PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Hundreds rescued from ship
About 100 people are feared trapped inside a ferry that sank in rough weather on Thursday off the country’s northeast coast with about 350 people on board, a rescue official said yesterday. Rescuers plucked 246 people from the sea after the MV Rabaul Queen was hit by three large waves and quickly sank, Rony Naigu, a rescue official from the maritime safety authority, said yesterday. He said about 100 people were thought to have been trapped inside. Naigu, who spent Thursday at the scene, said survivors told how the ferry rolled and sank in deep water after it was hit by waves.
JAPAN
Chinese skipper sentenced
The skipper of a Chinese fishing boat, arrested and tried in Nagasaki for operating illegally in Japanese waters, has been given a suspended six-month jail term, a local official said yesterday. Nagasaki District Court sentenced Zhong Jinyin (鍾進音), 39, to six months imprisonment, suspended for three years, and ordered him to pay a fine of ￥1 million (US$13,000) in the ruling given on Tuesday, the official said. Zhong paid the fine on the day of the ruling, the official said. It was not not immediately clear whether Zhong remained in Japan or returned to China. The fisherman was arrested on Dec. 20 near islands off southwest Japan.
INDIA
Train hits bulldozer, derails
A railway official said a train hit a bulldozer and derailed in Assam State, killing three passengers. S. Hajong said at least 16 people were injured when nine coaches of the train derailed after the crash at an unmanned crossing. The bulldozer got stuck while crossing the track, Hajong said yesterday. Local villagers and police pulled all the passengers from the derailed cars. The injured were taken to hospitals in nearby Gauhati, Assam’s capital.
NEW ZEALAND
Megaupload appeal fails
A court refused an appeal by the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be freed on bail yesterday, agreeing with prosecutors there was a risk he would attempt to flee before an extradition hearing. Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was returned to custody until Feb. 22 ahead of a hearing on an extradition application by the US. Prosecutors say Dotcom was the leader of a group that has netted US$175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization. Dotcom’s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he strenuously denies the charges and will fight extradition.
PHILIPPINES
Jolo battle continues
Troops battled Muslim extremists on a remote southern island yesterday where a day earlier three of Southeast Asia’s top terror suspects were killed in a US-backed air strike, the army said. Soldiers who approached the bombed area on the outskirts of a small village on Jolo island after the raid faced dogged resistance from surviving militants, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang said. “There is intermittent fire, the area is not yet secured,” Cabangbang told GMA television in a telephone interview. The troops had moved into the scene of the strike in an effort to retrieve the bodies of the three senior militants who were killed, as well as to take on the others who survived Thursday’s aerial assault.
UNITED STATES
Investigation nears end
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Department of Justice is preparing to close investigations into the deaths of two detainees while in CIA custody. It would mark the final chapter in a controversial review by the administration of President Barack Obama into treatment of terrorism suspects during the administration of former US president George W. Bush. Federal prosecutor John Durham has been looking at the deaths of Gul Rahman and Manadel al-Jamadi. Rahman died after being shackled to a concrete wall in a secret CIA prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, while al-Jamadi died in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
CANADA
Child porn charges laid
Sixty people in Ontario province have been charged with child pornography offenses involving at least 22 boys and girls, police said on Thursday. The accused, who include three minors, appeared to be acting alone mostly through Internet “game and social networking sites,” and not as part of an organized child pornography ring, police said. The accused face a total of 213 charges for sexual assault, child luring, making child pornography, possession and distribution of child pornography and accessing the illicit videos.
UNITED STATES
Police link murder cases
A former Marine charged with killing four homeless men in Southern California has been linked to the stabbing deaths of a woman and her son, Anaheim police said on Thursday. Investigators determined there is an association between the former Marine, Itzcoatl Ocampo, and Eder Herrera, who is charged in the deaths of his mother and his brother, and remains in custody, police Lieutenant Julian Harvey said. Raquel Estrada and her son, Juan Herrera, were killed in October in Yorba Linda, less than 3.2km from Ocampo’s home. Eder Herrera, 24, is charged with stabbing his mother and brother to death before fleeing to a friend’s house. He was arrested the next day as he drove from the house, where he claimed he spent the night. Detectives said on Wednesday that they saw similarities in the cases of the Yorba Linda deaths and the stabbings of four homeless men in December and last month.
UNITED STATES
Fake Facebook stock sold
An Oshkosh, Wisconsin, woman has been charged with theft over accusations she tried to profit from Facebook’s much-anticipated plans to go public by selling fake stock in the social media giant. In a criminal complaint on Thursday, prosecutors said Marianne Oleson told acquaintances she obtained US$1 million in stock because her daughter was an acquaintance of Facebook’s founder and persuaded several people to buy fictitious Facebook stock over a four-month period. The woman was charged with 31 counts of theft, forgery and making misleading statements. Facebook unveiled plans on Wednesday for the biggest-ever Internet initial public offering.
UNITED STATES
Military trial delayed
The military trial of a former army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at a Texas military base will be postponed until June 12, a judge ruled on Thursday. Major Nidal Hasan, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted, is accused of opening fire at the Fort Hood army base on Nov. 5, 2009, in an attack that killed 12 soldiers and a civilian, and wounded 32 others. His trial was set for March 5, but defense attorneys said they needed more time.
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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