■ New Zealand
PM frisked at Sydney airport
Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday she was frisked for explosives by Australian airport security staff late last month -- a revelation that caused major embarrassment for the Australian government. Clark said she was stopped for a security check at Sydney Airport on Oct. 28 while heading to Afghanistan and Iraq to visit New Zealand troops. Clark said she was pulled from a line and scanned with a new explosives-detection device. The check continued even after staffers were told who she was, Clark told New Zealand radio station NewstalkZB.
■ China
Refund assassin executed
China has executed a paid assassin who failed to kill his intended target but murdered the woman who hired him after she demanded a refund. An unnamed Beijing woman hired Li Changjiang and two associates for 100,000 yuan (US$12,080) in 2000 to kill or disfigure her husband's mistress, the official Xinhua news agency reported on yesterday. When Li and his accomplices, Zhang Hongyu and Sun Yanhai, failed to follow through, the woman asked for her money back, but they refused. In September 2000, Li, Zhang and Sun killed the woman and torched her car, Xinhua said. Li was executed on Friday. Sun was sentenced to life imprisonment and Zhang was still at large.
■ Myanmar
Opposition activists released
Myanmar's junta said yesterday it had freed five top opposition members from nearly six months of house arrest, but four others, including National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, remained in detention. Four NLD members -- Hla Pe, Nyunt Wai, Than Tun and Soe Myint -- were released Sunday while the fifth, Lun Tin, was freed yesterday, a government official said. Aung San Suu Kyi and all eight members of her party's decision-making Central Executive Committee were detained after May 30 clashes between NLD supporters and a pro-junta gang in northern Myanmar. The 58-year-old Nobel peace laureate is confined to her Yangon home, as are NLD chairman Aung Shwe and secretary U Lwin, while the party's vice president, Tin Oo, is in Kalay prison near the Indian border.
■ Afghanistan
Five soldiers die in crash
A US combat helicopter on a nighttime mission crashed outside a US military base near the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, killing at least five soldiers and injuring seven others. Although no formal announcement has been made, the downed helicopter is presumably a highly classified MH-53 Pave Low, one of the largest and most technologically advanced choppers in the world, used primarily in special operations. "It was an MH-53 transport helicopter. The personnel on board were Army and Air Force," Major Mike Escudie, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said.
■ Hong Kong
Singer banned from the road
A fast-driving Hong Kong pop star with a fleet of luxury cars was banned from the roads for six months yesterday after being convicted of careless driving. Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), 22, was also fined 4,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$500) over the incident in which he crashed his US$120,000 Audi A4 into the back of another car while on his way to the airport. Tse was on his way to catch a flight to Malaysia when he crashed into the back of a Mercedes. He was taken to hospital and treated for head and face injuries.
■ United States
WTC subway reopens
More than two years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the subway under the destroyed World Trade Center reopened Sunday. In a ceremony led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the reopening of the subway service was the first step in the anticipated reconstruction of the area. In a symbolic gesture, the first trip on the provisionally constructed station was taken by the eight subway cars that last left the station in 2001. A few minutes after those cars departed, the station was buried under the rubble of the disintegrating southern twin tower.
■ United States
Bear arms, or else
Residents of the tiny south-central Kansas town of Geuda Springs have passed an ordinance requiring most households to have guns and ammunition. Non-complying residents would be fined US$10 under the ordinance, passed 3-2 earlier this month by city council members, who thought it would help protect the town of 210 people. Those who suffer from physical or mental disabilities, paupers and people who conscientiously oppose firearms would be exempt. Geuda Springs has no local police force; the Sumner County Sheriff's department is responsible for the area. Sheriff Gerald Gilkey said the ordinance makes him concerned for the safety of his officers.
■ United States
Taylor defends Jackson
Actress Elizabeth Taylor said on Sunday that she believes pop star and good friend Michael Jackson is "absolutely innocent" of child molestation charges and will be "vindicated." In a statement, Taylor also criticized the press for behaving "abominably" toward Jackson, who was arrested this week on suspicion of sexually abusing a young boy. "Their whole reaction is that he is guilty. I thought the law was `innocent until proven guilty.' I know he is innocent and I hope they all eat crow," Taylor said of the press.
■ Algeria
Donkey meat sold as beef
A gang of butchers and vets in Algeria has been charged with selling tonnes of donkey meat as beef during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when food prices rise sharply, state radio said. Authorities believe more than 55 tonnes of donkey meat were sold at knock-down prices at markets in the capital Algiers since August, but most during Ramadan. More than 1,500 donkeys were brought in from around the country and slaughtered in Algiers before vets certified the meat as beef, authorities said. Five butchers, four vets and an abattoir boss were arrested on Saturday.
■ United Kingdom
Gay couples gain rights
Same-sex couples will be given rights denied to heterosexual couples who choose not to marry, under legislation to be unveiled this week. The civil partnership bill will allow gay couples the same rights and responsibilities as married couples, including employment and pension benefits, inheritance and parental rights, recognition for immigration purposes, and exemption from testifying against each other in court. But heterosexual people who chose to cohabit will be denied this, which the opposition Conservatives are warning will prompt fierce clashes. A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said the distinction was being made because heterosexual couples already had access to legal status through marriage.
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