■ Australia
Howard takes poll lead
Australia's conservative government leapt ahead of its Labor opposition in a new poll published yesterday, on the back of visits by the presidents of China and the US. The Newspoll survey showed Prime Minister John Howard's government was likely to score a decisive win in an election. The Australian newspaper, which published the survey, said it was the government's biggest single boost since it was voted into office in 1996. The proportion of voters who would vote first for the coalition government under Australia's transferable vote system jumped to 46 percent, up 7 percent from two weeks ago. At the same time, the proportion who would choose the Labor opposition first had fallen one percent to 36 percent.
■ Australia
Population nears 20 million
Australia's population will hit 20 million on Dec. 4, the government statistics bureau predicted yesterday. "It is a nice round number and there has been some debate about precisely when it will be reached," said Dennis Trewin, chief statistician at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). "Our official estimate of Dec. 4 takes into account all the information that we have available from births, deaths, overseas arrivals and departures and the 2001 population census," Trewin said in a statement.
■ China
Businessman goes missing
One of China's most powerful private businessmen and the chairman of a Shanghai-listed company has gone missing, the firm said yesterday, leaving behind liabilities of 987.86 million yuan (US$119.4 million). It is the latest in a spate of scandals embroiling tycoons in a communist-run country whose economy is increasingly in the hands of private enterprise. Xinjiang Hops had been unable to contact 45-year-old Aikelamu Aishayoufu -- an ethnic Uighur who was named China's 22nd wealthiest man in terms of the capital controlled by a company by last month's Asiamoney poll -- since last Thursday, a company executive said.
■ Japan
Mad cow disease rears head
After earlier assertions that young cows are not infected with mad cow disease, officials said yesterday that a 21-month-old bull has tested positive and, if confirmed, will be the country's ninth known case of infection. The animal was only the second in Japan to be infected with the fatal brain-wasting disease at so young an age. The first, a 23-month-old bull, tested positive on Sept. 29, prompting health minister Chikara Sakaguchi to acknowledge that young cows could be infected, despite earlier views. Agriculture officials later raised the possibility that the cow might be carrying a new strain of the disease.
■ Thailand
Sex tycoon forms party
A sex industry tycoon, who calls himself an anti-corruption crusader, urged Thailand's public yesterday to support his newly formed political party. Chuwit Kamolvisit, the owner of several Bangkok massage parlors said to be fronts for prostitution, became a local hero in July when he publicly spoke out against police corruption, alleging he paid millions of dollars in bribes to officers. He said he went public because police failed to prevent his prosecution in two criminal cases, even though he paid 12 million baht (US$300,000) in bribes every month for several years. Chuwit's claims, backed only by circumstantial evidence, triggered a massive shake-up in Bangkok police echelons, with several top-ranking officials transferred to inactive posts.
■ United Nations
Iran to observe IAEA pact
Iran's UN ambassador said on Monday that Tehran would not only sign but observe a key international measure against nuclear proliferation even before its ratification by the Iranian parliament. Tehran had previously agreed in principle to sign the document, as well as to suspend enrichment of nuclear fuel, in what was seen as a major step forward in its standoff with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its nuclear ambitions. But it had not previously publicly said it would meet its obligations under the pact even before its ratification.
■ Zimbabwe
Challenge to `rigged' poll
Robert Mugabe's re-election as Zimbabwe's president last year should be nullified because of sweeping poll irregularities, lawyers told the High Court on Monday at the start of a landmark opposition challenge. Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and several Western groups say the poll in March last year, which handed Mugabe a fresh six-year term, was rigged. Tsvangirai and his wife Susan joined opposition legislators and MDC officials who packed the Harare courthouse to hear the case, in which Tsvangirai is represented by five high profile lawyers.
■ United Kingdom
Man jailed in HIV case
In a landmark case, a London court on Monday handed out an eight-year jail sentence to a man with HIV who infected two lovers by having unprotected sex. The prison term given to Kenyan-born Mohammed Dica, 38, followed his conviction three weeks ago, when he became the first person successfully prosecuted in England and Wales for sexually transmitting HIV. Dica wooed his victims -- a divorcee and a mother-of-two, both in their 30s -- by telling one that he had had a vasectomy, and promising the other a lifetime of love.
■ United Kingdom
Horny ram puzzles spooks
The strange signal had British intelligence staff baffled. Perhaps a spy was lurking on England's northeast coast, or was there something more sinister involved? Not wishing to take any risks, Britain's top secret monitoring base carried out an investigation. "Exhaustive tests were launched, revealing the answer -- a horny ram" having fun with a radio mast, the base said in the latest edition of its in-house newspaper. "In between servicing some local ewes, it was partial to rubbing its horns against the aerial masts," it said. The strange signal was regularly picked up by a mast in a field in Scarborough, a popular tourist spot on England's northeast coast.
■ United States
Jessica Lynch to wed
Former US Army Private Jessica Lynch, the rescued Iraq POW who became an American heroine, plans to marry her soldier sweetheart in June. Lynch, 20, and Army Sergeant Ruben Contreras, 24, are planning to tie the knot in Colorado, Contreras' mother Lisa Latorre told reporters. "I'm looking forward to them finally being able to be together and happy. They deserve that chance. They've been through so much," Latorre said. A report on Monday said the couple had met two years ago in a fast-food restaurant near Fort Bliss in Texas. Lynch shot to fame after she was captured by Iraqi forces, then rescued by US troops in a mission critics described as a staged propaganda event.
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