AUSTRALIA
Aboriginal health improves
The nation is on track to halving Aboriginal child mortality and progress is being made in raising indigenous life-expectancy rates overall, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday. Indigenous children are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday as other children and Aboriginal men are estimated to die 11.5 years earlier than other males. Delivering her annual report on the nation’s indigenous people, Gillard said bridging the gap on life expectancy was a 25-year project and “while the challenge is very large ... some progress is being made. The target of halving the infant mortality rates for indigenous children under five by 2018 is on track.”
INDIA
New Delhi holds quake drill
More than 40,000 people in New Delhi yesterday took part in a mass earthquake drill as the tremor-prone city of 16 million seeks to improve its disaster preparedness. “We want to find out how capable we are to deal with natural and man-made disasters. ‘Be prepared’ is the slogan for today,” said R.K. Dheer, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi. Students and volunteers took part in the drill in schools, colleges, hospitals, metro stations and crowded markets. Experts have long questioned Delhi’s ability to withstand a major earthquake because of lax safety standards, widespread illegal building and a lack of emergency planning.
AFGHANISTAN
New rules for TV presenters
Kabul has instructed female TV presenters to stop appearing on screen without a headscarf and to wear less make-up, officials said, raising fears about creeping restrictions on the media. “All the TV networks are in seriousness asked to stop female presenters from appearing on TV without a veil and with dense make-up,” the Ministry of Information and Culture said. “All the female newscasters on Afghan TV channels are also asked to respect Islamic and Afghan values,” it added. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that the ministry took the decision after coming under pressure from the Ulema council, the country’s highest religious body of Islamic scholars.
JAPAN
TEPCO eyed tsunami review
A Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) briefing paper indicates that the utility was planning a reassessment of tsunami risks just before last year’s tsunami devastated its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO presented the paper to Japan’s nuclear regulators on March 7 last year, four days before the tsunami. It promised a new risk assessment by October last year. The paper summarized recent studies that suggested the plant could be hit by a tsunami up to 10m in height, higher than the 6m surge it was designed to withstand.
MALDIVES
Nasheed rejects summons
Ousted president Mohamed Nasheed rejected a police summons to take a statement about his actions in office, his spokesman said yesterday. Nasheed’s former foreign minister Ahmed Naseem said the police had asked the former president to explain his controversial order to arrest a judge last month. Nasheed said he was forced to resign following threats of violence from rebel police and army officers. International diplomatic pressure has mounted on President Mohamed Waheed not to escalate tensions. A visiting EU delegation in a statement asked the government to stop a campaign of “political retribution” targeting Nasheed’s supporters.
UNITED STATES
Mormons apologize to Jews
Mormon church leaders in Salt Lake City, Utah, apologized to the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal after his parents were posthumously baptized, a controversial ritual that Mormons believe allows deceased people a way to the afterlife, but offends members of many other religions. Wiesenthal died in 2005 after surviving the Nazi death camps and spending his life documenting Holocaust crimes and hunting down perpetrators who remained at large. Mormons believe posthumous baptism by proxy allows deceased persons to receive the Gospel in the afterlife. The church believes departed souls can then accept or reject the baptismal rites and contends the offerings are not intended to offend anyone.
LIBYA
Fighters stage show of force
Thousands of fighters have held a mass parade in Tripoli, showing off heavy machine guns and rocket launchers and firing rifles in the air. The procession on Tuesday was a show of force by members of 100 militias that announced a new, unified military council the day before. It appeared intended as a warning to anyone who might stage attacks during celebrations this week of the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising that ended with the death of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in October last year. Fears of pro-Qaddafi activities have mounted following a call by one of his sons for a new uprising.
FRANCE
African leaders probed
Investigators have searched the luxury Paris home of a son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. Tuesday’s search was part of a lengthy probe into claims that three African leaders have misspent public funds. Police said investigating judges were present. It wasn’t immediately clear if possessions were seized. In September, judicial officials seized 16 luxury cars, including a Bugatti Veyron, allegedly belonging to the son of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang as part of the probe. Obiang, and the leaders of Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville, are targeted in the probe, which opened in December 2010.
RUSSIA
Jewel thieves arrested
Police arrested 10 Colombian nationals who were attempting to smuggle stolen jewelry valued at US$1.4 million out of the country, the transport police said on Tuesday. The criminals were carrying some of the jewelry in their luggage, while a female accomplice wore some on her body, the press release said. The jewelry belongs to several companies that were planning to display the pieces at an international exhibition next month. It was stolen earlier this month.
FRANCE
Tiny bird flies far
A tiny songbird weighing as much as two tablespoons of sugar migrates from the Arctic to Africa and back, a distance of up to 29,000km, scientists reported yesterday. The size of an undernourished sparrow, the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) tips the scales at just 25g, but biologists who tagged the tawny-and-white insectivore were stunned at its flight endurance. They attached minute geolocators, each weighing just 1.2g to the legs of 46 wheatears in Alaska and on Baffin Island in northeastern Canada. The Alaskan birds spent the winter in Africa before returning, a journey of about 14,500km each way, in which they flew on average 290km a day.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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