■ Australia
Xenophobe stays in jail
Former right-wing leader Pauline Hanson was ordered yesterday to remain in jail while she appeals a three-year sentence for electoral fraud. Hanson's lawyers asked Queensland state's Court of Appeal for her release after being denied bail by Supreme Court Justice Richard Chesterman earlier this month. After mulling the decision for almost a week, Court of Appeal Justice John Jerrard upheld Chesterman's ruling. Hanson was convicted of campaign fraud.
■ Cambodia
Suspected vandals freed
A Cambodian court Monday freed 56 defendants accused of destroying the Thai Embassy and businesses during a riot, saying they had already spent enough time in jail or on bail. Two others will serve short prison terms. Presiding Judge Tan Sinarong convicted the 56 of theft and attempted theft in the Jan. 29 rampage by mobs who set fire to the embassy and destroyed a number of Thai businesses in the Cambodian capital.
■ China
Farmer sets himself ablaze
A Chinese farmer set himself ablaze in Beijing's Tiananmen Square yesterday, suffering burns to his arms and back before police stopped his apparent self-immolation attempt, state media said. Zhu Zhengliang, 45, was upset by a local government plan to relocate his family, the official Xinhua news agency. He traveled to Beijing with his wife on Sunday from Qingyang county, in the eastern province of Anhui, the agency said. Zhu's wife sat beside him as he ignited petrol that he had poured over himself, but police "stopped Zhu immediately after they caught sight of the farmer's suicidal action." Police in Tiananmen Square are on constant alert for self-immolation attempts.
■ India
Constable kills truck driver
A Delhi police constable who was upset at a truck driver whose vehicle crashed into his motorcycle shot dead the truck driver in an angry rage, a news report said yesterday. Constable Anil Kumar, 25, gunned down driver Raju Bhandari on Sunday after a heated argument. He then rang up the police control room and confessed his crime, the Indian Express newspaper reported. "It looks like a case of road rage. The constable signaled the driver to stop but he didn't. Finally he chased him and there was a heated argument," said the city's deputy commissioner of police Vivek Gogia. The killing led to truck drivers going on the rampage blocking roads and pelting stones. Some transporters alleged that Kumar tried to extort money from Bhandari and when he refused he was shot dead. Police denied this account.
■ Japan
Earthquake expected to hit
A Japanese researcher is causing a stir in Tokyo with a prediction based on his study of radio waves that a major destructive earthquake is highly likely to hit the city this week. Yoshio Kushida, a well-known self-taught astronomer who runs his own observatory just outside Tokyo, published on his Web site his prediction that a quake with a magnitude of 7 or greater on the Richter scale was likely to strike the metropolitan area today or tomorrow. The prediction was soon picked up by a popular weekly magazine and a major daily. It has since been spread by word of mouth, prompting some of the more nervous residents of Japan's quake-prone capital to stock up on bottled water, candles and other disaster preparations.
■ United Kingdom
Madonna writes kids' book
Madonna yesterday completed her latest career transformation as a million copies of her new morality tale for children are published worldwide. The English Roses has already found its way into publishing history as the widest, simultaneous multi-language release, with a target of more than 100 countries in 30 languages. Madonna hosted an elaborate tea-party launch without a single copy of the book yesterday. Around 100 children turned up, including a batch of celebrity offspring. They were met with more than 1,000 rose garlands, floating clouds, plenty of champagne and stilt-walkers dressed as swans. But there were no hard copies of the product.
■ Russia
Truck bomb levels building
A truck exploded yesterday outside a government security building in Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The Ingush Interior Ministry confirmed the powerful explosion near the Federal Security Service's building in the Ingush capital of Magas, but refused to provide any other details. The news agency reported that heavy Kamaz truck laden with explosives detonated yesterday morning. ITAR-Tass reported that there were numerous casualties. Tass said that at least 100 people were working in the building at the time of the blast.
■ Guinea-bissau
Bloodless coup staged
Soldiers ousted the president of the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, taking advantage of widespread discontent with his rule to seize power in a bloodless coup. The army chief of staff, General Verissimo Correia Seabre, declared himself in charge of the country Sunday after the early-morning arrest of President Kumba Yala. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed, and soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital Bissau with automatic weapons and grenade launchers. Several African countries including Nigeria and Senegal condemned the coup, as did Portugal, the former colonial ruler. But some residents expressed relief as much as alarm. "It's all calm. People aren't afraid," a man said by phone from the capital.
■ United states
Ben and Jennifer split?
Have they gone from Bennifer back to Ben and Jennifer? The most overexposed couple on the planet was supposed to exchange wedding vows on Sunday, but instead there was a report that they had ended their tabloid-chronicled storybook romance. Amid the frantic speculation surrounding the pair last week, People magazine reported Sunday that Affleck has dumped Lopez due to "second thoughts." Dubbed "Bennifer" by gossip wags, the pair planned to wed at a mansion estate near Santa Barbara. But they postponed the ceremony on Wednesday, saying excessive media attention was turning the event into havoc.
■ Brazil
Crowd demands gun control
Leading soap opera stars joined tens of thousands of Rio residents yesterday to demand more stringent gun controls in Brazil, one of the world's most violent countries. About 50,000 protesters braved driving rain to march along Copacabana beach, waving banners reading "Brazil without guns" and calling on the government to pass a gun-control law before congress. The protest had been heavily promoted in the soap opera Women in Love. For weeks, the show's characters have talked about the march and their presence guaranteed a large turnout despite the weather.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of