UNITED KINGDOM
PM to apologize to queen
Prime Minister David Cameron is to apologize in person to Queen Elizabeth II after he was overheard saying she had “purred” with happiness on hearing that Scots had voted to reject independence, Sky News said yesterday. Cameron’s comments, made to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, were picked up by a TV crew on Tuesday during his visit to the city to attend the UN General Assembly. “She purred down the line. I’ve never heard someone so happy,” Cameron said of the queen. Media reported that Cameron would apologize to the queen in person when he sees the monarch at their next regular meeting. “Look, I’m very embarrassed by this. I’m extremely sorry about it,” he told reporters in New York, according to Sky.
UNITED STATES
Maduro calls for UN shakeup
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for a “re-founding” of the UN late on Wednesday in his first speech before the international organization. The socialist president took the podium at the General Assembly of world leaders to demand that the UN undergo a profound transformation and recognize that the world is now multipolar, defined by new regional alliances. Speaking with hand gestures and a declamatory style, he praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for helping stave off Islamic State militants, and pledged US$5 million to the fight against Ebola. He railed against harassment by the “imperial forces” of the US “that have tried again and again to undermine democracy.” However, unlike his mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez, who famously called then-US president George W. Bush the devil in a UN speech, Maduro stopped short of personal attacks or name-calling.
GUAM
Killer jailed for life
A man who killed three Japanese tourists and injured 11 more during a frenzied knife attack on the Pacific island was jailed for three life terms yesterday. Chad Ryan De Soto has shown no remorse over the attack in February last year and is to spend the rest of his life in jail without the prospect of parole, Superior Court judge Anita Sukola said. “In your own statement to the court your remorsefulness did not come out, you were more concentrating about mental illness,” Sukola told the court. She said De Soto, who was convicted last month after a jury rejected his insanity plea, was likely to commit more crimes unless he was incarcerated. The 22-year-old ploughed his car into a group of people who were walking in the tourist district of Tumon, and then leapt from the vehicle and attacked bystanders at random with a knife in each hand.
BRAZIL
New step in dengue fight
Researchers have freed a batch of mosquitoes infected with a dengue-blocking bacteria they hope can combat the tropical disease naturally. Scientists at the Rio de Janeiro-based Fiocruz research institute are taking part in a global project to release the mosquitoes. Similar action has already taken place in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia. The mosquitoes released on Wednesday are infected with Wolbachia bacteria that can block them from getting the highly infectious disease and passing it to humans. It is hoped the bacteria will be passed through generations of mosquitoes and eventually wipe out the insects’ ability to spread dengue. Some scientists estimate that about 390 million people get dengue each year. Dengue causes extreme joint pain and headaches, though it is not usually fatal. There is no cure.
‘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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in