Explosion Rocks Beijing Airport After Man Sets Off Homemade Bomb

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china_airport_blast_ltAn explosion rocked the arrival area of Beijing’s InternationalAirport today after a man set off a homemade bomb, according to Chinese news media.

The explosion took place at about 6:24 p.m. local time, according to China’s state run newscaster, CCTV, which cited witness reports.

Photos posted on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, showed a portion of terminal 3 filled with smoke after the blast.

Both domestic and international flights take off and land in terminal 3.

Chinese police have identified the alleged bomber as Ji Zhongxing. He was the only one injured in the blast.

Police said Zhongxing is a petitioner — a citizen with a grievance against government officials or police — though they did not say what Zhongxing’s grievance is.

Less than two hours after the explosion, airport officials said operations are back to normal and no flights were affected.

5 Killed in Landslide in Turkey

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Trucks wait at the Cilvegozu border crossing between Turkey and Syria near HatayAn official says a landslide triggered by heavy rains has killed at least five people near Turkey’s border with Syria.

Gov. Celalettin Lekesiz said the landslide, which struck early Friday, demolished six hillside houses near the town of Dortyol in the border province of Hatay. At least 12 people were hurt.

The private Dogan news agency said the victims included an elderly man and woman and their two grandchildren who were buried beneath their collapsed home.

The government’s disaster management agency said at least nine people were rescued by helicopters dispatched to the area.

Turkey is frequently hit by deadly landslides that are triggered by torrential rains.

 

Cook Accused of Poisoning 22 to Death

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Police have arrested a cook in central Pakistan who is accused of poisoning to death 22 people as part of a political feud between two branches of the same family, a local police chief said.

mealsThe incident in the town of Mailsi in Punjab province followed recent provincial elections in which Arsal Khan Khichi lost to his cousin Jehanzaeb Khan Khichi, police chief Sadiq Dogar said late Thursday.

Arsal Khan Khichi is accused of paying a cook, Mohammad Rafiq, 50,000 rupees ($500) to poison food at his rival’s home on June 9, Dogar said. Nearly 50 people became sick and were taken to the hospital, and 22 died. Jehanzeb Khan Khichi was not at home when the incident occurred, Dogar said.

Rafiq has confessed to poisoning the food, Dogar said. Police waited to arrest him until they received medical reports that confirmed the dead had been poisoned. Arsal Khan Khichi is still on the run, and a murder case has been registered against him as well, Dogar said.

Politics are often a family affair in Pakistan, where it is not uncommon to have members of the same clan running against each other as members of rival political parties.

 

Apes can remember events from years ago just like humans do, new research finds

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chimpsThe great apes can remember events that happened years ago just like men and women do, researchers have found.

As with humans, a reminder of something in the distant past can jog the memories of chimps and orangutans.

Scientists took a group of apes and reconstructed a series of experiments conducted three years previously in which they had had to find hidden tools that could be used to reach food.

Faced with the same set-up of rooms and boxes in which the tools were concealed, the apes immediately knew what to do. It took them only five seconds to find the tools.

Another group of apes which had not had the previous experience were left confused.

A second study showed chimps and orangutans could remember a single tool-finding task carried out two weeks earlier.

The complexity and speed of the apes’ recall ability was unexpected, said the scientists, whose findings appear in the journal Current Biology.

Study leader Dr Gema Martin-Ordas, from Aarhus University in Denmark, said: ‘I was surprised to find out not only that they remembered the event that took place three years ago, but also that they did it so fast.

Dr Martin-Ordas added: ‘Our data and other evidence challenge the idea of non-human animals being stuck in time.’

 

Woman stuck in narrow gap between houses for seven hours after terrified homeowners thought her screams for help were coming from a GHOST

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The woman who was mistaken for a ghost is finally rescued after becoming stuck between two wallsA woman who fell through a narrow gap between two walls was left stuck there for seven hours because locals thought her screams for help were a ghost.

The woman, who has not been named, was taking a short cut home in Feidong in China’s Anhui Province, and had squeezed her way through a tiny gap between two brick walls.

But she hadn’t realised that the gap became narrower the further down she went and she soon became stuck.

Unfortunately when she called out for help, the homeowner living on the other side of the wall assumed she was a ghost and was too terrified to investigate further.

The trapped woman had to endure an entire night trapped between the walls as he cries for help went unanswered.

She was finally spotted by passers-by the following morning. The fire brigade was called and quickly arrived to cut her free.

It took around 20 minutes for them to break down part of one of the walls enough for her to squeeze out.

 

Norwegian woman who reported being raped in Dubai is jailed for 16 months

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DubaiA young Norwegian woman has been sentenced to 16 months in jail after she reported a rape in Dubai.

