■ Hong Kong
China denies democrat entry
Chinese authorities barred a top Hong Kong opposition politician from entering the mainland despite earlier indications that he would be allowed to visit, a party colleague and media said yesterday. Law Chi-kwong, a senior member of the Democratic Party, flew to Shanghai yesterday, but was denied entry upon arrival, Hong Kong network Cable TV quoted a colleague who was traveling with him as saying. The party's vice chairman, Lee Wing-tat, confirmed that Law was on his way back to Hong Kong, but declined further comment. Cable TV said immigration authorities in Shanghai told Law it was not appropriate for him to visit the mainland.
■ Pakistan
New premiere sworn in
Pakistan's former Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, a close ally of President General Pervez Musharraf, was sworn in as prime minister yesterday, a day after parliament elected him as premier despite an opposition boycott of the vote. Standing alongside Musharraf at the presidential palace in Islamabad, Aziz took the oath of office in front of senior government and military officials and lawmakers. He was due to face a vote of confidence in parliament later yesterday, seen as a formality.
■ Australia
Shop sells massacre video
An investigation has been ordered after a graphic police video of a notorious Australian massacre was bought at a junk shop for 10 cents (US$.07), police said yesterday. Survivors expressed outrage and asked how the video, marked as a police training video, turned up at the shop in Hobart, the capital of Australia's island state of Tasmania. The 22-minute video showed graphic footage of the dead lying in pools of blood at the scene of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, one of the world's worst by a lone gunman. Gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people in a shooting spree at Port Arthur. The massacre prompted a nationwide crackdown on firearms.
■ South Korea
Soda addict loses suit
A South Korean Coke addict has lost a legal suit seeking US$100,000 in damages for his decayed teeth from multinational soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Bottling, court officials said yesterday. A Seoul court ruled Friday against Lee Chul-Ho, 48, who had sued the international beverage firm two years ago for selling "addictive" Cokes and causing him to lose 11 of his teeth, they said. The court's ruling said there was "no evidence to prove one certain beverage has caused the plaintiff's dental problems" which could have been caused by other factors, officials said.
■ Vietnam
Dead but not forgotten
The body of a 17-year-old boy has rested in a glass coffin in his family home in Vietnam for 36 years, after a local medicine man told his bereaved parents he was still alive. The boy's younger brother, Dinh Huu Tri, said that although no preservatives had been used, the corpse had remained mostly intact ever since it was dug up three days after burial, the state-controlled Vietnam News said yesterday. The teenager was buried according to normal custom but a local shaman told his father that he was still alive. Tri said that although his parents did not really believe the claims they dug up the body anyway and have kept it inside the family home ever since. Tri said his father had asked him not to let anybody outside of the family see the coffin to avoid bringing bad luck on the household.
■ Portugal
Dutch abortion boat banned
Portugal said it would stop a Dutch abortion boat clinic from entering its territorial waters, citing a law against abortion, the Portuguese Lusa news agency reported early yesterday. Nuno Fernandes Thomaz, secretary of state for sea affairs, told Lusa that Portuguese authorities had informed the captain of the boat, the ship's agent and Dutch officials that the boat would not be allowed to enter Portuguese waters. The boat belonging to the Women on Waves organization had planned to dock yesterday 200km north of Lisbon, the group said. The floating clinic offers the abortion pill in international waters to women in countries where it is illegal or restricted.
■ Yemen
15 guilty of terror charges
A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants yesterday on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador. One man was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer and seven received 10-year prison terms. Six of the defendants plus the one man tried in absentiawere found guilty in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker. Defendants, whose attorneys boycotted a process they maintained was not fair and were not present for the verdict and sentencing, frequently interrupted the court with shouts to ``Fear God!'' as they complained the process was illegal.
■ United Kingdom
Oxford air highly polluted
Walking round the ancient university city of Oxford and breathing the city's air is equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, according to air quality statistics. The work done by Calor Gas, which produces liquified petroleum gas, found that despite the enormous pollution from London traffic, people in three other British cities -- Oxford, Bath and Glasgow -- suffered more damage to their lungs than Londoners. Of the 30 locations tested, Norwich in eastern England was best, but even here wandering round the city center gave pedestrians the equivalent dose, from oxides of nitrogen in vehicle exhausts, of smoking 10 cigarettes a day. An estimated 24,000 premature UK deaths each year are attributed to poor air quality.
■ Vatican
Pope returns Russian icon
A Russian icon that hung for years in Pope John Paul II's private chapel was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church yesterday, a gesture the ailing pontiff hopes will improve relations between the two churches. A senior Vatican delegation planned to hand over the 18th-century replica of the Mother of God of Kazan icon to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II in the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral. The original icon is revered by Russian believers for its purported ability to work miracles.
■ Germany
Teen showoff kills riders
Two 17-year-old female passengers were killed early yesterday in southern Germany in a car crash evidently caused when their 19-year-old driver tried to show off at the wheel, police said. Altogether, the station wagon was carrying eight persons between 16 and 19 years old. Police in Heideck said the driver was said to have begun swinging the steering wheel back and forth to show off to the others, but then lost control. The car veered off the road and smashed into a tree, killing two and seriously injuring four others.
■ United States
Moore needles Bush again
Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has entered the fray over Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry's Vietnam war record with a sarcasm-soaked open letter to US President George W. Bush, accusing him of "attacking a wounded vet." "It Takes Real Courage to Desert Your Post and Then Attack a Wounded Vet," is the opening salvo of the letter, dated Thursday, by the man whose Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 was a box office blockbuster in the US last month after winning the coveted Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The letter accuses Bush of links
to a veterans group that has questioned Kerry's honesty and his record in Vietnam.
■ United States
Tasteless terror toys
Small toys showing an airplane flying into New York's World Trade Center were packed inside some
of more than 14,000 bags of candy sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled. Lisy Corp, the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said on Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company. The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen, said Luis Padron, Lisy's national sales manager. Lisy did
not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is
no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.
■ United States
Parishes turn to Africa
The leader of the US Episcopal Church told Ugandan Anglican bishops on Friday to keep out of
its affairs after three Los Angeles parishes decided
to ally themselves with an African diocese in the row over homosexual clergy.
The parishes are the first to
seek oversight from a bishop overseas. They have fallen out with the Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, the Bishop of Los Angeles, because of his support for blessing services for gay couples. The Right Reverend Evans Kisekka, Bishop of Luwero in Uganda, has said he will act as the parishes' bishop.
■ United States
Kissinger backed junta
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger gave Argentina's military junta
the green light to suppress political opposition at the start of the "dirty war" in 1976, telling the country's foreign minister: "If there
are things that have to be
done, you should do them
quickly," according to newly-declassified documents published on Friday. The documents show Kissinger urged Argentina to crush the opposition just months after it seized power and before the US Congress convened to consider sanctions. "We won't cause you unnecessary difficulties. If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better," he told the Argentinian foreign minister.
■ Panama
Ambassador recalled
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will not attend the inauguration of the new president of Panama and has withdrawn his ambassador from the country to protest comments by outgoing President Mireya Moscoso, Venezuelan ambassador Flavio Granado said on Friday. Moscoso defended her decision to pardon four Cubans convicted in a plot
to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro at a 2000 summit here, saying they could be killed if extradited. One is an escapee from a Venezuelan prison. Venezuela does not have the death penalty,
and the maximum prison sentence is 30 years "even for terrorists who have been pardoned," Granado said.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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