■ Hong Kong
Flag-burners convicted
Two pro-democracy activists were convicted and fined yesterday for desecrating China's flag by stepping on it during a protest. Ng Kwok-hung and Lau San-ching were tried last week on charges they desecrated two flags during a demonstration outside a courthouse on March 4 -- as Ng went on trial for burning a flag on Chinese National Day last year. The magistrate fined Ng HK$3,000 (US$385), while Lau was fined HK$2,000. They could have faced up to three years in prison.
■ Cambodia
Buddhist groups do battle
A dispute between the head of a Buddhist nun's asso-ciation and Buddhist monks spiralled into violence and arson at a pagoda in Phnom Penh, local media reported yesterday. Police told the English-language Cambodia Daily that on Monday night they were overwhelmed as nearly 200 monks and villa-gers smashed the windows of a nearly completed nuns' dormitory at Preak Pra pagoda. The senior monk reportedly said he was beaten up after trying to intervene in an argument between the nun and his fellow monks who were arguing over ownership and operation of the dormitory.
■ Indonesia
Six students questioned
Six Indonesian terror sus-pects, including the brother of Southeast Asia's top militant, arrived in Jakarta on a flight from Pakistan and are being questioned by police, officials said yester-day. The suspects -- all students from an Islamic boarding school in Pakistan -- arrived late Thursday and were whisked to the city police headquarters. The six had been detained since September, when Pakistani authorities raided Abu Bakar University in Karachi and accused them of being involved in terrorist acts in the country.
■ Pakistan
`Debrief' for scientists
Officials yesterday denied two nuclear scientists had been arrested, insisting they were just being "debriefed" but refused to explain why. Farooq Muhammad and Yasin Chohan, both senior directors at Pakistan's key uranium-enrichment facility Kahuta Research Labora-tories, were taken from their homes earlier this month and have not returned, local media reports say. Local newspapers linked the detention to allegations that Pakistani scientists helped Iran develop its nuclear programs.
■ Indonesia
Woman sacrifices child
A woman was arrested for allegedly sacrificing a child in an attempt to "cure" her alcoholic husband, police said in a report yesterday. Santosh, 35, said her husband, Vinod, a rickshaw driver, was an alcoholic and would beat her every day. A witch doctor told her to sacrifice a child to solve her domestic problems, The Hindu newspaper reported. Santosh and her nephew abducted two-and-a-half-year-old Rahul in New Delhi. Police claim Santosh con-fessed to the crime.
■ India
Elderly couple sue ghost
An elderly couple in Calcutta has filed a complaint against an unfriendly, abusive ghost, it was reported yesterday. The couple said the male ghost had haunted their two-room apartment for about two weeks. About three to four times a day he would abuse the woman, reminding her how old she was, New Delhi TV reported. Police said the couple could be victims of a plot to get them to vacate the apartment or sell it cheap.
■ United States
Thieves gatecrash Bush
Two men in a stolen car crashed through the gates of the Florida governor's mansion, cut across the grounds and exited by smashing through another gate, police said on Thursday. The men were fleeing after stealing the Ford Mustang at a fast food restaurant near the official residence of Governor Jeb Bush in Tallahassee and took a shortcut across the property, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman said. Governor Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, was not home when the incident occurred on Wednesday night. Local police recognized the stolen vehicle and arrested two suspects aged 19 and 24 on car theft charges.
■ United Kingdom
Women want young men
More women in England and Wales are marrying younger men than ever before, the UK Office for National Statistics said on Thursday in a review of nuptial patterns. In 1963, when most couples married in their 20s and cohabitation rates were low, 15 percent of brides were older than their grooms. But by 1998, when more women followed a career first and wed later, 26 percent chose a husband younger than themselves. More than a quarter of these older women married a partner at least six years younger.
