CENTRAL EUROPE
Storm kills five people
High winds knocked down trees and caused widespread travel chaos across much of the region on Sunday, leaving five people dead and several injured. Storm Herwart, whose gusts reached 180kph, also caused electricity blackouts in hundreds of thousands of homes in the Czech Republic, Austria and other countries. Two people died in Poland, including a man who drove his car into a tree that had been knocked down by the storm, fire department spokesman Pawel Fratczak said. Two others were killed in the Czech Republic when they were hit by falling trees, local television reported. A 63-year-old camper was swept away in a flash flood and drowned at Jadebusen on Germany’s North Sea coast, the German news agency DPA reported.
ICELAND
PM survives snap election
Conservative Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson came out on top in a snap election despite a string of scandals, final results confirmed on Sunday, but it remained unclear whether he will be able to form a viable coalition. Benediktsson’s Independence Party beat its rivals in Saturday’s election, according to final results published on Sunday, although no party came near to winning a majority in parliament. The Independence Party won 16 seats in the 63-seat parliament. Turnout was 81 percent. It could take days, weeks or even months before a new government is in place as thorny coalition negotiations await.
UNITED STATES
Spacey comes out as gay
Actor Kevin Spacey came out as gay early yesterday and apologized to actor Anthony Rapp, who accused the Hollywood star of making a sexual advance on him at a 1986 party when Rapp was only 14 years old. Spacey’s announcement, posted on his Twitter account at midnight, came after Rapp made the accusation in an interview with Buzzfeed News. Spacey, 58, said he did not remember the encounter, but that “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” He went on say that Rapp’s accusation “encouraged me to address other things about my life... As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Probe launched over USB
Heathrow Airport has launched an investigation after a memory stick containing confidential security information was found on a London street. The Sunday Mirror reported that a member of the public found the USB drive and turned it over to the newspaper. The device contained 76 folders, including information about the security measures used to protect Queen Elizabeth II when she uses the airport and how to access restricted areas. The data was not encrypted.
UNITED STATES
Gunman’s brain to be studied
Scientists are preparing to do a microscopic study of the Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock’s brain. Paddock’s brain is being sent to Stanford University for a months-long examination after a visual inspection during an autopsy found no abnormalities, Las Vegas authorities said. Doctors are to perform multiple forensic analyses, including an exam of the 64-year-old’s brain tissue to find any possible neurological problems.
SYRIA
Some hostages back home
Twenty-six hostages who escaped from their Islamic State group captors received an emotional homecoming on Sunday in Homs Province. They were among at least 70 people abducted and taken militants to a secret location in the desert east of al-Qaryatayn on Oct. 21 when the army and pro-government militias regained control of the town. The others are still missing. About 200 people turned out in al-Qaryatayn to welcome home the returnees. A local official said the hostages escaped after they got past a militant as he napped, seized his gun and killed him.
PHILIPPINES
Duterte urges talks with Kim
President Rodrigo Duterte said someone should talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to convince him nobody is out to remove him or destroy his nation. “A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody,” Duterte said Sunday before flying to Japan, where he is on a two-day visit. “And somebody has to talk to Kim Jong-un.” Duterte said North Korea’s nuclear threat is among issues he will discuss with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while in Tokyo and with US President Donald Trump when Trump visits Manila next month. “It would be good if America, Japan, Korea, and Mr Kim Jong-un talk and to convince him to sit down on a round table and just tell him that nobody’s threatening him, that there will be no war, and that if he can just tone down or stand down, stop the threats, and that would be the same for America,” he added.
SOUTH KOREA
Jail term call for Lotte boss
Prosecutors yesterday demanded a 10-year jail term for Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin for embezzlement and breach of duty. Shin was charged with embezzling US$50 million and illegally offering relatives business favors that cost the group about US$120 million. Similar charges were leveled against his older brother and sister and their father, Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho — as well as the latter’s mistress. Shin Dong-bin awarded lucrative deals or paid “wages” worth millions of dollars to relatives who made little contribution to management, they said, also urging he be fined 100 billion won (US$89 million). They sought jail terms ranging from five to seven years for his brother and sister and their father’s mistress.
CHINA
‘Battlegrounds’ banned
The world’s hottest video game is set to be locked out of the biggest market. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds — where competitors fight to be the last one alive — is too bloody and violent, China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association said in a statement. The gladiator-like mentality of the computer game deviates from the values of socialism and is deemed harmful to young consumers, it said. The clampdown coincides with growing interest from Chinese gamers and companies in the game, which has sold more than 13 million copies this year.
JAPAN
Serenade planned for Trump
Donald Trump will be serenaded with a bizarre hit song about a “pen-pineapple-apple-pen” on his visit to Tokoyo next week. The government plans to roll out the novelty song by entertainer Pikotaro — whose 45-second PPAP ditty went viral last year — will sing to the US leader, Kyodo News agency reported. The singer, apparently a favorite of Trump’s grandchildren, will attend a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, government sources told Kyodo.
‘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
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