CHINA
Agreement on sea disputes
Vietnam has agreed to jointly “address and control” maritime disputes, state media said yesterday, as differences over the South China Sea have roiled relations between the two countries and other neighbors, including Taiwan, which also claims islands in the waters. The two countries should “properly address and control maritime differences” to create favorable conditions for bilateral cooperation, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan. Xinhua news agency said Dung agreed and endorsed boosting “cooperation in infrastructure, finance and maritime exploration.”
CHINA
Rail designer sentenced
The rail engineer credited with designing the country’s high-speed rail network received a suspended death sentence after a Beijing court found him guilty of taking 47.6 million yuan (US$7.8 million) in bribes, state media reported yesterday. Zhang Shuguang (張曙光), former deputy chief engineer and transportation bureau head of China’s now-defunct Ministry of Railways, was charged in September last year for accepting bribes mostly from private firms vying to win contracts over an 11-year period. Zhang was given a death sentence suspended for two years, Xinhua news agency said. Zhang’s deputy at the transport bureau, Su Shunhu (蘇順虎), was sentenced separately yesterday by a Beijing court to life in prison for taking 24 million yuan in bribes, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.
INDIA
Farmer burns boy to death
A low-caste teenage boy was burnt to death in eastern India for letting his goat stray into paddy fields belonging to a high-caste farmer, police said on Thursday. Police arrested the farmer thought responsible for the attack on the 15-year-old, whose Mahadalit caste is the lowest in India’s still deeply entrenched hereditary social system. The boy, Sai Ram, was attacked on Wednesday night in the Rohtas district of Bihar. “Ram was first badly beaten by [the] accused and later set on fire. He was declared dead when brought to a local government hospital,” Rohtas superintendent of police Chandan Kushwaha said.
AUSTRALIA
Spider lives in stomach
A man had a spider removed from his stomach after it burrowed its way into his body. Dylan Maxwell was on holiday on the Indonesian island of Bali when the spider burrowed through an appendix scar and traveled up his torso, leaving a red scar-like trail from his navel to his chest. “Well after running tests and putting things inside my stomach they finally found out it was a tropical spider that’s been living inside me for the last three days,” he said on Facebook.
SYRIA
Airstrikes slow militants: US
Two days of heavy airstrikes by US warplanes have slowed an advance by Islamic State militants against Kurdish forces defending the Syrian border town of Kobane. Turkish and US officials said last week that fighters from the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were on the verge of taking Kobane from its heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders, after seizing strategic points deep inside the town. The tempo of coalition air strikes has increased dramatically, with US fighter and bomber planes carrying out 14 raids against militant targets near Kobane on Wednesday and Thursday, the US military’s Central Command said.
UNITED STATES
Body thought to be Upham’s
Police on Thursday found a body feared to be that of US actress Misty Upham, who appeared in Django Unchained and last year’s August: Osage County, officials said. The body was found at the bottom of an embankment in a Seattle suburb by a family member searching for the 32-year-old actress, whose movie credits also include 2008’s Frozen River. Upham had been reported missing on Oct. 6, according to industry journal Variety. “The body was recovered by a member of Misty Upham’s family who was in the area searching for her,” a statement by the Auburn Police Department said. “A purse containing identification of Misty Upham was at the scene, however, at this time the medical examiner has not made a positive identification nor a determination of cause of death.” According to Variety, Upham’s family reportedly told police that she had been suicidal a day before her disappearance.
BRAZIL
Serial killing suspect held
Police on Thursday said they have arrested a suspected serial killer who admits to slaying 39 people in a four-year killing spree. “He was arrested on Tuesday night after a 70-day investigation and on Wednesday admitted to slaying 39 people since 2011, including 16 women, homosexuals and homeless people,” a police spokesman from Goias state said. He said the suspect, 26-year-old security guard Thiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha, was arrested in the city of Goiania, adding that he had earlier on Thursday slit his wrists after smashing the light bulb in his cell. Police said he has told them he did not know his victims and acted out of an inner “fury he felt against everything,” which only subsided when committing murder. After the slayings, he would feel remorse which only fueled his anger and led him to kill again, they added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Texts from the grave?
A British family were shocked to receive a text message apparently from their dead grandmother, who had been buried with her cellphone three years earlier. Lesley Emerson died aged 59 in 2011 and was buried with some of her favorite things, including her mobile phone. Her granddaughter Sheri Emerson, 22, said she found comfort in sending messages to her grandmother’s number. Sheri Emerson was stunned last week to get a reply reading “I’m watching over you,” she said. “I felt sick when I read it,” she told the Shields Gazette. “I was in shock and didn’t know what to think.” Her uncle called the number and it emerged it was being used by a man who believed the texts from Sheri Emerson were joke messages from friends. The new user — and the telecom O2 that reassigned the number — have apologized.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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