GERMANY
Mobs channel Kate Bush
Hundreds of red-clad fans of British singer Kate Bush on Saturday staged flash mobs in Berlin, Dublin, the Netherlands and Sydney as they re-enacted her classic hit, Wuthering Heights. Bush wrote the song aged 18, inspired after seeing an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel of the same name. Bush recorded it in 1978 dressed in red and it was her most successful single. Hundreds of fans gathered in Berlin’s Goerlitzer Park under light rain, recreating Bush’s moves for a performance lasting about four minutes. The annual tribute was started several years ago in Berlin.
Photo: AFP
TURKEY
Missile deliveries continue
Russia yesterday delivered more components of its S-400 air defense system, the Ministry of Defense tweeted yesterday. Four Russian cargo plane landed at Murted Air Base, near Ankara. The deliveries began on Friday.
CANADA
Citizen detained in China
A citizen has been detained in Yantai, China, the government said Saturday, but it did not provide details about the identity of the detainee, nor the reason for the detention. It also would not say if the detention was related to the arrests last week of 16 foreign teachers and students and three Chinese on drug allegations in Xuzhou.
RUSSIA
Telescope put into orbit
A Proton-M rocket on Saturday delivered a cutting-edge space telescope into orbit after days of launch delays, the space agency Roscosmos said. The telescope, named Spektr-RG, was delivered into a parking orbit before a final burn on Saturday that kicked the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and on to its final destination: the L2 Lagrange point. Lagrange points are unique positions in the solar system where objects can maintain their position relative to the sun and the planets that orbit it. L2 is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. If all goes well, the telescope will arrive at its designated position in three months.
RUSSIA
Instagrammers cautioned
Environmentalists are warning people against coming into contact with the water of a bright blue reservoir nicknamed the “Siberian Maldives” after thousands of Novosibirsk residents — ranging from scantily clad women to newlyweds — have been instagramming near it. The reservoir is blue due to a chemical reaction between toxic waste elements from a local power station. Environmentalist Dmitry Shakhov said the water is saturated with heavy metals and harmful substanses and can cause allergic reactions or even chemical burns if ingested or touched. The Siberian Generating Co on Friday said that it had deployed guards to keep trespassers at bay, but insists the reservoir presents no environmental danger.
UNITED STATES
Man shot attacking center
An armed man who attacked an immigration detention facility in Washington state with “incendiary devices” was shot dead after a confrontation with Tacoma police, authorities said. Officers arrived at the Northwest Detention Center early on Saturday after a report a man armed with a rifle had set a car on fire and had attempted to ignite a large propane tank.
JAPAN
S Korea curbs discussed
The “inappropriate incidents” that triggered a crackdown by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on specialty material exports to South Korea must have been serious, senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party member Koichi Hagiuda yesterday said in a televised debate on public broadcaster NHK. The inappropriate incidents included cases affecting national security where export materials ended up overseas for weapons use, Tetsuo Saito, a senior member of the Komeito Party in the ruling coalition party, said during the debate. “We believe that the government’s actions were correct,” Hagiuda said. “But as Japan and South Korea are important neighbors, it would be disgraceful if this point alone puts the entirety of Japan-South Korean relations at odds.” Hagiuda also said that the country has not strengthened its export control to South Korea, but has merely reversed its preferential treatment.
MALAYSIA
Authorities seize CPP funds
Authorities have seized more than 1 billion ringgit (US$243.25 million) from a bank account of state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Ltd (CPP), the Straits Times newspaper said on Saturday. The seizure came nearly a year after the government suspended two pipeline projects, valued at US$2.3 billion, on which CPP was the lead contractor. The government this month ordered HSBC to transfer the funds held in the Chinese firm’s account to Suria Strategic Energy Resources, which is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, the Singapore-based newspaper said. CPP was perplexed by the unilateral transfer of funds out of its account without notification, the firm, a unit of state energy giant China National Petroleum Corp, told the newspaper.
AUSTRALIA
Quake shakes buildings
An magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck west of Broome, the US Geological Survey said yesterday, with residents saying the impact shook some buildings and pushed groceries off shelves. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the quake, which the agency initially said was of magnitude 6.9, hitting at a depth of 33km about 203km offshore from the Western Australia town. Videos posted on social media showed vehicles and buildings shaking, and groceries being knocked from shelves, with some residents reporting minor damage to businesses. Such an earthquake was uncommon for the region, Phil Cummins, a seismologist with Geoscience Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “It’s quite rare ... you might see this event every 20 years,” Cummins said.
ISRAEL
Minister sparks outrage
Minister of Education Rafi Peretz has spoken of his belief in therapy to convert gays to heterosexuality and claimed he has engaged in the practice, leading to calls for him to be sacked. The comments late on Saturday in a TV interview were only the latest controversial views voiced by the recently installed minister who heads a far-right party popular with settlers. Asked by Channel 12 whether he was in favor of so-called conversion therapy and if he believed he could change a gay person, Peretz, who is also a rabbi, said “I think you can, I think you can.” “I can tell you that I have a deep knowledge of education, and I have done it too,” he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly condemned the remarks, but signaled he had no intention of firing Peretz as members of opposition demanded.
‘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