■ Lithuania
President to be impeached
Lawmakers said Thursday they have the needed signatures to start impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas as a new poll found that residents of the Baltic nation want him to resign amid claims his office is tied to Russian organized crime. Lawmakers in the 141-seat parliament needed 36 signatures on a draft article of impeachment to start proceedings against Paksas. Lawmaker Eligijus Masiulis, who signed the document, said 42 were already gathered. The actual impeachment process, which will include the formation of a special commission, could start as early as next week, Masiulis said.
■ Norway
Thieves take rhino horn
Thieves stole the nose horn from a stuffed rhinoceros in a Norwegian museum, leading to fears that the horn was likely ground into a powder prized as an aphrodisiac in Asia. Thieves broke into the Bergen Museum on Norway's west coast on Dec. 2 and used an angle grinder to remove the horn from the rhino, which had been part of the museum's collection for more than a century. Supplies of ground rhinoceros horn are scarce because the giant animals are a protected species. The thieves tried to fool museum staff, installing a poorly made copy of the horn molded in plastic.
■ France
D'Estaing now `immortal'
Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing was declared immortal on Thursday. Giscard, 77, was elected to the Academie Francaise -- whose venerable members are familiarly known as "les immortels" -- by 19 votes to eight, with four abstentions, despite an unseemly campaign against him headed by a leading academic, Maurice Druon. He was decried as pompous, arrogant and unworthy of a seat beneath the golden dome of the 17th-century academy, whose task is to defend the French language, because he once addressed foreign journalists in English.
■ Iraq
Journalists in grenade attack
Two journalists covering the Iraq conflict for Time magazine were wounded Wednesday night in Baghdad when a grenade was thrown into the Humvee they were riding in while accompanying US military personnel, representatives of the magazine said Thursday. James Nachtwey, a contract photographer for Time, and Michael Weisskopf, a senior correspondent for the magazine, were in stable condition Thursday evening and awaiting transfer to a military hospital in Germany, according to executives at the magazine. Two soldiers were also wounded in the attack. Weisskopf had picked up the grenade and thrown it part way out of the vehicle, losing his right hand but limiting the injury to the others.
■ Colombia
Divisive terror bill approved
Colombia's Senate approved a divisive anti-terrorism bill giving the military sweeping powers to search homes, detain suspects without warrants and tap phones. The legislation, criticized by human rights groups, is part of President Alvaro Uribe's strategy to defeat a four-decade leftist insurgency and restore authority in the country's lawless provinces. "The country's citizens can feel more serene," Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt told parliament Thursday. The decision came after Colombian troops launched a massive operation against outlawed right-wing paramilitary fighters, killing 24 and capturing 39.
■ United States
Cuban hijackers convicted
Six Cubans were convicted of hijacking a passenger plane to Florida, after failing to convince a jury it was actually a "freedom flight" undertaken with the crew's cooperation. Sentencing is set for Feb. 26. The March 19 hijacking was the first in a string of air and boat hijackings that strained relations between Havana and Washington. The court heard that the hijackers broke down the cockpit door, held a knife to the throat of the DC-3 pilot and directed the Cuban domestic flight to the US with 37 people aboard. Fourteen people besides the hijackers opted to stay in the US after it landed at Key West.
■ Germany
Thief returns stolen goods
A remorseful thief sent US$600 worth of stolen goods to the police and asked they be returned to their rightful owners. Police in the southern town of Darmstadt said the thief sent them a letter apologizing for the theft of 500 euros (US$608) worth of CDs, cosmetics and other goods. Darmstadt police spokesman Ferdinand Derigs said the contrite perpetrator had supplied the addresses of the shops plundered for the separately packed wares, and enclosed personal letters of apology to the respective managers. "The thief even suggested they install more cameras and improve security," Derigs said.
■ South Africa
Santa Claus advert banned
For South African children there is no Santa Claus this year -- and that's official. South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement for the country's Post Office that gave children an address to write to Santa Claus with their Christmas wishes. In a ruling this week the authority said the Post Office was "profiting from the natural credulity of children." The authority banned the advertisement, upholding a complaint which said it encouraged "a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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