AUSTRALIA
Children may go to Malaysia
The government is resisting pressure from the UN’s child agency to guarantee that 14 unaccompanied children would not be sent to Malaysia as part of a new refugee swap deal. The 14 children are among 55 asylum seekers who arrived by boat on Thursday at an immigration detention camp on one of the country’s island territories. They are to become the first to be sent to Malaysia under a new deal aimed at deterring other asylum seekers from coming to the country by boat. UNICEF Australia chief Norman Gillespie urged Immigration Minister Chris Bowen yesterday to ensure that no unaccompanied child is deported, but Bowen says there cannot be blanket exemptions for children.
UNITED STATES
Joe Biden to visit Asia
US Vice President Joe Biden is set to travel to China, Mongolia and Japan later this month. Biden’s trip to China will include meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo (溫家寶). The US has a complex, but necessary, relationship with China, which holds about US$1.15 trillion in US debt. In Japan, the White House says Biden will express steadfast US support for its close ally in the wake of the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency. The White House says Biden will also underscore support for Mongolia’s two decades of democratic development. The vice president is due to start his trip on Aug. 16.
JAPAN
Experts grow mouse sperm
Researchers in the country used embryonic stem cells to grow healthy mouse sperm on laboratory dishes, a development that could help treat human infertility, they said yesterday. The finding, published in the journal Cell, marks a step forward for using stem cells for regenerative medicine. Scientists at Kyoto University removed stem cells from mouse embryos and managed to coax them into a type of precursor cell known to grow into either mouse eggs or sperm. They then transplanted these cells into the testes of infertile male mice — which apparently went on to produce healthy sperm.
VIETNAM
Hunger striker eating again
A dissident priest with a brain tumor went on a one-week hunger strike after authorities returned him to prison last month, his family said yesterday. Nguyen Van Ly, 65, began refusing food after authorities disregarded international appeals and put him back behind bars on July 25 following medical leave, one relative said, asking not to be named. “He didn’t eat for one week,” but resumed meals after a visit this week from his sister, the relative said, adding the priest’s health had not deteriorated further because of his protest. The EU, US, Canada and international rights groups all expressed concern about Ly’s re--incarceration near Hanoi and said he should be freed.
INDONESIA
Bomb suspect to return soon
An alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people will be repatriated soon from Pakistan, where he was arrested this year, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said yesterday. The most-wanted Islamic extremist in Southeast Asia, Umar Patek, was arrested in March in Abbottabad in Pakistan, the same town where US special forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden just weeks later. In addition to the Bali bombings, he is also suspected of involvement in a series of deadly attacks targeting Christians and Westerners in Indonesia dating back to 1999.
SWEDEN
Man builds nuclear reactor
A man was arrested after he tried to build a nuclear reactor in his kitchen and documented his efforts on the Internet, authorities and the man said on Thursday. Richard Handl, 31, from Angelholm, gathered materials, including smoke detectors, clock and watch hands, via purchases on the Internet. He documented his efforts on a blog and his Facebook page. He got as far as mixing some ingredients on a cooker. “The boiling explosion was about three or four months ago and the police came two weeks ago,” he said. After the incident, which he tagged “The Meltdown” on his blog, he said he “cleaned up the mess on the cooker and then I bought some more radium and continued the experiment.” The Radiation Safety Authority said in a statement the authorities raided Handl’s flat on July 20 after hearing that he was handling nuclear materials in an unsafe way. He was detained and shortly after freed.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mr Bean crashes supercar
Actor Rowan Atkinson, famed for his Mr Bean television shows and films, is recovering in hospital after crashing his supercar, the Daily Mirror reported yesterday. The 56-year-old comedian, also known for the Blackadder historical comedy shows, was expected to be discharged yesterday after treatment for a shoulder injury, the paper said. Police and firefighters both said that a vehicle crashed late on Thursday close to Haddon, a village about 137km north of London. The car struck a tree, a lamppost and caught fire, authorities said. Atkinson was driving his McLaren F1 supercar — one of the world’s fastest road cars, the newspaper said.
UNITED KINGDOM
MP offers sex drive curbs
A lawmaker has updated his guide on how his colleagues can stay true to their constituents while staying true to their partners. Labour MP Paul Flynn said his new version of How to Be a Backbencher will include tips on drafting pithy Twitter messages and tongue-in-cheek ways to dampen what the 76-year-old described as parliamentarians’ “sexual magnetism.” Flynn said on Wednesday in media interviews that it was a mystery to him why elected officials were so attractive. His tips on how to stay faithful include taking cold baths.
