CHINA
Anti-censorship site down
A Web site that helps Chinese Internet users see censored pages says it is the target of a massive denial-of-service attack and is struggling to stay online. GreatFire.org wrote in a post on Thursday that the actions started on Tuesday in the first such attack ever directed at the site. The site wrote that it did not know who was launching the attacks, but that they coincided with increased pressure from Chinese officials. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not answer phone calls yesterday seeking comment.
VIETNAM
Tree demolition stopped
Political leaders yesterday halted the felling of thousands of Hanoi’s trees after the plan sparked public outrage and fears it would damage the image of one of the world’s most picturesque cities. Social media criticism went into overdrive this week after authorities started cutting down about 500 of the 6,700 trees it considered dangerous in the leafy metropolis often dubbed the “Paris of Asia.” The rolling back of the plan was top billing on the lunchtime television news, which announced that upon the instruction of the Hanoi People’s Committee, trees cut down would be replaced immediately.
THAILAND
Man jailed for royal insult
A military court in Bangkok yesterday sentenced 67-year-old Opas Charnsooksai to 18 months in prison for writing insults against the monarch on the wall of a shopping mall restroom in October, his lawyer Sasinan Thamnithinan said. The court cut the original three-year prison sentence in half because Opas confessed, but said in passing sentence that it would not suspend the jail term because “the offense was violating the beloved monarch of the people,” Sasinan said.
BRAZIL
Museum lands Petrobras art
A museum on Thursday received 139 works of art, including a painting by Joan Miro, seized from individuals involved in the corruption scandal rocking state oil giant Petrobras. Works by Brazilian artists Djanira and Heitor dos Prazeres were among the trove that police delivered to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in the city of Curitiba. Local media reported that the majority of artwork was seized from Petrobras former director of services Renato Duque, who was arrested on Monday. He was detained in connection with a kickbacks and political payoffs scheme that allegedly siphoned off US$3.8 billion from Petrobras. Another 64 seized works had already been given to the museum, including pieces by Salvador Dali and Vik Muniz. After a quarantine period during which the works’ condition will be examined, the art will “probably” be available for the public to see, a member of the museum’s press team said. Prosecutors say Petrobras awarded inflated contracts to some of the country’s biggest construction companies over a 10-year-period, generating a flood of dirty money used to bribe executives and politicians.
UNITED STATES
Ming art sells for US$14m
A 600-year-old album of Ming Dynasty Buddhist art and calligraphy sold for US$14 million in New York on Thursday, the highest price for a Chinese painting sold outside Asia, Sotheby’s said. The sutras were sold after frantic bidding between four would-be buyers in Asia and the US that lasted 31 minutes, the auction house said. The winner was Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian (劉益謙), who bid by telephone, Sotheby’s said. The taxi-driver-turned-financier is one of China’s biggest art collectors. Sotheby’s said US$14 million was the top price for any sale at Asian art auctions in New York this month and the highest price paid for a Chinese painting outside Asia. The sutras, an album of 39 leaves, came from an important Japanese collection and the only other known works from the series are in Chinese hands.
BRAZIL
Breastfeeding bans banned
The city council of the country’s biggest city has passed a measure that could fine businesses or organizations more than US$300 if they prevent women from breastfeeding in public. Renata Soares is the legal adviser for Sao Paulo City Councilman Aurelio Nomura, one of the three authors of the law approved last week. She says Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad is expected to approve it within the next 20 days. Soares says it is the “first legislation of its kind in Latin America and, as far as we know, in the rest of the world.”
ARGENTINA
Boa ‘escape’ sparks panic
A massive boa constrictor whose reported escape sparked panic in the capital and a large mobilization of police and firefighters was found asleep on Thursday, safe and sound in its owner’s closet. “Margarita the boa was resting well coiled-up inside a closet in its owner’s home,” a police spokesman for the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Banfield said. Neighbors were terrified after the owner reported the 3m snake had gone missing on Sunday, sometime after he fed it. “You can tell she ate well because she still seemed to be digesting,” the spokesman said. He said the 30kg snake would be taken to a reptile sanctuary in the city of La Plata, just south of Buenos Aires. The boa constrictor was kept in a glass enclosure in its owner’s living room, but was allowed to slither around the house at leisure. It is illegal in the country to keep boa constrictors as pets, according to the Ezeiza Animal Protection Association.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
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