■AUSTRALIA
Firestarter gets 13 years
A woman who set at least 21 forest fires on Adelaide’s outskirts on the hottest days of 2007 was sentenced to 13 years in prison yesterday. Helen White, 45, is one of only a few women convicted of setting fire to forests. In February, forest fires outside Melbourne killed 173 people, destroyed more than 1,800 houses and left 7,500 people homeless. Unlike those fires, some of which were also caused by arson, the blazes caused by White caused little damage. Judge Michael Boylan said that without White’s guilty plea, he would have sent the mother of two young children to prison for 18 years.
■AUSTRALIA
Bag thief receives fine
A woman with a drug habit stole more than 1,000 bags from the luggage carousels at Perth airport, a court in the West Australian state capital was told yesterday. Asvina Dhatt, 29, got off with a fine of A$950 (US$665) and a suspended prison sentence of eight months. Dhatt was charged last year after police found the luggage among other stolen property at her Perth home.
■AUSTRALIA
Racism waning: researchers
Most Aborigines marry non-indigenous spouses, new research has shown. Analysis of the 2006 census reveals that 52 percent of Aboriginal men and 55 percent of Aboriginal women were married to non-Aboriginal spouses. In larger east coast cities the intermarriage rate was well above 70 percent and in Sydney as many as nine out of 10 university-educated Aborigines had a non-indigenous partner. Researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University say the growth in intermarriage is evidence that racism is waning. Bob Birrell, who led the research, said: “In the US the social divide between black and white is deep, and intermarriage rates with African-Americans is 8 percent. We don’t see any parallel here. Prejudice to intermarriage has pretty much evaporated.” He said a growing number of people identified themselves as Aboriginal — up from 250,738 in 1982 to 455,028 in 2006 — which was further evidence of declining prejudice.
■SOUTH KOREA
Watchdog bans cosmetics
A safety watchdog said yesterday it had banned a local cosmetics company from selling five products which used raw materials contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos. The products from L’Ocean cosmetics company were being taken off the shelves, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said. The products were made using talcum powder imported from China, which was found to have been contaminated with asbestos, it said in a statement.
■CHINA
Retiree beaten at memorial
A 75-year-old retired professor said yesterday that he was beaten for commemorating the death of a reformist communist leader ousted for sympathizing with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters. Sun Wenguang (孫文廣) said five men attacked him on Saturday while he was trying to pay his respects to Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the former general secretary of the Communist Party. The weekend marked Tomb-sweeping Festival, during which people honor the dead. Sun said he was followed by a police car on Saturday when he went to visit a memorial honoring martyrs. He was attacked when he entered the cemetery and pushed off the edge of the path, which was 2m high. He was then beaten and “kicked like a football” for more than 10 minutes. “They broke three of my ribs,” he said from Jinan hospital.
■NIGERIA
British oil worker taken
Militants have kidnapped a British oil worker, killing his police guard in the attack. Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper said that the kidnapping took place in Rivers State capital Port Harcourt on Sunday. The kidnap victim is believed to be Allan Priston, who works for the Nigerian company Adamac, which provides engineering services to oil companies. Kidnappings of oil workers are common in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where armed groups say they are struggling for a fairer distribution of oil wealth.
■SWEDEN
Library faces ‘porn’ probe
The National Library could face police investigation over allegations it collected pornographic images of children for its archives, Stockholm police said on Monday. Two children’s rights groups and a Stockholm-based documentary maker, who uncovered the collection, filed a complaint with police on Monday. We have this report and now we will make an investigation on this report,” an officer with Stockholm county police said.” The officer said investigators were to examine the dossier in closer detail yesterday morning. Valentin Bart, a writer and filmmaker, uncovered the images on a visit to the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm in November.
■EGYPT
Student injured after jump
A secondary school student was seriously injured after she jumped from her school’s third floor in fear of her teacher, state news agency MENA reported on Monday. The girl rushed out of class and jumped into the playground, scared of how her teacher would react to her failure to do her homework. The girl, whose age was not given, was taken to hospital in Kafr el-Sheik province, north of Cairo. In October, an 11-year-old student in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria died after his teacher kicked him in the stomach for not doing his homework. The teacher was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for six years.
