■ Japan
Death sentences confirmed
A court yesterday upheld death sentences for two ex-cult members convicted in a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways that killed 12 people and injured thousands. The Tokyo High Court rejected the appeals of Toru Toyoda, 36, and Kenichi Hirose, 40, who were sentenced to death by hanging by a lower court in 2000, court spokesman Sadakazu Takagi said. The two were among five Aum Shinrikyo members who released sarin gas on subway trains on March 21, 1995. The high court also upheld a ruling of life imprisonment for Shigeo Sugimoto, 45, who drove the getaway car for a third attacker.
■ Japan
Fischer asks to be released
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has asked to be released from custody at a Tokyo detention center while he appeals against a move to deport him, a Canadian advising Fischer said yesterday. Fischer, 61, wanted by Washington for defying sanctions by playing a match in Yugoslavia in 1992, was detained at Tokyo's Narita airport on July 15 when he tried to leave for the Philippines on a passport US officials said was invalid. "He has asked for provisional release, which is discretionary, but which we would hope for immediately," said John Bosnitch, a Tokyo-based communications consultant and journalist.
■ Australia
Acid killers in court
Five men appeared briefly in court yesterday charged with murdering another man by forcing him at gunpoint to swallow hydrochloric acid. Accountant Dominic Li, 45, died on Jan. 2 last year after suffering almost three weeks of agony after he was forced to drink the acid in front of his wife and 14-year-old son at their home in the Sydney suburb of Concord. Police believe the killing was part of a "bungled contract assault-murder" over the proceeds of a drug deal, a statement of facts tendered to the Central Local Court said. The five accused, aged from 24 to 39, were charged with murder and conspiring to conflict grievous bodily harm.
■ Australia
Anglican bishop defrocked
A former Anglican bishop who seduced a schoolgirl 50 years ago is set to become the first clergyman in Australia to be defrocked, reports said yesterday. Donald Shearman, 77, had sex with the girl regularly when he was a boarding house master and she a boarder in his care between 1954 and 1956. Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall is expected to strip Shearman of his holy orders in a public ceremony in St. John's Cathedral next month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Aspinall's predecessor, Peter Hollingworth, was forced to resign as governor-general last year after he said that the girl, then 14, had seduced the minister.
■ South Korea
More defectors arrive
The second wave in the biggest mass defection of North Koreans to South Korea arrived yesterday on a flight from an unidentified Southeast Asian country, bringing the total in the two-day airlift to nearly 460. The group of 227 North Koreans arrived at Incheon International Airport on a chartered Korean Air plane arranged by the South Korean government, a news agency said. South Korean government officials have been reluctant to confirm the arrival and have declined to reveal the country they came from, but news reports said that 230 arrived on Tuesday.
■ Israel
Wall to be rerouted
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday agreed to a limited rerouting north of Jerusalem of the contro-versial security barrier being built in the West Bank in spite of international protests. Mofaz gave the green light to "a plan aimed at modifying the route of the barrier in line with principles laid down by [Israel's] supreme court," a statement issued by the defense ministry said. However, Mofaz made reservations on 10 points of the planned route, the ministry said, without giving details. The ministry at the same time ordered construction of the barrier south of Jerusalem to be sped up. The supreme court ruled on June 30 that the West Bank barrier's current path violates the rights of Palestinians living near Jerusalem and should be altered.
■ Colombia
Guerrillas free bishop
Marxist guerrillas freed a Roman Catholic bishop unharmed three days after he was abducted in an effort to use him to deliver a political message to authorities, officials said. But Bishop Misael Vacca Ramirez said on Tuesday he was never given a message because an army rescue operation cut his captors off from their commanders, who had prepared the statement. Vacca Ramirez, the bishop of Yopal, was released close to where he was taken hostage on Saturday in remote northeastern mountains. "I was treated well. At no moment did anybody show me disrespect," Vacca Ramirez, 48, told reporters.
■ Iran
Polygamist jailed
Former culture minister Attaollah Mohajerani has been arrested and jailed for not registering polygamy, the daily Etemad reported yesterday. While already married, Mohajerani had reportedly started an affair with another woman named Mahsa Yussefi, and even promised her marriage -- legal under Islamic laws if approved by the first wife. The report, initially carried by the conservative news service Fars, had yet to be confirmed by other sources. His official wife, Jamileh Kadivar, a former reformist member of parliament and an advocate of women's rights, has so far denied all allegations against her husband and branded them as a dirty campaign by his conservative opponents to block his political career.
■ United Kingdom
Channel fined for porn
British media regulators on Tuesday fined a porno-graphic satellite television channel ?50,000 (US$92,080) for broadcasting graphic sex too early in the evening. Digital Television Production aired the sexually explicit images of simulated intercourse and orgasm between 8:30pm and 10pm on April 8 on its XplicitXXX service on a free-to-air basis to promote the normally encrypted channel.
■ Netherlands
Charity sued for ransom debt
The Dutch government is suing aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for repayment of a ransom the Netherlands paid for the release of one of the medical group's workers kidnapped in Russia, it said on Tuesday. The Dutch last month threatened to take legal action after the medical charity failed to repay a ransom reported to be around 1 million euros (US$1.2 million) paid to Russian kidnappers to free Dutch aid worker Arjan Erkel after 20 months. The Netherlands asked for the cash back in May, admitting that it had paid a ransom and angering MSF, one of the most active foreign organizations in the Caucasus.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was