■ Afghanistan
Civilians killed in airstrike
An American airstrike in an Afghan village earlier this month killed 10 civilians, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday. The US military had said it killed five militants during a Jan. 17 raid against suspected Taliban leaders in southern Uruzgan province and insisted it fired only on armed men. But Karzai said an Interior Ministry investigation into the attack, some 400km southwest of the capital, Kabul, established that 10 civilians had died. At the time of the raid, local officials had maintained that 11 civilians were killed: four men, four children and three women. "There are casualties unfortunately, according to the report that I have received, of civilians, of children and men and women," Karzai told reporters at his palace.
■ North Korea
Groups vow climactic fight
North Korea's youth and female groups vowed a "death-defying" fight against the US while stressing closer ties with South Korea amid a standoff over the communist country's nuclear weapons development. "The most correct option and only way to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the country and the nation is a death-defying fight against the US," the state-run Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's Union said.
■ Singapore
Wife arrested for false claim
A mother of four was charged in Singapore with conspiracy to cheat three insurance firms after the Sri Lankan husband she maintained was dead for 16 years was sighted twice in Colombo. Renuga Devi Sinnaduray, 47, who lives in Singapore, was accused of collecting a life insurance payout of 330,000 Singapore dollars (US$195,000) during her court appearance on Friday, The Straits Times reported yesterday. A former lawyer who helped prepare documents for the insurance claim tipped the authorities off in June that the "dead" man had been sighted at least twice in Colombo.
■ Hong Kong
Man held over glass charge
A German tourist has been arrested in Hong Kong for allegedly blackmailing several upscale hotels by claiming he was served food mixed with shattered glass, a police spokeswoman said yesterday. Officers arrested the man, who was not identified, on Friday as he picked up a HK$30,750 (US$3,942) check from a five-star hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui tourist district, police spokeswoman Margaret Ho said. Lamey Chang, a spokeswoman for The Peninsula, confirmed the arrest and the alleged blackmailing but refused to comment further. The man remains in custody and hasn't been charged, Ho said.
■ Australia
China had `secret key' plan
China's first space traveller had permission to crash-land in the Australian outback, news reports said yesterday. An Australian newspaper said Canberra had a secret agreement with Beijing that provided for China's first astronaut to ditch his craft in the outback in an emergency. The paper said the government didn't tell the public of the disaster plan -- although it alerted emergency services to the possibility of a crash landing. In the event of a crash, a Chinese official from Canberra would have opened the capsule with a secret key. China insisted on having the official present to make sure Australian scientists could not steal any rocket technology secrets, the paper said.
■ South Africa
Snakes let loose in bank
A disgruntled customer in Johannesburg caused chaos when he released five venomous snakes in a bank. A worker at the bank was stable in hospital after being bitten on a finger. The customer, Abel Manamela, had opened a briefcase to take out what was assumed to be yet more documentation in his dispute with the bank, but instead he tipped out the deadly puff adders. Customers and staff scrambled for safety. A bank spokesman said the bank had "a bit of a history with the gentleman" since one of its subsidiaries repossessed his car, prompting a series of confrontations with staff.
■ Mexico
Juarez killings investigated
Mexico appointed a special prosecutor on Friday to investigate the killings over the past decade of hundreds of women in a city on the Texas border. More than 300 women have been killed, one third of them in sexual crimes, in the past 10 years in the city of Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state. Few of the murders have been solved. The appointment of Maria Lopez, a lawyer with a long career in state and federal criminal investigation, lifts the investigation to a federal level and goes over the heads of state investigators, whom many rights groups consider inefficient.
■ United Kingdom
Woman `too old' for puzzle
A British mail order company has ruled an 84-year-old woman too old to buy a jigsaw, the Times reported yesterday. The company, Express Gifts, subsequently apologized for the decision by its customer service operator, which it said was a mistake, as the policy applied only to those over 90. "I thought they were joking at first but when I realized they were serious I was furious. I just put the phone down," Iris Milne, a former personal assistant, said. "I think it's discrimination. I'm perfectly capable of doing things for myself so why shouldn't I have a jigsaw?" the widow added. The company later issued a statement saying that the ban applied only to the over-90s because "they have trouble filling out forms."
