■ Afghanistan
Soldier becomes 100th death
An American soldier returning from a patrol became the 100th fatality in the US military's two-year Afghan campaign when his vehicle collided with a truck, highlighting the dangers facing US forces in a nation roiled by a stubborn Taliban insurgency. The toll pales in comparison to the tally of American dead in Iraq, which is approaching 500. But it is still a striking number in a force that is a small fraction of the size of the 130,000-strong U.S. contingent in Iraq. The US military did not identify the soldier in a brief statement issued Monday. It said he was involved in an accident southwest of the Afghan capital Friday night and died of his injuries the next morning.
■ Japan
Iraq dangers highlighted
Top US military officer General Richard Myers left Tokyo yesterday for a tour of Mongolia, China and Australia after a stopover during which he warned of dangers facing Japanese troops to be sent to Iraq.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff flew out of Yokota Air Base in Tokyo's western suburbs, US military media coordinator Masao Abe said. Myers told a group of reporters in Tokyo on Monday that he would not rule out the possibility that Japanese troops would be the target of attacks during their deployment in Iraq to help humanitarian and reconstruction work there.
■ Cambodia
Police find chained girl
Cambodian police were shocked to find a six-year-old girl wearing dirty clothes chained by the leg in her grandparents' house, local media reported yesterday. The Khmer language Koh Santepheap newspaper said six-year-old Ny Cheath was attached by a 3m chain to a pillar in the house while her grandparents went to a local market in Kampong Cham, southwestern Cambodia. The article stated that local police rescued her Sunday morning after complaints by neighbors. Police said grandmother Chin Horn, 60, told them she chained the girl for fear she would steal property from the neighbors.
■ Hong Kong
Female seducers arrested
Two girls aged 19 and 16 have been arrested in Shanghai for allegedly seducing men online and drugging and robbing them of thousands of US dollars, a news report said yesterday. Zong Xiaozhen, 19, and Chen Xiaoqin, 16, allegedly set up dates with men over Internet chat rooms, according to the South China Morning Post. They are accused of luring 20 men to liaisons and robbing them of a total of 100,000 yuan (US$12,000), the newspaper said.
■ Singapore
Oral sex back in spotlight
A Singapore policeman has become the second officer in three months to face charges of engaging in oral sex with a minor, local media reported yesterday. Oral sex is illegal in this wealthy Southeast Asian city-state known for its strict rules and is punishable with life imprisonment. On Monday, a 25-year-old police corporal whose name has not been released pleaded guilty in Singapore's Subordinate Court to having oral sex with the younger sister of his fiancee in Oct. 2001, the Straits Times reported. The girl, who was 15 when the encounter allegedly took place, filed a police report in May last year, the report said. In a separate incident, a Singapore police officer was jailed for two years last November for having oral sex with a 15-year old girl he met on the Internet. The officer, Annis Abdullah, is appealing.
■ United Nations
Al-Qaeda sanctions ignored
Nearly 100 countries have failed to enforce UN sanctions against the al-Qaeda terror network and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban and they should be publicly identified, the chairman of the committee overseeing sanctions said. Heraldo Munoz, the Chilean ambassador to the UN, briefed the Security Council Monday on the committee's uphill struggle to implement the asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo. Only 93 countries have submitted reports on measures being taken to implement sanctions -- less than half the 191 UN member states, he said.
■ United Kingdom
`Dr. Death' kills himself
Britain's most prolific serial killer, family doctor Harold Shipman, was found hanging dead in his cell yesterday, the prison service said. Shipman, nicknamed "Dr. Death," was convicted in 2000 of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life in prison. An official inquiry later ruled that he had murdered at least 215 of his patients with heroin injections. "He was found dead, hanging in his cell," a prison service spokesman said. "Doctors have confirmed his death. I believe he was found this morning." Shipman's killing spree ran from 1975 to 1998.
■ Argentina
Man challenges lion to fight
An Argentine man leaped into the lion's pen during a weekend visit to the Buenos Aires zoo, challenged one of the animals to a bullfight -- and walked away with just minor cuts and bruises. "He jumped into the lion's pen, and when the lions didn't react, he took off his jacket and egged them on," said zoo veterinarian Miguel Rivolta. "It was an act of madness." Television footage showed Quique the lion sitting on top of 22-year-old Lucas Tomas, padding him with his paw and leaving only superficial injuries to his head, arm and chest, doctors said. The would-be matador was being examined by a psychiatrist.
