■ South Korea
Man convicted of raping wife
A South Korean court has convicted a man of sexual assault for trying to force his wife to have sex in a landmark decision that challenges a Supreme Court ruling 30 years ago that said a man could not rape his spouse. The criminal court in Seoul on Friday sentenced the 45-year-old man to a 30-month suspended prison term with three years' probation, it said in a state-ment. The man, identified only as Kim, was found guilty of assaulting and injuring his wife in September 2002 when, under the influen-ce of alcohol, he attempted to have sex with her and beat her when she refused.
■ Japan
Deserter avoiding US court
A US Army sergeant accused of deserting to North Korea in 1965 and now hospitalized in Japan is willing to appear before the US military in Japan for a plea bargain, Japanese media reports said on Saturday. Charles Robert Jenkins, 64, was brought to Japan for medical care last month after being reunited with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters in Jakarta on July 9. The United States has said it wants him to face a court-martial but has held off seeking custody while he is in hospital. Kyodo news agency quoted informed sources as saying that Jenkins had told Japanese government officials of his intent to appear before the US Army headquarters in Japan at Camp Zama near Tokyo.
■ Australia
Police stop smuggling ring
Australian police and intelli-gence agents have been waging an undercover campaign to stamp out people-smuggling rings in Indonesia, a news report said Saturday. The sensitive operation, using phone taps and paid infor-mants, has led to the arrest of at least six major people smugg-lers since 2001, The Weekend Australian newspaper report-ed, citing unidentified law enforcement sources. The campaign by Australian Federal Police and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service spy agency -- working in conjunc-tion with Indonesian police -- has prevented at least 7,000 asylum seekers from sailing to Australia, the paper said.
■ Thailand
Government okays GM food
In a move that has drawn immediate criticism from some environmentalists, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has reversed the government's former ban on commercial trade in genetic-ally modified (GM) crops, media reports said yesterday. The Thai Cabinet is scheduled Tuesday to revoke a previous resolution passed on April 3, 2001 that effectively banned commercial use of GM crops except for research purposes, The Nation news-paper said. Local use of GM foods has been opposed by Thai farmers, consumer protection groups and environmentalists, who argue that the prolifer-ation of genetically modified varieties could adversely impact indigenous crops.
■ Singapore
Maid abuser jailed
A Singaporean woman who bit, burnt and slashed her Indonesian maid with knives was jailed for 28 months, a newspaper reported Saturday. Mujianti, 19, endured the abuse for three months last year until she finally approached church workers for help. District Court Judge Wong Keen Onn noted that employer Poon Yen Nee, 31, resorted to a "pattern of cruel abuse" whenever she was dissat-isfied with Mujianti's work, The Straits Times said. Poon had made a voluntary contribution of 5,000 Singa-pore dollars (US$2,900) to the maid as a token of remorse.
■ Canada
Police slam Asian gangs
Asian gangs are spinning a web of fraud, theft, sex and drug crime in Canada, threatening public safety, government tax revenues and jobs, a police report warned on Friday. Asia-based organized crime will "pose a major threat" in Canada through "multiple, sophisticated criminal activities" and the supply of illicit drugs to other criminal groups, the report said. The 2004 report by Canada's Criminal Intelligence Service said Asian gangs operated throughout the nation, the report said. Asian gangs "remain involved in payment card fraud, illegal gaming, loan-sharking, prostitution and human smuggling/trafficking," it said.
■ Greece
Playboy ban attempt fails
Olympics officials have failed to ban a Greek edition of Playboy featuring a section on so-called Olympian traditions of sex. "The court turned down (the organizers') request for a restraining order," magazine lawyer Stelios Michalopoulos said on Friday. The issue featured photos of naked models posing as athletes. "(Playboy) humiliates and ridicules Olympic symbols, signs, mottos, terms and mascots... causing enormous economic damage to our sponsors, license holders and Olympic product manufacturers ... `2004' is a dominant part of our name and trademark and is inextricably linked with our company and the Olympic Games," said a request both submitted and rejected on Thursday, 20 days after the issue went on sale.
