CHINA
Party to check declarations
The Chinese Communist Party will be conducting spot checks this year on assets and other personal information reported by officials and those with hidden wealth will be punished, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Officials are required to submit a broad range of information each January, including personal income, family assets and relatives’ emigration records. The party’s organization and personnel departments will conduct random sampling of the information submitted, Xinhua said.
JAPAN
Bullet train travel disrupted
A fire near a central Tokyo station yesterday threw parts of the nation’s bullet train system into chaos, as tens of thousands of passengers tried to return home from New Year holidays. The early-morning fire sent plumes of black smoke over Yurakucho station — gateway to the Ginza shopping area. No casualties were reported, but the blaze at commercial buildings next to railway tracks near the station forced the suspension of all bullet trains departing from Tokyo to Nagoya and Osaka and from Osaka to Tokyo. It also stopped major commuter lines in Tokyo. The blaze was reported around 6:30am and possibly started in a games arcade, according to Tokyo Fire Department, which sent more than 40 fire engines to the scene.
LEBANON
Car bombing kills four
A car bomb killed four people in south Beirut on Thursday, the fourth attack to hit the Hezbollah bastion since the Shiite group announced its intervention in Syria last year, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said. He said four people had been killed, 77 wounded, and the remains of a fifth person had also been found. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said it may have been a suicide bombing. The army said 20kg of explosives had been planted inside a four-by-four vehicle.
CHINA
Axe murderer sentenced
A man who killed three children and injured 13 others in an axe attack at an elementary school in September 2012 has been sentenced to death, the China News Service said on Thursday. Wu Yechang was condemned to die by the Intermediate People’s Court in Guigang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He was also ordered to pay the victims’ families a total of 19,316 yuan (US$3,200), it said, citing a local court in Pingnan County. The sentence must be confirmed by the supreme court.
CHINA
Uighur transfer condemned
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday criticized the US for sending the last three Uighur Chinese inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Slovakia. Spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said the three were members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement and “not only threaten China’s security, they will threaten the security of the country that receives them.”
CANADA
Ford to run for another term
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has put his name on the ballot to run for another term, defying repeated calls for him to step down after admitting he smoked crack “in a drunken stupor.” Ford was the first candidate to show up at Toronto City Hall when registration opened on Thursday for the city’s municipal election on Oct. 27. He promised “Ford more years” and also called himself “the best mayor this city has ever had.” The conservative mayor of the nation’s largest city has said he would run again, even after the revelations last year about his drug use pushed him into the international media spotlight. Ford has faced intense pressure to resign over that and other erratic behavior that has embarrassed many residents. In the weeks since the revelations, Ford said he has quit drinking and adopted a healthier lifestyle.
LIBYA
Two bodies found on beach
Troops on Thursday found the bodies of a British man and a New Zealand woman shot dead southwest of Tripoli, a security source said. “The bodies of a British man and a New Zealand woman, who had been killed by bullets, were found on the beach in Mellitah on Thursday afternoon,” the source said. The bodies had been moved to Tripoli, the source added, without giving any details on the circumstances of the deaths. The Mellitah area houses a major gas complex run by Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint enterprise of Italy’s ENI and Libya’s state-owned National Oil Co, which exports natural gas to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline.
ITALY
Berlusconi files an appeal
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi filed an appeal on Thursday against his conviction for paying for sex with a minor and abuse of office over former teenage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, legal sources said on Thursday. Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in jail and banned from holding public office after being found guilty of paying for sex with El Mahroug, better known as “Ruby the Heartstealer,” when she was a minor. He was also found guilty of abusing his powers as prime minister to have her released from police custody over separate theft allegations.
GERMANY
Critics slam new Pets Deli
The nation’s first restaurant for dogs and cats opened in Berlin over the holidays, drawing charges the luxury eatery for furry friends is “decadent.” “Does Berlin really need a gourmet restaurant for dogs?” asked the top-selling Bild daily. Pets Deli offers its tasty treats for domestic animals in the upscale neighborhood of Grunewald, with meals priced from about US$4. They are sold to go in plastic trays or can be consumed on-site in metal bowls set before homey wooden logs, while their owners have a coffee. “A store this decadent gives the impression that we do more for animals than for children,” said Wolfgang Buescher, of the Ark charity, which works with disadvantaged minors.
UNITED STATES
Fire damages consulate
A fire set intentionally at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials said. The fire was ignited at the front of the building, leading to an arson investigation and calls from the Chinese government for better protection of diplomats in the US, the FBI said. “An incendiary device fueled by gas was detonated at the consulate,” FBI special agent David Johnson said at a press conference on Thursday.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion