■CHINA
Six women hurt in attack
A man with a meat cleaver hacked and wounded six young women in Foshan City, Guandong Province, on Sunday evening before committing suicide, the Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday. The attacker apparently singled out young women, the daily said. Five of the victims remain in hospital, two of them in serious condition, it said. The assailant entered numerous shops and restaurants at the marketplace to attack young women, in most cases hacking at them once around the shoulders and neck, the report said. He then went up to a third-story window and leapt to his death.
■CHINA
Vaccine makers fined
The State Food and Drug Administration has fined Ealong Biotech Co 25 million yuan (US$3.6 million) and Bioforwell Co 5 million yuan for producing 210,000 units of substandard rabies shots in 2008, the Global Times newspaper reported yesterday. The companies had reduced the level of a key ingredient to cut costs, rendering the jabs ineffective, it quoted the agency as saying. Ealong Biotech is one of a handful of companies authorized to produce the nation’s vaccines for the A(H1N1) virus. There have been no reports of the vaccines causing health problems, state media said.
■CHINA
EU official urges WTO action
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said yesterday that China’s censorship of Internet sites constituted a trade barrier and should be dealt with by the WTO. Kroes, who is also in charge of charting the EU’s digital agenda, said she raised the issue in Beijing last week in a meeting with Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang (張德江). She said the system was a trade issue “as long as that is a real barrier for communication.”
■JAPAN
Premium beef under threat
Miyazaki premium beef is under threat from the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in a decade, which has spread to more than 100 farms, officials said yesterday. The outbreak, which started last month, has forced the cull of 49 seed bulls, leaving just six to breed the species of cattle that produces the tender beef from Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyushu island. The country’s famed “Wagyu” cattle — from both Miyazaki and Kobe on Honshu island — are pampered, fed beer and massaged daily, sometimes with sake, and some are even played classical music for relaxation.
■NEW ZEALAND
Bomb scare hits ‘Beehive’
Part of parliament was evacuated for more than two hours yesterday after a fake bomb was delivered to the office of a government minister. The parcel was discovered at about 8am in the office of Agriculture Minister David Carter in the “Beehive” executive building in Wellington, parliamentary officials said. Police closed off adjacent streets during the alert, but staff were allowed to return after bomb experts gave the all-clear at about 10:30am. Police Inspector Marty Parker said a box was delivered with a note suggesting it contained a bomb. Reports quoted sources as saying the parcel contained live flies.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Communist in custody
An official of the Communist Party says a court has ordered the party’s leader held in custody for two months in connection with the country’s recent unrest. Iskhak Masaliyev was arrested last week at the capital’s airport as he arrived from Moscow. Officials at that time said he was being questioned about his conduct during the April 7 clashes between security forces and protesters that left 85 people dead and forced former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee, but party official Gulzhamal Sultanaliyev said yesterday that Masaliyev is being held on suspicion of conspiracy in last week’s seizure of regional administration buildings by Bakiyev backers.
■VIETNAM
Inmates escape camp
Nearly 600 inmates in a drug rehabilitation camp overpowered security guards and escaped, an official said yesterday. At least two-thirds of them were still at large. Trinh Vuong Thuan, a security official at rehabilitation center No. 2 in the northern port city of Haiphong, said 578 inmates overpowered security guards to break through the center’s gates on Sunday. Some 120 inmates returned to the center later on Sunday night, while three others were recaptured yesterday morning. Police are looking for the others who are still at large.
■DENMARK
Journalist denied visa
Newspaper Jyllands-Posten said on Sunday that Pakistan had refused to renew the visa of its correspondent following a row over its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. On its Web site, it said the Pakistani authorities have informed Puk Damsgaard Andersen that his visa would not be renewed, saying they can no longer guarantee his security. However, according to Pakistani daily the Nation, authorities in Islamabad believe Andersen carried out secret and illicit activities and distributed the controversial drawings in Pakistan, an accusation that Andersen denies. “The Pakistani government cannot guarantee personal security, but that’s not new and it is always an excuse they use to expel people,” Andersen was quoted as saying. “I consider it as harassment of a journalist.” Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said the country’s ambassador was scheduled to meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi yesterday to “emphasise that Denmark takes this case seriously.”
