INDONESIA
French escapee not quitting
Indonesian authorities have placed a convicted French drug smuggler in solitary confinement after he tried to escape for a second time from a jail on the island of Lombok, a prison official said on Friday. The chief warden of Mataram prison, Tri Saptono Sambudji, said that guards caught Felix Dorfin, 35, from Bethune in northern France, as he tried to make a hole in the wall of his cell late on Sunday. Sambudji said Dorfin told authorities that he had been working on the hole for the past month, using a piece of iron wrapped with a cloth to reduce the noise. Dorfin was sentenced to death in May for smuggling 3kg of drugs to the island. A higher court later commuted his sentence to 19 years in prison. Dorfin escaped from a police detention center in January by punching holes in his cell window with help from a female police officer who received money from him. He was recaptured after 10 days on the run.
AUSTRALIA
Couple freed from Iran
An Australian travel-blogging couple who were detained in Iran on spying charges have been released and returned home, Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said yesterday. Perth-based Jolie King and Mark Firkin had been documenting their journey from Australia to Britain on social media for the past two years, but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan about three months ago. They were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of “military sites and forbidden areas”, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said last month. Payne said that the pair had been reunited with their family in Australia following “very sensitive negotiations” with Tehran. “We are extremely happy and relieved to be safely back in Australia with those we love,” the couple said in a statement.
SPAIN
Smugglers save police
Three Spanish police officers who were thrown into the sea when their boat crashed early on Friday during a high-speed chase were pulled to safety by the drug smugglers they were chasing, police said. The unexpected rescue happened after a police vessel began pursuing a speedboat “with four people on board that was suspected of transporting drugs” in waters off the southern coast of Spain, a police statement said. During the chase, the two vessels collided, causing three police officers to fall into the sea as their boat “span out of control.” Using a megaphone, a police helicopter that was hovering overhead called on those on board the speedboat to help and they pulled the three agents to safety unharmed. However, the gesture did not spare them when police found three tonnes of hashish in the water nearby.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Abbey Road’ tops charts
Classic Beatles album Abbey Road is back at No. 1 in Britain half a century after its first release, with the band breaking their own record for the longest gap between stints at the top of the charts. The band’s final studio album with its instantly recognizable zebra-crossing cover came out in September 1969. It was the UK’s best-selling album for 17 weeks, and on Friday a special 50th anniversary edition featuring unheard material took the top spot once again. “It’s hard to believe that Abbey Road still holds up after all these years, but then again it’s a bloody cool album,” tweeted band member Paul McCartney. With 49 years and 252 days since its last reign, the album has had the longest gap between UK number ones — a record previously held by the Fab Four’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
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