ITALY
Tigers maul tamer to death
Four tigers have mauled to death their tamer in the country’s south, fueling calls for a ban on the use of animals in circuses as lawmakers debate the issue. The 61-year-old tamer, Ettore Weber, was attacked by the tigers on Thursday during a training session in Triggiano, a small town in the Puglia region, police said. All the circus’ eight tigers were impounded by police, triggering protests from animal welfare associations. The Anti-Vivisection League called for the tigers involved in the attack not to be killed, and urged the government to speed up legislation to ban circus animals. “Tigers must be saved ... and placed in an environment suitable for their natural needs,” the league said in a statement.
POLAND
Holocaust survivor dies
Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of Auschwitz and the death camp’s infamous doctor Josef Mengele, has passed away during a trip to the Holocaust site, sources said. The Romanian-born Kor, who founded the Candles Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, and devoted her life to Holocaust awareness, was 85. Kor passed away on Thursday in Krakow during an annual trip organized by the museum that included a visit to Auschwitz, the museum said. “Forgive your worst enemies,” Kor said in a video recording of her last visit to the Auschwitz Museum posted on its official Facebook page. “The moment I forgave the Nazis, I felt free from Auschwitz and from all the tragedy that had occurred to me,” she added.
CHINA
City bans ‘Beijing bikinis’
A city is cracking down on the practice of men rolling up their shirts and baring their bellies as temperatures soar in parts of the country. The “Beijing bikini,” as it is sometimes known by expats, has been banned in Jinan. The authorities have released a notice banning the “uncivilized behavior,” saying it was “seriously affecting the image of the city.” Violators could face punishment, especially in densely populated areas such as parks, public squares, buses, scenic spots and business areas. Jinan authorities have also posted a long list of other banned behaviors, such as taking off shoes to air out feet, spitting, littering and line-jumping.
THAILAND
Actress faces jail over clams
A South Korean actress faces up to five years in jail for catching endangered giant clams in a reality TV stunt, an official said yesterday, despite the show’s extensive apology. Lee Yeol-eum was filmed diving for giant clams at a marine park for Sunday last week’s episode of Law of the Jungle — a popular South Korean reality show. After prizing two giant clams from the coral-laid seabed, Lee pumped them in the air yelling: “I caught it!” The mollusks are listed as an endangered species and protected under law.
UNITED STATES
Unruly passenger billed
A South Korean man whose behavior on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to South Korea forced it to return to Honolulu has been ordered to pay the carrier more than US$172,000. Kyong Chol-kim was on Wednesday sentenced to six months in jail for interfering with flight attendants and crew members on the flight in February. The 48-year-old drank a bottle of whiskey before the flight and later bothered a child seated next to him, prosecutors said. He lunged at a flight attendant after the employee confronted him about his behavior, they said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion