■CHINA
Fast rail to open in 2011
A high-speed railway that will cut the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to four hours will open a year ahead of schedule next year, state media said yesterday. Once operational, the line is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year — double the current capacity on the 1,318km route, which takes 10 hours, the China Daily reported, citing railway officials. No one at the railways ministry was immediately available to comment on the report, which did not say why the project was ahead of schedule.
■AUSTRALIA
Woman, 92, faces charges
Police have charged a 92-year-old woman with killing her 98-year-old husband. Clare Tang is scheduled to appear in court today on a murder charge after her husband was found dead in their apartment in downtown Sydney on Friday night. New South Wales state police said in a statement that C.Y. Tang was found in the living room and that he had suffered head wounds. The cause of death was still being determined. Clare Tang was arrested at the scene. Family friend George Tsoi said the couple were from Shanghai, China, and owned restaurants in Singapore. He said they had been married for about 70 years, and that Clare Tang appeared to love her husband deeply, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
■CHINA
Zoo probed over deaths
A zoo in Shenyang where three dozen animals, including 13 endangered Siberian tigers, died from malnutrition is to receive a cash boost of US$1 million, state media said yesterday. The China Daily said Shengyang officials have launched a probe into the deaths. The deaths have occurred at the Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo since November and have been blamed on a combination of inadequate funding, an unusually cold winter and poor general conditions at the facility, the report said. Zoo workers fed the tigers cheap chicken bones in recent months as funding dried up. Twenty-two other animals have died, including rare species such as a red-crowned crane, four stump-tailed macaques and one brown bear, Xinhua news agency said.
■INDIA
Murdered tot cremated
Hundreds of mourners attended the final rites yesterday for a three-year-old Gurshan Singh, who was killed in Australia this month. “We have cremated our little boy. Everybody is sad and we want justice,” said Gurjeet Singh, uncle of the victim, at the funeral in Kotkapura, 430km from New Delhi. He urged New Dehli to pressure Australia to speed up the investigation into the murder.
■ITALY
Pope visits Lutheran Church
Pope Benedict XVI visited the Lutheran Church of Rome on Sunday in a show of unity between Catholics and Protestants as the Vatican fights to limit damage from child sex abuse scandals. With Catholic authorities in Germany facing a series of revelations about sexual abuse against children in schools, the pastor of the Lutheran community called for the two Christian churches to face difficulties together. “If when in pain we are close to each other ... that would be a fundamental step toward rendering the unity that we live together more visible and effective,” Jens-Martin Kruse said. “We shouldn’t quarrel, but rather try to be more united,” he said, while acknowledging that Catholics and Protestants still diverged on “essential issues.”
■DUBAI
Kissers waiting on appeal
A British couple accused of kissing in public in the Muslim emirate will find out next month if an appeals court will uphold their one-month prison sentence, their lawyer said on Sunday. The couple is accused of “committing a sexual act [by] kissing on the lips and touching,” lawyer Khalaf al-Hosani said. “A final verdict will be reached on April 4,” by the misdemeanours appeals court, he said. The two, named by the British press as Ayman Najafi, 24, a British expat in Dubai, and British tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25, were arrested in November after a woman accused them of kissing in a restaurant in the Jumeirah Beach Residence neighborhood. They are also accused of consuming alcohol, to which they pleaded guilty, but said they only kissed on the cheek.
■EGYPT
Jewish ceremony canceled
Authorities have canceled the inauguration of a restored synagogue citing the Israeli oppression of Muslims in the occupied territories as well as excesses by Jews during an earlier ceremony at the synagogue. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) restored the ruined Ben Maimon synagogue in Cairo’s ancient Jewish quarter and was set to unveil it to the press on Sunday following its rededication a week earlier in a private ceremony. SCA chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement that the cancelation of the ceremony comes following “provocative” activities by Jews at rededication, including drinking alcoholic beverages, as well as “aggression by Israeli authorities” against Muslim sanctuaries.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Clinic to raffle human egg
A fertility clinic said on Sunday it was raffling off a human egg this week to promote its “baby profiling” service, which it insists is legal under UK law. The winner can select the egg donor by education, upbringing and racial background. The London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre said the treatment actually takes place in the US. Women interested were invited to attend a seminar tomorrow organized by the center’s US partner, the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia.
■SERBIA
Nine held for ‘horrific crimes’
Investigative judges have ordered that nine former Serb paramilitary fighters be held in jail over the killing of some 40 civilians during Kosovo’s war. The judges said on Sunday the men must remain in prison for at least a month pending investigation of alleged atrocities against ethnic Albanians in the western Kosovo village of Cuska in May 1999. Prosecutors say that in total 26 former troops are under investigation for “horrific crimes.” The victims who burned alive in a village house included pregnant women and elderly people.
■IRAN
Academic bailed for 15 days
Iranian-American academic Kian Tajbakhsh, who is serving a five-year jail term, has been freed temporarily to celebrate the Persian New Year after paying a hefty bail, Tehran’s prosecutor said on Sunday. Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said Tajbakhsh, an urban planning expert, was “freed for 15 days after paying 800,000 dollars bail,” the ISNA news agency reported. Masoud Shafiei, Tajbakhsh’s lawyer, confirmed his client had been released late on Saturday. Tajbakhsh was initially sentenced for 15 years, but an appeals court later reduced the penalty to five years in jail. He was arrested during a crackdown on the opposition in the wake of the dispute over presidential elections last year and was found guilty of harming national security.
■CANADA
Big avalanche kills two
Two people died and dozens were missing on Sunday after a massive weekend avalanche in British Columbia hit a crowd of 200 snowmobilers in the mountainous backcountry. Provincial teams including 40 rescue experts with dogs gathered to search for possible survivors or bodies, but the search was put on hold by authorities who feared more avalanches at the site, Corporal Dan Moskaluk told reporters. Avalanche specialists flying in helicopters were assessing the risk on Sunday. Police said two men were confirmed dead, after earlier reporting three fatalities, and said another 30 people were injured. The snowmobilers were in a bowl beneath Boulder Mountain near Revelstoke, 566km northeast of Vancouver, when a wall of snow crashed onto the crowd.
■UNITED STATES
Web site castigates the rich
The swindling saga of legendary Wall Street conman Bernard Madoff has inspired the creation of The Vile Plutocrat, a Web site devoted to the notion that “rich people suck.” The Vile Plutocrat gathers news about the misdeeds of “the entitled class,” mixes in scathing editorial commentary and then links stories to biographies of the purported villains. Madoff was arrested on December 2008 and sentenced in June to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme in which existing investors were paid returns stolen from new investors’ capital.
■AUSTRALIA
Lawmakers ask for pardon
Lawmakers yesterday debated asking the UK for an official pardon for two soldiers, executed during the Boer War, whose story has become a popular cause. A parliamentary committee heard from experts including military historian James Unkles, who has already petitioned Britain separately over the case of Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock, who were executed by firing squad in 1902. Critics say the two Australians, who were court-martialled over the murder of 12 prisoners of war, did not receive a fair trial. Their co-accused, George Witton, had his death sentence commuted.
■ISRAEL
Lula visits Middle East
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in the Middle East on Sunday, seeking to bring a fresh outlook to the peace process on a trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. His official program began yesterday with a meeting with his President Shimon Peres, followed by talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni. Today he was to visit the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian leaders, before traveling to Jordan tomorrow.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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