Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now

Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now
The proposition has been criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups and many Parisians. (AFP)
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Updated 27 September 2024
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Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now

Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now

PARIS: Workers removed the Olympics logo from the Eiffel Tower overnight on Friday, returning the beloved monument to its usual form — but perhaps only temporarily.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to build new Olympic rings and return them to the landmark as a tribute to the hugely successful Olympic Games held in July and August.
The proposition has been criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups and many Parisians.
After initially suggesting the rings should be permanent, Hidalgo has proposed they remain on the city’s best-known symbol until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Workers using a crane removed the 30-ton rings from between the first and second floors of the tower during nightfall on Friday, just under four months after they were put up on June 7.
The new rings, which the International Olympic Committee is expected to pay for, would be lighter versions and less prominent, according to a deputy Paris mayor, Pierre Rabadan.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, a longtime critic and opponent of Hidalgo, has cast doubt over the idea, saying the Socialist city leader would need to respect procedures protecting historic buildings.
Hidalgo also wants to retain the innovative cauldron placed in front of the Louvre museum as well as statues of illustrious women used during the opening ceremony.


Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France

Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France
Updated 22 February 2025
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Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France

Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France
  • Video footage of the incident, filmed by a parent at the school in central Paris, went viral
  • The 52-year-old teacher was given a $3,140 fine, half of it suspended

PARIS: A French court on Friday fined a preschool teacher for having beaten a three-year-old child in class, a case that sparked nationwide anger and a shocked response from the then-education minister.
Video footage of the incident, filmed by a parent at the school in central Paris, went viral after it was posted online.
The 52-year-old teacher was given a 3,000-euro ($3,140) fine, half of it suspended, after admitting to having lost her cool in the incident last September.
Prosecutors had asked for a four-month suspended sentence.
The court opted not to record the fine as a criminal conviction, ruling that the teacher had been under intense pressure and that it had been a one-off incident.
But she was ordered to pay 1,600 euros to the mother of the child concerned.
The incident happened on September 3, the day after French pupils returned to school from the summer break.
At the time, the then-education minister Nicole Belloubet described the images filmed as “terribly shocking and unacceptable,” adding that she had immediately ordered the teacher’s suspension.
After Friday’s ruling, the teacher’s lawyer Laurent Hazan told reporters that his client was “relieved.”
In court, she said the girl had been having a meltdown in class worse than any she had seen in 30 years of teaching.
The girl had thrown a chair, which had nearly hit another child, she added.
But of the blow, she admitted, in tears, “I lost my cool,” and offered her apologies to the child and her family.


‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna lambasts ‘King’ Trump

‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna lambasts ‘King’ Trump
Updated 23 February 2025
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‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna lambasts ‘King’ Trump

‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna lambasts ‘King’ Trump
  • “I thought this country was built by Europeans, escaping living under the rule of a King, to establish a New World governed by the people,” Madonna said on X
  • “Currently we have a president who calls Himself Our King. If this is a joke, I’m not laughing“

WASHINGTON: Pop superstar Madonna has reignited her campaign against President Donald Trump, upbraiding the US leader for calling himself “the King.”
Trump declared “LONG LIVE THE KING” to end a social media message on Wednesday stating that he had killed a New York plan to impose a peak congestion charge of $9 for cars entering much of busy Manhattan.
The White House reposted the message on its social media with an illustration showing Trump wearing a diamond-studded crown.
“I thought this country was built by Europeans, escaping living under the rule of a King, to establish a New World governed by the people,” Madonna, widely known as “The Queen of Pop,” said late Thursday on the X platform.

 


“Currently we have a president who calls Himself Our King. If this is a joke, I’m not laughing,” added the 66-year-old singer.
Madonna had criticized Trump during his first term as president and she took part in a demonstration by Trump opponents after his January 20 inauguration.
Opponents frequently criticize Trump for adopting a regal tone. He said in his inaugural address that he was “saved by God to make America great again,” after surviving an assassination attempt in July.
The Republican leader campaigned against New York’s congestion charge, the first in the United States, during his presidential campaign.
The US Department of Transportation directed New York authorities this week to halt the charge.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said lawyers have initiated court action to halt the federal order.
But Trump triumphantly said on his Truth Social platform that “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!“

 


Nepal community fights to save sacred forests from cable cars

Nepal community fights to save sacred forests from cable cars
Updated 21 February 2025
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Nepal community fights to save sacred forests from cable cars

Nepal community fights to save sacred forests from cable cars
  • Across Nepal, five cable car projects have opened in the past two years – and 10 more are under development
  • Critics accuse the Nepalese government of failing to assess the environmental impact properly

