AUSTRALIA
Briton jumps from bridge
A British man was missing on Monday after drinking and jumping off a bridge in Brisbane for “a bit of fun,” Australian police said. He was one of four men who decided to plunge off the William Jolly Bridge into the Brisbane River about 10m below, after drinking at a backpacker’s hostel on Sunday night. “They had agreed between themselves that they were going to jump off the bridge for a bit of fun and to cool down,” Police Inspector Sean Cryer told reporters in Brisbane. “The young man in question, a 30-year-old British national, jumped off the bridge first.” The man took a running jump from about 3m away, leaped over a rail and went under the water. “He came back up again a few seconds later, rolled on his side, went back under the water and hasn’t been seen since,” Cryer said. “I think you would probably find that people have been jumping off that bridge since they built it. Sometimes they live and sometimes they die.”
FRANCE
Naked artist arrested
A woman has been arrested for indecent exposure after lying down naked in Paris’ Musee d’Orsay in front of Edouard Manet’s similarly nude painting of the prostitute Olympia, her lawyer said on Sunday. Museum-goers were enjoying an exhibition entitled Splendour and Misery: Images of Prostitution 1850-1910 when Luxembourg artist Deborah de Robertis got undressed and took on the pose of the famed Olympia. De Robertis “was wearing a portable camera to film the public’s reaction. It was an artistic performance,” her lawyer Tewfik Bouzenoune said. The museum has filed a complaint for indecent exposure. De Robertis was remanded in custody and referred to the Paris public prosecutor. “Putting an artist in custody sends a very bad message,” said Bouzenoune, slamming a “worrying judicial prudishness.” He cited the case of South African artist Steve Cohen who was found guilty of indecent exposure in 2014 after dancing around in front of the Eiffel Tower with a live rooster attached to his penis by a ribbon.
UNITED STATES
Woman arrested for murder
Police have made an arrest in connection with the deadly Arizona road rage shooting of a student visiting from China. Tempe City Police Lieutenant Michael Pooley on Sunday said that 32-year-old Holly Davis has been booked on three charges including first-degree murder. According to police, Davis’ vehicle was involved in a collision at a busy intersection at about 2:40pm on Saturday. Davis allegedly got out of her car and fired several shots into the other vehicle, hitting Jiang Yue (江玥) several times. Pooley said Jiang lost control, crashing her vehicle into another car carrying a family of five. The 19-year-old woman was taken to a hospital where she died. The family did not suffer serious injuries. Davis fled the scene but was later located. Police said Jiang was a university student.
TURKEY
Bombing suspects arraigned
A court on Sunday heard preliminary charges against 16 Syrian nationals detained in connection with a suicide bomb attack that killed 10 German tourists in Istanbul last week, media said. A prosecutor has asked the court to remand the suspects, who are accused of belonging to the Islamic State group, to custody pending formal charges and a trial, Vatan newspaper reported. It was not clear when three Russian men who were also detained this week would appear in court.
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