FIJI
Cyclone warning issued
The government yesterday warned residents to brace for destructive winds as Tropical Cyclone Ula bore down on the nation. Meteorologists reported the category three storm had maintained its intensity after forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes on Saturday in Tonga. It was tracking southwest toward eastern Lau Island packing winds of 150kph at its center, the Fiji Meteorological Centre said. “Initially it showed that it was going to weaken, however, it has slowed down and maintained its intensity over the last 12 to 24 hours,” Fiji director of meteorology Ravind Kumar told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The cyclone was expected to pass within 65km of the island of Ono-i-Lau late yesterday.
THAILAND
Two tourists drown
A Chinese and an Australian tourist on Saturday died in separate swimming accidents off Koh Samui. Police Lieutenant Colonel Apichart Jansamret said the drownings occured off Chaweng Beach during high tide. Two other people were injured. He said there were “no swimming” signs and red flags in place. Apichart said that the sea at the beach looks misleadingly calm as a pond, but that it is easy to fall into deep water. “The tourists must have thought they could manage it and that it’s similar to their country, but that’s the problem,” he said.
HONG KONG
Tax increase likely: Chan
The territory is likely to need to raise taxes and introduce new levies, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K. C. Chan (陳家強) said yesterday. “Facing a fiscal gap brought by an aging population, raising taxes is inevitable,” he said in his blog. The government last month started a public consultation period to identify ways to enhance retirement protection.
UNITED STATES
‘Winter’ not coming yet
Game of Thrones fans were let down on Saturday, when author George R.R. Martin admitted he had missed Thursday’s deadline to complete the latest installment in the fantasy series. “The Winds of Winter is not finished,” Martin announced in a lengthy blog post shortly after midnight. “You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed ... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me.” Martin had hoped to submit the manuscript to his publishers by late last year so The Winds of Winter, the sixth volume of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, could be published early this year. The author also missed a previous deadline, at Halloween, on the last day of October. With the latest delay, Martin warned, The Winds of Winter would “most certainly” not be published before the sixth season of Games of Thrones begins to air on HBO in April.
UNITED STATES
Lover becomes organ donor
A New Hampshire man found his perfect match in more ways than one when he first met his girlfriend on a golf course last summer. Forty-nine-year-old Jack Simard of Manchester is slated for his second kidney transplant around Valentine’s Day and the donor is his girlfriend, Michelle LaBranche. WMUR-TV reported that the two avid golfers met at Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown and fell in love. When LaBranche found out Simard was seeking a kidney donor, she tested to see if she was eligible without telling him. Doctors were surprised that her kidneys turned out to be compatible. Simard’s first kidney transplant was 19 years ago. His sister was the donor.
UNITED STATES
Twins born in different years
Twins in San Diego, California, are getting some attention because, though born just minutes apart, one has a birthday last year and one this year. Jaelyn Valenica was born on New Year’s Eve at 11:59pm Her twin brother, Luis Valencia Jr, arrived at 12:01am on New Year’s Day. KGTV-TV reported that the babies were due at the end of this month, but doctors at San Diego Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center called the mother in, because one was in a breech position.
PANAMA
Consortium urged to hurry
President Juan Carlos Varela on Saturday urged the Spanish-led consortium expanding the Panama Canal to leave legal disputes to the “competent authorities” and focus instead on completing its work on the waterway. The appeal came after the Dispute Adjudication Board hearing a budget overrun dispute for the project ordered the Panama Canal Authority to pay the consortium US$17 million for extra labor costs and for a strike called by workers. “With respect, I am calling on the contractors for the expansion project to hold dialogue with the Panama Canal Authority, to allow work to be completed, to leave legal disputes in the hands of the competent authorities and to avoid mediatized differences that in no way help the image of the contractors, the Canal Authority and the Republic of Panama,” Varela said. The appeal was made as part of Varela’s address to the Central American country as the congress began its legislative sessions for this year. Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama consortium’s expansion work on the canal, started in 2007, is running well behind schedule.
FIJI
Cyclone warning issued
The government yesterday warned residents to brace for destructive winds as Tropical Cyclone Ula bore down on the nation. Meteorologists reported the category three storm had maintained its intensity after forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes on Saturday in Tonga. It was tracking southwest toward eastern Lau Island packing winds of 150kph at its center, the Fiji Meteorological Centre said. “Initially it showed that it was going to weaken, however, it has slowed down and maintained its intensity over the last 12 to 24 hours,” Fiji director of meteorology Ravind Kumar told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The cyclone was expected to pass within 65km of the island of Ono-i-Lau late yesterday.
THAILAND
Two tourists drown
A Chinese and an Australian tourist on Saturday died in separate swimming accidents off Koh Samui. Police Lieutenant Colonel Apichart Jansamret said the drownings occured off Chaweng Beach during high tide. Two other people were injured. He said there were “no swimming” signs and red flags in place. Apichart said that the sea at the beach looks misleadingly calm as a pond, but that it is easy to fall into deep water. “The tourists must have thought they could manage it and that it’s similar to their country, but that’s the problem,” he said.
HONG KONG
Tax increase likely: Chan
The territory is likely to need to raise taxes and introduce new levies, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K. C. Chan (陳家強) said yesterday. “Facing a fiscal gap brought by an aging population, raising taxes is inevitable,” he said in his blog. The government last month started a public consultation period to identify ways to enhance retirement protection.
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
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
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
RSS