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.
‘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