CHINA
Subway riders need IDs
The first subway line in the northwestern city of Urumqi will require riders to show identification, adding to a growing list of security regulations in the restive surrounding region of Xinjiang. The rule allows for fines of up to 200 yuan (US$32) for those without valid tickets or who use others’ IDs to buy them once the line begins running later this year, Xinhua news agency said, adding that the Xinjiang regional legislature passed the measure on Sunday. Xinjiang is home to the Uighur Turkic Muslim ethnic group, which monitoring groups say has been targeted in a sweeping surveillance and security campaign that has sent thousands of people into detention and political indoctrination centers.
PHILIPPINES
Boracay may reopen earlier
The government is looking to shorten the closure period for its most popular holiday hotspot Boracay to four months from six, but the number of visitors allowed when it reopens will be slashed, Secretary of Tourism Wanda Teo said yesterday. A masterplan to redevelop Boracay, which has turned into a “cesspool” due to pollution according to President Rodrigo Duterte, into a livable and greener community is to be finalized after its rehabilitation, Teo said. “I think we can do it [cleanup] in four months. That’s why we wanted it [to be] total closure, for us to do it fast,” she said in an interview with ANC news channel. Boracay will be closed to local and foreign tourists from April 26.
JAPAN
One killed in landslide
A man has been found dead and several people are missing after a landslide engulfed houses in the southern city of Nakatsu, local officials said. The body has not yet been identified by local officials, but NHK television said the man was among six people who had been reported missing by a local resident. The landslide hit in the early hours yesterday and rescuers were searching for five women and one man reported missing after dirt engulfed three local homes.
SLOVENIA
Two migrants drown
Authorities on Tuesday said that two migrants died in separate attempts to enter the nation by crossing the Kolpa River marking its border with Croatia. The body of one migrant was recovered on Monday in the southeastern region of Bela Krajina, police said. He and a 19-year-old from Morocco had tried to cross the Kolpa. The second case was reported on Tuesday morning when police found the body of an Algerian who had perished trying to cross the same fast-flowing river with three compatriots. Police said the number of illegal crossings along the border with Croatia doubled in the first quarter to 600 compared with the same period last year.
CHINA
Man builds Airbus replica
A man in northeastern Liaoning Province who always wanted to own an aircraft is doing the next best thing: building a full-scale replica of an Airbus A320 jet. Zhu Yue, an aviation buff who worked as a welder and an auto mechanic, spent months studying plane models and technical drawings before he started building a homemade version a year ago with his friends. Zhu, 40, who lives in Kaiyuan City, said he planned to turn the replica into an aviation-themed restaurant. The replica — 37.8m long with a wingspan of 36m and height of 12m — will feature model engine turbines that can rotate and a simulation cockpit, he added. Zhu hopes to complete it by the end of year at a total cost of 2 million yuan.
UNITED STATES
New gun rules for Vermont
Vermont Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, was yesterday scheduled to sign the first significant gun restrictions in the state’s history. Scott planned to sign the bills on the statehouse step, weather permitting, as supporters and opponents of gun control watch. Scott, a gun owner, said he knows some people are going to be upset by the new laws, but that they will adjust when they realize the laws will not restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners. The bills Scott will sign would require universal background checks, raise the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21 and ban high-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices, make it easier to take guns from people who are believed to pose a threat to themselves and others, and to take guns from suspects in domestic violence cases.
UNITED STATES
Security adviser resigns
The White House on Tuesday was hit with a fresh resignation as top homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, announced his departure. “The president is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. The announcement came a day after John Bolton took over as national security adviser.
SWITZERLAND
Hunt on for missing skier
Authorities yesterday were searching for a German billionaire who has been missing since Saturday last week, when he failed to return from a ski excursion on the Matterhorn. Karl-Erivan Haub, the 58-year-old heir to the Tengelmann retail empire, was training for a ski race when he disappeared. Local media reported that the Haub family raised the alarm after he did not up at his hotel in Zermatt on Saturday afternoon. Italian mountain rescue service personnel have been searching on their side of the mountain, but bad weather and a high avalanche risk on Tuesday forced a six-person team to interrupt their search.
RUSSIA
Helicopter crash kills six
Six crew members died yesterday when a helicopter operated by Vostok Aviation Co crashed in a city in far eastern city of Khabarovsk, investigators said. The Mi-8 helicopter crashed onto a ravine at 11:30am, the Investigative Committee said. No casualties were reported on the ground. Vostok said the helicopter was in a training flight.
THE NETHERLANDS
Road’s tune riles villagers
Take the highway past the village of Jelsum and the road will play you a tune, created by strategically laid “rumble strips.” The strips are usually deployed on roadsides to warn drivers they are straying off course, but if hit at the correct speed the road sings out the anthem of the Friesland region. However, the novelty has worn thin for locals, who say the constant cacophony keeps them awake at night and is driving them mad. The Friesland authority has agreed to remove the rumble strips this week.
SWEDEN
King upset by Nobel furor
King Carl XVI Gustav yesterday said the resignation of three members from the Swedish Academy awarding the Nobel Literature Prize is “deeply unfortunate and risk seriously damaging” the body’s “important activities.” The trio quit on Friday last week after the 18-member academy voted against removing a colleague whose husband is embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations. The statement from the king, the academy’s patron, was his second comment on the issue.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of