CHINA
Toad reports disappear
Reports about a giant inflatable toad have been deleted from the Internet after social-media users compared the puffed-up animal to former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民). The 22m-high toad appeared in a Beijing park last weekend, but met with mockery from social-media users who compared its appearance to that of Jiang. The Web site of Xinhua news agency and popular Web portal Sina had deleted their reports on the toad by yesterday. A spokesman for Yuyuantan Park in Beijing said there were no immediate plans to remove the toad.
CHINA
Flights face delays
Flights to and from Shanghai International Airport and 11 other airports in the east are facing major delays until the middle of next month due to military exercises, according to an official microblog. The posting by Beijing’s public securities bureau did not give any details about the “large scale” military exercises. It said flights would be affected from Sunday to Aug. 15.
CHINA
Crackdown on Internet porn
Authorities have tightened already rigorous Internet controls by cracking down on online pornography and what state media called “rumormongers” and “slanderous content.” Xinhua reported yesterday that the country would target pornography on smartphones and punish pornographic app creators. Xinhua said the government would also increase punishments for spreading rumors online. As part of the new campaign, the government has shut down Web sites and punished nearly 40 people it called rumormongers. According to Xinhua, the government issued a statement saying it aims to protect Chinese Internet users’ rights in their life, work and studies.
ENGLAND
Queen’s horse fails test
A horse owned by Queen Elizabeth II that won one of the nation’s most prestigious races has failed a drugs test, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday. Estimate, which won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last year and came second in this year’s edition, has tested positive for morphine, a banned substance. A statement issued by the queen’s racing adviser said initial indications were the positive test had resulted from the “consumption of a contaminated feed product.” Morphine is banned by the British Horseracing Authority because it can be used to numb pain. Estimate made sporting history for the queen last year when she became the first reigning monarch to own a Gold Cup-winning horse.
RUSSIA
Navy expansion announced
The nation yesterday announced that it had begun expanding and modernizing its Black Sea fleet based in Crimea with new ships and submarines, just months after annexing the peninsula from Ukraine. “Today, we have started forming a powerful Black Sea fleet with an absolutely different level of air service, coastal missile and artillery troops and marines,” Black Sea fleet commander Alexander Vitko said in a message to servicemen. “We are preparing bases and crews to serve on new ships and submarines.” Vitko said the modernization of the fleet “lays the foundation for the future of the fleet, both in the short term and looking far ahead.” President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the national security council on Tuesday that Russia will bolster its defenses to counter the creeping influence of NATO close to its borders.
UNITED STATES
Vietnam deal approved
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation between the US and Vietnam. The agreement, approved on Tuesday by the committee, would allow US firms into Vietnam’s expanding market for nuclear power. The US and Vietnamese governments reached the agreement in October last year, and it was approved by President Barack Obama in February. It now has to be endorsed by the full Senate. The prospects for passage remain uncertain.
CANADA
Hungarian slavers extradited
Ottawa announced on Tuesday the extradition of 20 Hungarians convicted in what authorities described as the largest human trafficking case in the nation’s history, for forcing eastern European refugee claimants into slavery. Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney made the announcement in Hamilton, Ontario, where the criminal ring operated. The last of the 20 was expelled in May. Ferenc Domotor pleaded guilty in 2012 to running the gang, which lured men from his native Hungary and coerced them into forced labor at his stucco companies in Hamilton. Domotor and his extended Roma family reportedly forced at least 19 people to claim refugee status when they arrived in Canada from the town of Papa, Hungary, work without pay sometimes as much as 17 hours per day and sleep on mattresses in a locked basement of his house. The people were fed only one meal a day and alarms on the windows and doors kept them from escaping. The scheme was uncovered when police were tipped off by a contractor who was approached by one of the people held captive. Domotor was not among those extradited as he is still serving the remainder of a nine-year prison sentence.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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