■HONG KONG
Pollution at record level
Air pollution has returned to a record high registered in 2000, triggering a warning for people with heart or respiratory illnesses, the Environmental Protection Department said yesterday. A pall of smog hung over the city, restricting views across Victoria Harbour as pollutants built up because of a lack of wind. Roadside air pollution readings reached a “very high” reading of 174 overnight in Central district, a record high last reached nine years ago. When the index exceeds 101, “persons with existing heart or respiratory illnesses are advised to reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities,” the department said. Air pollution levels were forecast to remain very high yesterday. Emissions from factories in southern China combined with emissions from local power plants and transport generate a thick haze over the city for large parts of last year.
■JAPAN
Wine study backs fish rule
It’s not just culinary etiquette to pair red wine with red meat and not fish: A research team says there is a scientific explanation. Researcher Takayuki Tamura and colleagues from the product development research laboratory of wine producer Mercian Corp found that wine connoisseurs established the rule of thumb because of the flavor clash between red wine and fish. Tamura and his team found that an unpleasant, fishy aftertaste noticeable after drinking red wine with fish resulted from naturally occurring iron in red wine, with some wines having more iron than others. Their study, published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that low-iron red wines might be a good match with seafood.
■HONG KONG
Giant crocodile trapped
It took five men and a tranquilizer dart to remove a monster 5m saltwater crocodile from a trap in the tropical north, park officials said on Friday. The giant reptile was snared near a popular swimming area on the outskirts of Darwin that was closed because of high levels of bacteria in the water, senior ranger Tom Nichols said. “This is the largest crocodile we’ve removed from the area in the last four years,” Nichols said. The reptile was in good condition and was taken by truck to the city’s crocodile farm. The Northern Territory has suffered two fatal crocodile attacks this year. The Northern Territory has suffered two fatal crocodile attacks this year and is estimated to have the country’s largest population of the animals — approximately 80,000.
■MALAYSIA
Mom, baby get free flights
A woman who gave premature birth to a boy on board an airplane minutes before it landed will get free flights for life along with her child, an airline official said on Friday. Liew Siaw Hsia, 31, gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia’s flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday. AirAsia spokesman Nazatul Mokhtar said the flight was diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Liew started labor pains. He said Liew was 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term. A doctor on the flight helped the woman deliver while the plane was still 600m in the air in its final approach to land. Mother and son were rushed to a nearby hospital after the plane landed, an airline statement said. Nazatul said they were both in good shape and would get free flights on the airline for life.
■UNITED STATES
Police issue unusual tickets
A Texas police chief apologized on Friday after at least 39 people received traffic tickets because they couldn’t speak English. “I apologize to the Spanish speaking, Hispanic community.” Dallas police chief David Kunkle said at a press conference. The situation came to light after a woman went to court to challenge a ticket issued by an officer which cited her for being a “non-English speaking driver.” Kunkle said his department reviewed its records and found that 38 similar tickets had been written in the past three years by six different officers. All fees will be refunded and the police will ask for all convictions to be reversed, he said. The department is also considering dereliction of duty charges against the officers involved and the sergeants who reviewed the citations. Kunkle said the misunderstanding of state law could have stemmed from an effort to shift to an electronic citation system. Lists of citations were distributed which included a federal statute which requires drivers of commercial vehicles to have sufficient proficiency in English to operate the vehicle safely.
■UNITED STATES
Diva causes dining ruckus
An Argentine diva has been charged with creating a ruckus at a Manhattan restaurant. The case against Gabriela Pochinki was adjourned on Friday on contemplation of dismissal. That means the misdemeanor disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and obstructing-government charges will be tossed if she stays out of trouble for six months. A criminal complaint says Pochinki irked fellow patrons by yelling into her cellphone, then screamed at a manager and refused to leave when asked by the manager and a police officer. Pochinki has appeared in leading roles worldwide.
■UNITED STATES
‘War hero’ sentenced to jail
A Marine sergeant has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Virginia court martial for pretending to be a war hero who had been seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sergeant David Budwah, 34, pled guilty before the court martial at the Quantico military base to having sought an exemption on the basis of post-traumatic stress disorder, which he did not actually have, court documents showed. He was also found guilty of having worn medals and ribbons he had not earned and obtaining seats at concerts, dinners and sporting events that were intended for wounded US military personnel. He acknowledged having lied during an interview with a journalist from the Herald-Mail newspaper, in which he claimed to have been injured “by a hand grenade filled with glass, nails and other debris. I dove on a buddy to shield him from the blast, and the blast damaged half my face,” he told the reporter. Between 2000 and 2006 Budwah was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Prince defends big bonuses
Prince Andrew defended big bonuses yesterday, saying they were “minute” in the grand scheme of things but were an easy target for people angry at the financial crisis. “I don’t want to demonize the banking and financial sector,” the Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son and Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “Bonuses, in the scheme of things, are minute. They are easy to target. A number [of people] will have abused their privilege of a bonus, so get rid of the excesses, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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