AUSTRALIA
‘Chopper’ Read has cancer
Infamous crime figure Mark “Chopper” Read has revealed he has terminal cancer and could have only weeks to live. Read, who shot to worldwide fame after the 2000 film Chopper about his violent life, starring Eric Bana, took to Twitter on Thursday to break the news about his failing health. “Looks like the big C has finally bitten. Let’s see how we go,” tweeted Read, who in the past has claimed to have been involved in the killing of 19 people. Read, who is in his late 50s, told News Limited newspapers he has four tumors on his liver and could have just six weeks to live. “I’ve got liver cancer. They say there’s no way out of it,” he said. “As long as the bleeding stops, I don’t give a bugger.” Read, who has spent a total of 23 years in jail, is a national celebrity after retiring from a life of crime to write novels, including How to Shoot Friends and Influence People in 1993.
AUSTRALIA
KFC told to pay A$8 million
Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was yesterday ordered to pay A$8 million (US$8.3 million) to a girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralyzed after eating a Twister wrap. Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy — a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock — in October 2005. Several other family members also fell ill and they claimed Samaan’s injuries were caused by a chicken Twister wrap from a Sydney KFC outlet. The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in the family’s favor a week ago and yesterday ordered KFC to pay the girl A$8 million in damages plus legal costs. In a statement, the family’s lawyer George Vlahakis said they were relieved the battle was over. Last week KFC indicated it would appeal the decision, but has yet to do so. During the trial, Justice Stephen Rothman said the chicken became contaminated “because of the failure of one or more employees of KFC” to follow proper preparation rules, which he described as “negligent.”
CHINA
Paracels tourism approved
Beijing has approved a development project that would support tourism and fishing around South China Sea islands, a move likely to inflame territorial disputes. Hainan Province wants to build a supply dock over more than 823 acres of water off Jinqing Island (晉卿島), part of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島). Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the Paracels as their territory, and Vietnam has protested China’s tourism plans. The State Oceanic Administration said on Thursday it agreed “in principle” to Hainan’s proposal. It was also considering a proposal for another supply dock in the South China Sea, the statement said without elaborating. Hainan Province Vice Governor Tan Li (譚力) has said he is determined to start tourism development in the Paracel Islands this year. Also on Thursday, the Philippines said Beijing violated a 2002 pact when Chinese government ships prevented Filipino authorities from arresting Chinese fishermen at a disputed shoal this month. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in Manila that Beijing’s aggressive actions at the Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) in Taiwan, violated an accord between Beijing and ASEAN that discourages aggressive acts in the South China Sea. Del Rosario said Manila would consider any ASEAN offer to intercede to end the shoal dispute, which began on April 10.
NORWAY
Crowds gather for singalong
They gathered by the tens of thousands in the drenching rain to face down terrorism with song. Drawn by a Facebook-organized protest, thousands flocked to public squares across the country on Thursday and rallied against far-right fanatic Anders Behring Breivik, now on trial for a bomb-and-shooting rampage that killed 77 people. They sang a Norwegian version of a Pete Seeger tune that the confessed mass killer claims has been used to brainwash the country’s youth into supporting immigration. Defiant singalongs of Children of the Rainbow were staged in Oslo and other major cities, even as the ninth day of the trial went on with survivors of Breivik’s attacks giving tearful testimony. In downtown Oslo, about 40,000 people raised their voices as Lillebjoern Nilsen played the song, a Norwegian version of Seeger’s My Rainbow Race.
RUSSIA
Clouds spook Muscovites
Weather and emergency officials soothed fears of Moscow residents on Thursday with statements that green-tinged clouds over the capital were not an alien invasion, but tree pollen. “Today Muscovites felt like characters in a disaster film about an alien invasion — people living in the southwest of the city saw that the sky had been colored green,” the weather service said on its Web site. The clouds reached the city center by the afternoon, causing office workers to gawk at the suspiciously colored sky. “Green clouds are coming toward Moscow,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid headlined its story. “Could it be that the apocalypse is upon us?” Green dust also covered streets and cars. Some people apparently called emergency numbers, leading officials to say the air was thick with tree pollen, not disaster fallout. “Many residents forgot all about natural phenomena and decided that it’s the result of an accident at an industrial facility, but this dust is pollen from alder and birch trees, which began flowering recently after a slow spring,” said the city administration of the town of Podolsk.
