■ New Zealand
Clark denounces sex bill
A government bill that would have legalized sex for 12- to 16-year-olds in New Zealand now appears doomed after Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday spoke out against it. "I certainly don't support decriminalizing sex below the age of 16," she told a national radio station. "I happen to think 16 is quite young enough, and really too young to be entering into those sorts of relationships." Parliament is considering a bill that would keep New Zealand's age of consent at the current age of 16, but allow a defense for consensual sex involving under 16 year olds if the age difference involved is two years or less.
■ India
Girl dies in SMS mix-up
A 17-year-old girl in the central city of Indore killed herself after receiving an incorrect message on her cellphone saying she had failed her board examination. Aditi Jeena, a student at the Standard XII level, hanged herself in her room on Sunday after she received a text phone message with the wrong information, the Hindustan Times reported yesterday. Two cellular companies are offering results of the Central Board of Secondary Education final examination for students in Indore. The police would not say whether Aditi may have made a mistake in typing her roll number.
■ Hong Kong
Sex pledge divorce rejected
A wife in western China has filed for divorce from her husband of 18 years after he broke a pledge to have sex with her at least once every 15 days, a news report said yesterday. The woman, from Pengzhou, Sichuan province, told a judge she and her husband had agreed years ago to make love at least once every 15 days to revitalize their sex life. Her application for a divorce was rejected by the judge, who said a verbal contract did not represent adequate grounds for divorce, according to the South China Morning Post.
■ Philippines
Britons implicated in murder
Philippine police have named two Britons among seven suspects in the murder of a prominent Hong Kong art dealer and three other people on the tropical island resort of Boracay, officials said yesterday. Keith Redfern and Patrick Higgs, along with a German suspect earlier named by police as Uwe Friesl, are all barred from leaving the country while state prosecutors study the evidence against them, immigration chief Alipio Fernandez said. Police earlier asked state prosecutors to indict Friesl and four Filipinos for the murders of Swiss-born Hong Kong art dealer Manfred Schoeni, German property developer Anton Faustenhauser, Hong Kong-based British architect John Cowperthwaite and Faustenhauser's Filipina maid. The four were found stabbed to death on May 2 in the developer's villa on Boracay island, one of the Philippines' top tourist draws.
■ South Korea
Court convicts general
A South Korean military court convicted a high-ranking general who works closely with US forces of embezzlement yesterday and fined him 20 million won (US$17,000), an official said. Shin Il-soon, deputy chief of the combined South Korea-US forces, was also ordered to reimburse the 107 million won (US$91,570) in military funds he misappropriated over the past several years, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The court cleared Shin on separate bribery charges. He was allowed to return to his residence following yesterday's sentencing.
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