■ Hong Kong
Fortune teller in court
A fortune teller was on trial in Hong Kong yesterday accused of tricking a lovesick 22-year-old woman into having sex with him. Keung Chi-wai, 46, allegedly got the woman to sleep with him first by telling her it would make her boyfriend love her then later by threatening to release a video of her undressing. After Keung had sex with her for the first time, he got her to place some of her hair in a red packet on a makeshift shrine as a spell to win her boyfriend's heart. They repeated the ritual and had sex five times more but when the woman said she wanted to stop the sessions, Keung threatened to make public video footage he shot in his flat of her undressing.
■ Australia
Toilet demand perplexes
Australians voiced amazement Tuesday over a demand from Washington that airline passengers flying to the US be barred from queuing to use onboard toilets. A spokesman for national airline Qantas confirmed the toilet queue ban, which is an anti-terrorism measure, but would not say how it would be enforced. "The US Transport Security Administration are now requiring that passengers on flights to the US are not to congregate in groups in any areas of the aircraft, especially around the lavatories," the Qantas spokesman said. Callers to talkback radio were upset at the directive and called on their government not to comply.
■ Hong Kong
Pilot dies ahead of takeoff
A pilot died at the controls of a passenger jet as he prepared to take off from Hong Kong International Airport with more than 100 people on board, a news report said yesterday. The Russian pilot reportedly collapsed with a suspected heart attack in the cockpit of the Russian Aeroflot plane on Sunday evening, 20 minutes before the plane was due to take off. An ambulance arrived within two minutes and rushed the 55-year-old pilot to hospital where he was declared dead, the newspaper said. The plane took off with a different pilot one hour later.
■ Niue
Emergency aid arrives
Emergency aid and medical teams arrived on tiny Niue yesterday after the remote South Pacific island state was devastated by the worst cyclone in memory. Packing wind gusts of almost 300kph, tropical cyclone Heta ripped through the island of about 2,100 people two days ago, flattening houses and crops, badly damaging the island's only hospital and cutting communications. One person was killed, a woman whose house was crushed by a giant wave that hit Alofi, the capital of the world's largest coral island. The woman's 19-month-old son was found lying next to her, clinging to life. The boy and another seriously injured person were evacuated to New Zealand by air ambulance.
■ Australia
Gay resort goes straight
One of the world's leading gay tourist destinations is going straight after the expected numbers of "pink-pound" holidaymakers failed to materialize. The Liberty resort, an exclusive rainforest retreat near Australia's scuba-diving capital, Cairns, is broadening its scope after failing to fill more than a third of its US$180-a-night rooms since opening in 2002. It offered a spa, cinema, twin pools linked by waterfalls, and even an on-call plastic surgeon to provide emergency liposuction and botox treatment. But after 15 months in the doldrums it is re-marketing itself to straight tourists.
■ Sudan
Wealth-sharing deal agreed
Sudanese government and rebel officials have signed an agreement on sharing the nation's wealth, eliminating a key obstacle to reaching a comprehensive peace accord in Africa's longest-running war. Among the riches to be shared by the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army is revenue from the 250,000 barrels of oil per day coming from the south. "It's a historic day in the process of peace in Sudan," Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha said Wednesday. "This moment in which we have signed a wealth-sharing agreement spells an end to the long episode of war and conflict in our country."
■ France
Police hunt for passenger
French police said Wednesday that they were hunting for a passenger who failed to show up for an Air France flight that was canceled on Christmas Eve, the first of more than two dozen such cancellations that disrupted holiday travel to the US. "We are carrying out an investigation into this passenger who didn't show up and that's all we can confirm," said a National Police official under the Interior Ministry. An official at the French intelligence service, DST, said the no-show passenger was named Abdul Hay and that American intelligence officials were alarmed by the name because it was similar to that of a man who was among more than 40 Taliban prisoners who escaped from an Afghan prison in October.