The 25-year-old was in the United Arab Emirates on a business trip when she was raped and reported the assault to the local police.

Dubai police did not believe her, and instead took her passport and jailed her on suspicion of having had sex outside marriage.

The Norwegian woman reported the sexual assault in March this year, after which she had to spend days in a cell before she was allowed to use a telephone.

With the help of family members, the Norwegian consulate was able to negotiate a release and she has been living under the protection of the Norwegian Sailor’s Church until her sentencing this week.

‘I received the harshest sentence for sex outside marriage, harshest sentence for drinking alcohol and on top of that I was found guilty of perjury,’ the woman told Verdens Gang.

‘It is a terrible situation she is in,’ said Gisle Meling, the priest at the Norwegian Sailor’s Church.

‘We are very surprised and had hoped it would go another way, but we live in a country which has a justice system which draws its conclusions with the help of Sharia law.’

She was sentenced to one year and four months in jail but as Norway has no extradition treaty with Dubai, her future is uncertain.

 

Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre suffers new tragedy after violinist dies falling into orchestra pit

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Russia's Bolshoi TheatreA senior violinist at Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has died following a freak accident when he fell from the stage into the orchestra pit.

Viktor Sedov, 65, who had performed at the world-famous theatre in Moscow for four decades, died in hospital as a result of his injuries following the fall on Tuesday.

Bolshoi spokesman Katerina Novikova said Mr Sedov, who played in the second violins, was a much-loved member of the theatre and was known for his ‘sense of humour and extraordinary erudition’.

She told the AFP news agency: ‘Viktor Sedov, who had worked almost 40 years at the Bolshoi, fell into the orchestra pit on Tuesday and died on Wednesday in hospital as a result of his injuries.’
In January this year, an artistic director at the Bolshoi nearly lost his sight when he had acid thrown in his face outside his Moscow home.

Sergei Filin, 42, suffered third-degree burns to his face and neck in the attack.

However dancers and staff at the Bolshoi later suggested that Mr Filin may have staged the attack himself.

Last week the theater’s director general Anatoly Iksanov was fired and replaced by Vladimir Urin, who previously headed Moscow’s Stanislavsky Musical Theatre.

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said only that the 61-year old Iksanov, who led the Bolshoi for nearly 13 years, was dismissed because of a ‘difficult situation at the theatre’.

 

 

Man arrested for stealing 56 skulls from cemeteries and setting up a skeleton museum at his home in Austria

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Austrian police have charged a man with 'disturbing the peace of the dead' after finding 56 skulls and other human skeletal remains in his homeA man has been arrested after police found 56 skulls and other human skeletal remains which had been stolen from graves in a museum at his home.

Police conducted a search of the house in Austria’s Burgenland province after the unidentified 47-year-old tried to sell three of the skulls and two thigh bones at a flea market.

Detectives discovered the man had created a museum in his home which contained the skulls and 55 other bones.

State broadcaster ORF said Tuesday that the bones were taken from graves of a church cemetery.

Speaking to The Guardian, a police spokesman said he had never encountered such a case in his 37 years in the force.

He said he did not know why the man had collected the bones or why he had tried to sell some of them.

The man has been charged by police with ‘disturbing the peace of the dead’ following the discovery.

Police said the bones had now been returned to the cemetery.

 

Mystery as 300 stingrays are found washed up on a Mexican beach

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Mexican authorities are investigating the death of at least 300 stingrays found on a beach of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Residents and visitors first spotted the dead rays on Tuesday on the Chachalacas beach in the town of Ursulo Galvan and posted photos on social media.

Ursulo Galvan Mayor Martin Verdejo says it’s possible the stingrays could have been abandoned by fishermen after being trapped in their nets.

Upon realizing they were unlikely make much profit from their sale, they simply emptied their nets along the beach.

Others say the dead came rays were washed ashore by the waves at sunrise.

Beachgoers say it appears that many of the rays fins were cut and it is believed that fishermen sold the parts of the fish they were able to sell and then simply left the remnants.

Whilst the stingrays remain on the beach, they remain a danger to tourists, as although they are dead, their stings remain potent, which although not poisonous, are extremely painful.

