HONG KONG: A former Hong Kong fortune teller has filed an appeal against his 12-year jail term for forging the will of late billionaire Nina Wang to steal her fortune, reports said yesterday. Bartender-turned-feng shui master Tony Chan had claimed to be the sole beneficiary of Wang’s $13bn estate, which she inherited after the kidnapping and disappearance of her property mogul husband. A high court jury last week found Chan guilty of forging the will and sentenced him to 12 years in jail. Chan is doing time in a cell at the city’s Stanley Prison, the South China Morning Post reported.
$42bn sea tunnel plan
BEIJING: China will invest 260bn yuan, or about $42bn, to revive a long-stalled plan to build the world’s longest undersea tunnel across the Bohai Strait linking the country’s eastern and northeastern regions, state media said yesterday. The 123-km tunnel will run from the port city of Dalian in northeastern Liaoning province to Yantai city in eastern Shandong.
N Korea tests rocket engine
SEOUL: North Korea tested a rocket engine earlier this year in a potential bid to further develop its missile capability, a US think-tank said yesterday after reviewing new satellite images. Images of the Tongchang-ri rocket base in the country’s northwest indicated the North conducted at least “one or more rocket engine tests” in late March or early April, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said. The site, also known as Sohae Satellite launch station, was the base for the communist state’s successful rocket launch last December. Pyongyang claims both were peaceful projects to put its Unha satellite into orbit.
China bird flu toll hits 43
BEIJING: The death toll from the H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China has risen to 43, national health authorities said in their latest monthly update on the disease. A total of 132 human infections of the virus had been confirmed on the Chinese mainland by the end of June, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said late Wednesday. But the World Health Organisation has said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Foot-and-Mouth disease in Tibet
Beijing: China’s Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle in its Tibet Autonomous Region. On July 5, a village in Bomi County in Nyingchi Prefecture reported that 72 animals had shown symptoms. Local authorities have sealed off and sterilised the area where 489 animals had been culled.
Nepal seizes gold from China
Kathmandu: Nepalese police have confiscated 35kg of gold smuggled from China in a truck. Police said the gold was hidden in a truck that entered through the Tatopani border area and was heading to the capital Kathmandu. Police said smugglers use Nepal as a transit route to bring gold from China to India, where the metal is in high demand. It was the largest seizure of gold in similar raids in the past seven months. AGENCIES
