PHILIPPINES
Car parts blown up at airport
Police said yesterday that a suspected bomb found at an airport serving a popular tourist destination contained only car parts and posed no danger. National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz retracted his earlier comments that a package found at Kalibo International Airport on Tuesday night contained an improvised explosive device. “We would like to clarify reports of the purported discovery of an improvised explosive device at the Kalibo International Airport,” Cruz said. “No hazardous items or IED [improvised explosive device] components were found inside the suspicious pouch.” Cruz had earlier issued a statement saying the package, dropped off at a cargo counter at the airport, contained an improvised explosive device and that it had been disarmed in a controlled detonation.
NEPAL
End to Everest dispute eyed
Kathmandu is appealing to international donors to help it finally settle a long-running dispute over the height of Mount Everest, a government official said yesterday. The world’s highest peak, which straddles the Himalayan nation and China, is usually attributed a height of 8,848m following an Indian survey in 1954, but other, more recent measurements have varied by several meters. China measures the peak 4m lower — by excluding the snowcap — while in 1999 a US team using GPS technology recorded a height of 8,850m, a figure used by the US National Geographic Society. The state-run Survey Department said it is seeking grants and expertise from international donors, as well as the globla scientific community.
JAPAN
Ridley Scott joins project
Hollywood director Ridley Scott is to take part in a project documenting the first anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, a television network said yesterday. The Briton, famous for Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, will join Japan in a Day, a film about life in the nation 12 months after the disaster that claimed more than 19,000 lives, Fuji Television Network said. Fuji TV will work with Scott Free, a production company run by the director and his brother, to knit together videos shot by members of the public and footage gathered from 200 TV cameras set up in the affected areas.
CHINA
Chemical blast rocks town
Fears of new blasts have halted rescue efforts at a chemical plant in the north, where an explosion killed at least 16 people, injured more than 40 and left dozens more missing. Xinhua news agency said yesterday that about 100 people were working at the Hebei Zhaoxian Keeper Chemical Co plant in Zhao-xian County, Hebei Province, when Tuesday’s blast flattened a workshop. Xinhua quoted a police official as saying that rescue work had been stopped because of the risk of further explosions.
JAPAN
Tokyo Sky Tree finished
Construction of the Tokyo Sky Tree, the world’s tallest self-supporting communications tower, was finished yesterday, two months late because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March last year. Tourist bosses in the country hope the tower will be a big draw for foreign visitors, whose numbers have plummeted in the aftermath of the disaster. Construction of the 634m tower near the already popular Asakusa traditional district in Tokyo began in July 2008. The Tokyo Sky Tree tops the 600m Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China.
GERMANY
Merkel’s popularity soars
A poll shows Chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity at its highest since her second term began in 2009, despite new turbulence in her center-right coalition. The poll for Stern magazine released yesterday, based on a 0-100 scale of confidence, put Merkel at 64 points. That was 2 points higher than in December and the best since the coalition of Merkel’s conservative bloc and the pro-business Free Democrats took power in October 2009. The alliance has become notorious for infighting. The Free Democrats recently forced Merkel to accept Joachim Gauck, a candidate she previously opposed, as the nation’s next president. However, Merkel has won respect for her handling of the eurozone debt crisis. The poll of 1,001 people was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
FRANCE
T. rex was best chomper
Scientists say they have proof that the Tyrannosaurus rex had the most powerful bite of any creature that lived on land. The bite of a grown T rex was up to 10 times that of a Mississippi alligator, exerting a force of nearly 6 tonnes — the weight of an elephant — on a single tooth, according to a study published by Britain’s Royal Society in the journal Biology Letters yesterday. The estimate comes from a 3D computer simulation of a T rex head, with reconstructions of its bones, jaw movement and muscle power, University of Liverpool paleontologists led by Karl Bates said. “Models predict that adult T rex generated sustained bite forces of 35,000-57,000 Newtons at a single posterior tooth, by far the highest bite forces estimated for any terrestrial animal,” the paper said. By comparison, humans exert only 70 to 100 kilos of force on a single tooth.
