NEW ZEALAND
TV host resigns
Public television host Paul Henry resigned yesterday after his mocking of an Indian official’s name sparked a diplomatic protest of racism. Henry left his post at state broadcaster Television New Zealand (TVNZ) over his mocking of the last name of New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. On his Breakfast show two weeks ago, Henry also called Dikshit’s name “so appropriate because she’s Indian.” India formally protested his remarks to New Zealand High Commissioner Rupert Holborow on Friday. Henry, regarded as a “shock jock,” was initially suspended from TVNZ for his remarks in questioning whether New Zealand-born Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, the son of Fiji Indian migrants, was “even a New Zealander” and whether his successor would “look and sound like a New Zealander.” Henry said yesterday it was “no longer practical in the current environment for me to do the job I was employed to do.”
MACAU
Celebrity auction does well
An old Spalding basketball signed by Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan fetched US$294,000 at an auction of celebrity memorabilia. Up to 400 items were put on the auction block, including a Marilyn Monroe black lace bra, a pair of Captain Spock’s prosthetic ears, Bruce Lee shoes, a Batman costume and Beatles memorabilia in a marathon, US$3.2 million sale that ended late on Saturday evening. Bidding picked up substantially for memorabilia linked to Jackson. The basketball — used in the 1992 music video Jam — saw ferocious raising of paddles before an US online bidder finally snared it, smashing the ball’s modest pre-sale estimate of US$600. Another star lot, a black Jackson glove and arm brace fetched US$216,000, while the Beat It jacket was sold for US$156,000, more than 19 times its pre-sale estimate. Michael Keaton’s costume in Batman Returns sold for US$43,750 and a burgundy velvet ball gown worn by Princess Diana was bought by a museum in South America for US$114,000.
VIETNAM
Fireworks victim identified
A Singaporean woman has been confirmed killed in a fireworks blast that killed four people on Wednesday during preparations for Hanoi’s millennium festival. “The Vietnamese authorities have officially identified Madam Seah Li Sa as one of the fatalities in the fireworks explosion near My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi,” Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement late on Saturday. Berlin’s foreign ministry has said that two Germans died in the blast, while the fourth victim was an employee of the Ministry of Defense.
OMAN
Stranded Indian woman dies
An Indian woman died after losing her passport and becoming stranded for about four days at Muscat airport, an Indian embassy official in Muscat said yesterday. Housemaid Beebi Lumada, “died of some illness” when she was being taken to hospital, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding “she was suffering from bouts of hysteria.” She had been trying to fly home to Kerala state on Qatar Airways via Doha, where officials sent her back to Muscat on Monday after she lost her passport. She was forced to stay in Muscat airport’s transit area where she was provided with food, the official said, adding that the embassy had been in contact with her, but “couldn’t get any documents ... On Friday, her health deteriorated, so she was sent to the Ibn Sina Hospital.” However, she died en route there in an ambulance, the official said.
UNITED KINGDOM
EDL protests violently
A far-right group known for staging violent protests against what it calls the spread of Islam in the country clashed with police on Saturday in Leicester. Four people were arrested and a police officer hospitalized. Nearly 1,400 police officers, including some in riot gear and on horseback, were called to contain about 1,000 activists from the English Defence League (EDL) who gathered for a demonstration. Police said missiles were thrown at them and one officer had been taken to the hospital. Some protesters — many of them young men — broke away from the designated protest area at one point to confront gangs of local youths. Supporters of the EDL began traveling around the country last summer, demonstrating against what they call the spread of Shariah law in England. Meanwhile, about 700 members of a group called Unite Against Fascism, called for a counter-demonstration nearby. The two groups clashed during similar rallies last year in Leeds and Manchester.
SERBIA
Far-right protest gay march
Several thousand supporters of the far-right protested on Saturday in downtown Belgrade against a planned gay pride march, as fears mounted about possible violence during the event yesterday. The protest was organized by a conservative group advocating traditional family values and religion. Some of the protesters shouted “death to homosexuals” and gave fascist salutes. “Cancel the gay pride march,” leader of the Dveri group Vladan Glisic said. “The authorities should protect Serbian family values, and not the gays.” The march scheduled for yesterday is viewed as a major test for the government, which has launched pro-Western reforms and pledged to protect human rights as it seeks EU membership. Right-wing groups broke up a pride march in 2001 and forced the cancellation of last year’s event. The US embassy said there was a high potential for violence before, during and after the march and strongly recommended that its personnel avoid the downtown area for the day.
