UNITED STATES
Arab countries ban film
Three Arab countries have banned the biblical epic movie Noah because the depiction of Noah is forbidden by Islam, while three more are expected to follow suit, a Paramount spokesman said on Wednesday. Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) told Paramount last week that the film, starring Russell Crowe, will not be released in their countries. Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait are expected to follow suit. The movie was due to open in Egypt on March 26 and the UAE on March 27, just before it comes out in the US and a swath of other countries. Egypt’s top Islamic body, the al-Azhar institute, said last week that the film violated Islam by portraying a prophet. Having an actor play a prophet “contradicts the stature of prophets and messengers ... and antagonizes the faithful,” it said.
AUSTRALIA
Drones to patrol borders
The nation announced plans yesterday for a fleet of giant high-tech unmanned drones to help patrol the nation’s borders, monitoring energy infrastructure and attempts to enter the country illegally. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which can remain airborne for 33 hours, would be based in Adelaide. A report last month said seven of the US-made drones would be purchased for A$3 billion (US$2.7 billion). “They will provide the Australian Defence Force with unprecedented maritime surveillance capabilities, operating at altitudes of up to 16,800m over extremely long ranges, while remaining airborne for up to 33 hours,” Abbott said.
UNITED STATES
Mother kills baby
A woman has been arrested on a charge of first-degree murder after police say she injected alcohol-based hand sanitizer into the feeding tube of her 17-month-old son, who had Down syndrome. Twenty-year-old Erika Wigstrom was being held without bond after her arrest on Tuesday. Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Commander Eric Becnel said she told police she wanted to end Lucas Ruiz’s suffering. Lucas died on Jan. 24.
FRANCE
Biggest yellow star spotted
Astronomers have spotted the largest yellow star ever observed in our galaxy and 1,300 times larger than the sun. The yellow hypergiant star HR 5171 A is also in the top 10 of the largest stars known and about 1 million times brighter than the sun, Olivier Chesneau, whose team made the discovery, said on Wednesday. Despite its great distance of nearly 12,000 light-years from Earth, the object can just about be seen with the naked eye. “The new observations also showed that this star has a very close binary partner,” Chesneau of the Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur in Nice said. “The two stars are so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut.”
UNITED STATES
Dinosaur footprint stolen
A man has been indicted on federal charges of stealing a fossilized Jurassic-period. dinosaur footprint. The attorney’s office in Utah announced on Wednesday that a grand jury returned the indictment against Jared Ehlers of Moab for 20 years in prison on the most serious of four counts. Authorities say the three-toed footprint was pried last month from the sandstone on the Hell’s Revenge Trail in the Sand Flats Recreation Area. Utah Bureau of Land Management District paleontologist Rebecca Hunt-Foster says the dinosaur tracks are 190 million years old.
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
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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