AUSTRALIA
Minister vows MH17 justice
Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) yesterday vowed to hold Russia to account for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 10 years ago that killed nearly 300 people. On July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777 — en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur — was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people aboard were killed, including 38 Australians. The nation would “not be deterred in our commitment to hold Russia to account,” Wong told bereaved relatives and dignitaries at a memorial service at parliament in Canberra. “I recommit our collective pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for the outrages perpetrated on the 17th of July, 2014,” she said. “Grief never fully leaves us, but time and love can lessen its weight.” A Dutch court has sentenced in absentia three men to life imprisonment for their roles in downing the plane over separatist-held pro-Russian territory.
Photo: AFP
THAILAND
Cyanide linked to deaths
Police found traces of cyanide in the cups of six Vietnamese and American guests at a central Bangkok luxury hotel and one of them is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment, authorities said yesterday. The bodies were found on Tuesday in the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok. The six had last been seen alive when food was delivered to the room on Monday afternoon. The staff saw one woman receive the food, and security footage showed the rest arriving one by one shortly after. There were no other visitors, no one was seen leaving and the door was locked. Lieutenant General Trairong Piwpan, chief of the national police force’s forensic division, said that there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermoses that police found in the room. Bangkok police chief Lieutenant General Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese-Americans and four Vietnamese, and said that they were three men and three women. Their ages ranged from 37 to 56, said Noppasin Punsawat, Bangkok deputy police chief. He said the case appeared to be personal and would not impact the safety of tourists. A husband and wife among the dead had invested money with two of the others, suggesting that money could be a motive, said Noppasin, citing information obtained from relatives of the victims. The investment was meant to build a hospital in Japan.
BRAZIL
Rains uncover dinosaur
A team of scientists has discovered a fossilized skeleton dinosaurs after heavy rains in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The fossil was found next to a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine, said paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Muller, who led the team from the Federal University of Santa Maria that found the bones in May. The claims have not been verified by other scientists or published in a scientific journal. The apex predator belongs to the group known as Herrerasauridae, a fact sheet about the discovery said. The size of the bones indicated that the dinosaur would have been about 2.5m in length, the document said. Muller said that he and his team were “very excited and surprised” by their findings. After about four days of excavations, the group of researchers transported a block of rock containing the specimen back to the laboratory, where they ran tests. “Initially it seemed like just a few isolated bones, but as we exposed the material, we were able to see that we had an almost complete skeleton,” Muller said. He said that the discovery is the second-most complete skeleton for this type of dinosaur.
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
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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