■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.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
‘DECREE 147’: Tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify accounts via phone numbers or IDs, and must provide users’ personal data to authorities on request New Vietnamese Internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force yesterday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression. Under “Decree 147,” all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth. They must provide that data to authorities on request and remove any content that the government regards as “illegal” within 24 hours. All social media sites had been given 90 days to provide data on “the
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
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