■ 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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of