NORTH KOREA
Kim movie an ‘act of terror’
Pyongyang yesterday denounced a new Hollywood comedy about an assassination bid on leader Kim Jong-un as a “wanton act of terror” and warned of a “merciless response” unless the US authorities banned the film. The Interview stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as two celebrity journalists who land an interview with Kim and are then tasked by the CIA with killing him. It is due to be released in the US on Oct. 14. In a statement carried by the KCNA news agency, a foreign ministry spokesman said the film was the work of “gangster moviemakers” and should never be shown. It is not the first time Hollywood has poked fun at a North Korean leader. In the 2004 action comedy Team America, Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, was portrayed as a speech-impaired, isolated despot.
INDIA
Four dead as train derails
A passenger train derailed yesterday in eastern India, killing four people, after a suspected explosion on the tracks during a protest called by Maoist insurgents, officials said. About 12 carriages of the Rajdhani Express, which was traveling from New Delhi to Assam, toppled over at about 2am in Bihar state’s Saran District. “Prima facie, it appears to be a case of sabotage,” Railway Board chairman Arunendra Kumar told the Press Trust of India news agency. “There was a blast on the track, which could have caused the derailment.” However, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it was “too early” to blame the insurgents, according to PTI, while a senior police officer said that a “technical fault” could have been to blame.
JAPAN
Dog saves boy from bear
A placid pet dog was being hailed as a hero after saving a five-year-old boy from a mauling by a wild bear, police said on Tuesday. The dog, a six-year-old shiba, took on the 1m tall bear after it attacked the young boy during a riverside walk with his great-grandfather. The dog barked “unusually loudly” and chased off the animal on Saturday evening in Odate, about 550km north of Tokyo, a local police spokesman said. “The boy suffered slight bruises and was taken to hospital, but he was released on the same day,” the spokesman said. The boy’s 80-year-old great-grandfather, who was a short distance away near his car, raised the alarm.
THAILAND
Rice tycoon gets three years
The district court in Samut Prakan Province has sentenced a top rice trader believed to have close ties to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to three years in jail for embezzling rice from state stockpiles. A court official said Apichart Chansakulporn, former owner of bankrupt President Agri Trading, was found guilty of failing to deliver 20,000 tonnes of rice to Iran after getting a mandate for the trade from the commerce ministry in 2007. “However, he has the right to appeal within a month,” said the official, declining to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the press.” Apichart remained free on bail
ISRAEL
Prisoners end hunger strike
A Palestinian official says about 80 Palestinian prisoners have ended their hunger strike after 63 days, after reaching a deal with Israel. Minister of Prisoner Affairs Shawqi al-Aissa said the hunger strike ended yesterday. He would not elaborate on the deal struck with the Israel Prison Authority. About 5,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel for offenses ranging from rock throwing to deadly militant attacks. The latest hunger strike was launched on April 24.
SPAIN
Princess charged with graft
A court on Wednesday said it had formalized charges against Cristina de Borbon, sister of newly crowned King Felipe VI, and her husband in a corruption investigation, paving the way for a trial that could further damage the royal family. The Palma de Mallorca court upheld charges of tax fraud and money laundering against Princess Cristina, in one of the last steps before opening trial proceedings. Her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, is accused of embezzling several million euros in public funds and a trial would center on his business dealings. The rulings — which can be appealed before a trial begins — come barely a week after King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son, Felipe, in a bid to revive the monarchy’s scandal-worn image at a time of economic hardship.
UNITED STATES
Actor Eli Wallach dies
Eli Wallach, an early practitioner of Method acting who made a lasting impression as the scuzzy bandit Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, died on Tuesday at the age of 98, the New York Times reported. Wallach’s death was confirmed by his daughter Katherine, the newspaper said. The circumstances of his death were not immediately known. Having grown up the son of Polish Jewish immigrants in an Italian-dominated neighborhood in New York, Wallach might have seemed like an unlikely cowboy, but some of his best work was in Westerns. Many critics thought his definitive role was Calvera, the flamboyant, sinister bandit chief in The Magnificent Seven. Others preferred him in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as Tuco, who was “the ugly,” opposite Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti Western.
UNITED STATES
Dylan lyrics fetch US$2m
Handwritten song lyrics from legendary singer Bob Dylan sold for US$2 million at auction in New York on Tuesday, the most treasured possession in a trove of rock memorabilia up for sale. The handwritten copy of Dylan’s original lyrics for the 1965 epic Like A Rolling Stone, which transformed him from a folk musician into a rock icon, had been valued at between US$1 million and US$2 million by Sotheby’s before the auction.
UNITED STATES
Diplomas misspelled
An Illinois university’s typo is getting national attention.
Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications recently gave 30 diplomas to graduates on which the word “integrated” was spelled without the “n.” Kit Fox, one of the 250 students who graduated from the school Saturday, tweeted a photograph of a friend’s diploma that showed the error. The diploma would have been tagged with a “Medill F” — a stamp earned by students who commit factual or spelling errors.
UNITED STATES
Ribs delivered despite flood
A little thing like a flooded creek was not enough to keep an Alaska restaurant owner from delivering Thai ribs and fried rice to stranded customers over the weekend. Anuson “Knott” Poolsawat, owner of Knott’s Take Out in North Pole, forded the swollen waters of Clear Creek to reach two customers stuck along the Richardson Highway, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. A sinkhole had developed from heavy rain near the creek. The Alaskan Department of Transportation closed the bridge. Poolsawat hiked up his shorts and waded through the creek, holding the takeout boxes over his head through cold, hip-deep water.
‘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
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
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