SRI LANKA
Talks with China start
Officials began three days of talks on economic cooperation with China on Saturday, as Beijing improves relations with the country that is a focal point for its regional rivalry with India. “This visit will give an added impetus to opportunities accruing to Sri Lanka in the context of promoting the country as a regional ‘commercial hub,’” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. China has increased its investments into the nation’s airports, roads, railways and ports, something that has unsettled India, traditionally the closest economic partner of the island of 21 million people. The Chinese delegation visit comes after Minister of Foreign Affairs G.L. Peiris, on a trip to China this month, said a feasibility study on a free-trade pact “is on the verge of completion.” China’s diplomatic support was won in a human rights row this month when Beijing voiced support for Colombo after the US said it would table a UN resolution over human rights on the island. Among the issues to be discussed in the talks, which are to be held until tomorrow, is a bilateral maritime cooperation deal, dubbed a “21st century Maritime Silk Road,” that would cover issues such as fisheries, technology and environmental protection.
AUSTRALIA
TV star found dead
TV personality and former model Charlotte Dawson has been found dead at age 47. Famed for TV shows such as Australia’s Next Top Model, Dawson had also been an anti-bullying activist and was targeted by cybertrolls for personal attacks online. The New Zealand-born Dawson was found dead in her Sydney apartment on Saturday morning. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances. In 2012, she was admitted to a Sydney hospital after a suicide attempt following an ongoing tirade of abuse on Twitter. She revealed in her 2005 autobiography Air Kiss & Tell that she was frequently visited by the “depression bogeyman.” The tragedy was discovered the day after the birthday of her former husband, Scott Miller, an Olympic silver medal-winning swimmer, who became addicted to the drug, ice, and accrued multiple convictions for illegal drug and firearm possession.
MALAYSIA
Eight children drown
Eight schoolchildren drowned in the Muar River in Johor state, police said yesterday, in what officials described as a “shocking” and rare tragedy. The drownings occured on Friday after the boys, aged 13 to 16 years, went jogging along the river bank in Segamat District, local police chief Mohamad Kamil Sukarmi told reporters. He said one of the boys went for a swim in the river, close to where sand mining activities were being carried out, but got into difficulties. “Upon seeing their friend in trouble, the other seven boys jumped in to save him. Unfortunately all eight drowned,” he said. About 130 personnel including divers were involved in the two-day rescue.
JAPAN
Ships in disputed area
Three Chinese coast guard ships sailed through disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea yesterday, the latest such incident in a bitter territorial row. The Chinese vessels entered the territorial waters off one of the Senkakus, known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan, at about 9am and left the area about two hours later, the Coast Guard said. It was the fifth time this year that state-owned Chinese ships entered the zone and the first foray in six days.
UNITED STATES
Von Trapp daughter dies
Maria von Trapp, a member of the Austrian family whose escape from Nazi Germany and subsequent musical career inspired the famed musical The Sound of Music, has died at the age of 99, according to newspapers quoting her brother. Von Trapp died on Tuesday, but the news was confirmed Saturday by her half-brother Johannes von Trapp, according to the New York Daily News. Maria von Trapp died of natural causes at her home in Vermont, the paper said. She was one of seven children of Austrian Navy Captain Georg von Trapp and his wife Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. The von Trapp family left Austria in 1938 and performed across Europe and the US before settling in Vermont, where they ran a resort.
FRANCE
Police, anarchists clash
Riot police moved into the western city of Nantes on Saturday, clashing with hundreds of anarchists who broke shop windows, destroyed bus stops and pillaged the city center. At least eight police officers were hospitalized after violent confrontations with up to 1,000 so-called “radicals,” the prefecture of the Loire-Atlantique region said. Fourteen people were detained. The rioters had joined an estimated 20,000 people protesting plans to build a regional airport. Officials did not say whether protesters were injured. Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls said the rioters were from the “radicalized ultra-left” and were waging an “urban guerrilla” campaign.
RUSSIA
Siberian blast kills three
An explosion that investigators said may have been caused by gas killed three people at a shopping complex in the remote Altai region in southern Siberia yesterday, law enforcement authorities said. Authorities were on alert for any attacks during the Winter Olympics, which ended yesterday in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. The federal Investigative Committee made no mention of any suspicion of a militant attack or foul play in the early morning blast that killed three female employees at the complex in the city of Biisk, more than 2,500km east of Sochi. “According to preliminary information, a household gas explosion may have been the cause,” it said, adding that the investigation was continuing and a criminal case on suspicion of lethal negligence had been opened.
UNITED STATES
Carbon monoxide kills man
One man died and dozens more were treated in hospitals or at the scene after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning at a mall restaurant on New York’s Long Island on Saturday evening, police said. Police responding to a call about an injured woman at the Legal Seafood restaurant in Huntington Station and found the 55-year-old manager unconscious in the basement, Suffolk County police said. The manager, Steven Nelson, died of cardiac arrest as he was being transferred by ambulance, said Julie Robinson-Tingue, a spokeswoman for Huntington Hospital. Soon after arriving, police and emergency personnel felt nauseated and dizzy, and recognized the symptoms as a carbon monoxide event, Suffolk County police said. At least three people taken to the hospital remained in a stable condition, while at least six were treated and released, she said. In all, 27 people were taken to hospital, according to Suffolk County police. Most victims were restaurant employees, but three police officers and four ambulance employees were among those who fell ill, police said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of