BELGIUM
King told to provide DNA
An appeals court has ruled that former king Albert must provide DNA in a court case brought by a woman who claims to be the love child of the royal. The decision on Monday came as a surprise since a lower court ruled Delphine Boel could not rely on such forensic evidence to establish paternity. Monday’s ruling gives Albert three months to provide a DNA sample that would be used to determine if he was Boel’s father. Boel’s claim has been on and off the front pages of local newspapers for years. Albert has never publicly denied being her father.
UNITED KINGDOM
Elba sexiest man: ‘People’
People magazine has named Idris Elba as this year’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” and the actor said the honor has given him a boost of self-confidence. The star of The Wire and Luther was surprised after being crowned this year’s winner, the magazine said. “I was like, ‘Come on, no way. Really?’” he told the magazine. “Looked in the mirror, I checked myself out. I was like, ‘Yeah, you are kind of sexy today.’ Elba is to be featured in a special double issue that will hit newsstands on Friday.
UNITED STATES
No to strip club expenses
Under Armour has barred employees from expensing strip-club visits on their corporate cards, part of an attempt by the athletic brand to adjust to the #MeToo era. The policy change was announced in an e-mail to employees in February, according to the Wall Street Journal, which said that women who worked at the company found the practice demeaning. In a statement to Bloomberg News, Under Armour said it had addressed “these serious allegations of the past,” without getting specific. “We are committed to providing a respectful and inclusive workplace,” the Baltimore-based company said.
UNITED STATES
No regrets: army widow
The wife of a Utah mayor and National Guard member who was killed in Afghanistan by one of his Afghan trainees says there is “heartache, but no regret.” Brent Taylor, 39, took a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden north of Salt Lake City for his deployment to Afghanistan, where he was training commandos. He was killed in Saturday’s attack from small arms fire, military officials said. Taylor was expected to return to his mayoral job in January and come home to his wife, Jennie, and their seven children. “When I asked Jennie what she would like me to say when we came out, she said that there is heartache but no regret,” Kristy Pack, Jennie Taylor’s sister, said on Sunday night outside the family’s home.
UNITED STATES
Newlyweds killed in crash
A newlywed couple died when the helicopter they were flying in hours after their wedding crashed into a hill in the rugged terrain of southwest Texas. William Troy Byler and Bailee Raye Ackerman Byler, both 24, were killed in the crash shortly after midnight on Sunday about 16km northwest of Uvalde and about 129km west of San Antonio, said Steven Kennedy, justice of the peace for Uvalde County Precinct 1. The couple were married on Saturday night at a large Byler family ranch near Uvalde and left aboard a Byler family helicopter after the reception, Kennedy said. “It’s very rocky, rough terrain and this particular hill has a 400 or 500-foot [122m or 152m] rise.”
AUSTRALIA
Third shark kills in harbor
A man died after he was attacked on Monday by a shark in waters off the northeast coast, police said, the third attack in the region in the past two months. The 33-year-old man was paddle boarding and then swimming off a chartered yacht in the Whitsunday Islands’ Cid Harbour when he was bitten by a shark at about 5:30pm, a police spokesman said. The attack follows two others in the same area in September, when a 12-year-old girl and a 46-year-old man suffered severe injuries from shark attacks while swimming on two consecutive days.
INDONESIA
Dial affected Lion Air crash
Officials are providing the strongest hints yet that a faulty airspeed indicator played a role in the crash of a Lion Air jet into the Java Sea. Investigators on Monday said that one of the so-called “black boxes” showed that the airspeed indicator on the Boeing jet malfunctioned on its last four flights, including the Oct. 29 crash that killed all 189 people on board. “If you were driving down the interstate and the speedometer failed, would you expect to crash the car?” said John Cox, a former airline pilot and now a safety consultant. He said a faulty airspeed system might have contributed to the crash, but that based on what we know so far, it should not be considered the cause of the crash.
AUSTRALIA
Mobile wash expanding
A mobile laundry and shower service for the homeless has begun international expansion after being inundated with requests from cities worldwide. Four years ago two young men spotted a gap in the market and fitted out a van with a washer and dryer, driving it to parks, churches and shelters to bring hygiene services to the homeless community on their own turf. “When we dreamed this up it was a world first, and we had a lot of practical issues to overcome,” said Lucas Patchett, cofounder of Orange Sky. “But we strongly believed that access to hygiene was a basic human right.” Now 27 Orange Sky laundry and shower vans operate nationally, and last month began operating one in Auckland, New Zealand, with plans to venture to the US. It has been asked to provide services in Singapore and Hong Kong.
TANZANIA
EU pulls official amid bias
The EU has recalled its ambassador to Dodoma, citing “the deterioration of the human rights and rule of law situation” in the East African nation where one regional official last week called for the outing and arrests of homosexuals. The EU said in a statement on Monday that it would be conducting a broad review of its relations with the nation. There are fears of an impending crackdown against homosexuals after Dar es Salaam Commissioner Paul Makonda urged people to spy on suspected gays and lesbians and to report their activities. The government has since issued a statement saying that Makonda had stated his personal opinion.
YEMEN
Charity describes ‘nightmare’
The Norwegian Refugee Council has said that millions are edging closer to famine and fatal disease one year after a Saudi-led coalition imposed a blockade on sea, land and air routes in the nation. Late on Monday, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council said that “the past 12 months have been a never-ending nightmare for Yemeni civilians.”
‘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