AUSTRALIA
AIDS no longer health issue
The nation declared on Monday that the AIDS epidemic is no longer a public health issue, a month after the UN adopted an ambitious target to eliminate the threat globally by 2030. The government-backed Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and top scientists said the number of people being diagnosed with AIDS in Australia was now so small it was no longer reported. AIDS cases in Australia peaked in 1994, at 953 cases, according to the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society. Since then, following the introduction of anti-retroviral treatment, that prevent AIDS developing in people who are infected with the HIV virus, and awareness campaigns, AIDS diagnoses have declined sharply. “Australia is incredibly fortunate to be in the position and its because of farsighted government policy,” AFAO chief executive Darryl O’Donnell said.
AUSTRALIA
Russian begins balloon trip
A 65-year-old Russian adventurer was drifting east across the Australian Outback in a balloon yesterday in a bid to set a record for flying solo around the world nonstop. Fedor Konyukhov launched his 56m-tall helium and hot air balloon at dawn from the same field outside Northam in Western Australia where US adventurer Steve Fossett started his circumnavigation of the globe in 2002. The accomplished balloonist, sailor and mountaineer hopes to complete the 33,000km journey in a cramped gondola in less than the 13 days that Fossett took. Fossett died in a plane crash in 2007. Konyukhov’s son, Oscar, said his father had waited six weeks for perfect conditions to take off. “We made the right decision to wait for this weather window,” the son told reporters. “It was dead calm. Our six weeks of waiting paid off.” Fedor Konyukhov has two days of flying across Australia before he is expected to drift over the Tasman Sea to New Zealand.
MYANMAR
Tattooed tourist deported
A Spanish tourist was facing deportation over a Buddha leg tattoo that offended monks, police said on Monday, in a nation where the influence of religious hardliners is growing. The man was initially detained in Bagan, an ancient town where tourists flock to visit thousands of picturesque temples and pagodas. “Monks in Bagan saw a Buddha tattoo on his right leg because he was wearing shorts. They informed us as it’s not appropriate,” a police officer said, adding that the Spaniard was promptly sent back to Yangon. A police official at Yangon airport confirmed the detention and said the man was to be deported to Bangkok on Monday evening. “We will send him back because he violated the rules as a tourist here,” he said. Portrayals of Buddha can land foreigners in hot water in Myanmar. Last year, a New Zealand bar manager spent 10 months in jail for “insulting religion” by using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
SPAIN
No one gored in Pamplona
Medical officials said at least four people suffered bruises, but no one was gored in a fast, sixth running of the bulls at Pamplona’s San Fermin festival yesterday. Several of the bulls bumped into runners and trampled on others as they raced along the narrow street course to the bull ring. About 1,000 people took part in the 8am run, which lasted just over two minutes. Navarra Hospital spokesman Jon Ariceta said first reports showed four people were hospitalized for bruises. The fiesta, which ends tomorrow, became famous with Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.
GERMANY
Offenders ‘can’t be found’
A top police official says it will likely be impossible to find many of the perpetrators of sexual offenses committed against women on New Year’s Eve. The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR reported on Monday, citing a draft Federal Criminal Police Office report, that police have concluded that about 1,200 women were victims of sexual offenses in German cities, largely blamed on foreigners — including 650 in Cologne. They said police officers estimate more than 2,000 men were involved, but the report says only 120 suspects were found. There have been four convictions so far. The police office would not confirm the figures. Office chief Holger Muench told the broadcasters investigations have not yet been concluded, but “we must assume [the perpetrators] of many of these acts can’t be found.”
UNITED STATES
Sharper suspect enters plea
A co-defendant in the drug and sexual assault case that brought down former NFL star Darren Sharper entered a plea agreement in New Orleans on Monday, leaving one other man to face trial. The agreement involving former restaurant worker Erik Nunez was confirmed by his defense attorney, Herbert Larson. The agreement had not been posted in court records by midday. With Nunez out of the courtroom, jury selection began for the lone remaining defendant, former St Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Licciardi. Opening statements are scheduled to begin on Friday in a trial expected to feature Sharper as a star witness. The federal case involved allegations that Licciardi, Nunez and Sharper gave drugs to women with the intent to rape them. Licciardi has pleaded not guilty. Sharper has pleaded guilty or no contest to charges arising from allegations that he drugged and raped women in Arizona, Nevada, California and Louisiana. He faces a possible 15 to 20 years in prison.
UNITED STATES
Mother confined child
An Ohio woman accused of regularly locking her young son in an unfinished basement for months has pleaded guilty to one count of child endangering and has been sentenced to three years in prison. Thirty-five-year-old Angel Abram pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Monday in Newark. Authorities said Abram and her boyfriend kept her six-year-old son in a 1.8m-by-2.4m room in the basement of their home when he was not in school and beat him with a belt. The boy was forced to eat his meals in the dirty basement, authorities said, and he had to use a toddler potty that he emptied himself as a bathroom. “He was the forgotten child, the disposable child,” Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Paula Sawyers said. The abuse apparently stemmed from the boy’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and behavioral issues, Sawyers said. Abram’s boyfriend, 39-year-old Joshua Bergeron, pleaded no contest to a child endangering charge and a weapons count and was sentenced in March to four years.
UNITED STATES
Mermaid ‘too busty’
A busty mermaid sculpted from sand and placed outside a popular Cape Cod restaurant is raising eyebrows and triggering complaints. The town of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and the local Chamber of Commerce say they fielded complaints from locals about the exaggerated proportions of the mermaid’s chest. Yarmouth’s police department took down photographs of the sculpture from its Facebook page after residents said they found the work of art offensive.
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