AUSTRALIA
Man feared eaten by croc
Police were yesterday examining remains found inside a crocodile amid fears it could be a man who disappeared near a beach. The 22-year-old was last seen by his family on Friday last week at Pirlangimpi, on Melville Island about 100km north of Darwin. Police said local community leaders shot the crocodile dead on Wednesday in their hunt for the man and biological material was found inside. “At this stage it is unknown if the remains are human and testing will be undertaken,” Sergeant Antony Deutrom of the Northern Territory police said. “This is a very distressing time for the family and community.” Crocodiles are common in the nation’s tropical north. Their numbers have increased steadily since the introduction of protection laws in 1971, with government estimates putting the population at 75,000 to 100,000.
SWITZERLAND
Secretary posts nude selfies
A secretary who posted nude pictures of herself in parliament to more than 11,000 followers on Twitter told a newspaper on Wednesday she did not believe she had broken any rules. Many of the selfies were taken in her office in the Federal Palace in Berne where the government and parliament meet, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported. The unidentified woman, a secretary at the parliament, told the paper that the pictures did not violate guidelines for federal employees because they were part of her private life. The report did not say why she had posted the pictures. A spokesman for the government’s human resources department said he had only learned of the case from Wednesday’s news report. “Parliamentary services will have to decide, based on the specific circumstances, whether this case breaches good faith obligations between employer and employee,” Anand Jagtap said. When asked if she worried that her colleagues might see the pictures, the secretary said: “The issue is on my mind constantly.”
AUSTRIA
Woman faces fine for nudity
A woman faces a fine of up to 1,000 euros (US$1,340) for repeated outings in nothing but a pair of white tennis shoes. Police spokesman Johann Baumschlager says the young woman was stopped by police on Tuesday after cycling past officers operating a radar trap on a highway in the northeast of the country. Baumschlager said on Wednesday that the woman was identified, and told to go home and get dressed. She was also informed she had been charged with disturbing public decency — a misdemeanor that carries a maximum 1,000 euro fine. She had previously been sighted in the buff while shopping in a supermarket and at a gas station, filling up her car.
UNITED KINGDOM
Faithfull in Morrison claim
British singer Marianne Faithfull has told an interviewer her late boyfriend accidentally killed iconic rock singer Jim Morrison of The Doors 43 years ago. Morrison was found dead aged 27 in July 1971 in his Paris apartment. Faithfull told Mojo magazine that her then-boyfriend Jean de Breteuil, known as the heroin dealer to the stars, had accidentally killed Morrison by giving him drugs that were too strong. The couple had traveled to Paris and on their arrival De Breteuil said he had to visit Morrison’s apartment. Faithfull stayed behind at their hotel. “I could intuitively feel trouble,” Faithfull told the magazine. “I thought, I’ll take a few Tuinal [barbiturates] and I won’t be there, and he went to see Jim Morrison and killed him. I mean, I’m sure it was an accident. Poor bastard.”
UNITED STATES
Museum defends turtle art
A Colorado art museum is standing by an upcoming exhibit featuring three tortoises with iPads mounted on their backs, despite calls from activists to call off the exhibit as animal abuse. The Aspen Art Museum released a statement on Wednesday supporting the exhibit by Chinese-born Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強) called “Moving Ghost Town,” which opens tomorrow as part of the museum’s grand opening. The African Sulcata tortoises will roam around grass on the museum’s roof deck garden. Each will have two iPads showing video of area ghost towns. “The three [tortoises] are being closely monitored, cared for, checked by a local veterinarian at regular intervals, and are being exhibited in consultation with the Turtle Conservancy,” museum spokeswoman Sara Fitzmaurice wrote in a statement. The creator of the petition, Lisabeth Oden, disagreed, telling the Aspen Daily News: “These creatures were not designed to carry 2-pound [0.9kg] iPads.”
UNITED STATES
Hunt on for squirrel kicker
An animal rights group on Wednesday offered a reward of nearly US$17,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who apparently kicked a squirrel into Arizona’s Grand Canyon in a video that went viral on the Internet. Appealing to members of the public to help catch the “heartless thug,” the UK branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) urged anyone with details about the “infamous” case to contact the Grand Canyon’s chief ranger. In the video, a shirtless man is seen apparently feeding the squirrel before booting it off the edge of a cliff. It has since been removed by YouTube. Park rangers have been investigating since they were alerted to the existence of the video earlier this week, and they believe it was filmed within Grand Canyon National Park. Few other details are clear, park spokeswoman Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski said, including when and exactly where the recording might have been made.
UNITED STATES
Agents seize stuffed animals
Customs officers in Los Angeles have seized a vast menagerie of stuffed-and-mounted animals, including a wildebeest, a zebra, a gazelle and a baboon. Customs and Border Protection announced and displayed the taxidermy take with an estimated value of nearly US$9,000 on Wednesday. They were seized last month at a port inspection when officers found seven boxes with “animal heads” written on them. A customs statement says a 44-year-old man from the Philippines was touring the US. The man said he did not know the mounts had to be declared to the federal wildlife officials and required export permits. The baboon, a lynx and a bobcat — all full-bodied stuffed mounts — required an additional permit under an international endangered species convention.
UNITED STATES
Man throws fit on Allen set
A man accused of throwing furniture on the set of a Woody Allen movie in Rhode Island’s capital has been arrested and charged with assault. Providence police said the man tossed a chair and assaulted security guards on Tuesday on the set, which is near Brown University. Security guards told WPRI-TV the man went to the set and began asking “weird questions” about the movie’s stars, who include Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix and Parker Posey. Police identified the man as Mark Spiridakos. They said he ran from the set and was tackled, and then taken to a hospital with a head injury. Spiridakos could not be reached for comment in the hospital. It was not clear if he has a lawyer.
‘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