NEW ZEALAND
Woman thrown off plane
A woman who refused to watch the regulation air safety video or read the safety instructions card handed to her by flight attendants was reportedly removed from an Air New Zealand flight in Wellington. The woman was sitting in the exit row, but ignored attendants’ attempts to get her to listen to the safety instructions for the flight to Auckland on Tuesday. “The video started playing and the flight attendant held up the card, but the woman started looking down at her book,” one passenger told the Stuff news Web site. “A flight attendant said very patiently: ‘Can you please watch what’s happening because this is the exit row?’ The flight attendant was super kind and kept asking her, but the woman put her fingers in her ears,” the witness added.
HONG KONG
Millions of bitcoin hacked
Hackers stole US$41 million of bitcoin from Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, the company said yesterday. The 7,000 bitcoin were withdrawn by hackers using a variety of techniques, including “phishing, viruses and other attacks,” according to a post on Binance’s Web site by chief executive officer Zhao Changpeng (趙長鵬). The post said that user funds would not be affected because the company would use its secure asset fund for users to cover the loss.
CHINA
Canadian appeals sentence
A Canadian man handed the death penalty for drug smuggling is to appeal his sentence today, in a case that has deepened the diplomatic rift between the two nations. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was in January sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges. Schellenberg’s appeal is to take place this morning at the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in Liaoning Province, a source familiar with the case said. “Canada remains extremely concerned that China has chosen to apply the death penalty, a cruel and inhumane punishment,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Brittany Vehola-Fletcher said in an e-mail.
TANZANIA
Mountain cable car planned
The government wants to boost tourist numbers by putting a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, and is in talks about the project with a Chinese and a Western company. About 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually. A cable car could increase tourist numbers by 50 percent by providing access to the mountain for those unable to climb it, Deputy Prime Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Constantine Kanyasu said, adding that the country is conducting feasibility studies on possible routes. “This won’t be the first time in the world — cable cars are there in Sweden, Italy, the Himalayas,” he added. Porter and guide groups who take tourists up the mountain oppose the project because they fear cable cars would reduce the number of climbers.
RUSSIA
Seven lost after avalanche
Seven tourists on a hiking holiday in Siberia are feared dead after an avalanche in the Altai region, the local emergencies agency said yesterday, adding that rescuers were looking for the missing walkers. The avalanche happened on Monday, but only came to light yesterday when two survivors from the same group reached the nearby settlement of Kosh-Agach and were able to radio in for help, TASS news agency quoted the agency as saying. Two rescue helicopters have been deployed to find the missing tourists, the agency said.
CANADA
Bibi arrives from Pakistan
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy before she was freed last year, has arrived in the country, where she has reunited with her family, her lawyer has said. “It is a big day,” Saif Ul Malook said. “Asia Bibi has left Pakistan and reached Canada. Justice has been dispensed.” The government had offered her asylum in the country, where her daughters live, but close friends said that she had been prevented from leaving by authorities. Malook said Bibi’s safe arrival was the result of hard work by advocates, foreign diplomats and others “who stood by Bibi in hard times and worked for her freedom.”
UNITED STATES
Court rules in Trump’s favor
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump can make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings while the policy is challenged in court, handing the president a major victory, even if it proves only temporary. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a San Francisco judge that would have prevented asylum seekers from being returned to Mexico during the legal challenge. The case must still be considered on its merits and could end up at the Supreme Court. However, allowing the policy to remain in effect in the meantime lets the administration carry out an unprecedented change to asylum practices.
UNITED STATES
Newborn found in trash
A newborn boy was hospitalized in critical condition after being found atop a trash can on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Fire Department Deputy Chief Curtis Hudson said a passerby discovered the boy and took him to a nearby fire station. The baby was initially taken to Norwegian American Hospital. His condition was stabilized before he was transported to Lurie Children’s Hospital. A fire department spokesman said the baby was “crying and kicking.” A mother in crisis who cannot care for a newborn may anonymously surrender a baby up to 30 days old at hospitals, emergency medical care facilities, police and fire stations.
VENEZUELA
US lifts sanctions for general
The US has lifted sanctions on a top general who broke ranks with President Nicolas Maduro, trying to help the opposition regain momentum in the face of a government crackdown following last week’s failed uprising. US Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech on Tuesday that the immediate lifting of financial sanctions for General Manuel Figuera, who was the country’s spy chief, is intended to encourage others in the military to abandon their support for Maduro. Figuera was the sole regime insider to defy Maduro during the uprising.
UNITED STATES
Eagle crashes into home
An eagle grabbed a piece of freezer-burned halibut that someone had thrown out, and apparently misjudged its climb up a cliff with the 1.8kg piece of fish while likely being chased by another eagle, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday. The wrong trajectory led the eagle to smash through a front window of Stacy Studebaker’s home on Saturday. “It was so unbelievably loud. My first thought was: I thought an atomic bomb had dropped and the windows were blowing out,” said Studebaker, who founded the local chapter of the Audubon Society. She was astonished to find the damage came from a bird crashing through her window.
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
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