PHILIPPINES
Chinese deported for fraud
Authorities have deported 67 Chinese nationals alleged to be members of an international crime group specializing in online credit card fraud, the immigration bureau said yesterday. The Chinese were arrested last week by immigration agents who raided two houses in Manila the group had used as their base of operations, the bureau’s investigation chief Arvin Santos said. “They operate like call center agents and contact prospective customers in China and Taiwan who they then convince to buy various goods and services and pay by credit card online,” Santos said in a statement. “Once the money comes in, it is diverted to the syndicate’s bank account.” Santos said the Chinese embassy in the Philippines tipped local authorities off about the syndicate, which he said recruited the 67 with promises of high-paying jobs in Manila. All 67 were flown back to Beijing last week, Santos said. The deportation came after the Philippines in February sent 14 Taiwanese involved in a similar scam to China, triggering a diplomatic spat with the Taipei. Santos said the 67 deported last week were all from China and not Taiwan.
SOUTH KOREA
Pororo creators squabble
Pororo, the country’s friendly blue cartoon penguin beloved by children worldwide, has become the subject of a paternity suit in the land of his birth. Ocon Animation Studio said yesterday it has brought a case in a local court against its partner Iconix Entertainment, accusing Iconix of taking credit for creating the animated character. The adventures of Pororo, who sports aviator goggles and a flying helmet and dreams of being able to fly, have now been sold in 110 countries and spawned a tidal wave of merchandise in South Korea. “Pororo’s creator is Ocon, not Iconix,” Ocon said in a statement. “Iconix deprived Ocon and animators of recognition by marketing Pororo as its own creation and being the sole recipient of a government prize,” it said. Iconix denied Ocon’s accusations. “We have never made statements to imply we are the real creators,” Choi Jong-il, head of Iconix, told Yonhap news agency. “It’s absurd to claim who’s the ‘real creator’ over co-produced works.”
CHINA
Mine blast death toll rises
The death toll from a coal mine explosion in the southwest has risen to 17. Xinhua news agency said 28 miners were in the shaft when the blast occurred on Tuesday in Guizhou Province. Eleven were rescued and being treated in a hospital. Initial reports said 13 miners had died, but three rescued workers later died in a hospital and another body was recovered from the shafts yesterday morning, bringing the toll to 17. Xinhua did not give a cause for the blast.
NEW ZEALAND
Parliament jumper thwarted
Parliament was briefly thrown into chaos when a man tried to jump from the public gallery into the debating chamber. The man muttered something about injustice before attempting to climb over a low barrier yesterday afternoon during a routine parliamentary session. He was just able to be restrained by a security guard and four or five people who were watching the debate. Had he succeeded in getting over the barrier, the man would have fallen about 4m onto desks and politicians below. Prime Minister John Key initially blamed his political opponents in the Labour Party for the incident. The two parties have been squabbling over the level of security detail needed for Key.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fur flies over cat claim
Home Secretary Theresa May came under fire from judges and her own Conservative Party on Tuesday after claiming an illegal immigrant avoided deportation because of his pet cat. “We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act ... about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I am not making this up, he had a pet cat,” May told the Conservative party conference in Manchester on Tuesday. However, Justice Secretary and Tory colleague Kenneth Clarke said he “cannot believe anyone was refused deportation just because they owned a cat” and that the case “has nothing to do with the Human Rights Act.” A statement issued on behalf of senior judges later on Tuesday said the cat “had nothing to do with the decision to allow the man to stay.” May also told supporters that Britain’s Human Rights Act, which incorporates rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, “needs to go.” She promised to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to use Article 8 of the convention — the right to family life — to avoid deportation.
GERMANY
More beer, fewer brawls
Revelers at the Oktoberfest, the world’s largest folk festival, consumed a record 7.5 million liters of beer during the 17-day party, which ended on Monday in blazing sunshine. Despite gloom about the spiralling eurozone debt crisis, the festival drew about 6.9 million visitors, many clad in traditional Bavarian lederhosen, organizers said. Although most visitors come from Bavaria, home of the Oktoberfest, more than 1 million traveled to Munich from abroad, mostly from Italy, the US and Australia. To the rousing strains of oompah bands, partygoers devoured 118 oxen and 53 calves, but, as usual, the most popular fare to help soak up a Masskrug, or liter mug, of beer was roast chicken — hundreds of thousands of which were consumed, along with pork sausages. “The atmosphere at the Oktoberfest was, until the last day, absolutely excellent,” Munich Mayor Christian Ude said. The organizers were particularly pleased that there were only 58 brawls in which drinkers used their Masskrug as a weapon, police said.
