SOUTH KOREA
Storm kills six people
At least six people were killed and several others were missing after Typhoon Mitag — which passed Taiwan on Monday — lashed the nation with heavy rain and strong winds, authorities said yesterday. The storm hit southern parts of the nation on Wednesday night, prompting flood warnings and triggering landslides. A woman in her 70s died after she was swept away by strong winds in the southeastern city of Pohang, while another woman was killed after heavy rain caused her house to collapse as she slept, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said. Six people were killed across the country, but the toll was expected to rise.
AUSTRALIA
Wombat death sparks probe
A police officer is being investigated after an online video appeared to show him stoning a wombat to death, police said yesterday. The video shows a shirtless man pursuing a wombat down a dirt road, throwing rocks at it as another man films the night-time encounter from a vehicle and calls out encouragement. After giving a thumbs-up to the camera, the first man strikes the marsupial at least three times before it falls to the ground and stops moving. The man raises his arms in victory to the driver, who responds with a laugh: “Oh no, you killed him, bro.” Squat and furry, wombats are small burrow-dwelling marsupials that are largely nocturnal and walk on all fours. Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that South Australia police commissioner Grant Stevens had confirmed the man was a police officer.
AUSTRALIA
Deadly fungi discovered
One of the world’s deadliest fungi has been discovered in the nation’s far north for the first time. The poison fire coral fungus was discovered in a suburb of Cairns by a local photographer and subsequently identified by scientists, James Cook University said yesterday. Several people have died in Japan and South Korea after mistaking the bright red fungi for edible mushrooms. James Cook University mycologist Matt Barrett, who confirmed the identity of the mushroom in Australia, said the discovery extends its known distribution “considerably.” Poison fire coral is the only known mushroom with toxins that can be absorbed through the skin and if eaten causes vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and numbness.
UNITED STATES
Sperm donor sues
A man who says his donated sperm was used to father at least 17 children in a breach of an agreement that allowed for no more than five has sued an Oregon fertility clinic. Bryce Cleary said that it is possible that he has many more children from his donations 30 years ago, the Oregonian reported. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the Multnomah County Circuit Court says that Cleary donated his sperm when he was a first-year medical student at Oregon Health and Science University in 1989 after the hospital’s fertility clinic solicited him and other classmates. In March last year, his lawsuit says he began to learn that his sperm donations resulted in the births of some children after two women born through the fertility clinic process contacted him. The suit says the women told him they used Ancentry.com data and “specific and substantive information” given to them by the fertility clinic to identify more siblings and Cleary himself. Cleary is “profoundly distressed” as he wades through the “moral, legal, ethical, and personal obligations” he now feels toward those 17 children, the lawsuit said. He is seeking US$5.25 million.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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