CHINA
Former officials expelled
Two former officials from Wukan Village in Guangdong Province were expelled from the Communist Party over charges of corruption and rigged elections, Xinhua news agency reported. The expulsions follow a heated stand-off over land grabs last year in the coastal village, which emerged as a symbol of rural activism after authorities acted to defuse a flashpoint by allowing elections. Former Wukan Communist Party secretary Xue Chang (薛昌) and former village committee head Chen Shunyi (陳舜意) were expelled, Xinhua said on Monday. Xue was ordered to return illegal gains amounting to 189,200 yuan (US$30,000), while Chen must give back more than 86,000 yuan, Xinhua said, quoting Zeng Qinrong (曾慶榮), from the supervision department of southern Guangdong Province. Six other former village officials were also punished and Xinhua said more than 1.06 million yuan had been seized.
CHINA
Paracels tourism mulled
Hainan Province Vice Governor Tan Li (譚力) on Tuesday announced plans for the development of tourism in the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) that are occupied by China but claimed by Vietnam, as well as Taiwan. Such a plan could further raise tensions in the South China Sea. Six nations claim all or part of the area and its scattered island groups, of which the Paracels is one of the largest. A plan to open the Paracels to tourism was announced several years ago, but has been delayed by Beijing over concerns that it could heighten tensions with Vietnam. The nation’s assertiveness over territorial claims has prompted a strong backlash in recent years and since last year diplomats have worked to repair the damage. However, Hainan Province has continued to push for tourism development.
JAPAN
Galaxy cluster found
Japanese astronomers said yesterday they had found a cluster of galaxies 12.72 billion light-years away from Earth, which they said is the most distant ever discovered. Using a powerful telescope based in Hawaii, the team peered back through time to a point 1 billion years after the Big Bang. “This shows a galaxy cluster already existed in the early stages of the universe when it was still less than 1 billion years into its history of 13.7 billion years,” the team of astronomers said in a press release. The discovery was made jointly by researchers from the state-run Graduate University of Advanced Studies and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. The discovery is expected to help scientists understand the structure of the universe and how galaxies developed. The study is to be published in the Astrophysical Journal of the United States. Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope previously announced the discovery of a possible cluster of galaxies about 13.1 billion light-years from Earth, but that has not yet been confirmed, the Japanese researchers said.
NEW ZEALAND
Elephant kills zookeeper
A zookeeper has been killed by an African elephant she was caring for. Police said in a brief statement that officers were called to the Franklin Zoo near Auckland yesterday afternoon following an incident. Police said they would not release further details until the woman’s next of kin had been informed. On its Web site, the zoo lists its sole elephant as Jumbo, also known as Mila. She arrived four years ago after retiring from a circus, and the zoo built a new enclosure for her in 2010.
UNITED KINGDOM
Disney opera planned
A new work by Philip Glass, based on a controversial book about Walt Disney, will have its UK premiere at the English National Opera (ENO) in June next year. The opera — Glass’ 24th — is based on Peter Stephan Jungk’s 2004 novel The Perfect American, a fictionalized account of the final years of Walt Disney’s life, described by Glass as “unimaginable, alarming and truly frightening.” The novel, narrated by a fictional Austrian cartoonist, who in the book worked for the animator, mixes fact and fantasy, including meetings with Andy Warhol and former US president Abraham Lincoln, to discover what are described as Disney’s delusions of immortality and private life. He is depicted as a racist, misogynist and anti-semite. While children over five are welcome at any ENO productions, artistic director John Berry has warned parents that they should expect a more “nightmarish” vision of the man and his creations. British baritone Christopher Purves, who won acclaim as a gleefully wicked Mephistopheles in Terry Gilliam’s The Damnation of Faust, is set to play Walt Disney.
RUSSIA
‘Berlusputin’ play snubbed
Theaters in Saint Petersburg have refused to stage a satirical play about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Moscow theater responsible for its original production said on Tuesday. “In Saint Petersburg we’ve been prevented from staging the play on Vladimir Putin” entitled Berlusputin, a Russian adaptation of a work by Italian playwright Dario Fo called L’anomalo Bicefalo, Teatr.doc said on its Web site. The play imagines what might happen if half of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s brain was transplanted into the Russian strongman’s head after an accident. One of the theaters, the Gaza House of Culture, termed the play “an undesirable subject,” the ground-breaking Teatr.doc house said. “They don’t want to be associated with a political play,” Teatr.doc artistic director Mikhail Ugarov told Moscow Echo radio.
