■ Australia
Hanson denied bail
Former right-wing politician Pauline Hanson, jailed last month for three years on fraud convictions, was refused bail yesterday. Her lawyers had asked the Supreme Court of Queensland state on Friday that she be released as she awaits a ruling on her appeal against the conviction and sentence. No dates have been set for the appeal. After mulling his decision over the weekend, Justice Richard Chesterman dismissed the bail application yesterday. Hanson was not in court for the decision. Hanson, 49, was convicted Aug. 20 of illegally registering her One Nation party in Queensland state in 1997 and then fraudulently claiming A$500,000 (US$330,000) in electoral funding to campaign for a state poll in 1998.
■ Sri Lanka
War dead remembered
A pro-rebel Tamil group said yesterday it would hold a day of mourning in Sri Lanka's east coast, raising fears of renewed ethnic tensions in an area that has been a flashpoint in the island's 20-year civil war. The commemoration that will take place on Friday will honor Tamils killed by government soldiers and Muslim home guards since 1990, the Batticaloa District Peoples' Forum was quoted as saying on the pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site. The group said Sept. 5 is the anniversary of the murder of 158 Tamil civilians at a refugee camp in 1990.
■ Indonesia
Amrozi fingers Hambali
Convicted Bali bomber Amrozi told a Jakarta court yesterday that suspected militant mastermind Hambali helped to finance a car bombing three years ago that injured the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia. Testifying in the trial of Abdul Jabar, a suspect in the August 2000 blast in Jakarta that killed two people and injured 19, Amrozi -- dubbed "the smiling bomber" by the media -- said he provided the minivan that was later used in the attack. Amrozi, is now on death row for his key role in the Bali night club bombings last year that killed 202 people.
■ Malaysia
Blackout strikes
A power outage yesterday blacked out large parts of peninsular Malaysia for several hours, disrupting flights at the country's main airport and causing traffic snarls, officials said. The outage began around 10am in five states in peninsular Malaysia, said Malaysia's main power utility company. Officials ruled out sabotage as the cause, but were investigating an unexplained glitch that damaged the power-distribution system during maintenance work on a major cable line. Large-scale electricity failures are rare in Malaysia. The blackout yesterday was one of the worst since August 1996, when nearly all of peninsular Malaysia was hit by a 14-hour outage.
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