TAPLEJUNG, Nepal: They appear tranquil soaring above Himalayan forests, but a string of cable car projects in Nepal have sparked violent protests, with locals saying environmental protection should trump tourism development.
In Nepal’s eastern district of Taplejung, the community has been torn apart by a $22-million government-backed project many say will destroy livelihoods and damage ancient forests they hold as sacred.
Across Nepal, five cable car projects have opened in the past two years – and 10 more are under development, according to government figures.
Critics accuse the government of failing to assess the environmental impact properly.
In January, protests at Taplejung escalated into battles with armed police, with four activists wounded by gunfire and 21 officers injured.
The protests calmed after promises construction would be suspended, but erupted again this week, with 14 people wounded on Thursday – 11 of them members of the security forces.
“We were in a peaceful protest but hired thugs showed us kukris (large knives) and attacked us – and we countered them,” protest committee leader Shree Linkhim Limbu said after the latest clashes.
He vowed to continue demonstrations until the project is scrapped.
Around 300,000 Hindu devotees trek for hours to Taplejung’s mountaintop Pathibhara temple every year – a site also deeply sacred to the local Limbu people’s separate beliefs.
In 2018, Chandra Prasad Dhakal, a businessman with powerful political ties who is also president of Nepal’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, announced the construction of a 2.5-kilometer-long (1.5-mile) cable car to the temple.
The government calls it a project of “national pride.”
Dhakal’s IME Group is also building other cable cars, including the 6.4-kilometer-long Sikles line in the Annapurna Conservation Area, which the Supreme Court upheld.
The government deemed the project a “national priority,” thereby exempting it from strict planning restrictions in protected areas.
The Supreme Court scrapped that controversial exemption last month, a move celebrated by environmentalists.
But activists fear the project may still go ahead.
Taplejung is deeply sacred to local Mukkumlung beliefs, and residents say that the clearance of around 3,000 rhododendron trees – with 10,00 more on the chopping block – to build pylons is an attack on their religion.
“It is a brutal act,” said protest chief Limbu. “How can this be a national pride project when the state is only serving business interests?”
Saroj Kangliba Yakthung, 26, said locals would rather efforts and funding were directed to “preserve the religious, cultural and ecological importance” of the forests.
The wider forests are home to endangered species including the red panda, black bear and snow leopard.
“We worship trees, stone and all living beings, but they are butchering our faith,” said Anil Subba, director of the Katmandu-based play “Mukkumlung,” which was staged for a month as part of the protest.
The hundreds of porters and dozens of tea stall workers that support trekking pilgrims fear for their livelihoods.
“If they fly over us in a cable car, how will we survive?” said 38-year-old porter Chandra Tamang.
The government says the cable car will encourage more pilgrims by making it easy to visit, boosting the wider economy in a country where unemployment hovers around 10 percent, and GDP per capita at just $1,377, according to the World Bank.
“This will bring development,” said resident Kamala Devi Thapa, 45, adding that the new route will aid “elderly pilgrims.”
The cable cars symbolize Nepal’s breakneck bid to cash in on tourism, making up more than six percent of the country’s GDP in 2023, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
Beyond the Pathibhara project, the government’s environmental policy is in question – in a country where 45 percent is forest.
More than 255,000 trees have been cut down for infrastructure projects in the past four years, according to the environment ministry.
“Nepal has witnessed massive deforestation in the name of infrastructure,” said Rajesh Rai, professor of forestry at Tribhuvan University. “This will have severe long-term consequences.”
Unperturbed, the cable car builder assures his project will create 1,000 jobs and brushes aside criticism.
“It won’t disturb the ecology or local culture,” Dhakal said. “If people can fly there in helicopters, why not a cable car?”
The argument leaves Kendra Singh Limbu, 79, unmoved.
“We are fighting to save our heritage,” he said.
It has split the community, local journalist Anand Gautam said.
“It has turned fathers and sons against each other,” Gautam said. “Some see it as progress, others as destruction.”


‘Just two glasses’: In Turkiye, lives shattered by bootleg alcohol

‘Just two glasses’: In Turkiye, lives shattered by bootleg alcohol
Updated 21 February 2025
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‘Just two glasses’: In Turkiye, lives shattered by bootleg alcohol

‘Just two glasses’: In Turkiye, lives shattered by bootleg alcohol
  • Toxicology professor: ‘Just one glass of fake vodka made from methylated alcohol can be deadly’
  • ‘People really need to be careful. But who would drink alcohol without a proper label?’

