AUSTRALIA
Troops to curb virus mulled
Canberra could use its defense forces to help manage a COVID-19 outbreak in the elderly care sector that has stretched staffing and forced many homes into lockdowns, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, as national infection numbers remained on a downtrend. The government has come under pressure over the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in elderly care homes, with Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Richard Colbeck drawing criticism after he attended a cricket match instead of appearing before a parliamentary committee looking into the outbreaks. Morrison said he had asked the ministers of defense and health to see how defense forces could support care homes.
PANAMA
Sex trafficking ring busted
Authorities on Thursday said that as part of an operation to disrupt a sex trafficking ring, 10 children were rescued and three people in Panama and Costa Rica were arrested. “The victims in this case range between the ages of four and 16, and the people involved are close relatives” of the minors, said Emeldo Marquez, a senior Panamanian prosecutor. The relatives “facilitated” the shipment of the children from Baru, 525km southwest of Panama City, to the Costa Rican border, to be sexually exploited. Marquez said the detainees would face prison sentences of 20 to 30 years.
GERMANY
Container vessel freed
A giant container vessel owned by AP Moller-Maersk has been freed after running aground outside the Port of Bremerhaven, removing worries about a possible new snarl for global shipping. The Mumbai Maersk, one of the world’s largest container ships, was refloated yesterday after it ran aground on a shallow patch late on Wednesday, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. The vessel is now moving away with restricted maneuverability from the site. The Mumbai Maersk was sailing from Asia to Germany with cargo bound for Scandinavian countries when it ran into trouble, Copenhagen-based Maersk said. Extra tugs were deployed and a new attempt to free the vessel was made on Thursday after an earlier attempt failed.
NETHERLANDS
New HIV variant found
Researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of a highly virulent strain of HIV that has been lurking in the country for decades, but because of the effectiveness of modern treatments, is “no cause for alarm.” Their analysis, published in the journal Science, showed that patients infected with what they call the “VB variant” had 3.5 to 5.5 times higher levels of the virus in their blood than those infected with other variants, as well as a more rapidly fading immune system. However, the study also found that after starting treatment, individuals with the VB variant had similar immune system recovery and survival to individuals with other HIV variants.
UNITED STATES
Bunny loses eating contest
Lettuce-loving giant rabbit Honey “Mega” Bunny on Tuesday suffered a resounding defeat in a salad eating contest against competitive eater Raina Huang. Huang, who has been eating competitively for four years, put away 1.5kg of chopped salad in 10 minutes in the matchup, organized by Chop Stop in Glendale, California. Honey froze in front of the giant plate of lettuce and ate none at all.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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