UNITED KINGDOM
Duchess bears daughter
A crowd erupted in cheers outside a London hospital yesterday after the announcement that Prince William’s wife, Kate, had given birth to a princess. The news was belted out by a lavishly dressed town crier on the steps of the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital, where the Duchess of Cambridge had been admitted earlier yesterday. “What an amazing day,” Sadie Moran, a 45-year-old wrapped in a British Union Jack flag, told reporters. “It is like a memory of princess Diana,” said Moran, referring to William’s late mother, who died in a car crash in 1997. Diana gave birth to William and his brother, Harry, in the same hospital. Among the onlookers were tourists looking to bring home a special memory from their holidays. “We heard it on the news that she’s in labor and we wanted to see,” said Tiina Hamalanen, a 51-year-old from Finland.
LIBERIA
Ebola resumes spread
Health officials now think Ebola survivors can spread the disease through unprotected sex nearly twice as long as previously believed. Scientists thought the Ebola virus could remain in semen for about three months, but a recent case in West Africa suggests infection through sex can happen more than five months later. Officials are now telling male Ebola survivors to avoid unprotected sex indefinitely. They earlier advised using condoms for at least three months. A report released on Friday detailed the case of a 44-year-old Liberian woman whose infection likely came from a 46-year-old man who had Ebola symptoms in September last year. She fell ill in March, a week after sex with him, and died. Another woman he had sex with around the same time tested negative.
UNITED STATES
Cosby accusers increase
Two more women, a writer and an actress, on Friday said comedian Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago, bringing the list of his accusers to more than 40. Actress Lili Bernard and writer Sammie Mays made the allegations against the comedian at a news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred the day before the last show of Cosby’s national comedy tour in Atlanta, Georgia. Cosby, best known for his role as Cliff Huxtable on the hit TV series The Cosby Show, has never been charged over any of the allegations. The 77-year-old settled a 2005 civil lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct. His representative did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Bernard said Cosby drugged, raped and threatened her while he helped her prepare for a role in the show’s last season. “After he had won my complete trust and admiration, he drugged and raped me,” the mother of six said. Bernard said she told her agent, family, several friends and her pastor about the attack.
UNITED KINGDOM
New Rolf Harris file mulled
Prosecutors are examining a file of further allegations against disgraced veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, sources said on Friday. Harris, 85, a household name for decades in Britain and his native Australia, was interviewed under caution by officers in early February. The television star, artist and songwriter, 84, was jailed in July last year for five years and nine months for a string of sexual assaults against girls. He was found guilty of indecently assaulting four victims between 1969 and 1986. The Crown Prosecution Service, which decides whether charges should be brought, said it was examining new material from the police’s Operation Yewtree investigation into historic sex offenses.
‘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
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
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