CHINA
Anti-censorship site down
A Web site that helps Chinese Internet users see censored pages says it is the target of a massive denial-of-service attack and is struggling to stay online. GreatFire.org wrote in a post on Thursday that the actions started on Tuesday in the first such attack ever directed at the site. The site wrote that it did not know who was launching the attacks, but that they coincided with increased pressure from Chinese officials. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not answer phone calls yesterday seeking comment.
VIETNAM
Tree demolition stopped
Political leaders yesterday halted the felling of thousands of Hanoi’s trees after the plan sparked public outrage and fears it would damage the image of one of the world’s most picturesque cities. Social media criticism went into overdrive this week after authorities started cutting down about 500 of the 6,700 trees it considered dangerous in the leafy metropolis often dubbed the “Paris of Asia.” The rolling back of the plan was top billing on the lunchtime television news, which announced that upon the instruction of the Hanoi People’s Committee, trees cut down would be replaced immediately.
THAILAND
Man jailed for royal insult
A military court in Bangkok yesterday sentenced 67-year-old Opas Charnsooksai to 18 months in prison for writing insults against the monarch on the wall of a shopping mall restroom in October, his lawyer Sasinan Thamnithinan said. The court cut the original three-year prison sentence in half because Opas confessed, but said in passing sentence that it would not suspend the jail term because “the offense was violating the beloved monarch of the people,” Sasinan said.
BRAZIL
Museum lands Petrobras art
A museum on Thursday received 139 works of art, including a painting by Joan Miro, seized from individuals involved in the corruption scandal rocking state oil giant Petrobras. Works by Brazilian artists Djanira and Heitor dos Prazeres were among the trove that police delivered to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in the city of Curitiba. Local media reported that the majority of artwork was seized from Petrobras former director of services Renato Duque, who was arrested on Monday. He was detained in connection with a kickbacks and political payoffs scheme that allegedly siphoned off US$3.8 billion from Petrobras. Another 64 seized works had already been given to the museum, including pieces by Salvador Dali and Vik Muniz. After a quarantine period during which the works’ condition will be examined, the art will “probably” be available for the public to see, a member of the museum’s press team said. Prosecutors say Petrobras awarded inflated contracts to some of the country’s biggest construction companies over a 10-year-period, generating a flood of dirty money used to bribe executives and politicians.
UNITED STATES
Ming art sells for US$14m
A 600-year-old album of Ming Dynasty Buddhist art and calligraphy sold for US$14 million in New York on Thursday, the highest price for a Chinese painting sold outside Asia, Sotheby’s said. The sutras were sold after frantic bidding between four would-be buyers in Asia and the US that lasted 31 minutes, the auction house said. The winner was Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian (劉益謙), who bid by telephone, Sotheby’s said. The taxi-driver-turned-financier is one of China’s biggest art collectors. Sotheby’s said US$14 million was the top price for any sale at Asian art auctions in New York this month and the highest price paid for a Chinese painting outside Asia. The sutras, an album of 39 leaves, came from an important Japanese collection and the only other known works from the series are in Chinese hands.
BRAZIL
Breastfeeding bans banned
The city council of the country’s biggest city has passed a measure that could fine businesses or organizations more than US$300 if they prevent women from breastfeeding in public. Renata Soares is the legal adviser for Sao Paulo City Councilman Aurelio Nomura, one of the three authors of the law approved last week. She says Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad is expected to approve it within the next 20 days. Soares says it is the “first legislation of its kind in Latin America and, as far as we know, in the rest of the world.”
ARGENTINA
Boa ‘escape’ sparks panic
A massive boa constrictor whose reported escape sparked panic in the capital and a large mobilization of police and firefighters was found asleep on Thursday, safe and sound in its owner’s closet. “Margarita the boa was resting well coiled-up inside a closet in its owner’s home,” a police spokesman for the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Banfield said. Neighbors were terrified after the owner reported the 3m snake had gone missing on Sunday, sometime after he fed it. “You can tell she ate well because she still seemed to be digesting,” the spokesman said. He said the 30kg snake would be taken to a reptile sanctuary in the city of La Plata, just south of Buenos Aires. The boa constrictor was kept in a glass enclosure in its owner’s living room, but was allowed to slither around the house at leisure. It is illegal in the country to keep boa constrictors as pets, according to the Ezeiza Animal Protection Association.
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