RUSSIA
Too cold to protest: doctor
Russians should avoid attending the protest against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow at the weekend to protect their health amid a spell of cold weather, the country’s chief sanitary doctor, Gennady Onishchenko, said yesterday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to rally for a march in the Russian capital tomorrow in the third mass protest challenging Putin ahead of next month’s presidential election. “The forecast for Saturday is extremely unfavorable with temperatures of minus-18°C forecast. This is a very low temperature for Moscow,” he told the Interfax news agency. “If this forecast is true then I categorically advise people not to take part in these protests.” Onishchenko added that people should “find other ways of participating in the formation of a happier country.”
ITALY
Vandals attack statues
Vandals have attacked and stolen several statues from the gardens of the Villa Medici in Rome, including two works dating back to ancient Rome, Eric de Chassey, director of the French-owned palace, said on Wednesday. “I am absolutely shocked by this act of vandalism,” he said, adding that the vandals had come twice last week and again overnight on Monday when they were disturbed by a guard. De Chassey said most of the statues attacked were Renaissance or 20th-century copies of older works, but two of them were authentically ancient, dating back about 2,000 years. French and Italian police have been called in to investigate the thefts and the 16th-century villa’s management has beefed up security.
BELGIUM
Cold stops peeing statue
The Manneken-Pis, a bronze statue of a young boy urinating that is a symbol of Brussels and a major tourist attraction, has had to stop peeing because of sub-zero temperatures, the tourist office said on Wednesday. Officials turned off the flow of water through the statue, which has stood on a Brussels corner since the 1600s, out of concern the cold might damage its internal mechanism. Temperatures in the Belgian capital were set to fall to minus-10°C on Wednesday night, far below the average minimum for February. “It all depends on the weather, if the temperatures go up again it will work again,” a tourist office spokeswoman said. The statue, which is on the site of a 15th-century drinking fountain, has more than 800 specially made outfits that city officials use to dress it up during the year.
DR CONGO
Kabila party loses seats
The ruling party has lost more than 40 percent of its legislative seats to rivals, but will remain the largest bloc in parliament, according to full results from a Nov. 28 vote released yesterday. The outcome could weaken President Joseph Kabila’s rule after his own re-election was decried by the opposition as fraudulent in polls that were also criticized by international observers. “The results of these elections took a long time, but it was to ensure their overall transparency,” election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda said. Kabila’s PPRD party won 63 seats in the 500-seat National Assembly, down from 111 in the 2006 polls, Mulunda said. The opposition UDPS party came second with 41 seats, while the Kabila-allied PPPD followed with 27 seats. About 17 seats in the assembly remain unfilled as the Supreme Court considers requests to have the results of those races thrown out over allegations of fraud or errors. Mulunda said the court had two months to rule on those cases.
VIETNAM
New bird flu death reported
An official yesterday confirmed the country’s second human death from bird flu in less than a month, after it went nearly two years with no reported fatalities. Test results confirm that a 26-year-old woman died of the disease on Jan. 28 after being hospitalized in southern Soc Trang Province, said Truong Hoai Phong, director of the provincial health department. The woman had recently given birth in another hospital, but her infant son tested negative for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, Phong said. He said dead and sick poultry were reported in the woman’s neighborhood. The death came about two weeks after an 18-year-old duck farm worker died of the virus in another province in southern Vietnam.
PHILIPPINES
Aquino dates TV personality
President Benigno Aquino III confirmed on Wednesday that he had put the fizz back into his love life by dating a South Korean media personality more than 20 years his junior. “Well, we’re seeing each other, OK?” said the Filipino leader, who turns 52 next week, when asked about rumors swirling in the local press about him dating Grace Lee. Lee, 29, who moved to the Philippines as a child, co-hosts a popular music radio program in Manila, as well as several TV shows.
PAKISTAN
Deadly drug factory closed
Authorities have closed a drug factory alleged to have made faulty heart medicine that killed more than 100 patients. Government investigator Akbar Baluch said yesterday that tests from a laboratory in London showed that tablets produced in the facility contained massive doses of anti-malarial medicine that poisoned heart patients. Some were handed out to patients in the eastern Punjab Province, where all the deaths occurred. Health officials have said more than 100 deaths in Punjab have been linked to consumption of the drug in the last few weeks.
