AUSTRALIA
Three-eyed snake found
A three-eyed snake found slithering down a road in Humpty Doo has sparked amusement in a nation already accustomed to unusual wildlife. Rangers dubbed the serpent “Monty Python” after finding it on a highway in late March. X-rays showed that all three of its eyes were functioning, the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission said on Facebook, adding that such deformities are common among reptiles. Wildlife officers told the Northern Territory News that the 40cm carpet python was about three months old and died after about a month in captivity. “It’s remarkable it was able to survive so long in the wild with its deformity,” ranger Ray Chatto told the newspaper yesterday. However, Monty Python found a new life online after the commission posted photographs of it on Facebook. “I tried to come up with a few jokes, but they just got cornea and cornea,” one user wrote.
Photo AFP / Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife
JAPAN
Abe open to talks with Kim
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he is ready to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without conditions, Sankei reported yesterday. Resolving the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents decades ago to train North Korean spies has for years been a condition for improving diplomatic and economic ties. Abe signaled the shift in an interview with the newspaper on Wednesday, saying that the only way to “break the current mutual distrust” was for him to hold unconditional talks with Kim. The last meeting between the leaders of Japan and North Korea was in 2004.
CHINA
‘US$6.5m’ paid in scandal
The mother of a Chinese student yesterday said that she paid US$6.5 million to the man at the heart of a US college admission scandal, but was duped into believing the sum was a charitable donation. William “Rick” Singer has pleaded guilty to working with coaches, university administrators and exam monitors to get the children of wealthy families into colleges. Most of the cases have involved parents paying between US$15,000 and US$600,000 to ensure their children got into college, but earlier this week, US media reported that Singer received a payment of US$6.5 million from a wealthy Chinese family whose daughter got into Stanford in 2017. The family’s lawyers released a statement in which she said that Singer had led her to believe it was a legitimate donation that would go toward Stanford’s staff salaries and scholarship program.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in