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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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