■ New Zealand
Maori heads head home
New Zealand yesterday welcomed a decision by a Scottish museum to return three tattooed heads of 19th century Maoris. New Zealand has been campaigning for years for the return of Maori remains taken overseas as macabre trophies by British military officers, colonial settlers and traders in previous centuries. Glasgow Council voted unanimously on Thursday to repatriate the preserved heads and the leg bone of an 18th-century Maori warrior chief. A Museum of New Zealand director, James Te Puni, said the decision may reflect a change in attitudes by museums worldwide in keeping human remains.
■ The Philippines
Spike scatterer detained
Philippine troops yesterday arrested a lawyer who scattered iron spikes on major roads in the country to protest his disqualification from last month's presidential election. A military spokes-man said Elly Pamatong and seven companions were arrested at an army checkpoint in Laguna Province, just south of Manila. He said two M-16 rifles, a grenade launcher and three pistols were recovered from Pamatong's group. Pamatong tried to run for president in the May 10 elections, which incumbent President Gloria Arroyo won. Election officials, however, barred him from the race and ruled he was a "nuisance candidate."
■ Thailand
License plate a start
A wealthy hostel owner in Chiang Mai paid 1.8 million baht (US$45,000) for the "lucky" license plate number 9999, despite the fact that she doesn't have a car, a news report said yesterday. The woman who bought number 9999 -- which in Thai connotes moving forward -- said she was planning to buy a car soon. The 9999 license attracted the highest bid at a Department of Land Transport auction on Thursday, followed by 8888, which was snapped up for 1.5 million baht and 1111 for 1.2 million baht. The Thai News Agency said those two plates were bought by Bangkok's famed Oriental Hotel.
■ Vietnam
Farmer dies in own trap
A Vietnamese farmer was electrocuted by the wires he laid in traps aimed at killing rats in his rice fields, an official said yesterday. Le Hoang Nghien, 22, was killed instantly on Monday in the southern Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, some 150km southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, deputy village chief Mai Hoang Khiem said. Khiem said Nghien had slipped and fallen on the electric wires while trying to check his rat traps. The village had just gotten electricity about six months ago, he said.
■ United States
US asks immunity in Iraq
The Bush administration is negotiating with Iraqi leaders to continue shielding Amer-icans from criminal prosecu-tion by Iraqi courts, but with-out the the government's formal approval, the US said on Thursday. Iraqi officials have said that the credibility of the new government could be highly damaged if it were to grant immunity to US military personnel and contractors from local prosecution. "This is done with the approval and consent of the new Iraqi government," a senior Bush administration official said. But asked whether Prime Minister Iyad Allawi would accept such an arrangement, the official said: "I'm not sure he will." US officials have said that civilians working for private contractors would leave Iraq if they were not protected from prosecution.
■ Italy
Mafia women aid police
A women's revolt has torn apart one of Italy's most notorious mafia clans. Almost 90 alleged members of a gang on the Adriatic are in custody after raids by paramilitary police that also led to the arrest of two of their colleagues and a police officer. As the search continued for a further 33 people, prosecutor Domeni-co Seccia said "Due gratitude goes to the women who have collaborated in this investi-gation." Seccia said the biggest contribution had been made by the 25-year-old partner of an alleged boss who turned up at his office because she could no longer live in com-plicity with the violence she had witnessed. "She was an eyewitness to many bloody crimes and saw a lot of people die," he said.
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