Funny photo
BEIJING, AP – Authorities have detained an obscure Chinese artist after he posted a humorous portrait of President Xi Jinping online, his wife has said. Judy Zhu on Thursday said police detained her husband, Dai Jianyong, near their Shanghai home on Tuesday and accused him of “creating a disturbance”.
Shark fins raid
QUITO, Ecuador, AP – Police in the Ecuadorian port city of Manta have seized about 200,000 shark fins destined to be illegally exported to Asia, where they would fetch up to $US1.5million ($F3.124m). Colonel Rommel Tapia, head of the judicial police in Manta, said nine properties were raided and six people were arrested on Thursday, including one of Chinese nationality.
Woman jailed
PARIS, AFP – A Frenchwoman who kept her boyfriend as a “domestic slave”, forcing him to ingest sponges and window cleaner, has been sentenced to three years in prison. Zakia Medkour, 43, was also ordered to pay 200,000 euros ($F456,703) in damages to her ex-boyfriend Maxime Gaget, 37.
Toddler dead
WASHINGTON, AFP – A two-year-old boy has died, several days after he picked up a loaded handgun and accidentally shot himself in the head, US media reports say. The boy and his parents were visiting a residence in an isolated area in southern Virginia when he found the firearm on a dresser.
Ruling coalition
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, AP – Preliminary results released by Ethiopia’s electoral body show the ruling coalition winning comfortably in parliamentary elections. The results announced on Wednesday show the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front winning at least 442 seats in the 547-seat parliament.
Apple challenge
SAN FRANCISCO, AFP – Google has unveiled its pay-with-a-phone system for Android devices, ramping up its challenge to Apple in mobile payments. Android Pay, unveiled at the Google Developers conference in San Francisco on Thursday, brings together mobile carriers, payment networks, banks and retailers to allow smartphone users to use their handsets instead of payment cards.
Live anthrax
WASHINGTON, AFP – A total of 18 laboratories may have accidentally received live samples of anthrax from the American military, US authorities say. But as of yet, only one of the facilities — in the US state of Maryland — was confirmed to have received a live sample, the Pentagon and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Greek exit
DRESDEN, Germany – Greece’s exit from the eurozone is a possibility but would not signify an end to the single currency, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has said. A Greek exit is “a potential”, Lagarde told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Thursday.