NEPAL
Man claims to be 56cm tall
Guinness World Records experts said yesterday they were to travel to a remote valley in the southwest of the country to measure a 72-year-old claiming to be the world’s shortest man. Chandra Bahadur Dangi is 56cm tall and weighs 12kg, he told a media conference broadcast by Nepali state TV. The record is held by Filipino Junrey Balawing, who measures 59.93cm and took the title last year from another Nepali, Khagendra Thapa Magar, who was measured in 2010 at 67cm. Magar’s stint as the world’s shortest man saw him travel to more than a dozen countries and make TV appearances in Europe and the US. He was also the official face of Nepal’s tourism campaign, which featured him as the smallest man in a country that is home to the world’s highest peak.
SOUTH KOREA
Release Twitter user: AI
Rights group Amnesty International (AI) yesterday urged the release of an activist accused of helping the “enemy” by re-tweeting messages from North Korea’s official Twitter account. Park Jeong-geun, a Socialist Party activist, was arrested last month for re-tweeting messages such as “Long Live General Kim Jong-il.” The 24-year-old says his re-tweets were meant to ridicule North Korea’s leaders rather than support them. He has been in custody since Jan. 11 and could face up to seven years in jail under the strict National Security Law (NSL). Amnesty said the party to which Park belongs has frequently criticized North Korea for exploiting its labor force and opposes its father-to-son succession.
COLOMBIA
Blast kills seven
Seven people were killed and about 70 wounded when suspected leftist rebels detonated explosives near a police station in the southwestern town of Tumaco on Wednesday, Red Cross officials said. Four police officers and three civilians were killed in the blast, Red Cross Urgent Assistance director Cesar Uruena told RCN radio, while 34 police officers and 36 civilians were wounded. The bomb, apparently hidden inside a motorbike, blew up outside the police station on a busy street with many pedestrians close by, said Tumaco Mayor Victor Gallo.
UNITED STATES
Washington nears gay union
The Washington state Senate has passed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, a step seen by proponents as a critical hurdle for legislative approval, even as the threat of a ballot challenge looms. The measure was passed on a 28-21 vote. Four Republicans crossed party lines and voted with majority Democrats for the measure. Three Democrats voted against it. The measure now heads to the House, which is expected to approve it. Governor Chris Gregoire supports the measure and has said she will sign it into law. Opponents of same-sex marriage promise a referendum battle at the ballot if the bill is signed into law.
UNITED STATES
Woman wins Honda suit
A California woman has won a small-claims suit against Honda after accusing the Japanese automaker of misleading her about its Civic Hybrid’s fuel mileage. A Los Angeles County court sided with Heather Peters, who said she was awarded US$9,867 — close to the US$10,000 maximum — over Honda’s claim that the hybrid could achieve as much as 50 miles per gallon (21.3km per liter). “It is a victory for Civic Hybrid owners and consumers everywhere,” Peters said. “Sometimes big justice comes in small packages.” Peters sued the automaker after learning that a class-action lawsuit settlement would pay trial lawyers US$8.5 million, while individual Civic owners would receive just US$100 and rebate coupons for the purchase of a new car.
UNITED STATES
Ecuador retiree wanted
An international magazine is looking for volunteers to spend a month in Cuenca, Ecuador, to test its potential as a retirement destination. Applicants must be near retirement age, from the US or Canada and be willing to relax, explore, shop, try local restaurants, maybe take a Spanish class, and report on their experience during an all-expense paid month. “We’re not giving away a free vacation,” said Jennifer Stevens, the executive editor of International Living magazine, which launched the competition. The winner of the competition, who will be announced on May 30th, will receive round-trip airfare for two, a furnished apartment and US$1,500 in living expenses, according to an ad posted on InternationalLiving.com.
UNITED STATES
Crew claims US$3bn treasure
Treasure hunters said they found the sunken remains of a British steamer torpedoed during World War II carrying platinum now valued at US$3 billion, the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday. Sub Sea Research found the British ship SS Port Nicholson on the ocean floor about 50km off Provincetown, Massachusetts, the paper reported. The Port Nicholson was sailing from Halifax, Canada, to New York when it was torpedoed and sank in 1942. Four people died when the ship went down and 87 were rescued.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate