CHINA
Cash offered for beard tips
Xinjiang authorities are offering cash to informants who report on neighbors with excessive facial hair, the Global Times has reported. Officials in Shaya County issued a notice offering rewards ranging from 50 yuan to more than 50,000 yuan (US$8 to US$8,000) for a wide array of information, including tips on those growing beards, the paper said on Thursday. Rewards also cover information on locals “conducting illegal religious activities,” the paper said. A Kashgar resident said that to enter government offices, banks or courts, women have to remove their veils and men must be clean-shaven.
CAMBODIA
No extradition for Russian
The Supreme Court yesterday that a prominent Russian property developer wanted in his homeland for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars cannot be extradited. Judge Kim Sothavy said that the law did not allow for the sending 41-year-old Sergei Polonsky back to Russia because the countries do not have an extradition treaty. The tycoon was charged in Russia in June last year with embezzling more than 5.7 billion rubles (US$175 million) from 80 investors. He was arrested in November last year, but released on bail in January.
CAMBODIA
Labor activists’ trial begins
Twenty-three activists and workers arrested during a deadly crackdown on a garment industry strike in January went on trial yesterday despite international appeals for their release. Rights groups say if convicted the defendants — most of whom have been detained for months without bail — could face up to five years’ imprisonment on charges that include committing intentional violence. Several hundred demonstrators gathered near the Phnom Penh Municipal Court as the trial began.
INDONESIA
Drunk triggers hijack alert
The pilot of a Virgin Australia plane flying from Brisbane to Bali yesterday reported a hijacking attempt after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, an Indonesian official said. A Virgin Australia Airlines official said there had not been an attempt to hijack the aircraft, but a “flight emergency” after a 28-year-old male passenger who was drunk had banged on the door of the cockpit trying to get in. Crew members seized the passenger, who authorities identified as Australian Matt Christopher, and handcuffed him. Police arrested him shortly after the plane landed in Bali.
ITALY
Giant crucifix crushes man
A man was crushed to death on Wednesday by a giant crucifix honoring pope John Paul II that collapsed during a ceremony ahead of the late pope’s canonization tomorrow in Rome. The 30m high wooden cross toppled over during an event near the Alpine village of Cevo, killing Marco Gusmini, 21. Cevo’s mayor said further celebrations to mark the pope’s elevation to sainthood have been cancelled.
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