■CHINA
Fines for lip-synching
Two pop stars have become the first victims of a ban on the use of lip-synching in concerts introduced last year following controversy over the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Starlets Yin Youcan (殷有璨) and Fang Ziyuan (方梓媛) resorted to miming during a concert they gave in September in Sichuan Province, the Beijing News reported yesterday. It was the first case brought against lip-synching performers since the authorities introduced the ban, the Beijing Youth Daily said. The ministry for culture in August issued a regulation allowing for fines for singers who lip-synched, saying the practice “misled the public.” The two young singers will have to pay a total fine of 80,000 yuan (US$12,000), according to authorities quoted by the newspaper.
■CHINA
Five jailed over spill
Five people have been jailed for spilling industrial waste into a drinking water source, causing the supply for a city of 5 million people to be cut off for a week, state media reported yesterday. Three petrochemical company managers in Huai’an in eastern China hired two private contractors in February last year to empty waste into an irrigation ditch connected to the city’s drinking water supply, Xinhua news agency said. Residents reported a strange smell coming from their taps, leading to an investigation into the chemical firm, and Huai’an was forced to cut off its drinking water for a week, the report said. A local court on Friday handed down five jail terms ranging from nine to 29 months, Xinhua reported, citing court sources. Three others were given suspended sentences. The court also fined the firm 1 million yuan (US$146,000) and ordered it to pay compensation of 350,000 yuan to the water company.
■SRI LANKA
Tiger supporters punished
A New York court sentenced two men to 14 and 26 years in prison on Friday for providing support to the Tamil Tigers separatist group, the Justice Department said on Friday. “Defendants Sathajhan Sarachandran and Nadarasa Yogarasa were sentenced to 26 and 14 years in prison, respectively,” the department said in a statement. The pair were convicted “in connection with their efforts to purchase one million dollars worth of high-powered weaponry for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” the statement added, using the formal name for the separatist group. Sarachandran, 30, pleaded guilty earlier this month to providing “material support to terrorism” by “conspiring and attempting to acquire guided surface-to-air missiles and missile launchers.” Yogarasa also pleaded guilty to providing material support. The pair were arrested in 2006, after engaging in negotiations with an undercover FBI agent to purchase and export heat-seeking missiles, ten missile launchers, 500 AK-47s, and other military equipment.
■VIETNAM
Woman killed by dogs
A woman was mauled to death by at least five guard dogs at a coffee farm in the country’s Central Highlands, state-linked media reported yesterday. Pham Thi Ngan, 55, was illegally collecting coffee beans from the farm in Dak Lak Province on Thursday when the dogs went after her, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Other women who had entered the farm with her climbed into trees to escape but Ngan was too slow, it said, adding that her body and face were unrecognizable after the mauling.
■MALAYSIA
Former king dies aged 77
Sultan Iskandar Ismail, a royal state ruler who was king for five years under the nation’s unique rotating system, has died, an official said. He was 77. The sultan died from an unspecified illness late on Friday in his southern home state of Johor, where he ascended to the throne in 1981, according to a statement by Johor’s chief minister, Abdul Ghani Othman. Prime Minister Najib Razak cut short a trip to India and returned home early yesterday to attend the sultan’s burial at a state mausoleum. Sultans and rajas are the titular heads of nine of the country’s 13 states, taking turns every five years to become the country’s king. Iskandar served as king from 1984 to 1989. His reign as sultan was marred by controversy when he allegedly assaulted a field hockey coach in 1992. It was one of several incidents involving royals that led to changes that removed the sultans’ immunity from prosecution, though Iskandar was not taken to court for the alleged assault. Iskandar, who was known to be a passionate fan of polo and windsurfing, is survived by his consort and 10 children. His eldest son, Tunku Ibrahim Ismail, was proclaimed the new sultan of Johor yesterday.
■AFGHANISTAN
Governor survives attack
A spokesman says a provincial governor has escaped an assassination attempt but four Afghan soldiers in the same convoy were killed. A roadside bomb exploded on Friday as Halim Fidai, the governor of the central province of Wardak, was on his way to inspect a school after meeting with elders in the Jagatu District. Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said yesterday that the governor was unharmed but four Afghan soldiers in a different vehicle were killed and another wounded. He said two people, including a local Taliban commander, were arrested as they tried to flee the scene of the attack.
■UNITED STATES
Farmer kills 51 cows, self
State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself. State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police. State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues, the Register-Star reported. The upstate hamlet of Copake is about 185km north of New York City. Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn on Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these were hard times to be a farmer.
■UNITED STATES
Beetle brooch bugs officials
It was an unlikely fashion accessory but the arrival of a jewel-encrusted beetle at a US border post certainly bugged customs officers. A woman crossing from Mexico at Brownsville, Texas, declared the live insect decorated with blue and gold as she drove up to enter the state but she did not have the right paperwork. Pest control measures meant officers promptly confiscated the item worn as a brooch on the traveler’s sweater and sent it for further inspection. The beetle was attached to the woman’s clothing by a gold chain and safety pin. The story of how the six-legged fashion victim was intercepted came in a press release and video from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the security machine responsible for protecting the country from terrorists and a body more used to trumpeting the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, hidden cash or fugitives from justice. “CBP officers seized the decorative clothing accessory and sent the live beetle to the Plant Inspection Station at Los Indios International Bridge for further identification. Because the traveler declared the insect no monetary civil penalty was issued,” the official account declared. Animal rights campaigners were less forgiving, reported the south Texan newspaper the Monitor. Jaime Zalac, for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said: “Beetles may not be as cute and cuddly as puppies and kittens, but they have the same capacity to feel pain and suffer.” Beetle species have proved popular subjects for jewelry for centuries and attaching it to live beetles is apparently not uncommon in Mexico. Jackie Kennedy is said to have been given one with emeralds.
■UNITED STATES
Woman jailed over hamster
A woman is in jail after police say she forced her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer as punishment for bad grades. The sheriff of a rural Georgia county said on Thursday that the boy told his teacher in Warm Springs about the killing. The teacher reported it to state child welfare authorities, who contacted police. The 38-year-old mother, Lynn Middlebrooks Geter, faces charges of animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery.
■UNITED STATES
Bird strike forces landing
A collision with a large bird forced a United Airlines plane to return to Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said United Flight 915 bound for San Diego, California, sucked a large bird into the Boeing 752’s right engine shortly after takeoff around 4:30pm on Friday. She said the pilot quickly returned the plane to the airport, and it landed safely. Baker said no one was injured, but one runway was closed briefly so that it could be cleared of bird remains.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
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