GERMANY
Woman denies killing babies
A woman suspected of killing three babies found in camping coolers in a basement denied murder on Thursday, according to prosecutors, who are nevertheless continuing their investigation. The 40-year-old mother “has declared that they were stillborn,” said Ute Sehlbach-Schellenberg, a prosecutor in the western town of Giessen. However, she said that there was “an initial suspicion of three counts of intentional homicide. We must now see whether we can refute her plea.” The woman, who has other living children, has not been arrested. An autopsy has shown that two of the corpses were of baby boys. The sex of the third baby remained unclear.
UNITED KINGDOM
Delay hampered death probe
A colleague of a British spy, whose body was found locked inside a sports bag, says a delay in reporting him as missing hampered police inquiries into his death. Gareth Williams, 31, worked for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service GCHQ, but was attached to the MI6 spy agency when his naked and decomposing remains were found in curious circumstances in August 2010 at his London apartment. The spy’s manager at MI6 previously acknowledged he did not raise the alarm for a week after Williams first failed to appear for work. At an inquest on Thursday, some of Williams’ relatives walked out in tears as a second intelligence official said she recognized the delay had an “impact on the police investigation.”
UNITED STATES
Kids learn about adult life
Children participating in the State Department’s “Take Your Child to Work” day event on Thursday were treated to a discussion of prostitutes and strip clubs as reporters pressed for answers on a widening Secret Service scandal. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland opened the daily news briefing with a salute to the handful of underage observers who joined journalists for the midday run-down of global events. However, any hopes that the briefing would steer clear of the salacious dissipated as questions focused on charges that Secret Service agents caroused with strippers and prostitutes on overseas assignments. “What a topic to be talking about on ‘Bring Your Kids To Work’ day,” Nuland said. “Parents, you can explain all of this later.”
UNITED STATES
Record-holder dies
The man who holds the Guinness World Record for living the longest with a bullet in his head has died in Central California at age 103. The Modesto Bee reported that William Pace died in his sleep at a Turlock nursing home on Monday, 94 years and six months after his elder brother accidentally shot him with their father’s .22 caliber rifle in 1917. Pace learned in 2006 that he had been crowned the world record-holder in the category of unwanted cranial ammunition acquisition. His son told a newspaper during a birthday party for his father last year that doctors in Pace’s native Texas left the bullet in place because they worried that surgery might cause brain damage.
UNITED STATES
‘Monkeypox’ is false alarm
Authorities say passengers aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Detroit were kept from disembarking in Chicago for about three hours after a person was suspected of carrying monkeypox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the passenger was evaluated shortly after the plane landed on Thursday afternoon at Midway International Airport. The CDC said emergency medical personnel determined the woman’s rash was not related to monkeypox. In its statement, the CDC said the woman was cleared, but advised to seek medical care.
UNITED STATES
Elephant flunks training
The owner of a California sanctuary says an African elephant is still welcome after killing the zookeeper who was preparing to move it from New Zealand. Pat Derby’s Performing Animal Welfare Society in San Andreas was going to be home to the elephant now called Mila, but known as Jumbo for 30 years in a circus. Derby said on Thursday there may be ownership problems. Mila had been at the Franklin Zoo near Auckland while zoo owner Helen Schofield worked to place her. Derby says she and Schofield had been working on the move for two years. Schofield was training Mila how to live in a crate during the trip. She told Derby a month ago it was going well. Schofield was crushed to death on Wednesday when Mila picked her up in its trunk and lifted her off the ground.
UNITED STATES
Frisky puppy delays flight
A puppy named Byrdie delayed several flights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport when she escaped from her crate and ran around a busy runway. The Port Authority says the dog was loose for about 10 minutes on Wednesday while authorities unsuccessfully tried to catch her. The agency says they had to find the dog’s owner aboard the Memphis-bound Delta Air Lines flight to help catch her.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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