ISRAEL
Firm creates pricey mask
A jewelry company is working on what it says will be the world’s most expensive COVID-19 mask, a gold, diamond-encrusted face covering with a price tag of US$1.5 million. The 18-karat white gold mask is to be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters, designer and company owner Isaac Levy said. The buyer had two demands: That the mask be completed by the end of the year and that it be the priciest in the world, he said. Levy declined to identify the buyer, except to say that he was a Chinese businessman living in the US. While such an ostentatious mask might also rub some people the wrong way, Levy said that he was happy the mask has given his employees enough work to secure their jobs.
Photo: AP
NIGER
Aid workers, guides slain
Unidentified attackers killed six French aid workers and two local guides who were visiting a wildlife park east of the capital of Niamey early on Sunday. President Mahamadou Issoufou talked by telephone with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday evening and they said in a statement that “all means are and will be used to clarify the circumstances of the deadly attack.” The French government has warned citizens against traveling outside of Niamey as militants linked to Boko Haram, the Islamic State movement and al-Qaeda still carry out attacks across the nation.
UNITED KINGDOM
Record find by detectorist
A metal detectorist in the Scottish Borders has uncovered a haul of Bronze Age artefacts — including a complete horse harness and preserved leather and wood — in what is described as a “nationally significant” discovery. Mariusz Stepien had been metal detecting with friends on June 21 near Peebles when he came across a bronze object buried 50cm underground. He reported the find to the Treasure Trove unit, which sent an archeological team to dig at the site. “I felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and I’ve just discovered a big part of Scottish history. I was over the moon, shaking with happiness,” he said. Archeologists spent 22 days investigating the site, during which Stepien and his friends camped in the field. “We wanted to be a part of the excavation from the beginning to the end,” he said. The find includes a sword dated from 1000 to 900BC.
UNITED STATES
Cowell has back surgery
Entertainment mogul Simon Cowell underwent surgery overnight on Saturday to repair a broken back, the result of an electric bicycle accident, and was recovering at a hospital, a spokesperson said on Sunday. “Simon has broken his back in a number of places” after falling from the new bike he had been testing in the courtyard of his Malibu home on Saturday, the representative said. He was “doing fine” and remained under observation after the operation, the spokesperson said. The six-hour surgery included placement of a metal rod. “If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time,” Cowell wrote in a tweet on Sunday night. Cowell’s injury will force him to miss the beginning of this season’s live shows on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. The live shows were to begin yesterday without him, the network said.
NORTH KOREA
Red Cross lends assistance
The Red Cross has trained 43,000 volunteers to help communities, including the locked-down city of Kaesong, fight COVID-19 and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organization said yesterday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has built an extensive network of volunteers to help residents in all nine provinces, spokesman Antony Balmain said. “Hundreds of homes have been damaged and large areas of rice fields have been submerged due to heavy rain and some flash flooding,” Balmain said.
MALAYSIA
Ex-minister pleads not guilty
Former minister of finance Lim Guan Eng (林冠英) yesterday pleaded not guilty to a second corruption charge related to a US$1.5 billion undersea tunnel project and said the case was a trumped-up charge by the new government. Lim, 59, was charged on Friday with soliciting 10 percent of potential profits in 2011 as a bribe for the project planned in Penang state. Yesterday, he was accused of abusing his power as Penang chief minister to obtain 3.3 million ringgit (US$786,276) as inducement to help a local company secure the construction contract. “This is clearly a baseless allegation and politically motivated. I will fight in court to prove my innocence,” Lim said after the hearing.
INDONESIA
Mount Sinabung erupts
Mount Sinabung yesterday erupted, belching a massive column of ash and smoke 5,000m into the air and coating local communities in debris. Activity had picked up in the past few days, including a pair of smaller eruptions over the weekend. There were no reports of injuries or deaths, but authorities warned of possible lava flows.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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