FRANCE
Man drives into station
A man drove his car down the steps of a Metro station in central Paris on Tuesday, mistaking the entrance for that of a parking garage. “There’s a sign saying ‘Haussmann Parking’ right in front [of the Metro entrance] and ... I made a mistake,” the distraught driver said, adding that the entrance is nearly level with the street. “Luckily, there was no one on the stairs,” said the 26-year-old, who gave his name only as Johan. No one was hurt and the car, a Dacia Duster, also escaped damage. As he was driving slowly, he managed to brake in time to stop the car, leaving the back wheels on street level. A crowd of rubber-neckers formed quickly to snap pictures of the car poised partway down the stairs. Police were quick to give Johan an alcohol test, which he passed.
EGYPT
Comedian’s jail term upheld
A court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world’s most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films. The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims, who made gains in recent elections, are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Imam was sentenced to three months in jail and fined about US$170 for insulting Islam in roles he played in movies such as The Terrorist, in which he acted the role of a wanted terrorist who found refuge with a middle-class, moderate family.
UNITED STATES
Lincoln’s glasses on auction
The opera glasses then-president Abraham Lincoln held when he was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, are on the auction block. Lincoln carried the opera glasses to a showing of the play Our American Cousin when John Wilkes Booth burst into the president’s theater box and shot him in the head with a pistol at close range. According to Los Angeles-based Nate Sanders Auctions, the black and gold German-manufactured opera glasses were later found in the street by Army Captain James McCamly as he helped to carry Lincoln to the nearby Petersen House, where the president died hours later. “The glasses remained in McCamly’s family for three generations,” the auction house said in a press release. “In 1968, the Ford’s Theatre National Park Collection informed McCamly’s great-grandson that they housed the carrying case into which these glasses fit ‘precisely.’” In 1979, the opera glasses were purchased by Malcolm Forbes Sr, heir of Forbes magazine. They are expected to sell between US$500,000 and US$700,000, the auction house said. The opera glasses are being sold through an Internet auction that ends on Monday.
UNITED STATES
Cow ‘rolls thru’ McDonalds
What did the dairy cow order when she got to the drive-thru window at McDonalds? Nothing — she just wanted a little attention. That’s what Sandy Winn says was the reason her cow, Darcy, wandered from her pen on Friday and ended up at a takeout window of the fast-food restaurant 800m away in Brush, Colorado. Winn tells KUSA-TV that Darcy is a good cow until she’s bored — and then she goes looking for attention. Winn says she didn’t know Darcy had escaped until police called asking if the family owned a dairy cow. She says they told her it was “up at McDonalds,” so she fetched the cow and took her home. Brush police clerk Vivian Llewellyn joked on Tuesday that Darcy “didn’t get her burger.”
BOLIVIA
Injured councilor missing
Searchers are trying to rescue a La Asunta town councilor whose car crashed into a ravine as he was returning home from treatment for injuries he suffered in a bus accident on the same road. Local police said on Tuesday that so far they have not found Eloy Alvarez or a nine-year-old boy who was riding in his car. Both were swept away by the Boopi River on Sunday. The car’s driver died, but another passenger survived. Alvarez was injured in a bus crash on the same winding mountain road on Wednesday last week. Eighteen people died when the bus fell about 300m down a cliff.
UNITED STATES
‘Chinglish’ to hit big screen
Plans are in the works to bring playwright David Henry Hwang’s (黃哲倫) Chinglish to a movie screen. Filmmaker Justin Lin (林詣彬), who has directed several of the Fast and Furious movies, announced on Tuesday that he has acquired film rights to Hwang’s play about an East-meets-West collision. Chinglish tells the story of a businessman from Ohio who goes to China to expand his business, but struggles to be understood and falls in love with a Chinese woman. Hwang, who won a Tony Award as writer of M. Butterfly, will write the Chinglish screenplay and is set to co-produce the film with Bobbi Thompson. Lin, who has also directed the film Better Luck Tomorrow, will direct and co-produce.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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