■CHINA
Blast kills 46 miners
An explosion in a Henan Province colliery yesterday killed 46 miners, state media reported. The blast happened near Pingdingshan city when a store of gunpowder kept underground detonated, according to reports citing the State Administration of Work Safety. The accident in the Xingdong No. 2 Mine occurred at about 1:40 am with 72 miners working at the time, 26 of whom were brought to safety, China Central Television said. The remaining 46 have been confirmed dead, it said.
■AUSTRALIA
Government to assist search
Canberra vowed to leave “no stone unturned” yesterday after a plane carrying one of the country’s richest men and other mining bosses went missing over dense jungle in western Africa. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised full diplomatic and consular assistance after the twin turboprop plane carrying tycoon Ken Talbot and other top personnel from Sundance Resources disappeared on Saturday. “This is deeply concerning to all of us,” Rudd told reporters. “All of our diplomatic and consular resources are being dedicated to this ... we will leave literally no stone unturned in our efforts to try and help what is a concerning set of developments for these families.”
■VIETNAM
Bullet train rejected
Legislators rejected a proposed bullet train over its US$56 billion cost — the assembly’s first rejection of a major proposal submitted by the government. The nearly 500-member assembly typically acts as a rubber stamp, but voted over the weekend to deny plans for the high-speed rail project. The US$56 billion investment would have built a 1,570km track linking the capital Hanoi and the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City by 2035. But ordinary Vietnamese could not afford the fares, and construction would equal about 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, said Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a lawmaker from northern Lang Son province.
■NEW ZEALAND
Goldilocks arrested
A blonde, pony-tailed burglar ate some food, drank some alcohol, tried on clothes and then found the bed in a New Zealand home just right. But upon finding a modern-day Goldilocks asleep in his bed, the homeowner in Christchurch exercised an option the three bears didn’t: He called the police. In court yesterday, 39-year-old Vanessa Joy Long pleaded guilty and said she blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened on June 5. The judge ordered a probation report to see if Long was suitable for home detention and could pay for her misdemeanors. The damage was estimated at NZ$1,500 (US$1,064).
■INDONESIA
Man skins endangered tiger
Police have arrested a man who allegedly poisoned and skinned a critically endangered Sumatran tiger in a state-owned zoo, an official said yesterday. Akmamul Mukminin, 24, was detained last week and could face up to five years in jail and a fine of 100 million rupiah (US$11,000) for killing a protected animal, conservation official Didi Wuryanto said. The suspect allegedly killed the tiger, named Shella, in August in Taman Rimbo zoo, Jambi Province, by placing poisoned bait in its enclosure after closing hours. He then allegedly skinned it on the zoo grounds, aided by two accomplices. Conservationists estimate there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching.
■ITALY
Theft from dead investigated
Staff at a historic cemetery in Genoa are being investigated for allegedly stripping gold fillings, jewels and artificial limbs from corpses for resale. Seven employees at the wooded Staglieno cemetery, built in 1851, are suspected of having secretly amassed their booty in a workroom where buyers purchased materials by the pound, reported Genoa daily Il Secolo XIX. Police were reportedly tipped off by a coworker who supplied photographs and cellphone footage of the fillings and fake limbs, telling officers the grave thefts had been taking place for years.
■YEMEN
Attack mastermind arrested
The government said on Sunday it has arrested the suspected mastermind of the spectacular attack on its southern intelligence headquarters, which freed detainees and left 11 people dead. An official statement said the suspect belongs to “terrorist groups” in Yemen and has a criminal record, including a bank robbery last year blamed on al-Qaeda. There was no word on whether any other suspects had been arrested or whether the authorities had recaptured the freed detainees. Officials said Saturday’s attack on the heavily protected security complex in Aden bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
■NORTHERN IRELAND
Unionist has image removed
A unionist lawmaker said yesterday Facebook had removed an image of him with a bullet hole through his head, which was put up after he criticized a recent report on Bloody Sunday. Gregory Campbell, of the Democratic Unionist Party, became the target of online death threats after he made critical remarks about the Saville report into one of the province’s darkest episodes. “I was informed by a member of the public that a group site had been set up. Upon investigation I discovered that there were scores of vile, vicious references to me and some of my colleagues,” he said. Campbell said he had been in contact with Facebook to ensure that the site was closed down.
