CHINA
Safety chopsticks possible
Internet search giant Baidu is working to turn a joke into a practical consumer device. The idea of chopsticks that could tell the user if the food in front of them is safe to eat came from an April Fool’s video, a Baidu spokesman said yesterday. The video “generated a lot of excitement both internally and externally,” he said. A video released by the company this week shows a user placing the electronic chopsticks in three different cups of cooking oil. Sensors in the implements detect the oil’s temperature and its fitness for consumption, with the findings displayed on a smartphone app. The chopsticks flash a red light when cooking oil has a higher than 25 percent level of total polar materials, an indicator of freshness, the spokesman said. It was not clear whether the “smart chopsticks” would go into commercial production.
Photo: AFP
SOUTH KOREA
Anti-nuclear unit planned
The government yesterday said it would create a combined army unit with the US, reportedly tasked with destroying North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction in the event of an all-out conflict. The mechanized unit led by a US major general will be set up in the first half of next year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The contingent would have an office of US and South Korean staff in Uijeongbu, where the US 2nd Infantry Division is stationed.
SOUTH KOREA
Singer EunB dies after crash
Singer Go Eun-bi, better known as EunB, died after a van carrying her group Ladies’ Code crashed into a guard rail on a rain-drenched highway near Seoul, police said yesterday. The 22-year-old Go’s bandmate RiSe, whose real name is Kwon Ri-sae, was seriously injured in the accident early on Wednesday and remained in critical condition after undergoing surgery, officials said. The band was returning to Seoul after recording a TV program in Daegu, police said. The group’s agency said another band member fractured a bone and two others had minor injuries and were treated for shock.
JAPAN
Pacific tuna quotas set
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission that monitors most of the Pacific Ocean has agreed to cut the catch of juvenile bluefin tuna to half of its average level in 2002 to 2004. The commission reached the decision yesterday as it ended an annual meeting in Fukuoka. It also endorsed catch limits for adult bluefin and set a 10-year target of rebuilding its population to 8 percent of its unfished size. Conservation group The Pew Charitable Trusts said the measures are encouraging, but only a first step toward saving the species, which has been decimated by overfishing.
INDIA
Flood kills 50 travelers
At least 50 people were feared killed when flood waters swept a bus carrying a wedding party into a mountain gorge in Kashmir yesterday. Police said rescue teams had been sent to the scene of the disaster, but heavy rains and the depth of the river were making it difficult to reach the victims. Flooding has hit hundreds of villages across the Kashmir valley in the last 24 hours after days of heavy rain.
FRANCE
Warship delivery suspended
The government on Wednesday suspended the delivery of the first of two Mistral-class warships to Russia “until November” after fierce criticism from its allies amid the crisis in Ukraine. Paris agreed in 2011 to build and sell the two advanced helicopter assault ships to Russia for a total of 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion), with the first scheduled for delivery next month or in November and the second next year. A diplomatic source said that the contract is only suspended until November — when the delivery was due. “At that date we will see what the financial consequences are,” the source said, adding that the suspension of the deal “could cost us 1 billion euros.”
SPAIN
Family reunited in Malaga
The British parents jailed after taking their critically ill son, Ashya King, from hospital enjoyed an emotional reunion with him at his bedside in Malaga on Wednesday, but were barred from taking formal custody of him for now. Brett King, 51, and his wife, Neghemeh, 45, saw their five-year-old son for the first time since they walked free, following the lifting of an extradition order against them by British prosecutors. “He was so pleased to see us, when he saw us he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t believe it,” Brett King said. Officials said the parents must wait for a ruling to know whether they can take him away from the hospital to seek the alternative treatment they wanted for his brain tumor.
UNITED STATES
Porch shooter jailed
A man who killed an unarmed woman on his porch instead of calling police was sentenced on Wednesday to at least 17 years in prison after telling the victim’s family he would carry “guilt and sorrow forever.” Judge Dana Hathaway followed the recommendation of prosecutors in the case of Theodore Wafer, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. Wafer, 55, opened the front door of his house in suburban Detroit and shot McBride through a screen door on Nov. 2 last year. He said he was awakened by pounding before dawn and feared for his life. A jury rejected his self-defense claim.
SAUDI ARABIA
Jail for 24 terror plotters
The Specialized Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a US national and 23 other people to prison on charges they created a terrorist cell and planned attacks on foreigners and oil pipelines. The official Saudi Press Agency reported that their sentences range from two to 27 years in prison for planning attacks against the kingdom and Bahrain. The state report said the US national was sentenced to 17 years, six of which are for cybercrimes. He was ordered deported after completing his sentencing. State media did not release any names, did not disclose further details on when the attacks were planned and did not say when the men had been arrested. All have 30 days to appeal.
UNITED STATES
Madoff’s last son dies
Andrew Madoff, Bernard Madoff’s last surviving son, died of cancer on Wednesday, his lawyer said. Andrew Madoff and his brother, Mark, both worked on a trading desk at Bernie Madoff’s firm, a side of the business that was not directly involved in their father’s US$65 billion pyramid scheme. Bernard Madoff was arrested in December 2008. Almost two years later, Mark Madoff hanged himself in his Manhattan apartment. Andrew Madoff, 48, died at a New York City hospital from mantle cell lymphoma, lawyer Martin Flumenbaum 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