JAPAN
Panda’s sex determined
A panda born earlier this month is a female, Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo said yesterday, adding that the little cub appeared to be in good health. The cub’s sex was confirmed based on photographs sent to a panda research center in the shy animal’s native China, a zoo spokesman said. Pandas are born pink, hairless and weighing about 100g — so small it can be difficult to determine their sex. The little cub is drinking her mother’s milk, the spokesman said, adding she is now 17.6cm long and weighs 283.9g.
UNITED STATES
Roadkill added to menu
Some folks in Oregon might not want to ask, when served an elk burger or a venison steak, where the meat came from. Under a roadkill bill passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature and signed by the governor, motorists who crash into the animals can now harvest the meat to eat. About 20 other states also allow people to take meat from animals killed by vehicles. Aficionados say roadkill can be high-quality, grass-fed food. “Eating roadkill is healthier for the consumer than meat laden with antibiotics, hormones and growth stimulants, as most meat is today,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said.
UNITED STATES
CIA admits candy theft
The CIA this week said that it had been compromised for months in 2013 by a network of high-tech snack thieves. A report shows the intelligence body discovered that insider hackers had stolen more than US$3,300 worth of potato chips, chocolate bars and other snacks from its vending machines. The culprits were “contractors,” the report said, adding that an unidentified contractor figured out how to get snacks without paying. The machines took stored value payment cards from the FreedomPay company. The contractor figured out that if you disconnect the cable that connects the machines with FreedomPay’s cloud-based payment systems, they would accept a card that has no more funds.
BRAZIL
Road pileup kills 21
Twenty-one people were killed in the country’s southeast on Thursday when a truck loaded with rocks smashed into a bus and two ambulances, officials said. The pileup in Espirito Santo state also left 13 people injured, the security services said. It was the third major road accident in the nation this month. The injured were taken to a hospital in Guarapari, near the site of the accident, the state security department said. Thirteen of the dead were in the bus, while the other victims were in the ambulances and truck. About 47,000 people die on Brazil’s roads each year, according to 2013 figures from the WHO.
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
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