UNITED KINGDOM
Yulia Skripal disharged
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has been discharged from hospital, reports said. Just more than a month after the pair were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury, England, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, the BBC yesterday said that Yulia Skripal, 33, had left Salisbury district hospital. The BBC said she had been taken to a secure location, though a hospital spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
BRAZIL
Jailed Lula to join election
Jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will register his candidacy to return to the nation’s highest office at the deadline for October’s election. The Workers’ Party announced after an eight-hour meeting on Monday that Lula remains its candidate and will have his bid registered on the final filing day, Aug. 15. Current legislation allows the electoral court to reject Lula’s candidacy due to his conviction. Despite being convicted of corruption and money laundering, Lula leads polls on the race for the presidency, an office he held in 2003 to 2010. He can still appeal his conviction.
UNITED STATES
Think tank on Korea closes
The US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies said that the South Korean government has terminated its funding, forcing it to close after it rejected demands to change its leadership. Institute chairman Robert Gallucci said the think tank would close next month after rejecting what he called “utterly inappropriate meddling” in its academic affairs. The institute conducts graduate studies on Korean affairs, but is best known for the Web site 38 North, a well-respected source of information on North Korea. The funding cut has been met with surprise in Washington.
AUSTRALIA
Melon farm cleared for sales
A New South Wales farm has recommenced selling cantaloupes, despite being blamed for an outbreak of the deadly listeria bacteria that the WHO said killed seven people and caused a miscarriage in the nation. The UN agency on Monday said that the Australian cantaloupes, known as rockmelons, were exported to Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and may also have been sent to the Seychelles. The agency said that between January and this month, the nation reported 19 confirmed cases and one probable case of listeria poisoning, including seven fatal. Authorities tracked the contamination to Rombola Family Farms. The New South Wales Food Authority last week said that Rombola had recommenced supplying rockmelons after testing cleared the property of contamination.
UNITED STATES
Naked jogger braves cold
With Baltimore temperatures hovering at about 4°C, a naked jogger may have pruned, but he certainly proved to be no prude. The Baltimore Sun reported that the sight of the naked man jogging through downtown Baltimore jolted commuters during Monday’s morning rush hour. In addition to clothes, the man eschewed shoes as he slowly trotted past a hospital and a courthouse. Witnesses reported the man did not seem lost or confused. Attorney Nicholas Panteleakis said he stopped at a traffic light 1.5m to 3m from the cardio enthusiast. Baltimore police spokeswoman Detective Nicole Monroe said that officers drove up the street in response to several 911 calls, but the man had disappeared, evading an indecent exposure charge.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the