CHINA
Team sent to help toddler
Pressure has been mounting on the government to save the badly crushed left leg of a two-year-old girl pulled out of the wreckage of a high-speed train crash last month. Xiang Weiyi was rescued about 21 hours after the July 23 crash near Wenzhou. The crash killed at least 40 people, including the girl’s parents. The Health Ministry said in a statement that a team of four experts would leave yesterday for Wenzhou. Her uncle posted an open letter on a blog late on Sunday urging the Ministry of Railways to send experts to examine her injuries and draw up the best treatment plan available.
THAILAND
Tourist deaths a mystery
An investigation into the deaths of five foreign tourists in Chiang Mai suggests a link to toxic chemical exposure, but failed to determine exactly what killed them, the Department of Disease Control said on its Web site yesterday. The victims were from New Zealand, France, the US and Britain, as well as a Thai tour guide, staying at three different hotels in January and February. Three more tourists also fell ill but recovered. “The specific agents that caused the deaths and illnesses in these events can not be identified, and it can not be determined exactly how people were exposed to them,” the department said. The results were most revealing concerning a 23-year-old New Zealand woman who died Feb. 6, her two friends — who got sick but recovered — and a 47-year-old Thai woman who died Feb. 3. The four are “most likely to have the same cause of illness, probably exposure to some toxic chemical, pesticides or gas,” the report said.
AUSTRALIA
Qantas showing edgy film
The in-flight entertainment on some planes run by Qantas currently contains a somewhat unusual offering — a movie that purports to elucidate the mysteries of female sexual pleasure. The 50-minute French film, The Female Orgasm Explained, which includes naked scenes, is carried in the airline’s “The Edge” channel — complete with a warning that it is for mature audiences only. Airline crews are able to block content to the seats of minors, the airline said. The film will be run until November.
INDIA
Hazare arrested again
A prominent anti-corruption activist who had announced plans to go on an indefinite hunger strike to demand tougher anti-corruption laws was detained early yesterday, police said. Anna Hazare had said that he would start fasting yesterday and would gather along with supporters in a public park in New Delhi despite police denying him permission to do so. Police later detained detained 1,400 of his supporters, transporting them to a sports stadium in New Dehli. The 73-year-old Hazare ended a four-day hunger strike in April after the government set up a committee to draft legislation to create an anti-corruption ombudsman. The legislation was introduced in parliament this month, but Hazare wants it to be made tougher.
UNITED STATES
Death March survivor dies
A World War II veteran recognized as the oldest living survivor of the Bataan Death March has died at age 105 in an Illinois nursing home. Albert Brown was recognized as the oldest survivor of the deadly 104.6km trek at an annual survivors’ convention in 2007. His granddaughter says Brown died on Sunday. Japanese soldiers forced Brown and 78,000 other prisoners of war to march through the Philippines to a POW camp in 1942. As many as 11,000 died.
CANADA
‘Royal’ tag returning
The Conservative government, stressing traditional ties to Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy, is reinstating the names “Royal Canadian Air Force” and “Royal Canadian Navy” after a gap of 43 years. The “royal” designation was removed in 1968 when the branches of service were amalgamated and became known as the Canadian Forces. General Walter Natynczyk, chief of the defense staff, announced the decision to bring back the word “royal” for the official names of the two branches of the military in a memo posted on Monday on the military discussion site Milnet.ca.
UNITED STATES
Firm gets ‘Titanic’ rights
District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith has granted a company title to fine china, ship fittings and other artifacts it recovered from the Titanic during a half-dozen perilous salvage expeditions to the famed shipwreck. Smith ruled on Monday in Norfolk on behalf of RMS Titanic Inc, which has exhibited the artifacts worldwide. Smith had ruled a year ago that the company, which has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic, was entitled to full compensation for artifacts worth about US$110 million, but she put off deciding whether to give RMS title to the approximately 5,900 artifacts or sell them and turn over the proceeds to the company.
BOLIVIA
PRC could colonize US
President Evo Morales on Monday joked that China was becoming such an economic powerhouse that it could soon colonize the US. “China is such a big country that I imagine in only a short time the United States will be a colony of China,” he said at a press conference in Cochabamba following a recent trip to Beijing. Morales said he had agreed with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on the formation of a high-level bilateral committee to begin meeting next month to promote the industrialization of the nation’s vast lithium resources, of which it has an estimated 70 percent of the world’s reserves.
CANADA
Student goes over Niagara
A 19-year-old Japanese student was swept over Niagara Falls and presumed drowned after falling from a railing along the Canadian side of the Niagara River, Niagara Parks Police Service said on Monday. The woman was visiting the falls with a friend on Sunday evening when she climbed over the railing and straddled it while holding an umbrella. The woman apparently lost her balance and fell into the water. She fell into the swift-moving river about 24m upstream from the Horseshoe Falls. The woman’s body had not been found by midday on Monday, but the remains of an unidentified male were recovered from the whirlpool below the falls after being spotted by a helicopter search crew.
UNITED STATES
Aussie in fake bomb arrest
An Australian man was arrested yesterday in connection with a fake bomb strapped around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl, police said. Australia’s New South Wales state detectives said the 50-year-old was taken into custody in Louisville, Kentucky. The arrest came after Madeleine Pulver, 18, a member of one of Sydney’s wealthiest families, endured a 10-hour ordeal earlier this month when a masked man strapped a device around her neck at her home. A note was left at the scene and police treated it as an extortion attempt in an incident that enthralled the nation.
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
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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