EU
Composers urge fairness
A group representing composers and songwriters is alleging that some of Europe’s most prominent broadcasters are coercing them into giving up the copyrights to their work. The complaint filed yesterday with the European Commission targets more than 15 broadcasters and studios, including the BBC, British Sky Broadcasting and ITV. The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance, representing 12,000 composers and songwriters, says publishing agreements are often less fair than if the market were truly open. The complaint alleges abuse of a dominant market position and says composers are frequently told they will not be considered for a commission unless they are willing to give up their copyrights. The commission must now decide whether to open an investigation.
WEST BANK
Israel raids TV stations
Israeli troops raided two Palestinian TV stations in the city of Ramallah overnight, seizing computers and broadcasting equipment, employees said yesterday. The two stations were Watan Television, a local private station, and Quds Educational Television, affiliated with the Palestinian al-Quds University. “They came at 2am and took around 30 computers and all the transmitters. The station is totally shut down,” Watan editor-in-chief Ali Daraghmeh said. Quds Educational TV director Haroun Abu Arra said troops raided his station shortly afterwards. “At 3am, the Israeli army entered the television station’s office and took all the transmitters, and the station is now unable to broadcast,” he said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the reported raids, and it was unclear what prompted them. No arrests were made, employees said.
GUATEMALA
Kingpin to be extradited
A court on Tuesday ruled to extradite the country’s alleged top drug trafficker to the US, as the Central American nation stepped up an offensive against organized crime. Juan “Chamale” Ortiz-Lopez, who was arrested in March last year and is currently being detained, is charged in a Florida federal court with trafficking tonnes of cocaine into the US. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted. The Florida indictment argues that Ortiz-Lopez, 42, is his nation’s most important drug smuggler. US authorities are also pushing for the confiscation of Ortiz-Lopez’s property, including a cable station and a US$5 million mansion that is featured in a music video. Ortiz-Lopez is the second alleged drug kingpin in a week that courts have approved for extradition to the US.
UNITED STATES
Man sips gas, smokes, dies
Police say a man is dead after he accidentally drank from a jar of gasoline and then smoked a cigarette. Havelock police in North Carolina received an emergency call about 9:55pm on Monday after 43-year-old Gary Allen Banning set himself on fire. Banning was transported to UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill, where he died early on Tuesday morning. City spokeswoman Diane Miller said investigators believe Banning was at a friend’s apartment when he apparently mistook a jar of gasoline sitting by the kitchen sink for a beverage. After taking a gulp, he spat the gas out and got some on his clothes. Sometime later, investigators say Banning went outside to smoke a cigarette and burst into flames. Havelock police and the city fire marshal are continuing their investigation.
UNITED STATES
Oscars fetch over US$3m
A Los Angeles auction house sold a collection of 15 Oscar statuettes for more than US$3 million on Tuesday, two days after this year’s Academy Awards show, organizers said. The gold-plated prizes, sold despite an official protest by Oscar organizers, included a Best Screenplay Academy Award for the iconic movie Citizen Kane given to Herman Mankiewicz in 1941. Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Sanders sold the Oscar, which went for US$588,455, the highest price for a single statuette. In all the sale earned US$3,060,089, including the buyer’s premium.
UNITED STATES
Rearview cameras delayed
Rules aimed at preventing drivers from backing over children and others by requiring automakers to include rearview cameras on many new vehicles are to be delayed until the end of this year, transportation officials said on Tuesday. In a letter to lawmakers, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needs more time for “research and data analysis.” Nearly 300 people are killed and 18,000 injured each year because of back-over accidents. Nearly half the deaths involve children under the age of five.
UNITED STATES
Alleged tree-burner jailed
Authorities say a central Florida woman is in jail, charged with setting a fire that burned one of the world’s oldest cypress trees. Investigators say two witnesses identified 26-year-old Sara Barnes as the person who caused the 35.97m tall bald cypress tree named “The Senator” to burn and collapse on Jan. 16. The Seminole County parks department says ring samples showed the tree was about 3,500 years old.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
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