■SPAIN
Franco compiled list of Jews
Dictator Francisco Franco, whose apologists often claim that he protected Jews, ordered his officials to draw up a list of 6,000 Jews living in the country and include them in a secret Jewish archive. That list was handed over to the Nazi architect of the so-called “final solution,” German SS chief Heinrich Himmler, as the two countries negotiated Spain’s possible incorporation into the group of Axis powers that included Italy, according to the El Pais newspaper yesterday. The newspaper printed the original order, recently unearthed from Spanish archives, which instructed provincial governors to elaborate lists of “all the national and foreign Jews living in the province.” Franco’s regime later tried to cover the tracks of its collaboration with Hitler and rewrite the history of its Jewish policy.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Exiled Rwandan general shot
Four suspects have been arrested over the shooting in Johannesburg of an exiled Rwandan general who is accused of terrorism in his homeland, police said yesterday. Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said more arrests were likely. Lieutenant General Kayumba Nyamwasa was returning from shopping with his wife to the upscale gated community where they live when a lone gunman fired on him. His wife, who accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of being behind the shooting, said her husband was shot in the stomach and will recover.
■ EL SALVADOR
Suspected rebels kill 14
Fourteen people were killed on Sunday after suspected Mara 18 gang members attacked two buses, police officials said. In the first attack on the outskirts of San Salvador, arsonists thought to be Mara 18 members set fire to a minibus, killing 11 passengers, said Roberto Villalobos, a top commissioner with the national civil police. In the second incident, suspected Mara 18 members boarded a public bus in the same area and opened fire on its passengers, killing an adult and two girls, aged seven and nine. “There are no clear motives” for the incidents, Villalobos said, adding: “It seems that the gang wanted to prove something to authorities, for the actions being taken against gangs and crime.”
■BRAZIL
Flooding claims 23 lives
Floods following days of heavy rain killed at least 23 people in the northeastern state of Pernambuc, while more than 14,000 people were left homeless. In neighboring Alagoas state, 13 people were killed by the flooding and about 15,500 people lost their homes. Minister of Cities Marcio Fortes said several towns were also left devastated by Mundau River bursting its banks and flooding the region.
■CUBA
Sigler joins Ladies in White
Ariel Sigler, a political prisoner that Havana freed just a week ago, joined other activists on Sunday pushing to see all prisoners of conscience freed. Sigler, now weak and restricted to a wheelchair after six years in jail, joined the Ladies in White, a group that campaigns for the release of family members jailed in the 2003 crackdown. Unable to march with them, he joined them at mass on Sunday in Havana. Also at the mass was Reina Tamayo, the mother of Orlando Zapata, who died in February after an 85-day hunger strike to protest the fate of political prisoners.
■UNITED KINGDOM
African aid appeal launched
Aid agencies yesterday appealed for US$21 million to halt an escalating food crisis in West Africa, warning the situation was “an unfolding disaster.” Oxfam and Save the Children are asking for donations as more than 10 million people across the region face severe hunger and malnutrition because of drought and crop failures. Niger is at the epicenter of the crisis, with more than 7 million people — almost half the population — facing food insecurity, Oxfam said. People in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, parts of Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria are also at risk, said the charity. Up to 380,000 children under the age of five in Niger were at risk of dying of starvation because of the unexpectedly long drought, Save the Children said.
■UNITED STATES
Pirate festival seeks record
Festival-goers tried to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most costumed pirates in one place over the weekend. About 2,300 pirates had registered on Saturday at the fourth annual Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo, California, but the festival’s official count was not scheduled to be released until after the event ended on Sunday, the Times-Herald reported. Festival spokesperson Shannon Damnavits said each pirate had to wear a red wristband, stand in one place for 10 minutes and be photographed. Guinness then certifies the count. The current titleholder is Brixham, England, where 1,722 costumed pirates were recorded.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
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