CHINA
People-traffickers arrested
Authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia arrested 31 people on suspicion of trafficking women because they had held 14 people, 11 of them from Myanmar, state media said on Monday. Five of the non-Chinese victims were younger than 18 and were handed to Burmese police after a three-month investigation into the gang, which ensnared the women by offering them tours and jobs, Xinhua news agency said. The victims were then sold as wives in rural China for as little as 50,000 yuan (US$8,140).
CHINA
Mom told to return bonuses
Authorities in the central province of Henan have asked a mother who applied for a permit to have a second child to return the bonuses handed out to her when she complied with China’s one-child policy, state media said yesterday. The People’s Daily cited a mother surnamed Chen as being told by local authorities in Zhengzhou that “if [she] wants to have two children, [she] must refund the one-child monies that she had previously enjoyed.” The money is a bonus paid to families who decide to have one child in keeping with China’s strict one-child policy and are awarded the “Parents of one-child honor certificate.” Chen was quoted by the daily as saying that she would have to return close to 1,000 yuan.
GREECE
Serial hostage-taker jailed
A court on Monday handed a 20-year prison sentence to a man who took hostages at a German school twice in three years, local officials said. Costas Arabatzis, 55, kidnapped the headmaster, bursar and a teacher at the school in Thessaloniki in 2009 and demanded a 10 million euro (US$12 million) ransom. He had a suitcase stuffed full of explosives and grenades, and had threatened to set them off, but gave himself up when officers surrounded the building. Arabatzis had carried out an almost identical hostage-taking at the same school in 2006. He was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison for the previous incident, but the term was later reduced to three years for good behavior.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Ministers sent poison in mail
Two ministers received envelopes containing poison last week, a local official and media said on Monday. Interior Minister Milan Chovanec of the ruling Social Democrats and Finance Minister Andrej Babis, the billionaire head of the centrist ANO party, both received toxins in the post. Czech news agency CTK quoted Babis as saying the envelope arrived at the ministry on Thursday last week and had been sent from Slovenia. Chovanec on Tuesday last week received a letter sent from northern Europe containing an amount of cyanide that could be life-threatening.
HUNGARY
Police under fire for film
Police came under fire on Monday from rights activists, who said a “harmful and dangerous” rape-awareness film suggested women provoke sexual violence. The public safety film, posted online by police in the city of Pecs, shows a group of young women dressing up to go nightclubbing, one of whom is later the victim of a sexual attack. “You can do something about it, you can do something against it,” the film’s slogan says. The message was called “victim-blaming” as well as “harmful and dangerous” by Keret, a group of women’s rights organizations. “The police are trying to pass on responsibility for crime prevention to potential victims, which makes it easier for perpetrators of sexual violence to avoid punishment,” the statement said.
SPAIN
Priests held for pedophilia
Police on Monday arrested four priests on suspicion of child sex abuse in Granada, according to Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernandez Diaz. Police have been investigating possible cases of pedophilia involving priests since an alleged victim wrote to Pope Francis recently. Local newspapers have reported that the pope contacted the victim by telephone, but Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi refused to confirm or deny that, citing Vatican policy to not comment on the pope’s “personal and pastoral” initiatives. The office of bishops in Granada last week said it suspended several priests from service after the complaint was sent to the Vatican. The abuses are suspected to have taken place about 10 years ago.
UNITED STATES
‘Casablanca’ piano sold
The painted upright piano that adorned Rick’s Cafe in the classic movie Casablanca fetched US$3.4 million at auction on Monday after a frenzied sale in New York. The orange piano was among 200 items from Hollywood’s golden age that went under the hammer at Bonham’s in New York. The piano featured prominently in the Oscar-winning 1942 romantic drama, with leading man Humphrey Bogart using it as a hiding place for the letters of transit that ultimately secure his former lover’s safe passage to the US.
UNITED STATES
‘Oz’ costume auctioned
Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion costume from the classic film The Wizard of Oz has sold for more than US$3 million at an auction in New York City. The big cat outfit had been authenticated as the one Lahr wore in the 1939 film and its face is a sculpted likeness of the late actor. It sold at an auction of Hollywood items at Bonhams on Monday. A spokesman for costume owner James Comisar said a secondary costume used in the film was sold at auction in recent years for close to US$1 million. Comisar has a trove of TV memorabilia from shows including I Love Lucy and Lost. He has said he plans to use the money from the Cowardly Lion costume sale to exhibit his collection.
EL SALVADOR
Flores under house arrest
Former president Francisco Flores, accused of embezzling US$15 million donated by Taiwan while in office, was ordered back to house arrest on Monday amid health woes. Last month, Flores was sent to prison, but since then, his health has declined, according to his attorney, Edgar Morales. “The judge has decided that the former president be switched to house arrest considering his health condition, which has taken a turn for the worse in prison,” Morales said. Judge Levis Italmir Orellana ruled that Flores can remain at his residence in San Benido while he awaits trial. Flores stands accused of embezzlement, illicit enrichment and actions detrimental to public administration. He claims to be a victim of political persecution.
MEXICO
Protesters storm state office
Hundreds of protesters on Monday stormed the federal prosecutor’s office in Chilpancingo in the latest demonstration against the government’s handling of the apparent slaughter of 43 students. About 300 people, some wearing masks, occupied the building in the Guerrero State capital for about four hours, a state security official told reporters. Nearly all staff left the attorney general’s office during the occupation, the official said on condition of anonymity. The protesters spray-painted: “43 are missing” on the walls of the building.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was