■ AustraliaCorpse-kicking case folds
An Australian soldier accused of kicking a corpse while serving in East Timor was cleared of the charge yesterday as the prosecution case collapsed because witnesses failed to appear in court, officials said. The unidentified Special Air Services soldier had been charged with mistreating a corpse at the village of Suai on Oct. 6, 1999, when an SAS patrol taking West Timorese people to the border was ambushed. The defense department said Saturday the prosecution presented no evidence at the trial and the magistrate returned a finding of not guilty.
■ Malaysia
Comedy gets ministerial nod
The Malaysian government has finally given the nod for cinemas to screen Hollywood comedy Bruce Almighty despite a minister's complaints that it was against Islamic beliefs. The movie was set to debut in cinemas here on Thursday but was postponed after minister for religious affairs, Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, said the movie, in which star Jim Carrey is given divine powers and challenged by God to do a better job of running the world, was "not appropriate." "We cannot equate ourself with God almighty even as a joke," he said. But a home ministry official told yesterday's The Star newspaper that the government had given the go-ahead for the movie to be screened.
■ India
Student survives initiation
An Indian student was stripped, paraded naked, stabbed and beaten in a gruesome college initiation ceremony in the the eastern state of West Bengal, it was reported yesterday. "Ragging" or a rite of passage for new students is common in most Indian colleges. First year student Sandipan Bandopadhyay's nightmare began on Tuesday when he was accosted by a group of 20 senior students at the Jalpaiguri Engineering College. They allegedly tied a collar around his neck, forced him to strip and then paraded him naked on campus, New Delhi Television reported. The seniors then stabbed him and beat him with iron rods and bicycle chains. Bandopadhyay survived and managed to escape from campus.
■ Yemen
Beggar has cell phone
A man begging at a mosque in Yemen was exposed as being less destitute than he pretended when his cell phone started ringing at the wrong moment. The Yemeni news agency Saba said the embarrassed man beat a quick retreat after worshippers heard his phone ring inside his bag. There are only about five telephones, both land-lines and cell phones, for every 100 people in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries.
■ Vietnam
Adulterer's names published
Fretting over the erosion of traditional values, officials of a city in communist Vietnam are to publicly expose anyone caught having an affair. District police chief Tran Dinh Thich from the central city of Danang said the names of people caught in adulterous acts would be displayed in media. Police and local government will regularly inspect "resting houses," or cheap motels that rent rooms by the hour, to "wipe out the social evils" that have aroused public concern, he was quoted as saying in the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper. State employees violating the rules will be reported to their offices. Thousands of "resting houses" have sprung up around Vietnam to cater for unmarried couples.
■ IsraelHezbollah attacks must stop
Israel told the UN on Friday that raids on northern Israel by Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon threatened to stoke regional tensions and undermine Middle East peace efforts. "This latest escalation in Hezbollah attacks confirms that the terrorist organization, and its sponsoring states, continue to seek to destabilize the region, despite Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon over three years ago," Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman wrote UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His letter warned Syria and Lebanon that Israel would have "no option but to take the necessary measures to protect its citizens" unless they restrained Hezbollah from further attacks.
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