■ South Korea
General in money scandal
A South Korean army general who was second-in-command of joint US-South Korean forces has been indicted on charges of embezzlement, a spokeswoman of the defense ministry said yesterday. General Shin Il-Soon, deputy commander of the Korea-US Combined Forces Command, was immediately suspended from duty after being charged with embezzling 140 million won (US$118,000 US dollars). His replacement as a deputy chief of the combined forces has yet to be appointed. Shin is expected to go on trial within days, a defense ministry official said. Shin's arrest, the first ever of a South Korean four-star general, was seen here as the start of a wide-ranging probe into allegations of the misuse of public funds in the military.
■ Nepal
Rebels scuffle with hikers
Maoist rebels tried to extort cash from a group of five Israeli trekkers in Nepal, getting into a scuffle after the hikers refused to give them any money, a tour operator said Saturday. The five Israelis refused to hand over the US$50 each the rebels demanded, according to local reports. They then started hitting the trekkers with their hiking poles before making off with 5,000 rupees (US$69). The incident occurred in Shikh, a village west of Kathmandu. The rebels, who have been fighting for a communist republic since 1996 in an uprising that has so far claimed more than 9,500 lives, do not normally attack foreigners.
■ Singapore
Premier urges Iraq aid
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, back from a trip to Washington and London, urged Asia and Europe to help the US succeed in Iraq for the sake of global stability and security. "If America departs unceremoniously and leaves behind an Iraq in shambles, its credibility and resolve to fight terrorism will be severely degraded," Goh said on Friday night at a dinner organized by the European Chamber of Commerce. "The whole of the Middle East will probably explode," Goh said. "We will all be at greater risk from terrorism and rogue states." "No other international issue can be easily resolved" unless ties are stable, he added.
■ Vietnam
Giant tumor removed
Doctors in Vietnam removed a 10kg tumor from a woman's breast on Thursday, a health official said yesterday. Som Sari, 25, from a Cambodian province on the Vietnamese border, was hospitalized at the Ho Chi Minh City tumor and Cancer Hospital just two days after giving birth to her second child, said Nguyen Chan Hung, director of the hospital. Sari developed the tumor when she was 15 and it had grown to the size of an orange after she had her first child in 2002.
■ Singapore
DNA cracks unsolved cases
DNA analysis helped police crack several unsolved cases for the first time in Singapore, leading to the conviction of three hard-core criminals, news reports said yesterday. The crooks were nailed using DNA profiling, a technique revealing the unique genetic makeup of an individual, The Straits Times said. Such profiling is possible now that police are equipped with a 4.2-million-Singapore-dollar (US$2.4 million) database, the first in Southeast Asia. It contains the DNA information on 36,000 prisoners and accused individuals. The three criminals had all left behind samples of their DNA, either in semen or blood, at crime scenes, the court heard.<
■ Venezuela
Chavez: They were dupes
President Hugo Chavez said Friday that most of the 100 Colombians arrested here this week for allegedly plotting a coup were poor men duped into coming to Venezuela with promises of work. During a news conference with foreign reporters, Chavez gave only vague details about the masterminds of the purported conspiracy, saying their headquarters were in Miami, but he provided no evidence. "The majority were recruited through deception. Many were minors," Chavez said, adding that he had spoken to some detainees. "They were children, but they came to kill me. It makes me sad because the majority were poor."
■ Poland
Prime minister loses vote
Poland's new prime minister, Marek Belka, lost a parliamentary confidence vote Friday, prolonging uncertainty over free-market reforms but leaving the country's mission in Iraq on track. The lower house of parliament voted 262-188 against Belka, who was appointed prime minister on May 2 after his unpopular predecessor, Leszek Miller, stepped down. Belka had asked lawmakers earlier Friday to give him a "one-year contract" to pursue economic changes and the mission in Iraq, which has broad political backing in Poland. The next elections are due in the fall of next year.
■ Italy
Riots kill sex drive
Riots that dominated a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 suppressed the sex drive of its residents and led to a sharp decline in births in the city, a study showed on Wednesday. In the ninth months after the riots, birth rates dropped off 29 percent compared to the average birth rate on the same dates over the three previous years, the study carried out by San Martino hospital showed. Even 11 months after the clashes, birth rates were 20 percent lower. "Violent demonstrations can cause a stress reaction with negative consequences for sexual drive and reproductive activity," the author of the study, Aldo Franco De Rose, told Italian news agency ANSA.
■ Israel
Idolatry fear causes wig ban
An ultraorthodox Jewish sage has issued a ritual ban against natural hair wigs from India, saying they may have been made from tresses shorn from women during Hindu ceremonies, Israeli newspapers reported on Friday. Many Orthodox Jewish women, who adhere to rules of modesty by allowing only their husbands to see their natural hair, responded to the ruling by switching to synthetic wigs or hats, the Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz dailies reported. The edict said some hair in wigs sold in Israel may have come from women who took part in Hindu haircutting ceremonies, which was tantamount to idol worship.
■ Brazil
Plane crashes in jungle
A plane carrying 30 passengers and three crew crashed in dense Amazon jungle near the Brazilian city of Manaus on Friday night, the nation's Globo television network reported, citing emergency services. The Rico Linhas Aereas flight crashed around 15km west of Manaus in Brazil's north west Amazonas state as it prepared to land at the city's airport, Globo reported. Local emergency services found the wreckage of the aircraft after a six-hour search in the jungle but gave no reports on casualties or survivors, Globo reported.
■ United States
`Doonesbury' in trouble
The distributor of the "Doonesbury" comic called it an "unfortunate coincidence" that a strip depicting a man's head on a platter is set to run in newspapers days after the release of a videotape showing an American's beheading by Iraqi militants. Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate said Friday the strip, scheduled to run May 23, was drawn before Nicholas Berg's death in Iraq; it will offer a substitute comic strip. In the strip, the character Joanie, angry about her friend's firing from her university coaching job, begins daydreaming. In the last frame, she's pictured carrying a platter with the head of the university president on it. He says, "What's this." She responds, "A good start." "I regret the poor timing, and apologize to anyone who is offended by an image that is now clearly inappropriate," Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau said.
■ Italy
Cops in the fast lane
If you are thinking about speeding on Italian highways this year, think twice. You might find yourself being chased by a Lamborghini. Italian police took possession Friday of a sleek, 500 horsepower, two-seater Lamborghini Gallardo, which can hit a top speed of 300kph. The sports car, painted in the police's distinctive blue and white colors, comes complete with a flashing blue light on the roof and will initially patrol the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway -- a road notorious in Italy for wild driving. The Lamborghini will also be used to transport human organs for emergency operations.
■ Germany
Frogman arrested for arson
A German frogman who lives on a swampy island and wears a combat-style diving suit and black face paint has been arrested for suspected arson attacks on two yachts, Berlin police said on Friday. Authorities found the man's camp, equipment and a boat with a silencer on its engine after a tip-off from a forester. "He wore combat-style aquanaut camouflage and launched his attacks from a swampy island," wrote Bild newspaper on Friday. Police believe the man, 36, abandoned his flat in eastern Berlin in March to live in a tent on the boggy island in a lake south of the city. A judge issued an arrest warrant after the two yachts were destroyed by fire, causing an estimated US$118,000 in damage.
■ United States
A slippery haul
A thief has slipped away with nearly 2 tonnes of used cooking grease bound for recycling. Authorities say the grease from three restaurants has a resale value of about US$380. The theft occurred sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, police said. Police think the thief is someone familiar with the restaurant industry and will look to turn in the grease for the recycling value.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia