HONG KONG
Zhang Ziyi sues ‘Apple Daily’
Actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) sued leading newspaper the Apple Daily and its sister weekly Next Magazine over reports that she prostituted herself with senior Chinese officials. Zhang signed the suit presented to the High Court on Monday, saying the reports were “seriously defamatory” and “false.” An article in the Apple Daily on May 29 said Zhang “is a prostitute” and had sexual intercourse with disgraced top Chinese official Bo Xilai (薄熙來) and his wealthy associate Xu Ming (徐明) for money on “numerous occasions,” the court document said. The tabloid also alleged the 33-year-old actress had sex with other top Chinese officials and “unnamed rich persons” and had accrued a fortune worth 700 million yuan (US$110 million) from these illicit liaisons over 10 years.
SOUTH KOREA
Casino to repay gamblers
The Seoul Central District Court on Monday ordered a casino to repay about half the losses suffered by two problem gamblers who lost a total of 2.47 billion won (US$2.1 million) over two years, a court official said yesterday. The court ruled that the unidentified casino in Seoul — which is supposed to cater only to foreigners — was partly responsible for helping the two local gamblers to play. The plaintiffs accused the casino of giving them the opportunity to gamble by issuing free Bolivian residency cards. “The casino bears 50 percent responsibility for soliciting the plaintiffs to gamble at a foreigners-only casino even after knowing they were addicts,” a court spokesman said. “But the plaintiffs also bear responsibility for going to the casino and gambling excessively.”
SOUTH KOREA
Ban awarded peace prize
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was named yesterday as the winner of this year’s Seoul Peace Prize, the prize foundation said. Ban was chosen for promoting the rights of women and children, efforts to eliminate poverty in developing nations and contributing to the democratization of Middle Eastern countries, the foundation said.
NORTH KOREA
Arirang Mass Games to end
Pyongyang is bringing down the curtain on its annual Arirang Mass Games, which involve tens of thousands of performers, to meet the changing times, a Beijing-based tour company said yesterday. “It’s believed this year’s Arirang will be the last one,” Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours, said by telephone. He said Pyongyang has decided to end the show because its theme is the 100 years since the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung, and the centenary anniversary was this year. “That ends now. So we expect them to put on a new or different performance next year,” Cockerell said.
CHINA
Fake bank buyer arrested
A man who claimed he bought a US bank that was later found not to exist has been detained for an alleged separate fraud scheme, police and media said. Lin Chunping (林春平) shot to fame in November last year after claiming he acquired the “Atlantic Bank of America.” On Monday, police said in a statement that they had caught him and six other people for allegedly defrauding the government of more than 10 million yuan in tax revenues. Lin issued tax invoices valued at more than 100 million yuan through his companies based on false transactions and sold them to other firms nationwide to reduce their tax burden, police said. Authorities detained six of his associates for suspected involvement.
NIGERIA
Bike gangs invade villages
A gang of robbers on Monday invaded two northern villages in an apparent revenge attack, slitting some residents’ throats and shooting others, leaving 23 dead, police said. “They killed 21 residents. They also moved to the next village ... where they shot dead two other people,” a police source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The gruesome raids by a gang said to be made up of about 80 people on motorbikes occurred in the dead of night in the villages of Dan-Gulbi and Guru, both in Zamfara State. They were believed to be in revenge for the killings of some of the gang members by villagers and vigilante groups, the source said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Threatening e-mails banned
A judge has banned a 60-year-old man from contacting a slew of public figures after he sent online threats to a prominent Conservative Party lawmaker. Frank Zimmerman of Gloucester had been charged with “improper use of public communications,” after he used e-mail and Twitter to threaten MP Louise Mensch. District Judge Martin Brown suspended Zimmerman’s 26-week prison sentence and issued a restraining order that bans the self-described agoraphobic from contacting high-profile individuals, including Mensch, her husband and CIA Director David Petraeus. Brown told Zimmerman that if he breached the restraining order he could be jailed for up to five years.