 

At least 22 Indian children killed and 25 are ill after eating school dinner ‘made from unwashed ingredients covered in insecticide’

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India-Schoolchildren receive treatment at a hospital after falling ill soon after eating free school meals1At least 22 Indian children killed and 25 are ill after eating school dinner ‘made from unwashed ingredients covered in insecticide’ At least 22 children died and many others were sick after eating a free school lunch that was tainted by a heavy dose of insecticide, officials in India said today. It was not immediately clear how chemicals ended up in the food in a school in the eastern state of Bihar, although one official said the food may not have been properly washed before it was cooked. The children, between the ages of 8 and 11, fell ill yesterday soon after eating their school lunch in Masrakh, a village 50 miles north of the state capital of Patna. School authorities immediately stopped serving the meal of rice, lentils, soya and potatoes as the children started vomiting. In addition to the 22 children who died, another 25 children as well as the school cook have been taken to hospital, he said. Eight of them were in a serious condition. The deaths have sparked violent protests in Dharmasati Gandaman in the Saran district, where four police cars were set on fire during a demonstration by parents and hundreds of villagers. Authorities suspended an official in charge of the free meal scheme in the school and registered a case of criminal negligence against the school headmaster, who fled as soon as the children fell ill. India’s midday meal scheme is one of the world’s biggest school nutrition programs. It was first introduced in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school. Since then the program has been replicated across the country covering some 120million school children as part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition. According to the government, nearly half of all Indian children suffer from malnutrition.

In Major Policy Shift, Armenia Demands Lands from Turkey

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Harut SassounianBy Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

 

Ever since independence in 1991, Armenia’s leaders have been reluctant to make any concrete demands from Turkey beyond recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

 

Only in recent years, Armenian officials have begun to speak about “the elimination of the consequences of the genocide,” without specifying the ‘consequences’ and the means for their ‘elimination.’

 

Earlier this month, however, a major shift was announced in Armenia’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Turkey, when Aghvan Hovsepyan, the Prosecutor General of Armenia, called for the return of historic Armenian territories at an international conference of Armenian lawyers in Yerevan. This is the first time that a high-ranking Armenian government official has made such a public demand from Turkey.

 

In a lengthy and comprehensive speech, Hovsepyan stated that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by various countries is simply a moral and emotional issue. Calling for a switch to “the legal field,” the Prosecutor General indicated that “to eliminate the consequences of the Armenian Genocide” Turkey must “pay compensation to heirs of the Armenian Genocide, return to the Armenian Church the miraculously still standing Armenian churches and properties in Turkey, and give back the ‘lost territories’ to the Republic of Armenia.”

 

Prosecutor General Hovsepyan insisted that unless Armenians adopt this bold approach, they will not accomplish any concrete results in the next one hundred years, just as they did not in the last one hundred years. He proposed a thorough legal review of all international agreements regulating Armenia-Turkey relations, from the Berlin Treaty of 1878 to the signed but not ratified protocols of 2009. He also declared that the region of Nakhichevan is “an inseparable part of Armenia, albeit occupied by Azerbaijan.” Hovsepyan urged the assembled lawyers from around the world to prepare the legal case for territorial demands from Azerbaijan and Turkey and present it to the Armenian government for eventual submission to the International Court of Justice (World Court).

 

Statements made by a prosecutor general usually do not carry much weight in international affairs, if it were not for the fact that several other high-ranking officials, including Pres. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Constitutional Court Gagik Haroutyunyan, Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Armenia’s Minister of Justice Hrair Tovmasyan, and Minister of Justice of Artsakh (Karabagh) Ararat Tanielyan, also made remarks on restitutive justice at the lawyers’ conference. It was clear that the Prosecutor General was the designated spokesman of the Armenian government to articulate its new tougher line toward Turkey in advance of the Genocide Centennial.

 

Pres. Sargsyan, using more circumspect language than the Prosecutor General, told the lawyers’ conclave: “The international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and elimination of its consequences will always remain a salient issue. As long as the Armenian State is in existence, all efforts to deny and send into oblivion this historical reality will be doomed. This greatest crime against humanity must be recognized and condemned once and for all, and first of all, by Turkey itself.”

 

In keeping with the government’s new policy orientation, Constitutional Court President Gagik Haroutyunyan announced that a special committee will be formed to prepare the legal documentation necessary for the pursuit of Armenian Genocide claims.

 

At the conclusion of the conference, the participants issued a joint statement asserting that the priority for Armenian lawyers is not proving the self-evident facts of the Genocide, but preparing a comprehensive legal document “to remedy the consequences of the Armenian Genocide.”

 

This is a welcome development in terms of arriving at a consensus between the Armenian government and the Diaspora on the objectives to be pursued for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

 

However, in order to move beyond mere emotionally inspiring statements, the Armenian leaders must take two immediate steps:

 

1) Withdraw the Armenian government’s signature from the counter-productive Armenia-Turkey Protocols. On the eve of the Genocide Centennial, it would be inconceivable to move forward with fruitless efforts to improve relations with Turkey, while preparing to file a lawsuit for restitution.