■ Canada
Giant drug farm raided
A raid on an abandoned brewery near the Ontario city of Barrie has netted 30,000 marijuana plants in what police called the biggest "grow-op" in Canada's history. Police said the factory-like operation used kilometers of irrigation piping and 1,000 hydroponic lights to nurture plants in an area the size of a football field. "The Big Bay Point is the largest and most sophisticated grow operation in Canada, using more than 60,000 square feet of space," Vaughn Collins of Ontario Police's Investigation and Organized Crime Command told a news conference. He said nine men had been arrested. Collins said workers were living in dorm-like rooms with space for up to 50 "farmers" complete with televisions, fridges and stoves.
■ Switzerland
Swiss eat pups, kittens
Chocolate and cheese are possibly the best known Swiss culinary delights, but in some rural parts of the Alpine country puppies and kittens spice up the menu. While in most of Europe eating man's best friend is prohibited, the Swiss only bar the trade and distribution of its meat and meat products, not its private consumption. An animal welfare group is urging the government to close this legal loophole. "Depending on personal preferences the dogs are stored in red salt or a herbal mix for two weeks and are then smoked in the house fireplace," said Norbert Guenster, manager of the Germany-based European Animal and Nature Protection Association.
■ United States
Mobster shoots heckler
A New York mobster has confessed to killing a man by shooting him in the back because he heckled a woman singer and swore at him in an Italian restaurant, according to court documents. Luchese crime family associate Louis Barone pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to second degree murder, but prosecutors released his written confession to the Dec. 22 crime. "I had blood in my eyes," Barone wrote. "I was about three or four feet from the guy when I shot him in the back," Barone, 67, said. "The guy fell down face first near the doorway to the kitchen...I fired another shot at him. I snapped at that point. I went ballistic." Police said Broadway chanteuse Rena Strober was singing Don't Rain on My Parade at Rao's, an East Harlem restaurant when a patron, Albert Circelli, criticized her performance.
■ United Kingdom
Bogus superspy on trial
A British barman accused of posing as a superspy to swindle more than US$1 million from six victims in an elaborate decade-long con game has gone on trial, charged with kidnapping, beatings, threats, deception and theft. Prosecutors said Robert Hendy-Freegard persuaded his victims to give him cash to fund an underground life after convincing them he was a secret police agent or spy and they were his contacts whose cover had been blown. He bought fancy cars and clothes while his victims lived lives of tramps, prosecutors said. They said Freegard beat some of the victims in fake spy training tests before telling them their cover had been blown and they had to go into hiding. A male student gave him ?390,000 (US$722,500). A female student gave him
?200,000, and another bore two of his children during the scam.
■ Italy
PM's album a flop
A collection of love songs written by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi failed to make it into the top 75 albums of 2003 in his homeland, figures revealed on Monday. The album, Meglio 'na Canzone (A
song is better), features Berlusconi lyrics sung by Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella. According to a report published in the Naples local daily Il Mattino, the CD has also sold poorly in Apicella's home town.
■ European Union
Rights group warns EU
The EU must improve human rights in its member states as it expands to the former communist countries of eastern Europe, Amnesty International warned on Monday. Amnesty told Ireland, which took over the union's rotating presidency on Jan. 1, that only two of the 15 current member states -- Luxembourg and the Netherlands -- could be given a clean bill of health. Abuses were occurring in the name of the "war on terror" and the fight against illegal immigration, Amnesty said.
■ Swaziland
King wants 11 new palaces
He did not get a private jet, but King Mswati III has found another way to drain Swaziland's treasury: a palace for each of his 11 wives. Sub-saharan Africa's last absolute monarch has reportedly asked his government for ?8 million (US$14.8 million) to redecorate three royal palaces and build 11 new ones -- a big sum for a tiny country reeling from drought, food shortages and HIV-AIDS. Most of the wives share a single palace and occupy guest houses, but before he marries again the king has decided to give each spouse her own home.
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
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of