RUSSIA
Lebedev punch probed
Russian billionaire and British media magnate Alexander Lebedev is being investigated for throwing a punch at a fellow entrepreneur on a prime time television talk show, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Prosecutors said in an online statement that the case was opened after an initial investigation found Lebedev had “inflicted bodily harm” on property developer Sergei Polonsky, a one-time billionaire who lost part of his fortune during the economic crisis. Lebedev, the owner of Britain’s Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers, faces up to five years imprisonment under the criminal charges. Goaded by Polonsky’s comment that he would rather hit someone than discuss financial matters with oligarchs, Lebedev sprung up and punched the notoriously brash property tycoon in the face, sending him wheeling backwards. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later characterized the on-air fisticuffs as “hooliganism.” While former KGB agent Lebedev defended his move, a dazed Polonsky swiftly said he would seek legal action, posting images of his ripped trousers and scratches on his blog. Lebedev, 51, is a former spy who made billions trading stocks and bonds after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Polonsky was on the Forbes billionaires list in 2008, but was knocked off during the economic crisis.
UNITED STATES
Boat leaves tourists behind
The coast guard on Tuesday said it was investigating a Florida tourism company that left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving. The tourists — Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta — were rescued by a private yacht which found them clinging to a buoy in shark-infested waters. “The incident is under investigation,” coast guard spokeswoman Sabrina Elgammal said. “We got a call that the two people were picked up in the sea and there was no medical harm and they went back to port,” she said. RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Beach took a group of 30 people, including Kline and Garcia, in a boat to scuba dive in the open ocean, the Miami Herald reported. However, when Kline and Garcia surfaced, they found that the boat had gone. The two said they clung to a fishing buoy and at about 6pm as it was getting dark they were spotted by passengers on a yacht.
UNITED STATES
Hunt on for whale shooter
Wildlife officials are looking for whoever shot a whale at sea, leaving the animal to wander the ocean in agony for a month or more before it beached itself in New Jersey and died. The culprit could get a year in prison and a hefty fine. Scott Doyle, an agent in charge of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s New Jersey shore office, said his agency is hoping someone comes forward to report the shooter. The nearly 3.35m short-finned pilot whale, which was near death, weighed about 335.66kg, but should have tipped the scales at more than 450kg. It died shortly after police responded, but it wasn’t until a necropsy was performed that the cause of death was revealed. Someone had shot the whale. The wound near its blow hole had closed and faded somewhat, indicating the animal had been wounded as long as a month ago, said Bob Schoelkopf, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. The bullet lodged in the whale’s jaw, causing an infection that left it unable to eat. “This poor animal literally starved to death,” Schoelkopf said.
UNITED STATES
Bear attacks man in home
A man attacked by a bear inside his home says it took 70 stitches and staples to close the gaping wound on the back of his head. It all happened after the bear followed his dog into his home early on Monday morning. Rich Moyer told reporters outside his home the attack was a “nightmare” that ended only when the bear ran off. The 1.83m, 136kg Moyer says the bear leaped on him as he let his dog in at about 3am. His wife tried to help, but was knocked to the ground. Moyer jumped back into the fray and felt the bear tearing into his scalp. He jokes that he knows “what it’s like to be a salmon now.” Pennsylvania Game Commission officials say the bear may have been protecting its cubs.
UNITED STATES
Man protests cruelty claim
A man who is no longer facing charges for eating a live baby rat says the act was grotesque, but shouldn’t be considered as animal cruelty. Prosecutors charged Andy Ray Harris with animal cruelty in April, after authorities viewed a posted Facebook video of him eating what appeared to be the baby rat. The 31-year-old man from Tooele, Utah, says he ate the rat on a dare. Prosecutors argued the baby rat deserved protections because it wasn’t wild and it was killed in a way that is not an accepted fashion. Harris says it was not animal cruelty because the rat was going to be eaten by a snake. He also says rats don’t have legal protections because they are pests.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
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