CHINA
Dogs used to predict quakes
A city is using dogs to predict earthquakes, an official said on Tuesday, after media reported that neighbors were complaining of nightly false alarms — in the form of barking. The earthquake authority of Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, keeps dogs since they will “act abnormally when an earthquake is coming,” an official surnamed Song said. The bureau used the dogs at the request of the provincial government, he added, saying that chickens and ducks could be effective as well. However, neighbors are complaining on social media about the animals’ nightly howling, according to the official provincial news Web site Dajiang. “The compound of the Nanchang earthquake authority has I don’t know how many dogs, every night at 11pm they start barking over and over,” it quoted one as saying. Song said the dogs had now been sent to a lower-level earthquake bureau in the city, but denied they had been barking.
JAPAN
‘Abenomics’ bra unveiled
The Japanese division of lingerie maker Triumph International unveiled an “Abenomics” bra yesterday, which it says offers a “growth strategy” and a potential lift toward Japan’s elusive inflation target. Launches of Triumph’s concept bras in Tokyo have become a regular event and are an important publicity tool for the company. The “Branomics Bra” follows earlier solar-powered, recycled and “husband-hunting” models but, like its predecessors, will not go on sale. The “Branomics Bra” is a take on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “three-arrow” economic revival plan that combines monetary strategy aiming to reach 2 percent inflation in two years and pro-growth reforms. It features a rising trendline and arrows as motifs and promises a 2 percent increase in volume with extra padding.
ISRAEL
Hawking to boycott event
British physicist Stephen Hawking has decided to pull out of a conference next month hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres, event organizers said yesterday. “Hawking joined the academic boycott of Israel and pulled out of the Israeli Presidential Conference: Facing Tomorrow 2013, under the auspices of President Peres,” they said in a statement. The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, which supports the academic boycott of Israel and opposes its occupation of Palestinian territories, said Hawking had “declined his invitation.” Conference chairman Israel Maimon slammed the decision. “The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission,” he said.
Poland
Tourists escape axe attack
Tourists visiting a castle in Krakow yesterday narrowly escaped an attack by an axe-wielding local dubbed as “a madman.” The 48-year-old identified by local media only as Grzegorz S. reportedly drove his car into the courtyard of the historic Wawel royal castle, then jumped out and began wildly swinging an axe at a group of young Polish students. “The Wawel is my home, I don’t want any strangers here,” he screamed, commercial radio RMF FM reported. He lunged toward the visitors, but when guards tried to tackle him he jumped back into his car and attempted to run them over, the report said. Guards were able to bring him under control after shooting one of the vehicle’s tires. “It all looked like an attack by a madman, without any kind of logical motive,” Krakow regional police spokesman Dariusz Nowak told local media.
UNITED STATES
Chinese petition Obama
Internet users in China, a country with a long tradition of petitioning, are appealing to a new authority to resolve grievances and controversies such as the merits of salty or sweet tofu — the White House petitions Web site. The online petitioning system was designed as an “easy way for Americans to make their voices heard,” according to the Web site. However, President Barack Obama may have underestimated its global appeal in the Internet age. “We request that the US government make sweet the official flavor of jellied tofu, namely through the addition of syrup, granulated or brown sugar or other sweeteners,” said one petition, written in Chinese, on the site. The number of signatures for the appeal created on Tuesday was steadily climbing. As of yesterday morning, it had received more than 1,000 endorsements. There is a regional divide in China on how jellied tofu should be consumed, with a slightly sweetened variety enjoyed in many parts of the south and a saltier style common in the north. “Send troops to liberate the Chinese people,” reads another petition, this one with more than 3,500 signatures.
FRANCE
Coronavirus case reported
The first case in the country of new strain of coronavirus emerging from the Middle East was confirmed in a person recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, the health ministry said yesterday. “The person has been placed in isolation in an intensive care ward,” it said in a statement. There have been 30 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide including 18 deaths, since it came to scientists’ attention in September last year, WHO data shows. The coronavirus is from the same viral family as the common cold and triggered the SARS outbreak in 2003 that killed 775 people.
GUATEMALA
Teen suspect nabbed
Police have arrested a 14-year-old gang member on suspicion of killing two women and a one-year-old boy. The National Civil Police said in a statement on Tuesday that the teenager was allegedly a member of the “Little Psycho Criminal” youth wing of the Mara 18 street gang, with the numbers 1 and 8 tattooed on his arms. He allegedly confronted police with a gun while trying to flee the scene of the killing.
COLOMBIA
Fake nuns had cocaine
Three women dressed as nuns were caught at an airport on the island of San Andres trying to smuggle cocaine taped to their bodies, police said on Tuesday. The women were caught on Saturday after arriving on a flight from Bogota. They thought the disguise would spare them from being searched. However, their habits were shabby and the women acted nervously, which gave them away, San Andres police chief Jorge Gomez said. Each had 2kg of cocaine taped to her body.
UNITED STATES
Singer arrested over plot
The lead singer of Grammy-nominated heavy metal band As I Lay Dying was arrested on Tuesday in Southern California as authorities said he tried to hire an undercover detective to kill his estranged wife. Tim Lambesis, 32, was arrested at a retail business in Oceanside, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. The statement said detectives received information on Thursday last week that Lambesis had solicited someone to kill his wife, who lives in nearby Encinitas. A task force from several law enforcement agencies quickly launched an investigation that led to the arrest.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
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
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
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
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