AUSTRALIA
Tourist burned at festival
A French tourist who had reportedly taken hallucinogenic drugs suffered serious burns to about 40 percent of her body when she fell into a campfire three times, officials said yesterday. The woman was at the Mushroom Valley music festival near Yalboroo on the east coast when she “wandered away into bushland to another campsite,” the Central Queensland Helicopter Rescue Service said in a statement. “The 21-year-old woman suffered serious burns to her legs, torso and forearms after she fell into a campfire three times. She also sustained serious cuts and lacerations to her arms and legs from a barbed wire fence.” The woman, who has not been named, was returned to the festival by campers and flown to a hospital by helicopter.
THAILAND
Ancient dual leads to case
An 85-year-old social critic faces up to 15 years in prison for offending the monarchy after questioning whether a duel on elephant-back, fought more than 400 years ago by a king against a Burmese adversary, ever took place. Police yesterday escorted Sulak Sivaraksa to a Bangkok military court where he was officially charged with insulting the monarchy. The case stems from remarks Sulak made in 2014 when he told a public forum to think critically about the nation’s history and questioned whether King Naraesuan had really won the Battle of Nong Sarai in 1593 by defeating a Burmese prince in solo combat, mounted on a war elephant. Sulak, who walks with the aid of a cane, said he had no idea why the case was going ahead now, so long after his speech. Sulak’s attorney said he would fight the charges.
INDIA
Death sentences commuted
The Gujarat High Court yesterday commuted the death sentences given by a lower court to 11 people after one of the many deadly riots that swept the western state of Gujarat 15 years ago in which more than 1,000 people died. The 11 will now face life in prison. The court also upheld the life sentences for 20 other people convicted of involvement in setting fire to a train coach in which 60 Hindu pilgrims were killed in 2002. The court dismissed the state government’s appeal against the acquittal of 63 people due to lack of evidence.
INDIA
Firecracker ban in Dehli
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a temporary ban on the sale of firecrackers in New Delhi, ahead of the Diwali festival that leaves the city shrouded in toxic smog. Firecrackers are set off day and night during Diwali — the Hindu festival of lights — which this year falls on Thursday next week. Acting on a petition, the court directed that all licenses to sell firecrackers in New Delhi and neighboring cities be suspended until Oct. 31. The court imposed a similar ban in November last year when the city’s air quality reached “hazardous” levels after Diwali.
JAPAN
Poodle shuts runway
A poodle’s dash for freedom yesterday briefly shut down one runway at Tokyo International Airport. The dog escaped at Haneda airport as its cage was being loaded onto a Japan Airlines plane bound for Naha, Okinawa, about 8:50am, airport police said. It appeared to enjoy its brief taste of freedom, dashing across a runway and sniffing around in grassy areas. Officials had to close one of four runways for six minutes, causing delays for 14 flights, police said. The poodle’s owner had to come out to catch it about 40 minutes later.
BRAZIL
Dead teacher honored
President Michel Temer on Sunday honored a nursery school teacher who died while rescuing children from a blaze set deliberately by a security guard, killing nine people. Temer posthumously awarded the National Order of Merit to Heley de Abreu Silva Batista, who “gave her own life to save the lives of her students,” the presidency said in a statement. Batista, 43, worked at the nursery school in Janauba, a small town about 600km from the state capital of Minas Gerais. On Thursday last week, the security guard, who authorities say had mental problems, entered and sprayed students with flammable alcohol before setting fire to the building. The teacher and eight children died, as did the guard.
VENEZUELA
Maduro thanks Trump
President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday baited US President Donald Trump by thanking him for a barrage of criticism that had made him famous worldwide. “It’s an honor that the head of the empire mentions me every day,” said the 54-year-old president, just back from a trip to Russia, Belarus and Turkey. “That means I’m doing something right,” Maduro said during his weekly program on state TV. “Donald Trump has become the head of the Venezuelan opposition,” said Maduro, who has ruled the OPEC member since 2013, but seen his popularity plummet during an economic crisis.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Oric acquitted of war crimes
Muslim commander Naser Oric, who led the defense of Srebrenica during the 1992-to-1995 war, was yesterday acquitted of war crimes against Serbs, a ruling that is set to deepen ethnic divisions 22 years after the conflict ended. Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs had accused Oric’s men of killing Serb civilians in and around Srebrenica earlier in the war. Srebrenica eventually fell to Bosnian Serb forces in 1995 — the ensuing killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys was seen as Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dove apologizes for ad
Personal care brand Dove has apologized for an advert that showed a black woman removing a top to reveal a white woman underneath, following accusations of racism. The three-second video clip appeared in the US on the social networking site Facebook. Dove said on Twitter that it had “missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully” and deeply regretted any offense caused. The body wash ad showed a black woman removing her top, revealing a white woman underneath. She then took off her T-shirt, showing a third woman underneath. “This did not represent the diversity of real beauty which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened. We have removed the post and have not published any other related content. We apologize deeply and sincerely for the offense that it has caused,” it said.
FRANCE
Hiker falls to his death
A German man hiking with his family on Sunday fell to his death while taking a picture, rescue services said. The 48-year-old lost his footing in the southern Gard region and plummeted from a 30m high cliff face about 10am as his family looked on helplessly. “He was just taking a picture or was having his picture taken” in an area reputed for its scenery, a rescue services spokesman said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited