■ Australia
Cat busts pot-growing owner
An Australian woman has her cat to blame for landing in court for growing commercial quantities of cannabis in her Sydney apartment, news reports said yesterday. Miffed at being left alone for the weekend the cat miaowed so plaintively that neighbors called in animal rights group RSPCA, who in turn called in the police. Rhonda McIntyre, an unemployed gardener, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants worth close to A$100,000 (US$71,000). McIntyre, 49, faces a jail term of up to two years or a stiff fine, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
■ China
Foot-binder in hospital
A 17-year-old girl in northern China has been hospitalized after trying to make her feet smaller by using the traditional practice of foot-binding, a news report said yesterday. The teenager was taken to hospital by her mother after wrapping her feet in bandages so tightly they began to bleed, the South China Morning Post reported. She attempted foot-binding because she was self-conscious about her height and her unusually large feet, according to the newspaper. The practice of foot-binding -- keeping women's feet petite by wrapping them up so tightly that the bones break -- was common across China in the last century.
■ South Korea
Nuclear talks predicted
South Korea said yesterday it was "very likely" that a fresh round of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program would be held before the end of the year, echoing a similar prediction from China a day earlier. "The views among the countries concerned are moving in that direction. Barring any unexpected development, I think it is very likely that the next round will take place by the end of the year," South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said in a news briefing. The first round of talks, held in Beijing in August, brought together the US, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia. That meeting ended without an agreement on when to meet again.
■ Indonesia
Bombing trial starts
The first suspect charged in connection with the Aug. 5 bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta went on trial yesterday, facing the death penalty for allegedly storing explosive materials used in the attack. Sardona Siliwangi was charged with violating recently passed anti-terror laws, said state prosecutor Sudihardjo. He was put on trial in Bengkulu on Sumatra island, where he was arrested two months before the Marriot blast, which killed 12 people and wounded 150. He faces a maximum death penalty if found guilty. Siliwangi was arrested in June in Bengkulu along with five other suspected militants over a bank robbery. Police later accused him of storing explosive materials that were used in the Marriott bombing.
■ Singapore
Teen prankster sentenced
A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to hundreds of hours of community service for pretending to be Singapore's education minister in an e-mail to his principal that demanded the expulsion of two fellow students, a newspaper reported yesterday. The student was caught after he mistakenly forwarded the message to the minister he was impersonating, former Education Minister Teo Chee Hean, The Straits Times reported. A magistrate court on Tuesday sentenced the boy to 240 hours of community service and ordered his parents to pay a US$2,880 bond
■ United States<
Syria sanctions approved
The Senate joined the House in endorsing diplomatic and economic sanctions against Syria on Tuesday, to go into effect unless that nation meets a series of conditions, including halting movement across its border of people and equipment destined for attacks on Americans in Iraq. The measure, approved 89 to 4, also calls on Syria to stop supporting terrorism and close the Syrian offices of terror groups, withdraw forces from Lebanon and cease any development of medium- and long-range missiles or chemical and biological weapons. "We don't want to go to war with Syria," said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, an author of the measure. "We just want to say in a truthful way, `These are things you've been doing wrong. Please meet these markers.'"
■ Carribean
At least eight dead in strike
At least seven civilians and one police officer were killed Tuesday in a 24-hour general strike, as protesters clashed with troops in the Dominican Republic, organizers said. A number of protesters who were demanding lower gasoline prices, better state hospitals, and an end to foreign debt payments and IMF agreements were shot by armed forces in different areas of the nation. And police officer Nelson Batista died of gunshot wounds, according to sources at the capital's Francisco Moscoso Puello hospital where he had been rushed for treatment.
■ Colombia
Police chief resigns
The general who commands the Colombian National Police, the 110,000-member force that works closely with US officials to combat drug trafficking, resigned Tuesday in the wake of corruption scandals that had embarrassed President Alvaro Uribe's government. Uribe, a close ally in the George W. Bush administration's war on drugs, accepted the resignation of General Teodoro Campo after revelations surfaced that policemen in Medellin were using police money for lavish dinners, high-priced chocolates, watches and expensive whiskey.
■ Iraq
Uday's old Rolls finds role
Police officers will be able to enjoy luxurious wedding rides in the metallic pink Rolls-Royce of former president Saddam Hussein's flamboyant son Uday, an official said on Tuesday. Deputy Interior Minister General Ibrahim Ahmad has offered the car to police officers and ministry officials when they marry, said Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman, a ministry spokesman. The move was meant to honor their work, he said. "Three days ago, we caught a gang trying to sell the Rolls-Royce that had been taken during the looting" which accompanied the April 9 fall of Saddam's regime, said Abdul Rahman.
■ Germany
Schroeder's office wins
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's new office -- which critics liken to a giant washing machine -- scooped Germany's most prestigious architectural prize on Tuesday night. The vast glass and concrete chancellery in Berlin was named Germany's most outstanding new building of the past two years, despite complaints from Schroeder that it was "too big" and that passersby could see into his lavatory. However a jury described its design as "brave" and "expressive." "It isn't just another lousy office block," said Peter Conradi, president of Germany's federal chamber of architects.
■ Isreal
Baby formula probed
The German maker of a baby food formula at the heart of an Israeli investigation into the deaths of two babies said on Tuesday that its soy-based product was deficient in a key vitamin needed to maintain infant health. Humana said in a statement that its kosher Remedia Super Soya 1 product did not contain the amount of vitamin B1, also known as thiamin, advertised. Israeli police have launched an investigation into suspicions the product caused a B-1 vitamin deficiency that led to acute health problems in at least nine babies. Two have died. Humana said it was cooperating with the investigation and planned to take internal action as well.
■ Germany
Nuclear waste arrives
A convoy of trucks loaded with 12 containers of radioactive waste arrived early yesterday at a dump in Gorleben, ending a journey from a French reprocessing plant that was marked by frequent protests. The shipment completed a trouble-free 18km final stretch from Dannenberg's rail terminal to Gorleben before dawn. Police had earlier cleared the route after more than 800 demonstrators gathered on the road to attempt a blockade. Activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the Gorleben site are safe.
■ Saudi Arabia
Bombers remain at large
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef denied reports that authorities had detained suspects in a suicide car bombing that killed at least 17 people in the capital. Saudi security officials earlier said that possible suspects were being held in connection with Saturday's bombing. Others were being questioned about the activities of militants in the kingdom, the officials said. Also Tuesday, a purported al-Qaeda operative reportedly made the first claim of responsibility for the attack on the housing compound. Saudi and US officials had already blamed the attack on al-Qaeda.
■ Iran
Iran shrugs off nuclear spat
Iran glossed over embarrassing revelations on Tuesday that it had lied to UN inspectors about its nuclear program. The state media and government officials quoted the UN nuclear watchdog as saying that Tehran had recently displayed a more cooperative attitude. "The failures attributed to Iran are insignificant and are at the level of gram and microgram of nuclear materials," Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on state television. Iran's theocratic leadership long resisted revealing details of its nuclear activities, but the clerical establishment last month chose to reveal its nuclear secrets to avoid sanctions from the UN security council.
■ United Nations
Pfizer fights blindness
In a major boost to a UN campaign to eradicate an eye infection that causes blindness, Pfizer announced that it will provide a free antibiotic to treat about 90 percent of the 150 million people afflicted. The International Trachoma Initiative said it is "enthusiastic" that the medicine will enable it to achieve the goal set by the World Health Organization of eliminating the disease by 2020. Over the last five years, the Pfizer has provided 8 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax to
treat sufferers in nine impoverished countries in Africa and Asia.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the