UNITED STATES
NBC sacks TV host Lauer
Matt Lauer, the host of NBC television’s Today show on Wednesday was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague and was promptly confronted with a published report accusing him of crude and habitual misconduct with other women around the office. Network news boss Andrew Lack said in a memo to the staff that NBC received a complaint about Lauer’s behavior on Monday and determined he violated company standards. NBC said the misconduct started when Lauer and a network employee were at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and continued beyond that assignment. Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer in his 20 years at NBC, but “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.” In other developments, former Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor was cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio over an allegation of “inappropriate behavior.” It gave no details, but the 75-year-old Keillor said he inadvertently put his hand on a woman’s bare back in an attempt to console her.
AUSTRALIA
Lawmaker quits party posts
Federal Senator Sam Dastyari yesterday resigned from his Labor Party leadership roles over scandals involving wealthy Chinese businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨) that have raised accusations of China buying influence. Dastyari had been deputy Labor whip and chairman of a parliamentary committee examining the future of journalism. Fairfax Media reported this week that Dastyari gave the Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman countersurveillance advice when they met at Huang’s Sydney mansion in October last year. Dastyari has not denied the reports, but yesterday said he had no knowledge about whether Huang was under government surveillance at the time.
BANGLADESH
Pope to meet Rohingya
Pope Francis landed in Dhaka yesterday after wrapping up a diplomatically sensitive trip to Myanmar with a Mass for young people. The government is hoping that the pontiff’s three-day visit, during which he is to meet a group of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Dhaka, will help pressure the international community to find a lasting solution to the influx of Muslim Rohingya fleeing their homes in Myanmar amid what the UN has said is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.
GAZA STRIP
Power transfer delayed
Fatah and Hamas on Wednesday agreed to delay final transfer of power of the Gaza Strip from Hamas to the Western-backed Palestinian government from today to Dec. 10 to allow time to “complete arrangements,” officials said. The factions signed a reconciliation deal last month that said Hamas would complete the handover by today, but disputes over the transfer process have emerged in recent days.
UNITED STATES
Chinese actress picked
It took a year of searching and nearly 1,000 candidates, but Walt Disney Studios has found its Mulan (花木蘭). The studio on Wednesday said Chinese actress Liu Yifei (劉亦菲, Crystal Liu) is to play the warrior in a live-action epic from director Niki Caro. The 30-year-old actress is well known in China as a model, actress and singer. She started in television and has appeared in more than a dozen films. Liu speaks fluent English and spent part of her teens in New York City. Caro’s film is expected to be released in 2019.
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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