■ United States
Gibson film sparks outcry
Actor-director Mel Gibson says he was surprised by the intensity of controversy spawned by his forthcoming film, The Passion of the Christ, criticized by some Jewish leaders as a work that could incite anti-Semitism. "It kind of put me back on my heels a little bit," Gibson said in an interview featured in the March edition of Reader's Digest that hits newsstands on Feb. 24. The film makes its debut in North America on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday. Jewish leaders in particular have expressed concern for months that the movie could spark anti-Semitism because it portrays Jews as responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
■ Brazil
Robbers use Bible
The Bible is mightier than the gun, at least for a group of Brazilian robbers. Unsure if their weapons had caused enough fear, robbers who broke into a monastery made a priest swear on the Bible that he had handed over all the money, police said on Friday. The 15 hooded men who stole some US$6,200 from a secluded Catholic monastery near the town of Guaratingueta in Sao Paulo state were apologetic. "They were asking the priests to forgive them during the robbery, saying they were only doing it because they needed the money," said a police investigator.
■ United Nations
Council wants terror reports
The Security Council set a March 31 deadline for nearly 100 countries to report on their enforcement of sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- or be publicly named and shamed. A resolution adopted unanimously Friday by the council gives the committee that monitors sanctions new powers to assess what states are doing to implement the asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo against the two groups and terror leader Osama bin Laden. The council has been concerned that almost 100 of the 191 UN member states have failed to submit reports on their actions to enforce sanctions.
■ Saudi Arabia
Hajj reaches focal point
Pilgrims converged here Saturday for the central ritual of the hajj -- prayers and soul-searching at Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad preached his last sermon in 632. A pilgrimage to this gentle hill 20km southwest of Mecca is believed to represent the Day of Judgment, when Islam says every person will stand before Allah and answer for his deeds. "I could not wait to reach here; this is primarily what we came for," said Abdel Aziz al-Jezairi, an Egyptian. "This is the worst day for the devil. When he sees thousands of Muslims gathered in such a show of force and piety."
■ Cuba
Castro vows to `die fighting'
Cuban President Fidel Castro vowed on Friday to die fighting "with a gun in my hand" if the US invaded Cuba to overthrow his communist government. "I don't care how I die, but for sure, if they invade us, I will die fighting," the 77-year-old leader said at a meeting of anti-free trade activists from across the hemisphere. Castro, the target of CIA assassination attempts in the 1960s, called on US President George W. Bush to clarify its policy on assassinations. "It's an absurd declaration, as usual. According to Fidel Castro, he's going to die fighting, probably he's going to die talking," said Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
■ United States
Swordsman nabs escapee
Joshua Cary heard a noise in the basement, grabbed a sword from his big brother's collection and went downstairs to investigate. "I'm going to give you until the count of three to come out, or I'm going to stab you," he yelled Thursday, according to his mother, Rebecca Cary. Soon, a handcuffed man emerged, saying, "I didn't do it." Joshua led the man upstairs at sword-point. The man, Mark A. Brown, who had broken free after he was picked up on a parole violation, was taken back into custody. Cary said she was proud of her son, who went out afterwards for a celebratory night of bowling in this east-central Missouri town.
■ United States
Legislator touts feng shui
More hippy, dippy jokes about California might be on the way, thanks to a state lawmaker who wants building codes to consider feng shui. State Assemblyman Leland Yee, a Democrat representing San Francisco, has introduced a resolution that urges public building officials to accommodate feng shui -- the ancient Chinese art of designing structures and arranging objects to create harmonious energy flow. Yee said Friday he underestimated the controversy the legislation would bring when he introduced it earlier this month.
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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