NEW ZEALAND
Man to go out with a bang
A man’s ashes will be fired from a cannon over Wellington Harbour during a ceremony to mark Captain James Cook’s birthday. The ashes of Alfonse Kennedy Goss, known as AK, 58, who died last year from cancer, will be fired from an artillery piece by his friends from the Wellington Cannon Society, newswire.co.nz reported.
AUSTRALIA
iPod blamed for sex assault
A sex attack victim said on Thursday she might have been able to avoid the assault if she had not been distracted by her iPod. The victim, named only as “Kate,” urged other women to use MP3 players with caution after she was knocked down and sexually assaulted just 100m from her Melbourne home earlier this month. “I was listening to my iPod and in my thoughts I was already at home so I didn’t pay attention,” she said. “It’s a very bad idea, because you listen to the songs that you like, you’re thinking about things and you don’t pay attention to what’s happening around you. It’s a very bad thing.” A passing car disturbed the attacker, who then fled. “When I am walking on the street now I always pay attention to what’s happening around me,” she said. Campaigners in the country have warned road users of “Death by iPod” after a pedestrian was knocked down and killed last month in Sydney, following the death of a Melbourne cyclist in June.
YEMEN
Tribesmen kidnap Swede
Tribesmen kidnapped the Swedish technical director of a cement works in the troubled southern province of Abyan late on Thursday, a security official said. Four men abducted the Swede at gunpoint as he was leaving the plant in the provincial capital Zinjibar to travel to the main southern city of Aden, the official said yesterday. The kidnappers are believed to be members of the Maraqish tribe, which has been campaigning for the release of a clansman who is on death row in the capital Sanaa, the official added. Yemen’s powerful tribes often kidnap foreigners for use as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government. Of about 200 foreigners seized in Yemen over the past decade, almost all have been released unharmed.
UNITED STATES
Woman kills baby for game
A Florida woman, angry because her baby’s crying was interrupting her game of Farmville on Facebook, has pleaded guilty to murder after shaking the infant to death, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Alexandra Tobias, 22, of Jacksonville, entered the plea in the January death of three-month-old Dylan Edmondson before Circuit Judge Adrian Soud on Wednesday, the Florida Times-Union said.
UNITED STATES
High-speed rail plan boosted
The US government on Thursday pumped in an additional US$2.4 billion to develop high-speed rail projects as it moves toward building the US’ first nationwide next-generation program. US President Barack Obama’s administration announced that 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states will share the US$2.4 billion to continue developing the intercity passenger rail service. The US Department of Transportation received 132 applications from 32 states in the second round of awards, for a total of US$8.8 billion, more than three times the funding available. “Demand for high-speed rail dollars is intense and it demonstrates just how important this historic initiative is,” US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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