CHINA
Rest home fire kills 38
A fire swept through a rest home in Henan Province, killing 38 people and injuring six, authorities said yesterday. The fire broke out on Monday night in an apartment building being used as a privately run rest home in the city of Pingdingshan, the province’s work safety administration said in a statement. Xinhua news agency said the building housed 51 elderly people and quoted one survivor, 82-year-old Zhao Yulan, as saying only two of the 11 people living in her room made it out alive. Some of the remains were burned beyond recognition, Xinhua said.
CHINA
License plates led to trial
A former head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau has gone on trial for handing out coveted license plates to businesspeople in return for nearly US$4 million in bribes, a court said. Song Jianguo (宋建國) allegedly accepted more than 23.9 million yuan (US$3.9 million) in bribes over the decade from 2004 to last year, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement. He was accused of illegally handing out highly prized “Jing-A” plates, which start with the Chinese character for “capital,” which are mostly used for government vehicles and are regarded as a status symbol.
CHINA
Graftbuster to lead spies
President Xi Jinping (習近平) named one of his top graftbusters to lead the nation’s spy agency after a corruption scandal toppled the heir-apparent for the post, according to people with knowledge of the appointment. Chen Wenqing (陳文清), 55, who until last month helped direct Xi’s nationwide anti-graft campaign, was appointed Chinese Communist Party secretary for the Ministry of State Security, said the people, who asked not to identified because the change has not been publicly announced. The appointment comes after corruption allegations in January led to the removal of Ma Jian (馬建), the agency’s deputy minister and a likely candidate for the post. Chen succeeds Geng Huichang (耿惠昌), who reached retirement age.
JAPAN
Ex-teachers win in court
The Tokyo District Court has awarded millions of dollars in compensation to a group of high-school teachers who were punished for refusing to sing the national anthem, the group said yesterday. The Tokyo District Court on Monday ruled that the Tokyo government must pay a total of ¥537 million (US$4.5 million) to 22 former teachers. The group said the city refused to re-hire them under a scheme that extends employment past the retirement age because they disobeyed orders to stand and sing the anthem at graduation ceremonies. District judge Toru Yoshida said Tokyo’s refusal to re-hire the group was disproportionate to the offence.
SOUTH AFRICA
Rhino survives attack
The rhino’s rescuers gave her a name: Hope. Poachers had darted the rhino with a tranquilizer and hacked off her horns while she was sedated, leaving the animal with a horrific wound covering much of her face. A couple of days later, staff on the Lombardini reserve found the grievously injured rhino — alive. Last week, veterinarians operated on the four-year-old female. They removed maggots and dead tissue, applied dressing and fastened a fiberglass cast with steel screws. The wound measures 50cm by 28cm, the biggest of 10 similar cases that the team has treated in the last three years. It could take at least a year for Hope’s wound to heal after multiple treatments, officials said.
RUSSIA
Iranian missile deal set
Moscow and Tehran concluded talks on the delivery of Russian S-300 missiles to Iran, which should take place “quite” soon, Deputy Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Monday. “It will be done at the soonest opportunity possible,” he said after meeting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. The sale was blocked in 2010 by then-Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, but incumbent President Vladimir Putin last month gave the go-ahead.
MEXICO
Gunfight not revenge: police
Authorities on Monday rejected suggestions that police executed victims in a gunfight that killed 42 suspects and one officer after the one-sided death toll raised doubts among security experts. Officials said the suspects refused to surrender during Friday’s three-hour battle on a ranch in Michoacan State. “There was not one single execution,” federal police chief Enrique Galindo told Radio Formula, rejecting claims that officers wanted to avenge the killings of several colleagues attributed to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.
UNITED STATES
Pipeline probe continues
Officials from Plains All American Pipeline say they hope the broken section of a pipeline that spilled oil along the California coast could be removed for investigation by yesterday. The company on Monday downgraded the amount of oil that might have spilled to a new worst-case estimate of 382,300 liters, about 15,900 liters less than thought. Oil blackened beaches and created a 26km2 ocean slick after the onshore pipeline ruptured on Tuesday last week. Officials say one sea lion, nine pelicans and untold numbers of fish have been killed.
UNITED STATES
Fan, 82, rides coaster, 95
An 82-year-old fan of a historic Pennsylvania roller coaster celebrated his 5,000th ride on it on Sunday — sitting for more than eight hours straight and logging 95 spins on the ride in a single day. Vic Kleman, 82, marked the milestone on the Jack Rabbit at Kennywood in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin. His number of rides honored the coaster’s 95th birthday this season. “I feel great,” said Kleman, a retired general manager of a wholesale grocery firm and a local actor. “I made sure to move my legs throughout the day to keep from getting stiff after sitting so long.” The wooden coaster dates back to 1920 and has a 25.9m double-dip drop.
ECUADOR
Volcano threatens iguanas
A Galapagos Islands volcano has erupted for the first time in 33 years, threatening a fragile ecosystem. The Galapagos National Park administration said the 1,700m Wolf volcano began spewing fire and lava before dawn on Monday. The volcano lies on the northern tip of Isabela Island, the archipelago’s largest. Officials said lava flowing to the southwest poses no risk for now to the world’s only population of pink iguanas.
CUBA
FARC talks resume
The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels resumed peace talks on Monday in Havana amid heightened tensions after airstrikes that killed dozens of rebels. Rebel negotiator Pablo Catatumbo condemned the government offensive as he arrived for the talks, which opened in November 2012. “Without a doubt, the tragic events are a step backward in what we have achieved up to now at the negotiating table,” he said.
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
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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