NEW ZEALAND
Second needle case found
A needle has been found in a punnet of strawberries sold in the small South Island town of Geraldine over the weekend, police said yesterday, the second incident to hit the nation two months after a contamination crisis erupted in Australia. Supermarket owner Garry Sheed said he had since taken all strawberries off the shelves, but would not comment on whether the punnet was from Australia or New Zealand. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the person who found the needle was not harmed. “The matter has been referred to the police who are leading the criminal investigation,” a ministry spokesman told reporters. “At this stage, MPI does not have any reason to believe this is more widespread than the single discovery. However, as a precautionary measure the store has removed strawberries from shelves.”
ITALY
Di Maio open to deficit cut
Vice Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio yesterday said he was open to lowering the nation’s draft budget deficit, boosting stocks in Milan on hopes it could ease a stand-off with Brussels. The European Commission has rejected the draft budget because it sharply increases spending and the deficit to 2.4 percent of GDP from the previous government’s 0.8 percent, which it says would only add to the nation’s already massive debt mountain. “If, during the negotiating process, the deficit has to be reduced a bit, that’s not a big deal,” Di Maio told Radio Radicale. “The important thing is that not one person misses out on the [pledged] measures,” he said, in reference to a universal basic income and a pension reform promised by the ruling coalition. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, Di Maio and his fellow vice prime minister, Matteo Salvini were to discuss the budget late yesterday.
AUSTRALIA
Bhutan twins leave hospital
Formerly conjoined twins from Bhutan were yesterday released from a hospital more than two weeks after they were separated in a delicate surgery. The 15-month-old girls — Nima and Dawa — were joined from the lower chest to just above the pelvis and shared a liver. They were separated during an operation at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital on Nov. 9 that lasted almost six hours. A major challenge had been to reconstruct their abdomens. “Thank you, everyone,” their grateful mother, Bhumchu Zangmo, said, as she wheeled her daughters from the hospital where their lives have been transformed since their arrival on Oct. 2. The hospital’s head of pediatric surgery, Joe Crameri, told reporters the twins had made an “excellent recovery” and were acting independently. Before they return to Bhutan, the girls are to continue their recovery at a retreat in the town of Kilmore outside Melbourne run by the Children First Foundation.
UNITED KINGDON
Royal Mail sending music
Children writing to Father Christmas will have a chance to hear festive jingles break out as they post their wish list. Four letterboxes in as yet undisclosed locations in London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh are to be installed with sensors that will trigger either the sound of sleigh bells or a jolly message from Old Saint Nick. Anyone putting mail in the special postboxes will hear the merry messages in the coming weeks. The red postboxes are adorned with snowflakes and will be in place throughout the festive season. “We enjoy any way we can add a little extra fun to posting Christmas cards this year,” Royal Mail operations director Simon Barker said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was