VIETNAM
Villagers take hostages
The mayor of Vietnam’s capital has met with representatives from a village on the outskirts of the city trying to secure the release of more than a dozen policemen and officials who villagers have been holding hostage over a land dispute. The standoff began one week ago when police clashed with villagers who say that their farmland was illegally taken for sale by a military-run telecoms company. Nearly a dozen villagers were arrested. Villagers then took as many as 38 policemen and officials hostage. So far, 16 have been released and three managed to escape. The state-run online newspaper Vnexpress said about 50 village representatives were selected for talks yesterday with Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung at the village government building.
UNITED STATES
Women good liars: lawyer
A defense lawyer is being criticized for telling a Tennessee jury that women are “especially good” at lying “because they’re the weaker sex.” The Commercial Appeal in Memphis reported a jury on Friday found wealthy businessman Mark Giannini not guilty of three counts of rape. The newspaper said the woman he was accused of raping left crying and screaming. Attorney Steve Farese made the comments during closing arguments in the case. Giannini had been accused of raping the woman when she came to his house for a job interview. Farese maintains that the sex was consensual and has questioned the woman’s credibility. Memphis Area Women’s Council executive director Deborah Clubb called Farese’s comments “absolutely despicable.” Farese told the newspaper that his job “is not to care if anybody gets offended” and “smart people will see it for what it is.”
UNITED STATES
Hoverboard dentist charged
Prosecutors said an Alaska dentist charged with Medicaid fraud pulled a sedated patient’s tooth while riding a hoverboard. Seth Lookhart was charged with 17 counts of Medicaid fraud after prosecutors say he billed Medicaid US$1.8 million last year for intravenous sedation used in procedures that did not call for it. Prosecutors said in an indictment that investigators found a video on Lookhart’s smartphone of him riding a hoverboard while extracting a sedated patient’s tooth. They said he texted the video to his office manager and joked that it was a “new standard of care.” Prosecutors said investigators contacted the patient and she told them she was unaware that Lookhart was riding the hoverboard while operating on her. Lookhart’s office manager is also charged in the case.
UNITED STATES
‘Dreamers’ doubt Trump
Young immigrants protected by executive action from deportation say they will not “rest easy,” even if President Donald Trump said they should. Nearly 800,000 people who were brought to the nation as children and are living in the country illegally qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. They have been dubbed “dreamers.” Trump on Friday told reporters that his administration is “not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals.” However, many said those comments would not assuage their fears, particularly after the recent deportation of a 23-year-old immigrant who qualified for deferred deportation. Juan Escalante is a 28-year-old who was brought to the US from Venezuela aged 11. “I don’t think anyone should feel comforted,” he told reporters on Friday.
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