■ Hong Kong
Arroyo appeals to maids
Courting migrant Filipino workers who can now vote from abroad, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pressed the flesh and handed out raffle prizes yesterday while telling a crowd of mostly live-in maids she still has much to do for them. Arroyo's brief appearance -- in a hall decked with banners and packed with an estimated 5,000 people waving Philippine flags -- had the trappings of a national presidential campaign going global. "I've been working across continents to bring the message of Filipino pride and pride in the Filipinos' bright future," Arroyo said.
■ South Korea
Roh to send troops to Iraq
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, finalizing a decision to send forces to Iraq, will ask parliament to approve the deployment of 3,000 troops to help rebuild the war-torn country, his office said yesterday. Many in South Korea oppose sending more troops to Iraq, where two South Korean workers were killed last month. "The responsibility of the troops will be to help to rebuild peace in a certain area and the size of the troops will be 3,000," the presidential office said in statement after Roh met the leaders of the country's four main political parties.
■ Australia
Pilot stranded in Antarctica
An Australian pilot stranded in Antarctica after running out of fuel remained grounded on the icy continent yesterday because of bad weather. Jon Johanson refueled his plane on Saturday and had been expected to fly to New Zealand yesterday, but was unable to take off because of weather conditions, said his friend, Ed Herring. Herring said it was unclear when Johanson would finally depart. Johanson has been grounded at the US-New Zealand McMurdo-Scott base in Antarctica for almost a week since his homemade plane was forced to land there, without enough fuel to continue on to Argentina as planned.
■ Indonesia
Ghost train on 45km trip
An empty train travelled 45km with no driver at the engine and eight wagons in tow before coming to a halt in the center of the Indonesian capital, a report said yesterday. The electronic commuter train, parked in the town of Bogor, came to life at around 3:50am Friday and headed towards Jakarta at about 65km per hour, the state Antara news agency said, quoting station sources. A railway employee who saw the train begin to move climbed on board in an effort to stop the locomotive but could not enter the driving compartment. An Indonesian state railways spokesman, Patria Sutiyoso, said "technical problems" were behind the unscheduled journey, which caused no casualties or damage.
■ South Korea
Booze smugglers sentenced
A South Korean court gave three-year jail sentences to two South Koreans who smuggled duty-free beer and wine from a US military post exchange through an underground tunnel, a report said yesterday. The Seoul District Court also fined the two men a combined 1.9 billion won (US$1.6 million), the same amount they smuggled, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. South Korea imposes steep taxes on imported liquor ranging from 30 percent to 100 percent. Officials said the two men dug a 20m tunnel from the post exchange at the US military's Yongsan Garrison to a storage building just outside the base.
■ Spain
Basque plan under fire
Government ministers, opposition politicians and union leaders led thousands of marchers in Spain's Basque Country on Saturday to protest at a proposal to give the northern region greater autonomy from Madrid. Under the plan put forward by Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the region would have the right to self-determination and a status of "free association" with the Spanish state. He says that would end decades of violence by separatist group ETA, but Spain's ruling Popular Party has said the plan "legitimized ETA terrorism" and violated the Constitution. The party has appealed to Spain's highest court to block it and threatened to jail Ibarretxe if he goes ahead with a referendum in the Basque Country on the proposal.
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