■ Malaysia
Flush or get fined
A failure to flush public toilets in Malaysia's southern Johor state will mean a 1,000 ringgit (US$263) fine under a drive for cleaner toilets. The new ruling also provides for a maximum 1,000 ringgit fine for those who do not turn off taps, draw graffiti, damage facilities or act "indecently" in public toilets, councillor Jimmy Low Boon Hong was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times yesterday. The by-law, which imposes a similar fine on shop and restaurant owners with dirty toilets, has been approved by the state council and is awaiting endorsement from all 16 local authorities, he said.
■ Solomon Islands
Warlord remanded
A notorious Solomon Islands warlord being investigated in the deaths of some 50 villagers and six local missionaries was remanded in custody by a court yesterday to await trial, Australian media reported. Harold Keke, who was arrested after surrendering to an Australian-led intervention force in the Solomon Islands, has reportedly been charged with attempted murder, robbery, possession of firearms and being a member of an illegal organization. In talks with a senior Australian diplomat last week, Keke allegedly admitted that six local missionaries kidnapped by his forces this year had been killed.
■ China
Dates for talks announced
China announced yesterday it will host six-way talks from Aug. 27 to 29 in the capital Beijing to try to defuse a 10-month crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The announcement, made by China's Foreign Ministry, confirmed dates revealed earlier in the day by South Korea. No other details were available. The talks would bring together the two Koreas, the US, Russia, Japan and China after a flurry of diplomatic activity to resolve the crisis, which erupted in October after US officials said Pyongyang had admitted to pursuing a uranium enrichment programme to produce atomic weapons. Beijing hosted initial three-way talks with Washington and Pyongyang in April, but they ended with little progress.
■ Thailand
Police bar politician
Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been barred from entering Thailand where he was to give a speech yesterday, due to fears he could cause "trouble" in the aftermath of national elections, police said. Rainsy had been due to address the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on the political deadlock in Cambodia, whose Prime Minister Hun Sen is attempting to form a coalition after July 27 elections. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won line honors in the vote but failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to rule in its own right.
■ Jakarta
`Walk of Fame' for dictator
Jakarta's governor is planning to add former dictator Suharto's footprints to a Hollywood-inspired "Walk of Fame" in front of the presidential palace, a report said yesterday. Governor Sutiyoso, who like many Indonesians has only one name, will add the former strongman's footprints to the planned promenade alongside those of other former presidents and military generals, the Jakarta Post Daily reported. Suharto -- a five-star general -- ruled Indonesia with an iron hand for 32 years before he was ousted in 1998 amid pro-democracy riots.
■ Brazil
Man kills parents over doll
A man who considered an inflatable puppet his "bride" killed his parents because they demanded he divorce her and damaged the toy, media reports said Wednesday. The 44-year-old unemployed man apparently confessed to the crime, which occurred on Saturday, after a long interrogation by police in a suburb of Sao Paulo city, a police spokesman said. "The man thought the doll was a human being, called her his `bride' and talked to her," an acquaintance of the family was quoted as saying. But his parents, who were religious, demanded he separate from the doll. When the mother took a scissors and cut holes in the man's "bride," the man strangled and stabbed his father, age 70, and mother, age 71.
■ Belarus
President pushes ideology
President Alexander Lukashenko ordered on Wednesday "ideology" teachers be chosen from every firm in Belarus to educate state workers, in a move criticized as Soviet-style indoctrination. "To penetrate the soul and the mind of everybody is of course a most challenging art form, a very complex work and people (working in these organizations) must be qualified to the highest degree," Lukashenko said at a government meeting on ideology. "In the past we have determined conceptually what would be our ideology ... it is not as well constructed and beautiful as we wanted, but it is concrete so we can use it as a compass for the lives of our citizens and of society as a whole."
■ Germany
Dog better than drunk
A German man of Polish origin lost his driving licence after failing an alcohol test but his dog passed with flying colors, police in the western city of Koblenz said on Wednesday. Police said the 47-year-old man failed to perform any of the required actions, only to be upstaged by his West Highland white terrier who executed all of the commands given perfectly, including a 360 degree turn as his master staggered and fell. At the conclusion of the uneven contest, the supervising doctor announced, "Man: fail; dog: pass."
■ United States
91-year-old man robs bank
Texas police said on Wednesday they had arrested a 91-year-old man suspected of robbing an Abilene bank, possibly making him the oldest bank robber in US history. J.L. Hunter Rountree, who goes by the nickname "Red," was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of stealing about US$2,000, Abilene police said. They said they had no records to prove it, but they thought Rountree was the oldest person ever to rob a bank in the country. Police said Rountree, who was not armed, asked a teller to stuff money into a large envelop with the word "robbery" written on it. A witness took down the license number of his vehicle and he was arrested on a highway about 25km outside Abilene.
■ United Kingdom
Blind driving record set
The world speed record for driving blind in a car was smashed Wednesday by bank manager Mike Newman,who lost his sight at the age of eight. Newman clocked 229.8kph on an airfield runway, then beat his own record on a 232.8kph return leg. He was alone in his specially adapted Jaguar XRJ 4.2 sports car as it tore past the former control tower at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington. Newman, 41, relied on steering an unwavering course with radio back-up from his stepfather, a driving instructor.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not