CHINA
New hotel condemned
A hotel built around a central polar bear enclosure for the non-stop viewing pleasure of its guests on Friday opened to immediate condemnation from conservationists. At “Harbin Polar Land” in the country’s northeast, the hotel bedrooms’ windows face onto the bears’ pen, with visitors told the animals are their “neighbors 24 hours a day.” A video shows the bears — a threatened species — photographed by crowds of guests under harsh warm lights, in a space consisting of fake rocks and icicles, and a white painted floor. Animal rights organizations reacted with outrage, urging customers to stay away from establishments profiting “from animals’ misery.”
PHILIPPINES
Virus variant detected
The country yesterday reported its first case of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in Brazil, while confirming nearly 100 infections of a new variant discovered locally. A Filipino returning from Brazil tested positive for the P.1 Brazil variant after 752 samples were sequenced at a genome center, the Department of Health said in a statement. It also reported that 98 cases were of the similar P.3 variant first detected in the Southeast Asian country early this month. “At present, the P.3 is not identified as a variant of concern, as current available data are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications,” the department said.
JAPAN
Regenerating slug found
Researchers have shown that a type of sea slug can self-decapitate and regrow their bodies, a discovery that could have ramifications for regenerative medicine. The mechanism is believed to be an extreme method for the organism to rid itself of parasites, researchers Sayaka Mitoh and Yoichi Yusa wrote in a study published this week in Current Biology. The green slugs have algae cells in their skin, so they can feed off light like a plant until they develop a new body, which takes about 20 days.
IRAN
Killing sparks protest
Protesters attacked a coast guard station in the country’s south after a patrol from the force shot and killed a fuel smuggler, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported yesterday. The attack happened on Friday, when coast guard patrols shot at vessels smuggling fuel to neighboring countries, killing at least one smuggler, the report said. Fars did not identify the person killed, but said he was a 31-year-old man aboard one of the vessels allegedly smuggling fuel. General Hossein Dehaki, chief of the coast guard in Hormozgan Province, was quoted in the report as saying that an undetermined number of people later attacked the coast guard station in the Kouhestak District. He said several coast guard members were inured and the crowd damaged vehicles, vessels and equipment.
UNITED STATES
Police boast of beating man
Louisiana State Police troopers joked in a group text about beating a black man after a high-speed chase last year, saying the “whoopin’” would give the man “nightmares for a long time,” according to new court filings. “He gonna be sore tomorrow for sure,” former trooper Jacob Brown, who was charged in the case and resigned on Wednesday, texted three of his colleagues. “Warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
RSS