AUSTRALIA
Pell files High Court appeal
Disgraced Cardinal George Pell yesterday lodged an appeal with the High Court against his child sex abuse convictions, an official in Canberra said. It is the final avenue of appeal for the 78-year-old — who is serving a six-year sentence for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s — to get out of jail and clear his name. The former Vatican treasurer who once helped elect popes last month lost an appeal in Victoria State’s Court of Appeal in a landmark decision that saw the judges split in a 2-1 verdict. There is no guarantee that the High Court will agree to consider Pell’s case. The nation’s most senior judges will now deliberate on whether to allow the appeal to proceed, a process that could take months.
SLOVAKIA
PM survives no-confidence
Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini yesterday survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote over alleged contacts between a senior government official and a controversial businessman linked to a slain investigative journalist. Only 62 lawmakers in the 150-seat Parliament voted to dismiss Pellegrini. His dismissal would mean the end of his coalition government. The vote was requested by the opposition after media reports that the businessman, Marian Kocner, frequently exchanged text messages with Monika Jankovska, state secretary at the Ministry of Justice. Jankovska denied she knew Kocner, but has resigned from her post.
UNITED KINGDOM
Swimmer in 54-hour feat
US breast cancer survivor Sarah Thomas yesterday became the first person to swim across the Channel four times non-stop in a 54-hour feat of endurance. Thomas, 37, could be seen in a video posted on Facebook arriving at Dover on the southern English coast with a group of supporters cheering her on. “I feel a little sick,” she is heard saying in the video. In a post on Saturday before setting off, Thomas wrote: “This swim is dedicated to all the survivors out there... This is for those of us who have prayed for our lives, who have wondered with despair about what comes next, and have battled through pain and fear to overcome.” Thomas completed treatment for cancer a year ago.
FRANCE
Migrants leaving camp
Police yesterday were evacuating at least 900 migrants from a gym and a nearby tent camp near the English Channel, citing concerns about security and hygiene. A spokesman for the Nord region said the migrants being removed from the town of Grande Synthe include an unspecified number of children with their families. Local media said the migrants include many Kurds from Iraq. A court this month ordered the migrants removed to stem violence and human trafficking in the neighborhood. The spokesman said the migrants are being taken to temporary shelters and allowed to apply for asylum.
THAILAND
Giant panda dies at 19
Chiang Mai Zoo staff yesterday donned black-and-white clothing and observed a minute of silence to mourn the sudden death of a popular male giant panda on loan from China. Officials said Chuang Chuang collapsed on Monday in his enclosure shortly after standing up following a meal of bamboo leaves. Staff said they found no sign of illness or injury on the 19-year-old panda’s body, and that he had recently passed a health exam. Chuang Chuang and his female mate arrived in Chiang Mai in 2003 on a 10-year loan that was later extended for another 10 years.
ECUADOR
Most people’s data leaked
Almost the entire population had their personal data leaked online, security experts said on Monday. An estimated 17 million people had their data exposed by a breach on an unsecured server run by a marketing and analytics firm. “The information that I can share with you at this moment is that this is a very delicate issue,” Minister of the Interior Maria Paula Romo said. Security firm vpnMentor uncovered the breach on a server run by the firm Novaestrat, which included citizens’ full names, dates and places of birth, education levels, telephone numbers and national ID card numbers.
UNITED STATES
Trump blocks testimonies
President Donald Trump ordered two former White House aides not to testify at a House of Representatives committee hearing yesterday as the panel considers whether to recommend impeaching Trump. Former White House deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn and former staff secretary Rob Porter were subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee to appear at the hearing on possible obstruction of justice by Trump. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said the Department of Justice had determined that the two are “immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters related to their service as senior advisers to the president.”
UNITED STATES
Refusing gay couples OKed
Two Arizona artists who refused to create invitations to same-sex weddings due to their Christian beliefs were within their legal rights, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The decision invalidates previous judgements against the two women for breaching a Phoenix “human relations ordinance.” According to their lawyers, the two artists could have faced up to six months in prison and a US$2,500 fine each time they refused to make invitations to gay weddings. While the judges did not generalize their ruling to cover all commercial activity, gay rights advocates said that it set the stage for further legal battles.
UNITED STATES
Girl dies from amoeba
A 10-year-old girl has died in the hospital, her family said in a statement on Monday, after she contracted a rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a Texas river. Lily Mae Avant swam in a river and lake over the Labor Day holiday weekend, then developed a headache and a fever the following weekend. The Texas Department of State Health Services said that she had primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri. “The amoeba is present in fresh water across Texas and elsewhere in the US,” department spokesman Chris Van Deusen told TV station KWTX. “Cases are extremely rare.”
MEXICO
Developer held over death
A member of one of the nation’s wealthiest families was arrested on manslaughter charges after his 11-year-old son died on a family boating trip in the San Francisco Bay, police said on Monday. Javier A. Burillo, 57, was arrested on Sunday in Belvedere on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with a vessel, willful harm or injury to a child, and operating a boat while under the influence, Tiburon Police Chief Michael Cronin said. Burillo was driving the boat with his two sons aboard when both fell into open waters. Burillo helped bring the two back aboard and transported them to the Corinthian Yacht Club, where the 11-year-old was pronounced dead, he added.
‘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