■GERMANY
Gunman kills two
A gunman killed at least two people when he opened fire in a courthouse yesterday in the southern city of Landshut, police spokesman Leonard Mayer told rolling news channel NTV. Mayer said police believed the shooter killed himself and wounded other people in a hail of bullets. “The sniper is no longer on the move,” Mayer said. “The situation has calmed down.” Another police spokesman, Thomas Ploessl, told news channel N24 the courthouse in the city about 60km northeast of Munich had been evacuated. Matthias Loew from local radio station Radio Trausnitz said the shooting took place at about 10:15am. “The talk was of four seriously wounded,” Loew said, although authorities have not confirmed the number.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Pollock renamed ‘colin’
A British supermarket chain is gambling that a new name and fresh packaging will make pollock more palatable to British fish lovers who generally prefer cod or haddock. In a marketing move timed to coincide with the Easter holidays, Sainsbury’s started putting colorfully packaged pollock into 10 stores on Monday — but is calling it “colin” on a trial basis. Colin, pronounced co-lan, is a French term for a related fish, hake. Sainsbury’s marketing team says it is also used in restaurants to refer to cooked pollock. Pollock — a white fish similar to Boston bluefish — is plentiful off the British coast and relatively inexpensive, but is generally looked down on by British consumers.
■UNITED STATES
Nazi suspect to be deported
A judge on Monday cleared the way for John Demjanjuk, a Nazi-era war-crimes suspect, to be deported to Germany. The US Immigration Court in Arlington, Virginia, lifted a stay on the deportation that it had issued on Friday. The court action means that Demjanjuk could be deported as early as today. John Broadley, Demjanjuk’s attorney, said they would file an appeal for a further delay. Demjanjuk, who turned 89 on Friday, had filed a last-minute court motion to stop his deportation, arguing that he was too ill to travel and stand trial. His bid to stay in the US was to avoid likely prosecution for his role in the killings of 29,000 Jews.
■NICARAGUA
Gunman shoots Ortega ally
A gunman shot and lightly wounded the attorney general while he was exercising near his home in the capital on Monday, police said. Hernan Estrada, a close ally of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, was grazed by bullets when a man on a motorcycle fired at him, said police chief Aminta Granera. “This was a criminal act,” Granera told a news conference, flanked by Estrada, who was taken to a hospital by his neighbors and discharged after being treated for a light neck wound. Granera declined to give a motive for the attack, but Estrada said it was politically motivated. He blamed “some religious leaders” and “some media outlets” who he said had been inciting violence against Ortega, a former foe of the US.
■UNITED STATES
Bronze duckling stolen
The duckling’s goose may be cooked. A bronze duckling named Pack has been swiped from the beloved Make Way for Ducklings sculpture in Boston’s Public Garden. Police say Pack was snapped off at his webbed feet. The theft was discovered early on Monday by a park ranger. Pack is the next to last of the eight ducklings lined up behind Mrs Mallard in the sculpture inspired by Robert McCloskey’s children’s book Make Way for Ducklings, in which a family of ducks walks across a highway to get to the Garden. But he’s not the first to be stolen. Quack, Mack and Jack have gone missing over the years. All were recovered or replaced.
■ECUADOR
China to lend US$1bn
The government plans to borrow US$1 billion from China’s development bank to finance energy and infrastructure projects and will use oil shipments to repay most of that sum, a top economic official said on Monday. The loan, China’s most significant investment in Ecuador to date, will bring “enormous relief” to cash-strapped public spending programs and will help to finance oil, natural gas and potential hydropower projects that could boost energy production, Economy Minister Diego Borja said. Ecuador, a member of OPEC, sells about 300,000 barrels of oil a day abroad, using the proceeds to finance nearly 40 percent of its budget.
■MEXICO
US man arrested for rape
A Texas man has been arrested for allegedly raping 19 women in Ciudad Juarez, authorities said. Jorge Alberto Mendez, 42, was arrested on Saturday while trying to cross into Mexico from El Paso, Texas, where he lives, regional Deputy Attorney General Alejandro Pariente said on Monday. Pariente said the investigation began in April last year with the rape of a 15-year-old girl. Similar cases were subsequently reported. One of the victims managed to write down the license plate number of her assailant, which eventually led to Mendez’s arrest, Pariente said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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