NEW ZEALAND
Qatar pelvic exam fans anger
The government has revealed that one of its citizens was among the women subjected to invasive pelvic examinations at the Hamad International Airport, labeling the action “completely unacceptable.” “We were extremely concerned to learn ... that a New Zealand national was involved in the appalling incident involving female passengers on several Qatar Airways flights,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. Women on 10 flights out of Doha were subject to cervical examinations as authorities searched for the mother of a newborn found abandoned in an airport bathroom.
NORTH KOREA
Seoul ‘failed’ fisheries agent
The government said that the shooting death of a South Korean man in its waters last month was a self-defensive measure amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday. Troops shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who went missing in late September, before dousing his body in oil and setting it on fire, the South Korean military has said. KCNA blamed Seoul for failing to stop him from crossing the maritime border, saying that the incident was the “result of improper control of the citizen by the south side.”
CHINA
Money-slinger detained
Police arrested a man after he dropped banknotes on commuters from his apartment window while allegedly high on methamphetamines. Police said the 29-year-old was “in a trance” after taking drugs at his home on the 30th floor of a building in Chongqing, when he began throwing cash out of the window to the streets below. Media reported the “heavenly rain of banknotes from the sky,” and a video of the Oct. 17 incident has been viewed more than half-a-million times.
PAKISTAN
Basmati battle heats up
The government has vowed to “vehemently” oppose an application by India for basmati rice to be recognized by the EU as being grown exclusively in specific regions of that country. Since 2006, the EU has applied zero tariffs on basmati rice imported into the bloc that has been authenticated by either local or Indian authorities as being truly basmati. Local exporters are responsible for about one-third of basmati imports to the EU and the rest from India. The granting of sole geographical indication status to India would be a blow to local exporters. India’s application prompted an emergency meeting of the Minister of Commerce, the chair of the country’s intellectual property organization, representatives of the Rice Exporters’ Association and senior legal advisers to the government. A formal objection is expected before the EU’s December deadline.
UNITED STATES
Man falls into rat sinkhole
A New York City man fell through a sinkhole in a sidewalk, landing directly on a pack of rats and leaving him unable to scream for help out of a fear that they might crawl into his mouth, local media reports said. Leonard Shoulders, 33, was waiting for a bus in the Bronx when the concrete beneath his feet suddenly cracked open and he plummeted into a hole, breaking his arm and leg, said his brother, Greg White. “He couldn’t move, and the rats were crawling all over him. He didn’t scream, because he didn’t want the rats going into his mouth,” White told the New York Daily News. Firefighters took half an hour to extricate Shoulders from the rat-filled cavity and he was taken to a local hospital, where he is recovering.
FRANCE
Masks mandatory in schools
Children aged six and older will have to wear masks in the classroom to keep schools open, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on the eve of a second national lockdown. Speaking before the national assembly backed the new restrictions by 399 votes to 27, Castex on Thursday said the mandatory use of masks was being extended to primary school pupils on the advice of public health officials. Only children over 11 have had to wear masks in school until now.
UNITED KINGDOM
Ecotricity making diamonds
A British multimillionaire and environmentalist has set out plans to create thousands of carats of carbon-negative, laboratory-grown diamonds every year “made entirely from the sky.” Dale Vince, the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, claims to have developed the world’s only diamonds to be made from carbon, water and energy sourced directly from the elements at a “sky mining facility” in Stroud. The “green technology first” uses carbon dioxide captured directly from the atmosphere to form the diamonds — which are chemically identical to diamonds mined from the earth — using wind and solar electricity, with water collected from rainfall. The result is the “world’s first zero-impact diamond,” Vince said.
UNITED STATES
COVID cases top 90,000
The nation on Thursday notched a record number of COVID-19 cases, topping the grim milestone of more than 90,000 diagnoses in 24 hours, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. The country, which has seen a resurgence of its COVID-19 outbreak since the middle of this month, saw 91,295 new cases in the 24 hours up to 8:30pm on Thursday, the data showed. The nation has tallied 8.94 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the most of any country in the world.
UNITED STATES
Record gun sales this year
Americans have bought nearly 17 million guns so far this year, more than in any other single year, estimates from a firearms analytics company showed. Gun sales across the nation first jumped in the spring, driven by fears about the COVID-19 pandemic, and spiked even higher in the summer, during massive racial justice protests across the country, prompted by police killings of black Americans. “By August, we had exceeded last year’s total. By September, we exceeded the highest total ever,” said Jurgen Brauer, chief economist of Small Arms Analytics , which produces widely cited estimates of US gun sales. The estimated number of guns sold in the nation through the end of last month is “not only more than last year, it’s more than any full year in the last 20 years we have records for,” Brauer said.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS