CHINA
Oldest captive panda dies
The world’s oldest captive giant panda, Basi (巴斯), has died at age 37 — more than 100 years in human years — her handlers said yesterday as they gave her an emotional send-off befitting a celebrity. She was something of a beloved star Straits Giant Panda Research and Exchange Center in Fuzhou, where she had lived since being rescued after she fell into a river in southwestern China at the age of five. She was the model for PanPan, the mascot for the first Asian Games in 1990 and was loaned to the San Diego Zoo in California for six months in 1987.
Photo: AFP
THAILAND
Rebel ambush kills soldier
One soldier died and 20 other people were wounded yesterday, including two civilians, as suspected rebels ambushed an army patrol in the Yaha district of Yala Province, officials said. The attack began early yesterday when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying the army rangers in a remote village. A second explosive was detonated half an hour later as bomb squad experts arrived to clear the scene, followed by a shoot-out in which suspected militants peppered the security forces with fire.
FINLAND
Abducted aid worker freed
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs said a citizen working for the Swedish humanitarian organization Operation Mercy who was kidnapped in Afghanistan has been released and is safe. The woman has not been identified and the ministry said the family asks for privacy. The woman was abducted on May 20 during an attack on an international guest house in Kabul that left a German colleague dead along with an Afghan guard.
AUSTRALIA
Hanson wants veil ban
Senator Pauline Hanson, leader of the One Nation party, yesterday urged lawmakers to ban full-face Muslim coverings in public places. She has introduced a bill to make wearing full-face coverings an offense punishable by an A$4,200 (US$3,400) fine. Three senators, including Hanson, argued over her bill before a majority of senators shut down debate until a later date.
INDIA
Boat capsizes, 19 die
A boat crowded with construction workers capsized in the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh early yesterday and at least 19 people have drowned, officials said. At least 10 people swam to safety while about 31 passengers are missing, police officer Ram Kumar said. More than 60 people were on the boat when it capsized near the town of Baghpat. The boat had a capacity for only 35 passengers, district magistrate Bhawani Singh said.
CAMBODIA
US stops visas for officials
The US embassy in Phnom Penh on Wednesday stopped issuing visas to senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and their families. It said the suspension was implemented under US immigration law in response to Cambodia’s refusal to accept back its nationals whom the US wants to repatriate, adding that the action had been initiated by the US Department of Homeland Security. Under a 2002 agreement with the US, the government had accepted the repatriation of about 500 returnees per year, but it recently stopped.
MEXICO
Students hijack fuel tanker
Radical students in Guerrero State on Wednesday hijacked a fuel tanker truck and two buses, and later kidnapped four police officers to demand the release of about 10 students arrested over the vehicle thefts. Guerrero security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said in a statement that the students took the tanker truck with almost 30,000 liters of gasoline back to their campus and hijacked several delivery trucks carrying food. Police blocked their path and forced them to abandon two hijacked passenger buses, arresting 10 students. Other students later kidnapped four police officers to demand the release of those arrested. The arrested students were let go in exchange for the release of the four kidnapped officers, Alvarez said.
GUATEMALA
Lawmakers reduce penalties
Congress on Wednesday approved legislation reducing the punishment for campaign finance crimes, two days after blocking prosecutors and a UN anti-corruption commission from investigating President Jimmy Morales for alleged irregularities during the election that carried him to office. Lawmakers voted to reduce the maximum sentence from 12 to 10 years and to permit the decade in prison to be commuted with a fine. Critics called the changes an attempt to protect the president and his allies. Adding to the controversy, the vote came after lawmakers decided it was a matter of “national urgency,” postponing votes on school meals and other issues.
GREECE
Oil spill reaches beaches
Authorities have appealed to swimmers to stay away from some popular beaches on the coast of Athens after oil spilled from a sunken tanker started to reach the area. Small slicks were on Wednesday reported at beaches in the suburbs of Glyfada and Piraeus. Glyfada Mayor Giorgos Papanikolaou said municipal workers have set up floating booms offshore and used chemicals to try to dissolve the oil. Small tanker Agia Zoni II sank on Sunday while anchored off the coast of Salamis Island. It was carrying 1995.8 tonnes of fuel oil and 335.7 tonnes of marine gas oil.
FRANCE
Court bans tilde in name
A court on Wednesday banned a couple from giving their baby a name containing a tilde, ruling that the “n with a squiggle over it” was incompatible with national law, even though it was the name of two famous Breton writers. The couple from Brittany wanted to call their newborn baby boy a traditional name in the northwestern region. Born in May, the baby already has an identification card and passport with the tilde on it. His furious father, Jean-Christophe Bernard, said the battle was not over. “He will have his tilde, that’s for sure,” Bernard said. “When? We don’t know. We’ll see with a lawyer and with the town hall what we can do.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Museum eyes ‘fatberg’
Part of a huge “fatberg” blocking a 250m stretch of London’s sewer network could go on display after the Museum of London expressed an interest in obtaining a section of the 130 tonne mass of waste and fat. The museum, which is planning a move to a new site at Smithfield, contacted Thames Water Utilities about acquiring a section of the congealed block of wet wipes, diapers, fat and oil for their general collection following its discovery in a Victorian sewer in Whitechapel, east London. Alex Werner, lead curator for the new museum, told reporters that the fatberg “calls to attention the way we live our lives in a modern city.”
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
‘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