The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro
The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro |
- China museum closed over fake exhibits
- Singapore Airlines plane veers off Yangon runway, no injuries
- Driver with device strapped on his head held in Australia
| China museum closed over fake exhibits Posted: 21 May 2014 09:47 PM PDT BEIJING, May 22, 2014 (AFP) - A Chinese museum has been ordered to close after thousands of its historical exhibits were found to be fake, state-run media said on Thursday. Police shut down the Lucheng Museum, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, after finding that almost a third of the 8,000 items on display were not genuine, the Global Times newspaper reported. Counterfeits on show included a sword touted as dating from the Qing Dynasty and worth 120 million yuan ($19 million), the report said. China is on a museum building spree, with 299 new establishments registering last year, according to state media. But its antiques market is said to be rife with fakes, posing a problem for the country's growing ranks of private collectors. A Chinese tycoon who has two museums is embroiled in a row with experts from the state-backed Shanghai Museum over the authenticity of a scroll he paid more than $8 million for at a Sotheby's auction in New York. Separately, last year a museum in the central province of Henan was found to contain scores of fake exhibits, including a vase decorated with cartoon characters but described as a Qing dynasty artefact. Pictures posted by the state-run China Radio International (CRI) showed the vase decorated with bright green cartoon animals, including a creature resembling a laughing squid. "Similar fake museums are found in many places in China in search of monetary gain," CRI quoted Chinese antiques expert Ma Weidu as saying at the time. - AFP |
| Singapore Airlines plane veers off Yangon runway, no injuries Posted: 21 May 2014 09:32 PM PDT SINGAPORE, May 22, 2014 (AFP) - A Singapore Airlines plane skidded off the runway on touching down during heavy rain at Myanmar's Yangon International Airport, but no injuries were reported, the carrier said Thursday. The Airbus A330 plane "encountered heavy rain and veered slightly off the runway on landing" Wednesday, scheduled for 9:20 am (0250 GMT), before it was steered safely back, the airline said in a statement. "The aircraft was towed to the gate and customers disembarked normally," the airline said in a statement, adding that a replacement plane was sent to Yangon for the return flight. The plane, flight SQ998 on a daily route to Myanmar, was carrying 265 passengers and crew, the airline told AFP. On May 9, an Airbus A380 superjumbo operated by the airline on a flight to Hong Kong was forced to turn back to Singapore after pilots received a warning about a problem with a cargo door. In January, one of the airline's A380 fleet was forced to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan after suffering a drop in cabin pressure. The flag-carrier subsequently said its investigation into the incident focused on a main deck door that appeared to have suffered a leak. Singapore Airlines has 19 A380s with five others on order, operating on routes from Singapore to various destinations including Hong Kong, Frankfurt, London and Los Angeles. - AFP |
| Driver with device strapped on his head held in Australia Posted: 21 May 2014 09:16 PM PDT Melbourne (AFP) - A truck driver caused traffic chaos in Melbourne on Thursday by speeding the wrong way down a freeway with what was feared to be an explosive device strapped to his head, police said. Police responded to a breakdown call at 4:00 am (1800 GMT Wednesday) on the Monash Freeway in the Australian city and found the 35-year-old, who refused to cooperate. "Police then observed what appeared to be a suspicious device strapped to this male so we backed right off and tried to negotiate with the male," Senior Sergeant Martin Bourke said. "The device was around his head." The man then drove off at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) before doing a U-turn into oncoming traffic and continuing his journey. About 50 police officers, including the bomb squad, responded to the incident with the freeway closed for three hours during peak hour. When the man finally stopped, a 10-minute standoff ensued before he stripped naked, removed the device and surrendered. The bomb squad later confirmed the device was not explosive, but police would not say what it was. "If we'd had trucks going 100 kph in each direction colliding, that would have caused some major, major issues, we probably would have had some fatalities on our hands today," said Bourke. He said the man, who appeared to have a mental condition, was arrested and was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. |
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