HUNGARY
No new cracks in reservoir
Officials say no new cracks have been detected overnight in the north wall of the red sludge reservoir which was thought to be close to collapse and that the situation is “hopeful.” Disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson said yesterday that the older cracks are being repaired but that it is too soon to consider lowering the current state of alert. Protective walls also are being built around the damaged part of the reservoir to hold back any further spills. At least seven people have died and one is missing in the wake of last Monday’s flood which engulfed several towns in the west of the country after a corner of the gigantic reservoir of a metals plant collapsed and released around 700,000m3 of caustic red sludge.
EGYPT
Italian tourist dies in crash
The head of South Sinai Emergency Services, Mohammed Fayez, said a van speeding down a highway in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh overturned, killing one tourist and injuring four others on Saturday shortly after nightfall. Fayez said four tourists — from Japan, Germany and Italy — and the van’s driver were injured. He said that one other tourist — a 27-year old Italian woman — later died in the hospital from head injuries. As a result of bad roads and poor law enforcement. An estimated 6,000 people die in accidents in the country each year.
UNITED STATES
Police rescue 77 cats
Two women have been cited for animal cruelty in Bennington, Vermont, after police found 77 cats living in two cars. The Bennington Banner newspaper reports that prosecutors will consider whether to upgrade the civil citations to criminal charges against 54-year-old Regina Millard and 61-year-old Bertha Ryan. Police say one of the cats was found dead in the trunk of one of the cars on Friday. Plates of food were inside, and some of the cats had fecal matter matted to their fur. Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette says the women owned two of the cats and were apparently looking for homes for the rest. Police investigated after someone complained about seeing people sleeping in the cars with the cats.
UNITED STATES
Candidate dresses as Nazi
A report says a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Ohio dressed up in a German SS uniform to participate in World War II reenactments. The Atlantic magazine says Rich Iott, a favorite of the ultraconservative “tea party” movement in northwest Ohio, has taken part in the reenactments for years. Iott is running in Ohio’s 9th District against Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur, who was first elected in 1982. Iott says he didn’t mean to disrespect anyone and that he has been involved with historical reenactments from different eras since he graduated college.
CANADA
Woman ordained as priest
Despite a Vatican ban and threats to excommunicate her, a sixth Canadian woman was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on Saturday, an official with a group supporting women in the priesthood said. The group Roman Catholic Womenpriests ordained Linda Spear, a retired teacher from Quebec, in an Anglican church in Sutton, Quebec. The first seven women priests were ordained on a boat in the Danube in 2002 and since then another 80 women have become priests in the US, as well as about 20 others around the world.
ECUADOR
Riot turned into music video
Recent police riots in which President Rafael Correa was teargassed, roughed up and trapped in a hospital for hours by officers angry over bonus cuts has been turned into a music video. Correa, in a television address on Saturday, unveiled the video, which is set to the music of Hey Jude by the Beatles. It intercuts news footage of the Sept. 30 unrest with singers crooning passionately about Correa’s “Citizens’ Revolution.” “Today, we are all the revolution,” says lyrics interposed on the familiar tune, which is interrupted at one point by an elderly woman filmed during the unrest who shouts: “We don’t want any more aggression! We love our president!” As the music crescendos, Correa is seen triumphantly returning to the presidential palace. Members of the live audience at the presidential palace, where his regular Saturday TV address was delivered, were left in tears after the screening.
MEXICO
Mayor slain in Oaxaca
The mayor-elect of a small town in Oaxaca state has been slain, police said on Saturday, on the heels of 11 murders of mayors in the country so far this year. Antonio Jimenez, who was about to take over the mayor’s post in Martires de Tacubaya, a town of 1,200, was murdered on Friday on his way home from working in the country. Jimenez, 47, was a teacher and member of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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
‘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
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the news broadcasts of which are funded by the government to export US values to the world. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000
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