AUSTRALIA
Tourists escape boat fire
More than 40 tourists, many of them elderly Chinese, were yesterday recovering after jumping into life rafts when the catamaran they were aboard caught fire. The Spirit of 1770 got into trouble 18.6km off the coastal town of 1770 following a day-trip to Lady Musgrave Island on the Great Barrier Reef, apparently when a fire started in the engine room. The local Gladstone Observer newspaper said the 42 passengers and four crew abandoned ship, and jumped into the water before swimming to life rafts late on Wednesday. They drifted for several hours before three rescue boats arrived and ferried them ashore, where pictures showed them huddled under blankets as they were treated by paramedics. “Of the 46 people on board, 19 received treatment for non-life threatening injuries at hospitals in Bundaberg and Gladstone,” Queensland police said in a statement, adding that they were investigating the incident.
INDONESIA
‘Death zoo’ claims one more
A critically endangered Sumatran elephant has become the latest animal to die in one of the nation’s poorly maintained zoos, an official said yesterday, sparking anger from activists and politicians. The female elephant, called Yani, died on Wednesday in Bandung, Java, after falling ill a week earlier. Many of the nation’s zoos are in poor condition and house animals in filthy, cramped enclosures. The most notorious, in the city of Surabaya, has been dubbed the “death zoo,” as hundreds of animals have perished there. Bandung zoo said the cause of Yani’s death was yet to be determined, but the creature appeared lethargic before she died and pictures showed large sores on her body. Efforts to save the elephant were hampered as the zoo had been without a resident veterinarian for almost a year, zoo spokesman Sudaryo said.
CHINA
Everest graffiti crackdown
Mountaineering officials have scrubbed graffiti from two granite tablets on the Chinese side of Mount Everest’s northern base camp and plan to name and shame future defilers. State-run mobile news site The Paper on Wednesday reported that workers removed the signatures, dates, doodles and messages left by scores of visitors. The graffiti grew so thick it covered the information about the mountain carved into the tablets in Chinese, Tibetan and English. Along with publicizing the names of those leaving behind graffiti, base camp management is considering setting aside separate wall space just for visitors to write their names and other messages, local tourism official Gu Chunlei told The Paper.
AUSTRALIA
Turnbull denies wrongdoing
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday denied any wrongdoing after being been named in the Panama Papers as a former director of a British Virgin Islands company set up to exploit a Siberian gold prospect. Turnbull and former New South Wales premier Neville Wran joined the board of Star Mining NL in 1993. The firm hoped to develop a A$20 billion (US$14.67 billion) Siberian gold mine called Sukhoi Log, said the Australian Financial Review, which first reported the story. Turnbull and Wran were subsequently appointed directors of Star Technology Services, a subsidiary of Star Mining in the British Virgin Islands which had been incorporated by Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based law firm at the center of the global scandal. “There is no suggestion of any impropriety whatsoever. There is nothing new there,” Turnbull told reporters.
GERMANY
Merkel’s popularity dwindles
Almost half of the people surveyed in a new poll oppose Chancellor Angela Merkel remaining in office for a fourth term after an election next year — a sign that her handling of the migrant crisis is still weighing on her popularity. Conducted by pollster Insa for the Cicero magazine, the survey on Wednesday showed that about 48 percent of respondents did not support the statement: “I am in favor of Angela Merkel remaining chancellor also after the federal election in 2017.” About 27 percent said they wanted the conservative Christian Democratic leader to stay in office for a fourth term, while roughly 25 percent said they did not have an opinion on the matter or did not give a reply.
ITALY
Gay couples get legal rights
The nation on Wednesday joined the rest of Europe in giving some legal rights to gay couples after a years-long battle and opposition from the Catholic Church to anything that smacked of authorizing gay marriage. Gay rights activists hailed the Chamber of Deputies vote as historic, but they voiced disappointment that the government had sacrificed a provision to allow gay adoption to ensure passage. The legislation grants same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples — the possibility of having the same last name, inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights and medical decisionmaking rights — but it stops far short of authorizing gay marriage.
ETHIOPIA
Floods displace thousands
Flash floods displaced nearly 120,000 people last month and a total of almost half a million are expected to be affected this year, government and humanitarian agencies said on Wednesday. The floods are part of the global El Nino weather phenomenon that had previously caused a severe drought in the Horn of Africa nation following successive failed rains. The drought has left 10.2 million people in need of food aid and aid agencies say that figure could rise to more than 15 million by August. Ethiopia’s total population is 90 million.
BOLIVIA
Ruling on Morales’ ‘son’
President Evo Morales does not have a son with his ex-lover, who is in jail pending trial on corruption charges, a judge ruled on Wednesday. The tale of love, lies and alleged graft has held people in the Andean nation riveted for months, amid suspicions that Gabriela Zapata might have used her clout to win contracts for her Chinese employer. Judge Jacqueline Rada ruled there was no evidence that Morales fathered a child with Zapata after the president, who claims the child does not exist, brought a lawsuit asking for the boy to be presented in a closed-door hearing and for DNA testing to be done.
UNITED STATES
Cybergroup holds talks
A group of senior US and Chinese cyber officials on Wednesday held their first meeting since the two countries struck an anti-hacking agreement in September last year to try to ease years of acrimony over the issue. The so-called Senior Experts Group on International Norms and Related Issues is expected to gather twice a year, the Department of State said in a statement announcing the meeting. It provided scant information about the talks, saying officials from the two nations’ foreign, defense and other ministries discussed “international norms of state behavior and other crucial issues for international security in cyberspace.”
‘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