 

2) Form a team of international law experts to begin structuring the legal case against Turkey in the World Court and/or the European Court of Human Rights.

 

While skeptics may not take seriously the recent policy pronouncements of the Armenian authorities, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has no such doubts. Last week, Ankara denounced the Armenian territorial demands, announcing angrily that “nobody can dare to claim territory from Turkey!”

 

Chinese airline hires ‘flight aunties’ as stewardesses because they are more reliable than ‘trolley dollies’

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A Chinese airline has launched a recruitment drive for married women with children to become 'flight auntiesA Chinese airline has launched a recruitment drive for married women with children to become ‘flight aunties’.

Spring Air, China’s biggest budget carrier, wants to recruit college-educated women aged between  25 and 45 to become its latest flight attendants.

The airline, which is calling the role ‘flight aunties’ says applicants who are married with children will be given top consideration.

As reported by China Real Time Report, the new approach is a unique shift from the normal recruitment by China’s state-owned carriers.

Spring Air’s previous age cap for new staff was 35.

But it said it was raising this to 45 following the results of a recent survey which concluded that 72 per cent of people preferred to be served by an experience flight attendant.

The airline says having a wider age profile among flight attendants will be beneficial. It said air hostesses who are younger are more enthusiastic while older ones can be more reliable and mature.

 

Venice finally mapped by Street View: Google staff ditched the famous car and strapped cameras to their backs in order to capture the city’s canals

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Google has finally overcome the obstacle of a lack of streets as they capture Venice on footThe Italian city of Venice has finally made it onto Google Street View – despite being built on water.

Google has finally overcome the obstacle of capturing a city with no streets after strapping 360° cameras to employees who have travelled around Venice on foot.

Normally, Google Street View images are taken by a specially equipped car, but in the case of the popular Italian destination, extreme measures had to be taken.

Employees have made their across Venice’s piazzas and narrow walkways wearing backpacks containing the 33lbs cameras, and images should be available in two weeks.
The cameras, named The Trekker, have been used by Google to capture places only available by foot, such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

 

Snowden Submits Asylum Request

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A Russian lawyer says that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has asked for temporary asylum in Russia.

Anatoly Kucherena said that Snowden submitted the asylum request Tuesday to Russia’s Federal Migration Service. The service had no immediate comment.

He said Snowden made the move following their meeting at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

Snowden has been stuck in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23. He said Friday at a meeting with Russian rights activists and public figures that he would seek at least temporary refuge in Russia until he could fly to one of the Latin American nations that have offered him asylum.

 

Chinese wedding couple caught on camera brawling in French lavender field after ‘photobomb’ row

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chinese touristsThe idyllic French countryside is backdrop to many a romantic photo.

But the view was spoiled when two Chinese couples started brawling in the middle of a Provence lavender field.

The fight was started when one couple complained that the other had ‘photobombed’ their picture.

Pictured: Wedding brawl in Lavender fieldPhotos posted onto Chinese forum Sina Weibo last week show two men having a fist fight and the women grabbing at each other.
One of the women was in a wedding dress as she brawled with her rival.

The photos were posted by a tour guide who asked not to be named.

He told the Global Times that one on of the couples had just been married: ‘It started because the young couple and their friends accidentally stepped into the newlyweds’ photo. The women began to argue first, and then the boyfriend and the groom joined in.

‘Most people there tried to drag them apart since it was quite embarrassing.

The two men fought shirtless and the bride’s dress was reportedly ripped.

The fighting couples ruined parts of the fieled with their trampling.

Earlier this year, a Chinese 15-year-old carved his name into a 3,500-year-old temple in Egypt.

The boy was identified online and his parents were forced to apologise.

In May Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang asked Chinese tourists to behave better when travelling abroad.

Professor of sociology at Shanghai University Gu Jun believes that incidents such as this should be noticed, to bring attention to their behaviour.

 

Centuries-old trees destroyed as rainforest is chopped down for Pope’s visit to Brazil to allow pilgrims to celebrate mass

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PapaAuthorities in Brazil have denounced church leaders as criminals for chopping down more than 300 centuries-old trees in a national park – so pilgrims can celebrate mass during the Pope’s visit to Rio de Janeiro.

Pope Francis will make his first international trip to the world’s largest Roman Catholic country later this month.

Organisers of an event in the diocese of Sao Sebastiao de Itaipu, in the city of Niteroi, claimed they needed to clear an area of Atlantic rainforest to accommodate the expected crowd of up to 800 pilgrims.

Serra da Tiririca national park1A total of 334 trees at the edge of the Serra da Tiririca national park, but also on church-owned land, were felled.

