SOUTH KOREA
Fat Pyongyang prince mocked
The Internet community had just one overriding question after North Korea released its first photo of its heir-apparent, Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il: How did he get so fat when his country is starving? The photo, showing a chubby young man, attracted thousands of comments on Nate, South Korea’s major portal which aggregates news articles from other sites. “Pyongyang’s fat pig,” wrote one user, a comment which could earn a death sentence north of the border. “North Korean residents are all starving to death, but what did they eat to get so fat like that?” wrote another, referring to the Kim dynasty. “He [Kim Jong-un] might have intentionally gained weight to look just like Kim Il-sung. They look so exactly the same that it’s brainwashing,” one poster said. “Wow, they are huge! They should let one more fat son in and form a North Korean version of Teletubbies,” read another. Another user commented scathingly: “What you [Kim Jong-un] eat daily could save hundreds of your people.” The front-page lead of conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo was equally scornful. Its headline read: “The only fat prince of Pyongyang.”
AUSTRALIA
Mom jailed for starving kids
A mother who admitted spending welfare money on cigarettes and gambling was yesterday sentenced to six years in prison for starving, beating and neglecting her children. Prosecutor Jim Pearce told the court the children were starved and sometimes forced to vomit if they ate when they were not supposed to. They were also made to stand against a wall all day and beaten for stepping out of line.
SOUTH KOREA
Fire rips through skyscraper
A massive fire broke out yesterday in a 38-floor apartment and office building in the southern port city of Busan, news reports and fire officials said. No deaths were reported. Flames quickly spread through the building’s main stairwell but were largely contained later in the afternoon, a local fire official said. However, a local television station reported that winds were whipping up new blazes. YTN television reported that 37 residents were evacuated. The fire started early yesterday morning in a janitor’s closet on the fourth floor of the high-rise building located in the city’s plush beachside Haeundae district, Yonhap news agency said.
NIGERIA
Kidnapped children freed
Fifteen schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen earlier this week have been released unharmed following an operation by security services, police Commissioner Jonathan Johnson of Abia State said. He said all the children were now in the southern town of Aba, where the youngsters were believed to have been held since gunmen hijacked their bus on the way to school. On Thursday, hundreds of soldiers in armored vehicles sealed off the town in lawless Abia state on the fringes of the Niger Delta in a major security sweep. Initial reports suggested the kidnappers were seeking a ransom of 20 million naira (US$150,000), although newspapers said on Thursday that demand had dropped to 350,000 naira.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Blast kills robbery suspect
An explosion killed one man and injured three policemen during a robbery on Thursday at a currency exchange office in the eastern town of Krnov, police said. “The blast occurred during police action against the robber,” regional police spokesman Miroslav Pech said. “I can’t say what exactly exploded there, but three police officers were injured and one civilian died — presumably the robber himself,” he said. The exchange office is inside a shopping center in Krnov. Pech said he had no information about injured shoppers. Local media said the robber was armed with a grenade, which went off as the police swooped. “We treated three people, including one seriously wounded man who was taken to hospital by helicopter,” emergency services spokesman Lukas Humpl said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Police-linked deaths drop
Police action killed 566 people last year and 294 others died in police custody, figures released by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) on Thursday showed. The directorate, which probes police misconduct, investigated 6,375 complaints against officers in 2009-2010, up 4 percent from the previous year. The total represented a 6 percent drop in the number of fatalities from the previous year, ICD executive director Francois Beukman said, presenting the directorate’s latest annual report for the year up to April. Breaking down causes of the 860 police-linked deaths, ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini said 55 percent were shot with a police service firearm, 14 percent died following assaults and 11 percent died of natural causes. Thirteen percent were suicides and 1 percent died as a result of torture. Forty-six percent of deaths as a result of police action took place during the course of arrests and 22 percent occurred while a crime was taking place, he said.
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam bans squatters
A law banning “squatting” in unused buildings has come into force, the latest pillar of Dutch liberal traditions to be curtailed in an era of deepening conservatism. A study published this year by Amsterdam’s Free University estimated about 1,500 squatters still live in Amsterdam, far fewer than in the 1970s and 1980s when severe housing shortages left many young Dutch people homeless. Critics said most squatters today are migrants from eastern or southern Europe looking for a free place to stay. Amsterdam Mayor Eberhart van der Laan said he planned to gradually empty the remaining 200 buildings in the city occupied by squatters. However, officials said no major action against the squatters was planned for yesterday, when the law went into effect.
TURKEY
Outrage over yacht brothel
The press expressed outrage yesterday after police found that the yacht of the country’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, had been used by an international prostitution ring. The scandal surfaced on Tuesday when police raided the 136m Savarona off the resort of Fethiye and detained several suspects after a seven-month investigation. “This is the man who defiled the Savarona,” headlined the popular Milliyet next to a picture of Kazakh businessman Tevfik Arif, the alleged leader of the ring. Police discovered 10 Ukranian and Russian women, some of them minors, being worked as prostitutes on board the yacht, the Anatolia news agency reported. They also detained eight alleged members of the network and four businessmen from Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan who were believed to be clients, the agency said. The Hurriyet said Arif had rented the yacht for four to five days at a daily rate of US$50,000. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek gave assurances that the yacht’s lease would be terminated as soon as possible.
UNITED STATES
Senate passes CALM bill
With political ads swamping the airwaves ahead of November elections, the Senate has passed a bill targeting overly loud TV advertisements, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said on Thursday. “Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials,” said Whitehouse, who blamed blaring sales pitches for “unnecessary stress” in viewers’ lives. The Senate passed the bill late on Wednesday, while the House of Representatives approved its version in December last year, setting the stage for lawmakers to forge a compromise that President Barack Obama could sign into law. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require the Federal Communications Commission to set new rules for how loud TV advertisements can be.
UNITED STATES
Solar-powered bike built
Purdue University student Tony Coiro has transformed an old motorcycle into a solar-powered bike with a top speed of 70kph. The Indiana university said in a statement that the physics major bought the 1978 Suzuki for US$50 and spent US$2,500 retrofitting it into a street-legal bike. Two solar panels mounted on either side of the bike charge its lead acid batteries, but they are also chargeable with a plug-in AC current. Coiro’s solar bike has a range of about 40km from each charge. The junior has received a provisional patent for his invention, and he says he hopes to improve his design to create a 160kph, sun-driven racing machine.
UNITED STATES
Taller dinosaurs mulled
Dinosaur skeletons often are pieced together with leg bones nearly touching, no room left for cushiony cartilage because scientists don’t know how much they had. New research suggests some species might have had a foot’s worth. Many dinosaurs’ limbs are rounded off, suggesting thick pads of cartilage. The bones also can contain grooves that University of Missouri anatomy professor Casey Holliday theorizes are evidence of blood vessels needed to nourish the cartilage. His team tested the limbs of some of dinosaurs’ modern relatives, ostriches and alligators. Holliday reported on Thursday in the journal PLoS One that he had calculated that certain dinosaurs would have had more cartilage than others — enough that huge sauropods like Brachiosaurus could have added another 30cm of height.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
RSS