BELGIUM
Rail workers strike
Trade unions in Brussels and the south of the country have begun a 48-hour rail strike which is set to disrupt national traffic and international connections to Paris and London. Workers began walking off the job late on Tuesday to protest planned government reforms aimed at streamlining services and making the sector more efficient. The unions say the government is imposing austerity measures that will cost thousands of jobs and cut services.
UNITED STATES
Paul Bley dies, aged 83
Canadian avant-garde jazz pianist Paul Bley has died at his Florida home. He was 83. The publicist for Bley’s record label, ECM Records, on Tuesday said that Bley died of natural causes on Sunday at his Stuart home. Born on Nov. 10, 1932, in Montreal, Bley began studying music at the age of five and formed his first band at the age of 13. He studied at Julliard in the 1950s, and in the 1960s he pioneered using electric pianos and synthesizers.
UNITED STATES
Hacker gets time served
A Latvian man was spared further prison time on Tuesday for what US prosecutors said was his crucial role in a conspiracy to distribute a computer virus that infected more than 1 million computers worldwide. Deniss Calovskis, 30, spent 21 months in prison before he pleaded guilty in September and admitted to having written some of the computer code for the so-called Gozi virus. At the time, prosecutors sought additional time in custody. US District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan called Calovskis’ conduct serious, but said “the goal of punishment has been served already.”
FRANCE
Men jailed over ‘rape’ video
Two young men have been arrested, charged and jailed after shocked Internet users watched a video of a suspected rape and alerted police. Lawyer Francoise Nogues said the two men, aged 18 and 22, were on Tuesday charged with “aggravated gang rape” of an 18-year-old girl and “diffusion of pornographic images.” Perpignan prosecutor Achille Kiriakides said in a statement that the young men were jailed. The prosecutor said the girl knew both men and that a barrage of analyses would help determine if the sexual encounters were “completely and freely” accepted.
SPAIN
Mas ‘ready’ to call elections
Catalonia’s outgoing separatist leader Artur Mas on Tuesday said that he was reluctantly “ready” to call fresh parliamentary elections, with the region’s secessionist faction unable to agree on who should lead a new government after winning September’s polls. “I’m ready — against my will, this is not what we wanted and it is not what I want — but I’m ready to sign the decree to convene elections,” he told reporters in Barcelona as Saturday’s deadline to form a new government drew dangerously close.
MEXICO
Mota investigation deepens
The investigation into the murder of Temixco Mayor Gisela Mota has led police to a clandestine grave containing five other bodies, authorities said on Tuesday. The burial spot was found in the community of Alpuyeca following the killing of Mota on Saturday, just one day after taking office. Three people — a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy — who were detained right after the mayor’s murder were formally charged with homicide on Tuesday.
HONG KONG
Bird flu death in China
A woman in Shenzhen died last week after being infected with the highly contagious H5N6 bird flu virus, days after she was admitted to hospital, the Hong Kong Department of Health said yesterday. The department said it was also notified by the Guangdong Province health authorities on Friday last week that a 40-year-old woman from Zhaoqing was infected with H5N6 and was in a critical condition. It said health-check systems were in place at border crossings with Shenzhen and the airport.
PHILIPPINES
Demand for compensation
Elderly women forced to work as comfort women by Japanese troops during World War II are calling for compensation from Tokyo after it pledged US$8.3 million for South Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during the war. Their lawyers yesterday said that they are also exploring the possibility of filing cases with UN bodies and holding President Benigno Aquino III liable for allegedly failing to support the case of the women against Japan. “Is there a difference in the rape of a South Korean and a Filipino woman?” said Harry Roque, one of the lawyers, said at a news conference in Manila. “The answer is there should be none, because rape is a crime against women and is prohibited by international humanitarian law and is recognized as an international crime.”
AUSTRALIA
Lizards learn to avoid toads
Scientists yesterday said they had devised an “innovative method of conservation” through feeding giant monitor lizards small cane toads so they will not be killed by adult cane toads, which are so toxic they can kill predators that try to eat them. Researchers from the University of Sydney said they were able to teach free-ranging goannas in the Kimberley wilderness to avoid eating the toxic toads about to invade the remote floodplain. They offered small, non-lethal cane toads to the wild yellow-spotted monitors with further trials confirming “just one or two toad meals were enough to convince a goanna not to eat another toad.” “After training, giant monitor lizards, known as goannas, survived when the toads arrived, whereas untrained lizards were immediately killed,” lead researcher Georgia Ward-Fear said of the study, which was published in the Biology Letters journal.
INDIA
Actress shames pirate
Bollywood star Kriti Sanon posted a series of angry tweets after a passenger sitting next to her on a flight brazenly started watching a pirated copy of one of her films. Sanon was travelling to New Delhi last week when the man seated beside her started using an iPhone projector to watch Hindi blockbuster Dilwale. The movie had only been released 10 days before. The tweets were accompanied by a picture of the passenger, who appeared to be enjoying the movie.
UNITED NATIONS
New CAR abuse claims
The UN peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic (CAR) on Tuesday said it was investigating new allegations of sexual abuse of minors by peacekeepers in the nation. It said that staff of the UN Children’s Fund based in Bangui have met with four of the alleged child victims. The statement said the head of mission was discussing with the human rights office in Geneva ways of combating sexual abuse, including through the formation of a police brigade that would identify perpetrators and deter such abuse.
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
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
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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