AUSTRALIA
Hospital declares 200 ‘dead’
Austin Hospital in Melbourne apologized yesterday after mistakenly sending out death notices for 200 of its — very much alive — patients. The hospital erroneously killed off the patients when it faxed death notices to their family doctors. The notices were the result of an inadvertent change to the templates the hospital sends to doctors once a patient has been discharged, operator Austin Health said in a statement. “We apologised unreservedly to affected clinics who, for the most part, were very understanding about the error,” it said. The Australian Medical Association said the error was unacceptable and potentially distressing to family doctors, while an opposition lawmaker said it was symptomatic of an overworked health system.
KOREAS
Two defectors swim to South
Two North Koreans yesterday swam across the sea border with South Korea, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said, in a rare maritime defection across the tense boundary. Two men — in their 20s and 50s — swam across the Yellow Sea border to the South’s island of Gyodongdo at about 4am, where they were spotted by local marines. “The marines found them coming across the border... and both expressed a desire to defect. They are believed to be a father and a son,” the spokeswoman said. “They are being interrogated as part of a normal process for defectors.”
CHINA
More ‘patriotic’ shows to air
Beijing has ordered local television broadcasters to air “patriotic” or anti-fascist series for two months from next month, reports said, stepping up its propaganda efforts amid disputes with Japan and ahead of national holidays. Such programs are already a staple of Chinese television, but news portal Netease, citing unnamed industry insiders, said satellite channels — which are controlled by provincial governments — had been ordered to broadcast them in prime time until the end of October. The National Day holiday falls on Oct. 1. “Patriotic” dramas “probably” include those with themes of defending the country, creating a business, ethnic solidarity and family relations — but excluding fights between relatives — a Shanghai satellite television staffer said, according to the report on Wednesday. “Anti-fascist” refers to the fight against Japan and Germany during World War II, the staffer said, adding: “Anti-Japanese series are surely counted as part of it.”
RUSSIA
Hackers tweet PM has quit
Hackers yesterday broke into Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Twitter account, tweeting his resignation and criticizing President Vladimir Putin. “I’m resigning. I’m ashamed of the government’s actions. Forgive me,” Medvedev’s Russian-language Twitter account said. “I’ve wanted to say this for a long time: Vova you’re wrong!” another tweet said, using the nickname for Vladimir. Medvedev, even when he served as president, was considered the second fiddle to Putin. Medvedev’s “Twitter account has been hacked, the messages are not genuine. We’re working on the problem,” a government spokesman told the state-tun RIA Novosti news agency. However, hacked messages continued to appear, and his account quickly became the top trender in Moscow, with the number of followers of his account swiftly rising by 10,000 to more than 2.5 million. Many of the hacked tweets criticized Russian government policies. “Crimea isn’t ours. Please retweet,” a message as Mevedev said.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Vape’ through a ‘listicle’
Know what “vaping” is? How about a “listicle”? Britain’s Oxford University Press yesterday said that it is adding the words — along with other new entries, from “time-poor” to “Paleo diet” — to its online Oxford Dictionaries to reflect new language trends. “These are words that are common enough that you are likely to encounter them and may have to look up their meanings,” Oxford Dictionaries editor Katherine Martin said. One of these is “vape” or “vaping,” which describes inhaling smokeless nicotine vapor using e-cigarettes. Many new entries are informal words or abbreviations that reflect people’s changing media consumption habits and the Internet’s ever-increasing prominence. They include “listicle” — an Internet article in the form of a numbered or bullet-pointed list. Martin said inclusion in the online dictionary did not mean the words would become permanent additions to the English language.
UNITED NATIONS
Saudi Arabia gives US$100m
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday gave US$100 million to the UN to support counterterrorism efforts and called on other countries to do the same. It follows a US$500 million Saudi gift to the UN effort to help Iraqi refugees. “We have been stung by the evil of terrorism,” Saudi Ambassador to the US Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir told reporters. “We believe that those countries that have not been stung by terrorism seem to be lax in dealing with terrorism in a serious way,” he told reporters after presenting a check to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
FRANCE
Six killed on Mont Blanc
Six French climbers died on Western Europe’s tallest mountain, officials said on Wednesday. August is the height of the climbing season on Mont Blanc, where storms can strike quickly even in the warmest months. High winds buffeted the area where the group fell, Mont Blanc rescue squad leader Jean-Baptiste Estachy said. Estachy said five bodies were found on Wednesday morning and the body of the sixth victim was later pulled out from the bottom of a crevasse. The six included five experienced climbers and a guide. Mont Blanc, in addition to its primary peak, contains about 200 summits, and touches France, Switzerland and Italy. An average of 59 people die yearly in accidents on its slopes, according to the Chamoniarde, a safety association.
CHILE
Airport heist nets US$7m
Eight masked, armed robbers made off with more than US$7 million on Tuesday from an armored truck at the airport in the Chilean capital, Santiago, the largest robbery in the nation’s history. The suspects reportedly arrived in three vehicles and held up guards who were escorting the truck. “Initial investigations indicate the sum stolen is more than 4 billion pesos (US$7 million), but we still don’t have the exact amount,” prosecutor Luis Pablo Cortes told journalists.
FRANCE
WWI soldiers statue stolen
A memorial to soldiers killed in World War I has been stolen from its pedestal. French Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Kader Arif said in a statement on Wednesday that the theft in the northern town of Craonne in the Aisne region is an “insult to war victims and to France.” Local Web site aisne.net described the modernistic bronze monument as 4m tall and weighing 1.45 tonnes.
‘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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