■ Tanzania
Zanzibar bans gay sex
Zanzibar has banned gay sex and set prison terms of up to 25 years for those who break the law, officials said on Friday. The law sets a penalty of life imprisonment for sodomizing a minor. The penalty for homosexual sex between men is 25 years' jail; and a sentence of seven years is set for lesbian sex. "This is what we have been aspiring for. If the government takes such steps, the country will really move ahead," said Sheikh Muhammed Said, a local Islamic leader. Zanzibar's parliament passed the bill unanimously in April. Islamic groups have been calling for a puritanical approach to public affairs on the Indian Ocean island, which relies on tourism.
■ United States
Church rejects communion
Roman Catholic officials have invalidated the first communion of a New Jersey girl with a rare digestive disorder whose gluten intolerance put her on a collision course with Catholic doctrine. Haley Pelly-Waldman cannot eat wheat, rye, oats, barley or malt, so her mother found a priest who would serve a gluten-free wafer, but the diocese declared the communion invalid. "I don't think my daughter's personal relationship with Christ is affected by an ingredient," said the child's mother, Liz Pelly-Waldman. "The divinity of the Eucharist doesn't lie in the wheat."
■ United States
Elite schools top list
Harvard and Princeton were tied for top ranking in US News & World Report's list of best colleges. Harvard and Princeton are also among the most costly US universities, charging more than US$30,000 per year, not including room and board. Yale University was third and the University of Pennsylvania was fourth; Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University all shared the fifth spot.
■ United States
Pentagon rejects charges
The Pentagon on Friday flatly denied allegations printed in a British medical journal implicating US military doctors in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal for ignoring medical ethics and human rights standards. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Richard, a Pentagon spokesman, said. The US military takes "strong exception to these allegations and wholesale indictment," he said. In a press statement issued Thursday, the British journal said medical staff failed to keep medical records, examine prisoners on a routine basis and provide care to injured and disabled detainees.
■ United Kingdom
Muslim inmates given pork
The UK's Prison Service on Friday apologized after inmates at a top security jail which houses Muslims accused of terrorism, were offered a pork chop for their evening meal. Abu Hamza, the radical cleric whom the US wants to extradite for a string of alleged offences, was among those who were given a menu describing the chop as a halal choice. For Muslims pork is considered haram or unclean and is forbidden. On Friday Hamza's lawyer, Mudassar Arani, threatened legal action against the Prison Service, and said that some Muslim prisoners who could not speak or read English might have eaten pork without realizing what it was.
■ Denmark
Officer staged torture
An officer who served in the Danish contingent in southern Iraq is under investigation for staging faked torture scenes, reports said yesterday. The Ekstra Bladet tabloid yesterday published photos of the scenes where an officer, identified as Major Kristian Richardt, held a gun against the head of another Danish soldier who had a plastic bucket over his head and his hands behind his back as if they were tied. Although the photos were clearly staged, defense forces spokesman Hans-Christian Mathiesen told the newspaper the stunt was "completely unacceptable." Mathiesen said an investigation was underway.
■ Dominican Rep.
Tainted officials posted
Less than a week after his inauguration, President Leonel Fernandez has given top posts to four former officials charged with involvement in the disappearance of millions of dollars in public funds in the late 1990s. Critics say the appointments contradict a key campaign promise to crack down on corruption as the Dominican Republic weathers its worst economic crisis in decades. The government says the four appointees in question have impeccable credentials and that their charges were politically motivated.
■ Italy
Berlusconi 1, Baldness 0
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will win the battle against baldness after a hair transplant earlier this month, the doctor who performed the surgery said in an interview published Friday. After days of speculation sparked by a white bandanna that Berlusconi has donned in recent appearances while on holiday in Sardinia, Piero Rosati confirmed he had operated on the prime minister and that the results would show in a couple of months. "Yes, it was me," he told Corriere della Sera daily, just a day after denying the rumors to another newspaper. "Nobody can do miracles ... but there will definitely be an improvement," Rosati said, adding that the first hairs should appear "in a month or two."
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