■SWEDEN
Two arrested over attack
Police arrested two suspects after an attempted fire-bomb attack on the home of a cartoonist, controversial for drawing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, they said Sunday. The attack, overnight Friday to Saturday when Lars Vilks was not at home, blackened part of the exterior, but the fire went out by itself, although police found glass bottles containing gasoline inside. Both suspects, aged 21 and 19, are Swedish nationals of Kosovar origin who reside in the southern city of Landskrona and who were arrested after personal items were found near the scene, police said.
■ITALY
Troops killed in Afghanistan
Two soldiers were killed and two others seriously wounded when their convoy struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the Italian army said yesterday. The convoy hit the bomb while on its way from the western city of Herat to Bala Murghab in the north, the army said. Military deaths in Afghanistan in the past have prompted calls from Italy to pull out and a poll last year showed a majority of Italians want their troops to leave.
■ITALY
Video footage shocks nation
An amateur video of an American woman who died saving her son when they were hit by a freak wave shocked Italy on Sunday. The mobile phone footage shows the woman, identified by local police as 49-year-old Anne Sharrie Duncan, standing with her son and a friend on a pier in the southern Italian resort of Positano when they are hit by the wave late on Saturday. The American, who police say lived in nearby Naples with her husband, was shown being swept into the sea with the 12-year-old boy, according to the few seconds of footage widely played on Italian media. Witnesses said the woman was able to push her son toward rescuers, before she was carried away by the current.
■FRANCE
Woody Allen backs Polanski
Woody Allen has restated his support for fellow filmmaker Roman Polanski, who is in house arrest in connection with a 33-year-old sex scandal. Allen said Polanski “was embarrassed by the whole thing,” “has suffered” and “has paid his dues.” He said Polanski is “an artist and is a nice person” who “did something wrong and he paid for it.” Polanski pleaded guilty in 1978 to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He is currently under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland.
■UNITED STATES
Ronnie James Dio dies
Ronnie James Dio, whose soaring vocals, poetic lyrics and mythic tales of a never-ending struggle between good and evil broke new ground in heavy metal, died on Sunday, according to a statement from his wife and manager. He was 67. Dio revealed last summer that he was suffering from stomach cancer shortly after wrapping up a tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the latest incarnation of Black Sabbath, under the name Heaven And Hell. Though Dio had recently undergone his seventh chemotherapy treatment, he was hopeful to perform again. Dio replaced legendary vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1980 with the critically acclaimed album Heaven And Hell, considered by many critics to be one of the finest heavy metal albums of all time.
■BRAZIL
Fire destroys collection
A fire in Sao Paulo destroyed what may be the world’s largest scientific collection of dead snakes, spiders and scorpions that served as the main source for research on many species, scientists said on Sunday. Members of the Instituto Butantan said the nearly 100-year-old collection lost in Saturday’s fire included almost 80,000 snakes and several thousand specimens of spiders and scorpions. The specimens were used to study evolution and provided information on how to avert extinctions, institute director Otavio Mercadante said. Many of the animals are used in the production of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, some derived from venom. Officials said the production of vaccines and other drugs will not be affected.
■HONDURAS
Former president dies
Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, who led two military coups and served as president for more than a decade, died on Sunday, his family said. He was 89. His family released a statement saying the former general and twice-president died of prostate cancer at a private hospital in Tegucigalpa. Retired from power, Lopez Arellano became a businessman with holdings in banks and the now defunct airline TAN-SAHSA. He was to be buried yesterday in Tegucigalpa. He is survived by his wife Gloria Figueroa and five children.
■SPAIN
Ex-PM blasts government
Former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar urged the Socialist government to step down, writing in the Financial Times newspaper that no leftist government has been able to rescue the country from an economic crisis in 160 years. Aznar, who as leader of the conservative Popular Party was prime minister from 1996 until 2004, called for urgent measures in the report yesterday, including large-scale labor reform, a bank shake-up to allow private capital in savings banks and deregulation to increase competition. He also urged Europe to return to its original stability and growth pact, which included stricter sustainability requirements for public accounts, to reassure markets and bolster the euro.
■UNITED STATES
Valedictorian proposes
A university college valedictorian had a special graduation gift for her boyfriend — a wedding proposal, which he accepted. Moments after finishing her speech on Saturday at the Centenary College commencement in New Jersey, Emily Hawley called fellow graduate Josh Walker to the stage. She then popped the question, drawing loud roars from fellow graduates. Hawley didn’t have a ring to give Walker and didn’t get down on one knee. The two are Maine residents who’ve dated since they were sophomores in high school.
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
‘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,”
‘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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