottweiler and Labrador puppies. The fugitive vet, identified only as Andres L.E., was tracked down in the northwestern Spanish city of Lugo after more than eight years on the run. He is accused of operating on the dogs at his farm in the Colombian city of Medellin. Colombian police raided his farm in January 2005. “They seized 3kg of liquid heroin inside six puppies. The drug was extracted from the dogs, which had been destined for the United States,” Spanish police said in a statement. The puppies each had one or two plastic bags of about 400g of liquid heroin in their abdomens, Medellin police chief Ruben Carillo said at the time. “We have never had a similar case for hiding drugs,” Carillo said.
UNITED STATES
Student suspended for hug
An Atlanta high-school student has been suspended for a year for hugging a teacher, the WGCL television station reported. The suspension could derail Sam McNair’s chances of obtaining a college athletic scholarship, his mother, April McNair, told WGCL. “He’s a senior. He plays football and was getting ready for lacrosse and you’re stripping him of even getting a full scholarship for athletics for college,” she said. Sam McNair, 17, was suspended on Dec. 3 after a school hearing officer ruled that he violated the Gwinnett County Schools sexual harassment rules, the station said. The station reported that the teacher also accused McNair of kissing her on the cheek and neck during the hug. Citing the school’s disciplinary report, the station said the teacher said she had warned McNair that hugs were inappropriate. In an interview with WGCL, Sam McNair said the teacher never warned him and denied kissing or sexually harassing her.
UNITED STATES
Zimmerman art draws bids
Bidding for a painting by George Zimmerman, whose killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin last year sparked national outrage, neared US$100,000 on Tuesday in an online auction that ends on Sunday. The signed patriotic blue-hued portrayal of the Stars and Stripes flag is overlayed with the words: “God, One Country, with Liberty and Justice for All” in typewriter font. “First hand-painted artwork by me, George Zimmerman,” he wrote on EBay, where the highest bid stood at US$99,966, far above Monday’s starting price of US$0.99 plus US$40 for expedited shipping. “Everyone has been asking what I have been doing with myself. I found a creative, way to express myself, my emotions and the symbols that represent my experiences,” he said. “My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors.” Zimmerman, 30, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, fatally shot Martin as the unarmed 17-year-old student was walking home with iced tea and candy.
UNITED STATES
Teacher says Santa’s white
A New Mexico teacher who told a black student that Santa Claus is white has been placed on paid administrative leave. A spokeswoman for the school district in Albuquerque, Kim Vesely, confirmed on Tuesday that the teacher is not working while the incident is being investigated. The teacher’s comments came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer. Michael Rougier said that when his son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, the teacher asked: “Don’t you know Santa Claus is white? Why are you wearing that?” The incident happened the same week that Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly said that both Santa Claus and Jesus are white.
UNITED STATES
Last month set heat record
Last month set a record for the hottest November yet, government scientists reported on Tuesday. They said it was the warmest November on record across the world since record-keeping began in 1880. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the average global combined temperature for water and land surfaces was 13.7oC. That is 0.78oC above the 20th-century average. It was the 37th straight November with above-average temperatures, with the last below-average November recorded in 1976. It was also the 345th straight month with higher-than-average temperatures, representing a near 29-year stretch.
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
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
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