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.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS