BELGIUM
Joyrider caught via YouTube
A joyrider who drove his Aston Martin at nearly 300kph on a highway was found by police after posting a video of his high-speed adventure on YouTube, officials said on Tuesday. The images, which circulated throughout the media, were filmed by a passenger who focused the camera on the speedometer that read 293kph. The video shows the car weaving through reasonably heavy traffic on the E17 highway in Flanders. The Dutch-speaking driver, whose face was never seen, was heard describing his Aston Martin as a “Carbon Black Edition” — a hand-painted special model of which only three have been sold in Belgium. Police tracked down the owner largely because the vehicle is so rare, a spokesman for prosecutors in the Termonde region told the Belga news agency. The driver could be hit with a 2,750 euro (US$3,800) fine, while losing both his driver’s license and his vehicle, worth an estimated 190,000 euros, Belgian media said.
FRANCE
Male hawks a little lady-like
In a species of hawk, males dress themselves up as females to gain a sneaky advantage in the mating game, according to an unusual study published yesterday. Most male marsh harriers (Circus aeruginosus) are gray, but more than a third have permanent plumage that mimics the colors of females, which are mainly brown with a white head and shoulders. Seeking to understand the point of this biological cross-dressing, scientists probed the behavior of harriers in the Marais de Brouage, a marshland in a central-western region. After identifying 36 breeding couples, they placed one of three types of decoys near each of their nesting sites: plastic figures that had been painted to look like a typical male, typical female or “female-like” male marsh harrier. Typical males, defending their territory, were three times likelier to attack the typical male decoy than the other two decoy types. What was even more striking was the behavior of female-like males in breeding couples. By looking like females and acting less aggressively, they are less likely to be attacked by male competitors — which gives them a better chance of sidling up to females for some lovey-dovey.
FRANCE
Rhino security beefed up
A zoo has placed its white rhinos under video surveillance fearing poachers could kill them for their horns, which can fetch hundreds of thousands of euros on the black market. The owner of the Thoiry zoo and wildlife park west of Paris took the measure following a spate of rhino horn thefts from zoos and museums around Europe, broadening security measures already in place for small primates. Rhinos are often poached for their horns, made of keratin and sold on the black market for ornamental or medicinal purposes, particularly in Asia. Horns can fetch between 25,000 and 200,000 euros depending on their size.
SERBIA
Prosecutor visits Belgrade
UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz is in Belgrade asking authorities to probe who had helped Ratko Mladic and another war crimes suspect evade justice for more than 15 years. Brammertz arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday for a regular visit ahead delivering a report to the UN Security Council on Belgrade’s compliance with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The report is expected to be positive because Belgrade this summer arrested and delivered the last two fugitives wanted by the tribunal.
CUBA
Tweets turn political
President Raul Castro’s controversial daughter Mariela on Tuesday got into the Twitter equivalent of a shouting match with dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez. Sanchez, who regularly criticizes the lack of freedom in the country in her internationally known “Generation Y” blog, touched off the dispute by sending tweets that welcomed Mariela Castro to the “plurality of Twitter” where “no one can shut me up, deny me permission to travel or block entrance.” “When will we Cubans be able to come out of other closets?” she asked, alluding to Mariela Castro’s championing of gay rights as head of the National Center for Sex Education. “Tolerance is total or is it not?” Sanchez tweeted. Castro at first replied coolly, but later lashed out after apparently receiving a number of tweets from other dissidents. “Despicable parasites: did you receive the order from your employers to respond to me in unison and with the same predetermined script? Be creative,” she wrote, reflecting the contempt local leaders have for dissidents.
UNITED STATES
Duggars expecting 20th kid
Arkansas mom Michelle Duggar proudly announced to the world on Tuesday she’s expecting — but her 19 other children got to hear the news first. Duggar, 45, and her husband, Jim Bob, 46, have more experience than most in new arrivals, but they told NBC television they were surprised by the latest. “I was not thinking that God would give us another one, and we are just so grateful,” said Duggar, star of a reality show on TLC called 19 Kids and Counting. The family lives in Little Rock and also runs its own Internet site, which sells books written by the parents and DVDs, and dispenses advice to parents. The brood currently consists of 10 boys and nine girls aged between 23 months and 23 years.
UNITED STATES
Occupy DC gets ice cream
The Washington offshoot of Occupy Wall Street indulged in some Cherry Garcia and words of encouragement on Tuesday from the multimillionaire founders of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield set up a stall in McPherson Square to show their support for Occupy DC, as they drop in on some of the protests against corporate power that have popped up around the country. “Today, corporations are essentially controlling our country in their own self-interest,” Cohen said as protesters — plus a few homeless men — lined up for a free serving of ice cream. “They control our elections though campaign contributions; they control our legislation through lobbying.” Having previously dropped in on Occupy Wall Street in New York’s financial district, Cohen said he and Greenfield would next be traveling separately to Occupy tent cities in Seattle, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
UNITED STATES
Poll monitor bites voter
An election monitor bit an Ohio voter on the nose on Tuesday after he got involved in a dispute about how close a campaign worker could get to the polling station, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Tuesday. “He head-butted me. He bit my nose. He tried to bite it off,” Greg Flanagan, 49, told the paper after he was treated at hospital for the bite wound. Flanagan became a target after he mumbled “you don’t have to be such an ass” after the election monitor — whose job is to act as a troubleshooter — berated the campaign worker. Police were looking for James Williams, who jumped into his car and drove off after the polling location coordinator pulled him off of Flanagan.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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