DENMARK
Uproar over giraffe’s death
The Copenhagen Zoo on Sunday sparked outrage when it put down a young giraffe, then chopped it up and fed it to lions as visitors, including young children, looked on. The fate of 18-month-old Marius shocked animal lovers around the world, with thousands signing an online petition to save him and a billionaire offering to buy him and keep him in her Beverly Hills garden. The zoo said the action was necessary to prevent inbreeding and Marius was put down with a bolt gun after being anesthetized. A crowd looked on as an autopsy was carried out and the animal skinned and chopped up. Some grimaced while others took photographs. “It was put down at 9:20. It went as planned. It’s always the people’s right to protest. But of course we have been surprised,” zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro said. He said some zoo staff had received death threats, including its scientific director. Under European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) rules, inbreeding between giraffes is to be avoided, the zoo said on its Web site. Although Marius was healthy, his genes were already well represented in Europe and he could not be taken in by the 300 other EAZA-affiliated zoos because that would cause inbreeding, the zoo said. The feeding of Marius’ remains to the lions proved popular at the zoo. Stenbaek Bro said it allowed parents to decide whether their children should watch what the zoo regards as an important display of scientific knowledge about animals.
Photo: AFP
CHINA
Fourth Antarctic station opens
The country’s fourth Antarctic research station — the flying saucer-shaped Taishan — has officially opened, in another step for its exploration ambitions in both earth and space. A fifth station is also being planned, reports said. China is a relative latecomer to Antarctic exploration, sending its first exploration team to the remote continent in 1984 and establishing its first research base a year later. About 30 nations operate permanent research stations in Antarctica.
CHINA
Crackdown on ‘sin city’
Authorities have carried out a rare crackdown on the sex trade in the “sin city” of Dongguan following a candid report by the state broadcaster on the underground industry. The country outlawed prostitution after the communist revolution in 1949, but it returned with a vengeance following landmark economic reforms three decades ago, and has helped fuel a rise in HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. Media said 67 people were arrested and 12 venues were shut down in a sting operation involving thousands of police in the Dongguan region at the heart of the Pearl River Delta industrial hub in the southern province of Guangdong. Two city police chiefs were suspended.
CHINA
US man tried for mob crimes
A US businessman is standing trial in the country for allegedly heading a violent mob that kidnapped rivals and operated illegal casinos, charges he says he was tortured into confessing. The trial of Vincent Wu (胡煒升) and 31 of his associates opened yesterday in Guangzhou. Wu’s lawyer Li Zhuang (李莊) says Wu’s defense team told the judge that Wu is a US citizen and should be treated as such. Authorities refuse to acknowledge Wu’s US citizenship because he last entered mainland China on his Hong Kong residence pass. Wu has been denied US consular access since his June 2012 detention. Wu’s case underscores the risks faced by individuals working in China who have travel documents from more than one country because Beijing does not recognize dual nationalities.
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Castaway set to fly home
Castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga was yesterday set to depart the country for his homeland of El Salvador after medics cleared him to travel, a source familiar with the situation said. The fisherman, who says he survived 13 months adrift on the Pacific Ocean, needed a green light from doctors after suffering from ill-health in the wake of his ordeal, which ended when he washed up on a remote atoll 12 days ago. Officials have imposed a media blackout around the exhausted survivor since he conducted a flurry of interviews soon after arriving in Majuro, but a source said he was expected to leave last night on a flight bound for Hawaii. From there, he will travel to El Salvador, most likely via the US West Coast, to be reunited with the family who had long thought he was dead.
CHINA
Ivory smuggler arrested
Xinhua news agency says a suspected Chinese ivory smuggler has been apprehended in Kenya and extradited to the country. Xinhua says the countries worked together and that it is the first time the country has arrested a wildlife crime suspect overseas. Xinhua reported yesterday that Kenyan authorities caught the suspect with the surname Xue in Nairobi on Jan. 17. Xinhua said Xue is accused of having led an ivory trafficking group in Kenya and hiring couriers to smuggle ivory into the country.
MALI
MUJWA blamed for deaths
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) was responsible for killing 31 Tuaregs in an attack on Friday last week near the northern town of Tamkoutat, Minister for Interior Security General Sada Samaka said on Sunday. He told national television that the killings took place about 2pm on Friday. “The travelers aboard two vehicles fell into an ambush laid by the terrorists of the MUJWA,” the minister said, including a young girl and a woman. Initial reports had attributed the killings to the settling of scores between Peul and Tuareg groups. The MUJWA has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
MEXICO
Canadian couple murdered
An elderly Canadian couple were beaten and knifed to death when their home in Jalisco state was raided by thieves, Chapala chief of police Ernesto Robles said on Sunday. He identified the victims as a 72-year-old woman and an 84-year-old man from Ontario. No names were released. The couple arrived in Ajijic about six months ago, Robles said. “The gardener arrived in the morning and found the door to the home open,” Robles said. “He went inside, and in the living room he found two bodies with various lesions. The home had been looted.”
MEXICO
Drug suspect nabbed
Authorities on Sunday detained a suspected drug trafficker sought by the US, the National Security Commission said. The US Department of State has offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Tirso Martinez Sanchez, who allegedly moved 76 tonnes of cocaine into the US between 2000 and 2003. He was arrested in Guanajuato state, officials said.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not