Niteroi’s vice-mayor, Axel Grael, claimed the church did not seek permission to ‘deforest’ the land.

He told Brazil’s O Globo newspaper: ‘The incident is lamentable. An event for youth should be educational and demonstrate a commitment to the environment and the future. This removal is a criminal act.’

Andre Ilha, from Rio de Janeiro’s state environment institute – which is responsible for the forest – said the destruction would never have been allowed.

He said: ‘What was razed was the buffer zone of the Tiririca park. We would never have authorised that. It is a fragment of the endangered Atlantic rainforest. We will charge them with a crime.’
The diocese has reportedly offered to replant trees in the area following the event.

 

Mandela ‘to be allowed home’ as he continues to respond positively to treatment

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Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela will soon be discharged from hospital to recuperate at home, according to former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

‘I am quite certain that one of these days Madiba (Mandela) will go back home,’ he said at the weekend.

Official statements that South Africa’s first  black president was critical but stable were correct, he said, at a memorial service in Pretoria on Saturday.

Mandela’s wife Graça Machel also said she was ‘less anxious’ about his condition.

‘He continues to respond positively to treatment. I would say that today I am less anxious than I was a week ago,’ she said.

The former apartheid campaigner has been hospitalised for more than five weeks for a recurring lung infection, which has led to four hospital stays in the last six months.

Mandela, who was hospitalized on June 8, turns 95 on Thursday.

Last week, a close friend of Mandela contradicted the court reports that he was ‘totally conscious’ when he visited him in hospital this week.

 

Argentina’s President Gets a Grandson: Nestor Ivan

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CristinakirchnerArgentina’s president Cristina Fernandez is now a grandmother.

The country’s state-run news service Telam reported Monday that Nestor Ivan Kirchner was born late Sunday night at the Otamendi hospital in Buenos Aires.

The name is obvious homage to the late President Nestor Kirchner, who was Fernandez’s husband.

The news brought waves of good wishes in Argentina’s social media, but there were no official announcements by mid-day Monday, and the president’s normally busy Twitter account was silent.

Father Maximo Kirchner is active in the Campora political movement and mother Rocio Garcia is a dentist, but the couple keeps a low profile in Argentina.

 

Family of five set themselves on fire outside Nepalese government offices in India in protest against threat to their home

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The family were protesting against a threat to demolish their home2A family of five set themselves on fire in an act of desperation against a threat to demolish their home.

Four of the Nepalese victims – a mother, her two sons and their wives – died after the shocking protest inside the grounds of government offices in Rajkot, in Gujarat, western India.

Hasumati Dalvani, 62, her sons Bharat Mansingh, 40, and Girish Mansingh, 38, and their wives Asha, 35, and Rekha, 33, had poured kerosene over their bodies before setting themselves ablaze.

The family has been battling the government’s attempt to demolish their house – their shelter for 35 years – after residents complained its construction was unsafe.

Witnesses tried to extinguish the fires with pieces of curtain material, but were too late.

Both sons and their wives died of their injuries at Rajkot Civil Hospital.

Dr Sanjay Shah said: ‘They had sustained 90 to 95 per cent burns to their bodies. They were in a critical condition. We tried to save them but in the end we couldn’t do enough.  The mother is still with us but in a very critical condition.’

However, the mayor of Rajkot city, Janak Kotak, said the municipality had no plans to demolish the house and their grievances were with the residents.

Police arrested four other people who assisted the family in their suicides.

The Rajkot Municipality has confirmed a compensation figure of £27,700 to the family.

 

Man killed by a 1.5tonne cow after it crashes through his corrugated iron roof as he slept

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Mr de Sousa's family lay him to restA Brazilian man died after a cow crashed through the roof of his home and landed on top of him as he lay sleeping in his bed.

Joao Maria de Souza, 45, had been in bed with his wife Leni when the animal suddenly fell through the ceiling of their home in Caratinga, south east Brazil.

The cow is believed to have escaped from a nearby farm and climbed onto the roof of the couple’s house, which backs onto a steep hill.

The corrugated roof immediately gave way and the one-and-a-half-tonne horned bovine fell 8ft onto Mr de Souza’s side of the bed.
His wife, and the cow, both reportedly escaped unharmed.

Rescuers took Mr de Souza to hospital with a fractured left leg but no other obvious injuries, reporting that he was conscious and talking normally.

But hours later he died from internal bleeding while still waiting to be seen by doctors, according to his family.

Civil police in Caratinga, Minas Gerais state, today launched an inquiry into the bizarre death.

Police officers were also trying to identify the owner of the cow, who could be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

 

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