NEW ZEALAND
Stranded killer whales die
A pod of nine killer whales died yesterday in a rare mass stranding in a loss conservationists said was a major blow to the local orca population. The pod, comprising eight adults and one juvenile, beached themselves at the remote Blue Cliffs Beach on the far south coast of the South Island, Department of Conservation spokesman Reuben Williams said. “By the time we were able to reach them they were all dead,” he said. Mass strandings of pilot whales are common in New Zealand, but Williams said it was unusual for so many orcas to run aground at the same time. “We don’t know the reason why they stranded [themselves],” he said. “It’s unfortunate and will have quite a major impact on the national population, which is sitting around 200 animals.” Williams said the carcass of one whale had been retrieved for research and local Maori, who consider the animals sacred, were being consulted about disposing the rest.
NETHERLANDS
Former neurologist jailed
A former neurologist was sentenced to three years in jail on Tuesday for a series of wrong diagnoses that led to the suicide of a patient, in the first case of its kind in the country. Ernst Jansen, 68, “has been found guilty of intentionally compromising the health of eight patients,” between 1997 and 2003, the Almelo district court said in a statement. “He wrongly diagnosed the eight patients and used the wrong treatments.” It said Jansen wrongly diagnosed serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and atrophy. In one case, a patient was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and confined to a wheelchair when he was actually suffering from a hernia, media reported. In another, the former specialist wrongly told a patient she was in the final stages of two terminal diseases and therefore she committed suicide, the court said.
SWITZERLAND
Body found after 35 years
The body of an English climber missing since 1979 has been found on the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, police said on Tuesday. Police said human bones were spotted by a helicopter pilot on the north face of the Matterhorn in August last year. A police team recovered the remains and equipment including an ice-axe. They checked them against a database of 280 climbers listed as missing in the region since 1926. Thanks to DNA tests, experts have finally be able to identify the remains as those of an Englishmen who went missing in December 1979. Police declined to reveal the 27-year-old man’s name, citing Swiss confidentiality rules. As Alpine glaciers melt due to global warming, the remains of long-lost climbers have increasingly emerged from the shrinking mountain ice.
UNITED KINGDOM
Morrissey review wins award
It was Morrissey who once sang Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. The former Smiths frontman may wish to replay the song. A savage review of his best-selling memoir won Britain’s Hatchet Job award on Tuesday for the year’s most cutting book review. Writing in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, journalist A.A. Gill said Morrissey’s Autobiography was “utterly devoid of insight, warmth, wisdom or likability.” Autobiography topped the British best-seller lists when it was published last year. It appeared under the Penguin Classics imprint, a rare designation for a living writer. In his review, Gill said that publishing the book as a classic “doesn’t diminish Aristotle or Homer or Tolstoy; it just roundly mocks Morrissey.”
CANADA
Hang glider pilot gets jail
A hang glider pilot who failed to connect a 28-year-old woman during a tandem flight and caused her to fall 300m to her death has been sentenced to five months in jail. William Jon Orders, 51, had pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing the death of Lenami Godinez-Avila, who plummeted from the hang glider shortly after taking off for a flight across British Columbia’s Fraser Valley on April 28, 2012. A judge heard testimony from Orders, who said that he did not hook Godinez-Avila to the glider and also failed to conduct a required safety check before launching. After he landed, he swallowed a memory card containing video of the incident. Godinez-Avila was from Mexico. She was working for British Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment while studying at the University of British Columbia.
UNITED STATES
Bacon eaters pig out
Bacon milkshakes. Chocolate-covered bacon shaped like roses. Bacon-flavored toothpaste, dental floss and lip balm. Bacon bourbon, margaritas, beer and vodka. Bacon ice cream sundaes. A sandwich with 450g of bacon. They are all on the menu this week as one Atlantic City casino stretches the bounds of good taste and cardiovascular health with Bacon Week. The festival at the Tropicana Casino and Resort gives new meaning to the term “pigging out.” The idea of a bacon festival is not as far-fetched as it might sound. Americans eat about 680 million kilograms of bacon a year, according to the National Pork Board. And the Web site bacontoday.com counted nearly 30 bacon festivals around the country from late April through December last year, many of whose tickets sold out in minutes.
MEXICO
State bans odd names
Parents in the Sonora state will no longer be allowed to name their children “Facebook,” “Rambo” or 59 other now-banned given names. The names have been found at least once in state registries. The list could grow because officials are still checking the state’s 132 newborn registries, Sonora Civil Registry director Cristina Ramirez said on Tuesday. The law banning a list of 61 odd or offensive names took effect on Monday. It seeks to protect children from being bullied, Ramirez said. “The law is very clear, because it prohibits giving children names that are derogatory or that don’t have any meaning and that can lead to bullying,” she said. Ramirez said that in the town of Navojoa a boy was recently named “Juan Calzon,” or “Juan Panties,” and a girl was named “Lady Di.” Other odd names include a girl called “Marciana,” or “Martian,” and a boy called “Circuncision,” or “Circumcision.”
ARGENTINA
Dead wife granted order
A woman who died after being stabbed repeatedly, allegedly by her husband, has won a restraining order against him. Embarrassed authorities apologized publicly to the family of Cristina Olivares, who was 25, a mother of two and pregnant when she was stabbed 140 times with a knife in 2012. Suspected of the crime and in custody, but still awaiting trial are her husband Miguel Angel Palma, his mistress and a friend of theirs. Olivares had repeatedly reported her husband for domestic violence. On Saturday, her father, Federico, received a notice advising his daughter she was being granted a restraining order against Palma. Olivares’ body was found along a country road about 20km from the northwest city of San Juan.
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