LIBYA
British envoy attacked
A vehicle carrying British Ambassador Dominic Asquith was attacked on Monday with rocket-propelled grenades in Benghazi. Two of Asquith’s bodyguards were injured. Britain’s Foreign Office said Asquith was not hurt, but the Libyan state news agency reported he was one of two people lightly injured. The office said the British were working with Libyan authorities to determine who was behind the attack.
AUSTRALIA
Libya offers to free lawyer
A lawyer being held in Libya will be released if she reveals the whereabouts of a key player in the former regime of Muammar Qaddafi, a report said yesterday. Melinda Taylor was detained late last week after she met with Seif al-Islam Qaddafi as part of a four-person team from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Libyan officials have alleged that Taylor was carrying a pen camera and attempting to give Seif a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is on the run. Libyan government spokesman Mohammed al-Hareizi told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that Taylor would be freed if she gave them information on Ismail. Al-Hareizi said Taylor was “in safe hands,” but Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he was concerned at reports that the four ICC members had been moved from house arrest to an unidentified prison.
AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bombing kills eight
Suspected Taliban bomb attacks yesterday killed at least eight people, including women and children, officials said. A suicide bomber on a bicycle targeted a police patrol in the main market of Chahar Bolak, a small town in the northern province of Balkh, regional police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzi said. The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the incident, saying three civilians were killed and five police officers were wounded. Hours earlier, a roadside bomb ripped through a minibus in the central province of Wardak, killing five civilians, provincial government spokesman Sahidullah Shahid said.
VENEZUELA
Chavez sings, dances, talks
President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and gave a marathon speech at the launch of his re-election bid, offering a preview of a campaign in which he is likely to push his limits trying to show the people of his country tha he is emerging from cancer’s shadow. Chavez appeared tired, bloated and pale when he walked into the National Electoral Council to register his candidacy on Monday, but later he exuded energy while singing along with a band playing a folk tune and seemed in his element as he delivered a fiery speech that lasted nearly three hours. “We’re just warming up our engines,” Chavez said. Then he took a jab at his rival, saying opposition candidate Henrique Capriles would “run out of gasoline.”
CANADA
Family mourns slain student
The family of a Chinese student who was killed and dismembered in Montreal said they are deeply troubled by his death, but have been moved by the outpouring of sympathy and charity. Jun Lin’s family arrived in the French-speaking city last week. The family said in a statement made public late on Monday and released by the Chinese consulate in Montreal that Lin was “the pride for our whole family clan” and added “this appalling catastrophe has dealt a disastrous blow to our family.” They also said “but it inspired outpourings of sympathy and charity in people, bringing together kind-hearted people in society and deeply moving and gratifying us in a time of deep sorrow.”
UNITED STATES
Town to fine for swearing
Residents in a town outside Boston voted on Monday to make the foul-mouthed pay fines for swearing in public. At a town meeting, residents voted 183-50 to approve a proposal from the police chief to impose a US$20 fine on public profanity. Officials insist the proposal was not intended to censor casual or private conversations, but instead to crack down on loud, profanity-laden language used by teens and other young people in the downtown area and public parks. “I’m really happy about it,” Mimi Duphily, a store owner and former town selectwoman, said after the vote.
UNITED STATES
Klan plans to clean road
White supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan wants to sponsor a stretch of US road to clean it up, creating a legal conundrum for local officials. Members of the organization applied to the “Adopt-A-Highway” program in the southern state of Georgia last month, which enlists the help of volunteers to remove trash from the sides of major roads. Groups who participate are provided with free garbage bags and safety vests. In addition, special signs recognizing their efforts are put up next to the strip of street they sponsor. “We just want to keep the road clean, we don’t promote violence,” said Harry Hanson, a local KKK member.
UNITED STATES
Violent crime goes down
Violent crime in the country has declined for a fifth year in a row, the FBI said on Monday as it released preliminary annual crime statistics for last year. In a statement, the federal law enforcement agency said the nation saw a 4 percent decrease in violent crimes, compared to 2010, as well as an 0.8 percent decline in property crimes. “In 2011, all four of the violent crime offense categories — murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault — declined nationwide when compared with data from 2010,” the FBI said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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