CHINA
Mooncake tax sparks outcry
A decision by the Beijing authorities to tax mooncakes, a delicacy given as a gift during the Mid-Autumn Festival, has sparked an outcry, reports said yesterday. A poll conducted by the microblogging service Weibo found that 96 percent of users opposed the tax. “Since when are mooncakes taxed? I’d rather not be given any if I have to pay such a tax,” IT worker Wang Youhua told the China Daily newspaper. The tax authorities gave no reason for the move, but the price of mooncakes has soared in recent years as retailers have come up with increasingly elaborate ways to make the traditional gifts more desirable.
SOUTH KOREA
Diary details burglaries
A burglar has been arrested after police found details of his criminal exploits recorded in his diary, complete with addresses he hit and entries such as “Jackpot,” a detective said yesterday. The 42-year-old Seoul man, identified only as Kim, had stolen luxury bags, jewelry and electronic items worth 320 million won (US$300,000) from scores of houses and shops over the past six years. He was caught this month after a surveillance camera at an automated teller machine recorded him trying to withdraw money using a stolen credit card. Kim initially denied burglary, but confessed after police raided his home.
INDIA
Passengers leap from plane
Terrified passengers jumped out of a plane trying to escape before emergency ladders were put in place when a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain to Kochi in the southern state of Kerala landed badly in wet weather conditions and veered onto muddy grassland. Seven were injured in the pre-dawn incident. “Because the nose of the plane was damaged the emergency [inflatable] ladder did not work, so a rescue team started bringing ladders to the site, but before they arrived, people began to jump. All those injured were injured because they jumped out too soon,” Kochi Airport director A.C.K. Nair said.
CHINA
Children attacked at daycare
Eight children were hurt yesterday when a staff member at a temporary daycare center for the children of migrant workers in Shanghai went on a stabbing spree, local media said. The attacks took place about midday, the Xinmin Evening News said on its Web site. A woman who had worked at the center for several years used a box cutter to slash at children, all between three and four years old, the newspaper quoted witnesses as saying. The suspect, who is believed to have psychiatric problems, has already been detained by police, the newspaper said. Her name was not given. One of the eight children was seriously injured.
VIETNAM
Prisoners freed in amnesty
President Truong Tan Sang has ordered more than 10,000 prisoners freed as part of the country’s annual National Day amnesty. Five of those had been convicted of national security crimes, but no high-profile dissidents were included. Three were ethnic minorities from the restive Central Highlands. Eleven of the 10,535 inmates being freed are foreigners, including nationals of the US, Canada and Australia. National Day is on Friday. Vietnam has been criticized by the US and EU for jailing political and religious dissidents.
SWITZERLAND
Weather stops tightrope walk
A tightrope walker who had set out to beat seven world records in a week was forced to turn around halfway over a lake because of bad weather. Freddy Nock had already set five world records over the past week, but had to give up in his attempt to walk a 3.3km wire over the Thoune lake in central Switzerland on Sunday. The wire was lowered to drop Nock, who never uses a safety harness, onto a boat to get back to shore. The 46-year-old, who is donating the proceeds from his stunts to a charity working for children in Bangladesh, had already ticked off five records. On Aug. 20, he walked for 1km without a beam on a wire strung about 150m above the ground in Germany and two days later he inched up a 3km cable car wire in Austria. However, he had already missed his target of seven records in a week when weather prevented him from cycling on a cable strung 50m above the ground between two cranes in Switerzland.
MONACO
Tom Jones cancels concert
Singer Tom Jones canceled a Saturday night concert due to severe dehydration, his spokesman said on Sunday, while denying reports the 71-year-old star was suffering heart problems. “This was extremely disappointing for Tom, the band and all connected with the tour,” a statement issued on behalf of the singer said. “This was the last date of a very successful three-month tour, where many of the shows were in locations that were in the throes of high summer heat.”
NEW ZEALAND
Happy Feet to sail home
The wayward emperor penguin known to the world as Happy Feet was safely aboard a ship and ready to be taken to cooler southern waters. Happy Feet was transported from the Wellington Zoo to the research vessel Tangaroa yesterday. He craned his head back and forth, flapped his flippers and seemed a little perturbed by the move, but otherwise looked to be healthy. The penguin was found on a beach on June 20, far from his Antarctic feeding grounds. He was moved to the Wellington Zoo after he became ill from eating sand that he likely mistook for snow. The Tangaroa was to leave port last night and Happy Feet will be released after four days at sea at a latitude of 51 degrees south.
AUSTRALIA
Qantas sorry over photo
National airline Qantas apologized for posting a picture of two rugby fans wearing Afro wigs and with their faces and arms painted black at an international rugby game after it sparked online outrage. The photo, briefly run on the Qantas Twitter site, was the result of a competition asking fans to tell how they would show their support for the team and depicted two fans impersonating Fiji-born Australian team player Radike Samo at a Saturday night international game. “We apologize that the photo of two Radike fans offended some of our followers,” Qantas said in a statement. “We’ve spoken with Radike and whilst he is not offended we decided to remove the image.” The Twitter community was divided, but many were angered. “What that image represents to most people is appalling,” one commenter said. Others said the whole issue had been blown out of proportion. “What is all the fuss about? See things in context not offensive. Good Aussie fun,” another tweeted. Radike said he did not have any problems with the costumes. “I don’t know what the fuss is all about. These guys were paying me a tribute,” he said.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done