■ Belgium
Politician's killers convicted
A jury on Wednesday found six men guilty in the murder of former deputy prime minister Andre Cools, whose assassination 12 years ago led to the resignation of a NATO secretary general. A Tunisian court five years ago sentenced two men to 25 years in jail for the killing, but it took until Wednesday to establish who gave them the order. The jury found two associates in his Cabinet -- former aide Richard Taxquet, 40, and sometime chauffeur Giuseppe "Pino" Di Mauro, 58 -- guilty of planning the murder and sentenced them to 20 years.
■ Colombia
Man fakes own kidnapping
Colombian authorities arrested a man who arranged to be kidnapped to get back at his cheating wife, police said Wednesday. Jorge Bravo, who was captured in Colombia's second largest city Medellin, said by planning for his own kidnapping he was trying to test whether his wife loved him. A brother of Bravo's had called the woman, asking her to pay three million pesos (US$1,100) for her husband's release, according to the police. The woman had admitted having an affair with another man.
■ Brazil
US asked for exemption
Brazil asked the US on Wednesday to exempt Brazilians from anti-terrorism checks and defended retaliatory fingerprint controls on US citizens that have strained relations between the countries. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim suggested to US Secretary of State Colin Powell that if the US could exempt "distant" nations from the new security controls, it could exempt a neighbor in the Americas like Brazil. "Amorim said that if several young and distant nations are exempt from the US measure, all the more reason for nations that are members of the Organization of American States," Brazil's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
■ United States
Bush's election purse bulges
US President George W. Bush's re-election campaign said on Wednesday that it took in US$47 million in contributions in the last three months of last year, bringing the year's total to US$130.8 million, extending the president's financial edge over the Democrats seeking to challenge him. Bush had spent US$31 million, leaving it with US$99 million in the bank as it prepares to unleash an advertising campaign in the next month or two to hit back at the Democrats and promote Bush's accomplishments and agenda.
■ United States
Hillary's joke not hilarious
Former first lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton on Wednesday apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi once ran a gas station in Missouri. Clinton made the joke, playing on a stereotype that many South Asians in the US manage gas stations or convenience stores, during a fundraiser over the weekend. "I have admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken publicly about that many times," Clinton said in a statement. "I truly regret if a lame attempt at humor suggested otherwise."
■ United States
Beatle's estate sues doctor
The estate of former Beatle George Harrison filed a US$10 million law suit on Tuesday against one of the doctors who treated the late rock musician, claiming he violated confidentiality and misused his relationship to procure souvenirs. The suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court claimed that Dr. Gilbert Lederman, director of radiation oncology at Staten Island University Hospital, a co-defendant in the suit, had coerced a failing Harrison to autograph his son's guitar and sign autographs for his two daughters.
■ United States
Lottery prize in dispute
A woman who says she lost the winning ticket for a US$162 million US lottery prize will pursue her claim in court, despite questions about her credibility, her lawyer said on Wednesday. Starke's client, Elicia Battle, went to court on Tuesday to try to stop Ohio lottery officials from distributing the prize they had awarded a few hours earlier to Rebecca Jemison. Battle claimed she bought the winning ticket but lost it when she dropped her purse outside the door. In another development, police in Richmond Heights, Ohio, said Battle had been arrested for misuse of a credit card there in 1998.
■ United Kingdom
Transsexuals win EU victory
British transsexuals won a victory in the EU's highest court on Wednesday, which ruled that the British government cannot deny them the right to marry. The European Court of Justice decision provides a spur to the British parliament, where a Gender Recognition Bill to permit transsexuals to marry has stalled in the House of Lords. Its immediate effect is to give a British court the authority to work around existing law and provide pension benefits for transsexuals as though they were married, even before parliament acts. An appeals court had asked for the court's advice on European Community law so it could rule on a pension case. In Britain marriage can only occur between a man and a woman. British law has prevented transsexuals from marrying within their new sex on the grounds that birth certificates cannot be amended, the EU court noted. That has barred transsexuals from receiving pension benefits, which are limited to married couples.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in