UNITED STATES
Judge orders exhibit restored
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Monday ordered the National Park Service to reinstall a slavery exhibit at a Philadelphia historic site, pending the outcome of litigation after the city sued the government over its removal. The exhibit was dismantled and removed last month in response to US President Donald Trump’s claims of an “anti-American ideology” at historical and cultural institutions. “The government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control,” District Judge Cynthia Rufe wrote in her opinion. “Its claims in this regard echo Big Brother’s domain in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Rufe added.
NEW ZEALAND
Man killed in severe storm
Heavy rains and strong winds in the past few days have killed one man, flooded large areas and cut off several communities, authorities said. The severe storm since Friday has prompted a state of emergency in North Island, where the Waikato Regional Council said “one in 100 year” rainfall had caused widespread flooding. Police said a man died on Friday after the car he was driving was trapped in flood waters near North Island’s Otorohanga. The storm reached the capital Wellington on Monday before yesterday moving toward Christchurch in the South Island.
RUSSIA
US citizen sentenced
A court has sentenced a US citizen to four years in jail for trying to take the stocks of Kalashnikov assault rifles out of a Moscow airport, the RIA state news agency reported yesterday. The US citizen, who collects Kalashnikov weapons, bought two Kalashnikov stocks and checked in a suitcase containing the butts at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, but made no customs declaration, RIA said. The man, who was not identified by the news agency, was found guilty under an article in the criminal code dealing with the smuggling of weapons, it added.
AUSTRALIA
Lizard smuggler sentenced
A Sydney man who tried to mail native lizards, bearded dragons and other reptiles out of Australia in bags of popcorn and cookie tins has been sentenced to eight years in jail, authorities said yesterday. The eight-year term handed down on Friday was a record for wildlife smuggling, federal environment officials said. A district court in Sydney gave 61-year-old Neil Simpson a non-parole period of five years and four months. Investigators recovered 101 reptiles from seized parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania, the officials said in a statement. “Lizards, skinks and dragons were secured in calico bags. These bags were concealed in bags of popcorn, biscuit tins and a women’s handbag and placed inside cardboard boxes,” it said.
ITALY
‘Lovers’ Arch’ collapses
A famous rock structure on Italy’s Adriatic coast known as the “Lovers’ Arch” collapsed on Valentine’s Day after days of bad weather, prompting local officials to warn that other stretches of the fragile coastline could be at risk. The natural arch near Melendugno in the southern region of Puglia, had long been a popular backdrop for wedding proposals and tourist photos. “This is an unwanted Valentine’s Day gift,” Melendugno Mayor Maurizio Cisternino told the local Corriere Salentino, calling the collapse “a very hard blow” for the area’s image and for tourism.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
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