■ Australia
Official makes Iraq claims
Australia rejected claims by a former defense adviser yesterday that she had been sacked for refusing to exaggerate evidence of Iraq's weapons programs, a key basis for Australia's joining the US war in Iraq. Jane Errey, a former analyst with Australia's Defense Science and Technology Organization, said she had been sacked because she had refused to write briefing papers supporting claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "I felt like I was part of the propaganda machine," Errey told The Sunday Herald Sun. "Anything that I was doing with respect to the war was making me uncomfortable ... I wouldn't lie or mislead the public," said Errey, who worked as the chief adviser to Australia's former top defense scientist, Ian Chessell.
■ China
Smuggled silver nabbed
Chinese customs officials seized 360kg of smuggled silver from a Hong Kong truck crossing the border into Shenzhen, newspapers reported yesterday. Officers found 24 silver bars worth 864,000 Chinese yuan (US$104,400) in a hidden compartment in the truck earlier this week, the Oriental Daily News reported. The Wen Wei Po said it was the second attempt to smuggle silver blocked in less than a month, amid rising silver prices. It said Shenzhen's customs department found six silver bars weighing 90km in another Hong Kong vehicle on March 14. Oriental Daily News reported that batch was worth 216,000 yuan.
■ Australia
Heroin hidden in pastries
Customs officers arrested a man after discovering heroin stashed in pastries he allegedly tried to bring into Australia on a flight from Thailand, authorities said yesterday. The officials discovered the drug wrapped in pastry when they searched the bags of a passenger who arrived at Sydney Airport on a flight from Bangkok on Friday, federal police said in a statement. It was not immediately clear how much heroin was found. Police said they found two boxes of confections and inside each was "a quantity of white powder wrapped in plastic covered in a thin pastry." The 22-year-old Australian was charged with heroin smuggling and was due to appear in court tomorrow.
■ Hong Kong
Waste enters sanctuary
A truck fell on its side, spilling sodium hydroxide into a sewage system that discharges into waters near the territory's Mai Po bird sanctuary, the government said yesterday. The government said the truck lost 500 liters of the highly corrosive liquid, also known as caustic soda. It can cause severe eye and respiratory irritation. Ming Pao Daily News published a photo of firefighters hosing the spillage site to dilute the chemical. The newspaper quoted a Mai Po official as expressing fears that the chemical, while not immediately lethal, could accumulate in the birds over time and cause long-term effects.
■ Thailand
Former MP shot
A former MP and a village chief were gunned down in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south on the weekend, becoming the latest victims of a wave of violence that has left at least 60 people dead this year, police said yesterday. The shootings came while Thailand was on high terror alert over the traditional new year holiday Songkran, which began Saturday, amid concerns that militants from the south could mount a major attack.
■ Brazil
Deadly day for Rio slum
A day of drug gang-related violence in one of Rio de Janeiro's largest slums killed eight people, including police and bystanders, before hundreds of police officers restored calm on Saturday. Friday's killings started when several dozen heavily armed drug traffickers closed a road near the Rocinha shantytown and stole several cars, police said. One motorist was shot to death during the robbery. During the police pursuit, the alleged gang members shot at police, killing two bystanders with stray bullets. The traffickers then had a gunbattle with a rival drug gang over drug selling areas. Later Friday, a shootout between police and gang members killed two officers and two alleged drug traffickers.
■ Colombia
Soldiers kill 23 fighters
Troops battled leftist rebels and outlawed right-wing paramilitary fighters in separate offensives over the past two days, killing 23 illegal fighters, the army said on Saturday. The heaviest fighting took place in the central Meta region, where soldiers killed 15 members of the Centauros Bloc, a faction of the main paramilitary umbrella group known as the United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, the army said in a statement. The AUC has declared a unilateral ceasefire and is currently pursuing disarmament talks with the government, but some members continue to carry out killings and attack villages.
■ United States
`Immodest' statues covered
A garden center's nude statues proved a bit immodest for some in this small town. G&L Garden Center responded to complaints by covering up the classical-style statues with stylish, two-piece crimson velvet sarongs. It turns out leaving a little to the imagination meant a lot more customers for the US$99.95 ornaments. Six statues have sold in the past couple of weeks alone, and the attempt at roadside modesty is stopping traffic. Workers across the street at Hartsville Gas didn't seem bothered by their full view of the statues. "I guess some people just don't appreciate art," said gas technician Brad Smith.
■ United States
Rat poison killing squirrels
Last fall, the city began poisoning rats that had invaded Philadelphia's most elegant park. But neighbors are upset because Rittenhouse Square's squirrel population is suffering the same gruesome fate as the rats. Heliana Murray was walking her basset hound in the square last week when one of the few remaining squirrels there began to convulse and gush blood. Philadelphia Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran acknowledged that at least a dozen squirrels have died, but said the department had no choice because the rats posed a risk to public health.
■ The Vatican
Tired pope leads mass
Pope John Paul II celebrated an Easter vigil mass at the Vatican late Saturday amid Christian festivities overshadowed by the threat of terrorism and a worsening conflict in Iraq. The 83-year-old pope appeared tired, his words weak and halting as he presided over the mass in St Peter's Basilica, ahead of an open-air Easter Sunday mass which is once again expected to test his resilience to age and Parkinson's disease. For hours before the vigil mass, thousands of pilgrims, many of them tourists from across the world, filed patiently through metal detectors to gain access to the basilica.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion