■ South Korea
Woman cleared of murder
An American woman accused of killing a fellow US student in South Korea in 2001 was acquitted of homicide charges yesterday. "It feels really, really good," said 22-year-old Kenzi Snider, who cried and hugged her mother, Heath Bozonie, when the verdict was read out in a Seoul courtroom. Snider had been accused of beating to death 21-year-old Jamie Penich, a University of Pittsburgh student, over unwanted sexual advances. Both were exchange students in South Korea at the time of the killing in a Seoul hotel room on March 18, 2001. Judge Jun Bong-jin said that there was a high possibility that someone other than Snider committed the murder.
■ The Philippines
Execution denied
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo yesterday denied allegations the country's top terror suspect was executed in cold blood to present a publicity coup ahead of US President George W. Bush's visit. Opposition politicians have reacted with anger and skepticism to government claims Jemaah Islamiyah bombmaker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi was killed in a shoot-out with the security forces on southern Mindanao island late Sunday. Some opposition figures have alleged Indonesian al-Ghozi was killed to prevent him revealing police complicity in his embarrassing escape from the national police headquarters jail in Manila in July.
■ Pakistan
Missile test successful
Pakistan launched a medium-range missile capable of hitting many targets inside archrival India early yesterday, its third -- and last -- in a series of planned tests which began earlier this month, government officials and Pakistan's army said. Longer-range missiles, however, will be tested in the future, the army said. The medium-range, surface-to-surface Hatf-4, also known as the Shaheen-1, was successfully test fired from an undisclosed location, it said. The missile has a range of 700km. A government official at Pakistan's main nuclear facility said experts are now working to upgrade longer-range missiles.
■ South Korea
Roh's motives questioned
The leader of South Korea's main opposition party, which controls parliament, said on yesterday that President Roh Moo-hyun should disclose details of an aide's political funding scandal before a confidence vote on his rule. Roh called on Monday for a Dec. 15 referendum and said he would step down if he lost the vote. He added confusion by at first linking the proposed poll to the financial scandal, then later describing the referendum as a political reform policy. Choe Byung-yul, who heads the main opposition Grand National Party, said more debate was needed on a referendum and on Roh's motives for the unprecedented move.
■ Singapore
Cult classic premieres
The cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, which premiered in US theaters almost 30 years ago, will finally make its Singapore debut. Local censors had originally objected to the kinky sexual practices depicted in the science fiction horror film starring Susan Sarandon and pop star Meatloaf. In the 1975 film, a pair of innocent newlyweds stumble upon the secluded home of a homicidal, cross-dressing scientist from outer space and are seduced into wild sex and partying. The risque musical will be screened for the first time in the conservative city-state at an outdoor Halloween party.
■ United States
Siamese twins `doing well'
Egyptian twins Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim were doing well, doctors said Monday, despite surgery that separated their heads, but they still needed to be closely watched. The boys are in "truly remarkable condition, considering their ordeal," said James Thomas, chief of critical care services at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas The twins were born two years ago, joined at the crowns of their heads. They endured marathon surgery Saturday and Sunday to separate them and give them a chance at normal development. Both Ahmed and Mohamed were listed in critical but stable condition as of about 2300 GMT Monday.
■ Iraq
Troops may stay, poll finds
More than two-thirds of Baghdad residents would like to see US troops stay longer than a few more months, but many still have sharply mixed feelings about the troops, a poll says. The Gallup poll found that 71 percent of the capital city's residents felt US troops should not leave in the next few months. Just 26 percent felt the troops should leave that soon. However, a sizable minority felt there were circumstances in which attacks against those troops could be justified. Almost one in five, 19 percent, said attacks could be justified, and an additional 17 percent said they could be in some situations. These mixed feelings from Baghdad residents come at a time when many in the US are calling for the troops to be brought home soon.
■ United States
Pot messes with sperm
Sperm in men who smoke marijuana regularly lose stamina and burn out which may prevent conception, said a study released by the State University of New York in Buffalo, New York on Monday. "The sperm from marijuana smokers were moving too fast too early," said Lani Burkman, lead author of the study, in a statement. "To attach itself to the egg, the sperm has to swim like mad -- that's hyper activation -- and they have to be vigorous at the right time," Burkman said. The study found that men who smoke marijuana have less sperm because of lower quantities of seminal fluid compared to fertile men.
■ Russia
Stain remover wrecks home
A Russian man may wish he had stuck with having dirty trousers after an imaginative attempt to purge a stubborn paint stain on them destroyed his apartment. The unnamed Muscovite added a liter of petrol to his washing machine to help dissolve the stain, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Monday, but the ensuing explosion wrecked his kitchen and demolished two internal walls. Moscow police confirmed there had been an explosion in a south-eastern Moscow apartment, but would not comment on the cause.
■ United Kingdom
Probe of Tory leader starts
Britain's parliamentary watchdog opened an investigation Monday into allegations that the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party wrongly put his wife on his payroll. Leader Iain Duncan Smith submitted a 40-page rebuttal to the commissioner for parliamentary standards, Sir Philip Mawer, on Monday, responding to a dossier given to Mawer by Michael Crick, an investigative journalist for the BBC. Crick says he has assembled documentation questioning whether Betsy Duncan Smith did the work for which she was paid from her husband's parliamentary allowance. She was on his payroll for 15 months.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was