■AUSTRALIA
Hoaxers face stiff penalties
People who falsely claim a bomb is on board a plane or at an airport could be jailed for up to 10 years under tough new legislation announced yesterday. The proposed penalty is a sharp increase over the current maximum punishment of two years, and was prompted by a foiled plot to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day in the US, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said. That flight “focused like-minded countries about the potential threat of hoaxes and indeed of terrorist acts,” O’Connor told reporters in Melbourne. “And we need to make sure that our laws are capable of not only deterring those crimes, but properly prosecuting those crimes if they take effect.”
■VIETNAM
Taxi driver returns cash
A company says it’s lucky an honest man was driving the cab where a forgetful employee left a bag with about US$26,500 on the back seat. Nguyen Thi Thuy Lien, a human resources officer for Cuu Long Petro Gas Service Transportation JSC in Ho Chi Minh City, says the passenger left the bag in the cab last week. It had important documents as well as the money in three currencies. The passenger called the cab company after he realized the bag was missing. The 23-year-old driver, Doan Thanh Xuan, heard the radio call and returned the bag unopened. He was given a US$100 reward from the company and grateful passenger. The average monthly income in the country is about US$80.
■CHINA
Man mauled to death
A group of Manchurian tigers mauled a man to death after he and his son apparently wandered into the animals’ enclosure at a wildlife park in Xian, state media said yesterday. Workers at the Qinling Wildlife Park rescued the man’s 17-year-old son after being told the pair were in the enclosure with five tigers on Sunday, the Modern Express paper reported. The teen told the paper that he and his 45-year-old father had walked into the enclosure after automatic gates opened up in front of them, and only became aware of the danger after the doors closed behind them.
■MALAYSIA
Airport staff rescue tortoises
Tortoises may move slowly, but even a little movement can be a lifesaver. Staff at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport noticed something stirring in two bags and found 300 tortoises hidden amid shredded paper. The smuggled reptiles found last week included the radiated and spider tortoises, endangered species found only in Madagascar. Misliah Mohamed Basir of the wildlife department said yesterday the tortoises will be returned to Madagascar. Radiated tortoises are coveted by collectors and sold internationally as pets or food.
■UAE
Heroin smuggled in fruit
Abu Dhabi police have seized 15.5kg of heroin and arrested two Afghans and a Pakistani who tried to sell the drugs to an undercover officer, newspapers reported yesterday. The officer made a deal to buy the drugs from the three for 960,000 dirhams (US$260,000), but arrested them instead, Gulf News quoted Abu Dhabi police Colonel Hamad Ahmad al-Hamadi as saying. The Khaleej Times reported that an Afghan man, 27, and two Pakistanis aged 22 and 31 brought the drugs from another emirate, concealed in a shipment of fruit.
■UNITED STATES
Evidence of ocean on Mars
Scientists have revived arguments over whether there was once an ocean on the surface of the red planet by claiming that their analysis of existing data supports the hypothesis that water covered much of the planet’s northern hemisphere 3.5 billion years ago. Their study of apparent marine deltas and valley networks in the journal Nature Geoscience bolsters the possibility that up to a third of Mars was once under water. Previous spacecraft investigations have pointed to the possible presence of an ancient ocean, with supporters for the idea that there is still a substantial amount of water under the surface as liquid or ice. Gaetano Di Achille and Bryan Hynek, of the University of Colorado, led a team that analyzed the distribution of supposed ancient delta deposits and river-valley networks on Mars. They found many of the deltas were at a similar elevation and suggested these might ring an ancient shoreline, providing strong support for a vast ocean once covering the northern plains of the planet.
■UNITED STATES
‘Fiery’ bartender arrested
A bartender whose flaming liquor show was featured in the TV series Real Housewives of New York City has been arrested for performing the fiery feat. Authorities said undercover fire marshals arrested Albert Trummer early on Sunday after he poured various liquors onto a bar surface and set it alight while performing at Apotheke’s bar in Chinatown. Chief Fire Marshal Robert Byrnes said the stunt sparked a “huge fireball.” The bartender was arrested on two counts of misdemeanor and reckless endangerment.
■UNITED STATES
Lois Lane comes home
An Illinois city that calls itself the “official home of Superman” has unveiled a statue of the superhero’s lady love, Lois Lane. Metropolis leaders unveiled the statue on Friday. The city already has a 4.5m high bronze statue of the Man of Steel in Superman Square. The Lois Lane statue is modeled on actress Noel Neill, who played the female reporter with a crush on Superman in movies and on television in the 1940s and 1950s. Artist Gary Ernest Smith created the statue and said making the piece was a dream come true because he grew up watching Superman. Neill said she was honored to be immortalized in stone.
■MEXICO
Nine killed in plane crash
Several members of the campaign team of a politician running for state governor were killed in a plane crash on Sunday, his staff said. Roberto Borge, the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party’s candidate for governor in the state of Quintana Roo, was not aboard at the time, spokesman Gabriel Mendicutti said. “There were nine people, unfortunately all dead,” Mendicutti said.
■IRAN
UN council ‘oppressive’
The UN Security Council has become an “oppressive tool” of world powers that is nearing its end, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday in an interview on state TV. “The Security Council is a tool in the hands of the big powers,” he said. “World powers use it as an oppressive tool ... The way they acted [in imposing sanctions on Iran on June 9] shows the end of the Security Council,” He also criticized the May 31 raid by Israel’s commandos on aid ships headed for Gaza that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead and sparked widespread outrage. “When flotillas carrying aid get attacked in international waters, the council does not react, but at the same time it passes a resolution against us,” he 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
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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