■ The Philippines
Arroyo gets tough
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo yesterday claimed the authorities were winning their battle against a wave of kidnappings, which had led her to lift a suspension on executions after a four-year lull. "Our strategy is winning and our patrols are yielding good results. We have stopped the rise of criminality and we shall sustain it to preserve peace and order," she said in a nationwide radio address. Arroyo, who faces a presidential election in five months' time, said the police campaign has led to the recovery of one kidnap victim and the arrest of the suspects. Several car thieves, kidnappers, and bank robbers have also been shot dead in clashes with the authorities, who have also seized 10 billion pesos (US$180.6 million) worth of narcotics, she added.
■ India
Baby-food ads banned
India will ban advertisements for baby formula in a bid to promote breast feeding, officials said yesterday. The ban starts Jan. 1 and will apply to all forms of media, the government said in a statement. India's Parliament had approved the action in May. The government will also officially recommend that babies be given only mother's milk for the first six months of a child's life. Previously, it had recommended exclusive breast feeding up to 4 months.
■ Singapore
Botox cures migrains
A trial in Singapore is finding botox effective in treating migraine and chronic tension headaches, doctors said yesterday. The botulinum toxin has been compared by scientists to penicillin for its versatility against a wide range of conditions. "There have been some good results so far, with a 25 to 75 per cent reduction in the severity or frequency of the headaches", said Dr Louis Tan, a consultant at the National Neuroscience Institute where the trial is being conducted.
■ Australia
Boozy lawmakers fight
Christmas spirit was in short supply at a late night drinks party in Canberra that ended with lawmakers battling over booze and chasing each other down the corridors of Parliament House hurling abuse, news reports yesterday said. The Democrats' Andrew Bartlett, leader of Australia's third-largest political party, arrived uninvited at the ruling Liberal Party barbecue and made off with five bottles of wine, the Herald Sun reported. Bartlett was tackled by upper house MP Jeannie Ferris, who received a badly bruised arm in the Thursday night incident.
■ New Zealand
Missile maker receives offer
A New Zealand engineer who made world headlines with his homebuilt cruise missile said yesterday he had received "very serious" offers from an Iranian company to invest in the project. Bruce Simpson said the firm was linked to the aerospace and missile industries, and was one of a number of enquiries from several countries including Pakistan, China and Lebanon. But after "worrying about the bigger picture" and turning down the offers, the cash-strapped engineer found himself bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department for non-payment of taxes. The Iranians made "very serious inquiries about investing in the development of the X-jet technology", Simpson said on his Web site aardvark.co.nz. "I have since had e-mails from Pakistan, Lebanon, China and other countries, all of which sought to obtain details of the X-jet project and some of which have involved seemingly genuine offers of not insignificant payment for such information."
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