ISTANBUL: Taskin Erduan thought he’d got a bargain: three liters of vodka for around $15. But it took only two glasses to kill the 51-year-old hairdresser who worked at an Istanbul salon.
“He came in a bit late on that Saturday saying he couldn’t see properly,” said Belgin, joint owner of the salon where he worked in the Ortakoy district, who didn’t want to give her surname.
Not long after he got there, Erduan needed to sit down because he couldn’t even hold a pair of scissors, she said.
“He told us all he could see was whiteness so I immediately drove him to a private hospital,” she said.
There, he saw an ophthalmologist who quickly realized it was a case of bootleg alcohol poisoning.
Erduan collapsed in late January, barely a week after the city was shaken by news that within just four days, 33 people had died and 29 were critically ill after drinking bootleg alcohol.
That number has since shot up to 70, with another 63 dead in the capital Ankara, Turkish media reports say. Another 36 remain in intensive care.
Erduan told the doctors he bought the vodka at a corner shop in Ortakoy, saying it was five times cheaper than the supermarket because it was imported from Bulgaria.
They gave him folic acid to try and stave off the effects of methanol, a toxic substance often found in bootleg alcohol that can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
“He was still perfectly conscious,” his boss said, her eyes red from crying.
Shortly afterwards, he was rushed into intensive care and intubated.
“On the fourth day, we went with his son to see him. He was totally yellow,” she said, describing jaundice, another symptom of methanol poisoning.
“That evening, we heard he had died.”
“Nobody should have to die like that. The alcohol seemed totally legal from the packaging and the branding when in fact it came from an illegal distillery,” said Erol Isik, her partner at the salon, who was clearly angry.
“Taskin didn’t drink to get drunk, he wasn’t an alcoholic,” he said.
Speaking to AFP at his laboratory at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University where he heads the toxicology department, professor Ahmet Aydin explained how lethal it can be.
“Just one glass of fake vodka made from methylated alcohol can be deadly,” he said.
The difference between ethanol, which is used for making spirits, and methanol, which is used in varnishes and antifreeze, is only visible in a laboratory, he explained, showing test tubes containing the two alcohols.
“No-one can tell them apart by taste, sight or smell,” he said.
“The biggest danger with methanol poisoning is that you don’t feel the effects straight away. It only manifests after about six hours. If the person goes straight to hospital, they have a chance of recovering.”
But it can very quickly become “too late.”
“People really need to be careful,” he warned, saying it was a lot easier to buy methanol than ethanol, the purchase of which is highly regulated.
“But who would drink alcohol without a proper label?” he wondered, following reports several people died after buying alcohol in half-liter water bottles from a business posing as a Turkmen restaurant in Istanbul.
Like the main opposition CHP party, Ozgur Aybas, head of the Tekel association of alcohol retailers, blames the crippling taxes imposed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who regularly rails against drinking and smoking.
“Nowhere else in the world are there such high taxes on alcohol,” he said, saying people had no choice but to seek out alternatives.
Buying a liter bottle of raki, Turkiye’s aniseed-flavored national liquor, from a supermarket currently costs around $35 in a country where the minimum wage is $600.
Standing in front of the now-closed shop where Taskin Erduan bought the vodka that killed him, a neighbor called Levent, who didn’t give his surname, also blamed taxes.
“Alcohol is too expensive in Turkiye. It costs about 100 Turkish liras to make a bottle of raki but with the tax, that becomes 1,200 liras,” or the equivalent of 12-hours work at minimum wage, he raged.
Levent said he had long known the owner of the shop, describing him as “a nice guy.”
But with Turkiye in the grip of a severe economic crisis, he said he’d long since stopped being surprised at how far people would go to bring in a bit more cash.
“People will do anything for money. They have no shame anymore.”


China snow village apologizes for fake cotton snow

China snow village apologizes for fake cotton snow
Updated 18 February 2025
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China snow village apologizes for fake cotton snow

China snow village apologizes for fake cotton snow

HONG KONG: A tourist village in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan famed for its scenic snow landscape said it was sorry for using cotton wool and soapy water to create fake snow after online criticism from visitors went viral.
In a post on its official Wechat account on February 8, the Chengdu Snow Village project said during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, the weather was warm and the snow village did not take shape as anticipated.
China is facing hotter and longer heat waves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change, the country’s weather bureau has warned.
“In order to create a ‘snowy’ atmosphere the tourist village purchased cotton for the snow...but it did not achieve the expected effect, leaving a very bad impression on tourists who came to visit,” the Chengdu Snow Village project said in the statement.
After receiving feedback from the majority of netizens, the tourist area began to clean up all the snow cotton.
The village said it “deeply apologizes” for the changes and that tourists could get a refund. The site has since been closed.
Photos on Wechat showed large cotton wool sheets strewn about the grounds, only partially covering leafy areas. A thick snow layer appeared to blanket the houses in the zone but as you got closer, it was all cotton, said one netizen.
“A snow village without snow,” said another user.
“In today’s age of well-developed Internet, scenic spots must advertise truthfully and avoid deception or false advertising, otherwise they will only shoot themselves in the foot.”