GERMANY
Gay Nazi victim dies at 98
A gay rights group says Rudolf Brazda, believed to be the last surviving person who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp because of his homosexuality, has died. He was 98. The Lesbian and Gay Association said that Brazda died on Wednesday. Brazda was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in August 1942 and was held there until its liberation by US forces in 1945.
ISRAEL
Reference to God dropped
The army has dropped references to God in a text read at a ceremony honoring fallen soldiers, a military official said yesterday, following pressure from secular families. The relatives of some dead soldiers had protested against the fact that in many military units, the so-called Yitzkor text had been changed to be given a religious sense. The original text called on “the people of Israel” to keep the soldiers in their memories. The decision to revert back to the original text was taken by a military commission appointed by army chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz.
UNITED STATES
Rumsfeld faces torture suit
A federal judge says former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld can be sued personally for damages by a former military contractor who says he was tortured during nine months in prison in Iraq. The court kept the identity of the contractor — an army veteran in his 50s — confidential for fear of retaliation. His attorneys say he was repeatedly abused during detention at Camp Cropper, a US military facility in Baghdad, after he worked as a translator for the marines. His lawsuit says Rumsfeld violated his constitutional rights by personally approving torturous interrogation techniques on a case-by-case basis and controlling his detention without access to courts.
UNITED STATES
F-16s reroute kit airplane
Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a plane flown by a 75-year-old woman after it entered restricted airspace during Obama’s visit to Chicago on Wednesday, federal officials said on Thursday. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told the Daily Herald that the jets were summoned when air traffic controllers could not contact the pilot. Obama was in Chicago for a fundraiser celebrating his 50th birthday. The jets intercepted the Kitfox Model 2, a kit airplane, piloted by Myrtle Rose of South Barrington, a Chicago suburb. Rose turned the plane around and returned to Mill Rose Farm Airport, NORAD spokesman Lieutenant Michael Humphreys said. Rose’s plane did not have a radio, which forced NORAD to use the jets to identify and intercept the plane, Humphreys said. Rose said she did not know she had entered restricted air space.
UNITED STATES
Obama seeks aid for vets
Obama is calling on Congress to pass a series of tax credits for companies that hire unemployed military veterans. He was scheduled to announce the “Returning Heroes” and “Wounded Warriors” tax credits yesterday. His proposal would give companies that hire an unemployed veteran a US$2,400 tax credit. Companies that hire an unemployed veteran with a service-related disability would receive a US$4,800 tax credit and a US$9,600 credit if the veteran has been unemployed for more than six months. The administration says there are more than 1 million unemployed veterans.
VENEZUELA
Chavez seeks deities’ help
President Hugo Chavez told a gathering of soldiers on Thursday that he is seeking divine support from the indigenous deities and spirits of the nation’s central plains to help him survive cancer. “Cancer? What is that for me? I have faith in the spirits of the plains that I’ll prevail. I will live and we will win the elections next year,” he told hundreds of troops massed in formation at Fort Tiuna, the country’s largest military installation. Chavez often describes himself as a devout Roman Catholic, although his religious beliefs are eclectic.
BRAZIL
New defense chief named
Defense minister Nelson Jobim has resigned and will be replaced by former foreign minister Celso Amorim, the president’s office said on Thursday. Jobim, 65, who took the job in 2007 under then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, resigned after reports that he made derogatory remarks about two female officials. He was quoted in a magazine as saying that Minister of Institutional Relations Ideli Salvatti lacked power and that Cabinet chief Gleisi Hoffmann “doesn’t even know” the capital, Brasilia.
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
A deluge of disinformation about a virus called hMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. Agence France-Presse’s fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually non-fatal respiratory disease human metapneumovirus after cases rose in China. Many of these posts claimed that people were dying and that a national emergency had been declared. Garnering tens of thousands of views, some posts recycled old footage from China’s draconian lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in the country in late
French police on Monday arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murder after an 11-year-old girl was found dead in a wood south of Paris over the weekend in a killing that sparked shock and a massive search for clues. The girl, named as Louise, was found stabbed to death in the Essonne region south of Paris in the night of Friday to Saturday, police said. She had been missing since leaving school on Friday afternoon and was found just a few hundred meters from her school. A police source, who asked not to be named, said that she had been
VIOLENCE: The teacher had depression and took a leave of absence, but returned to the school last year, South Korean media reported A teacher stabbed an eight-year-old student to death at an elementary school in South Korea on Monday, local media reported, citing authorities. The teacher, a woman in her 40s, confessed to the crime after police officers found her and the young girl with stab wounds at the elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Monday evening, the Yonhap news agency reported. The girl was brought to hospital “in an unconscious state, but she later died,” the report read. The teacher had stab wounds on her neck and arm, which officials determined might have been self-inflicted, the news agency