■ Hong Kong
`Longhair' conviction upheld
Rebel Legislator Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) lost a High Court battle yesterday over the right to stage unauthorized demonstra-tions in the territory. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of Leung -- also known as "Longhair" -- and two others for staging a protest involving more than 30 people without giving police a week's advance warning. The 2002 convic-tions were the first under the Public Order Ordinance which came into effect when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Leung argued that the con-victions contravened his civil right to demonstrate and should be overturned. Leung said he would appeal to Hong Kong's highest court and insisted he would defy the Court of Appeal's ruling by holding another similar demonstration.
■ The Philippines
Italian hostage freed
An Italian aid worker walked free from the jungle on Mindanao island yesterday, a day after he was abducted by lgunmen, officials said. Local officials and Muslim reli-gious leaders in the Lanao region convinced the gun-men to free 29-year-old Andrea Cianferoni about 20 hours after he and two Filipino co-workers were abducted near the town of Kauswagan, they said. Cianferoni was "in good condition" and escorted back to his agency's field office in Iligan city, said a military spokesman.
■ Vietnam
Officials detained for graft
Three officials have been arrested for alleged involve-ment in a major graft scan-dal surrounding oil and gas giant PetroVietnam, state media said yesterday. Chu Chat Chinh, director of the sea project technology department at the company's Petroleum Institute, and Bui Duc Bao, a Vietnam National Tourism Administration official, were detained Tuesday on embezzlement charges. Nguyen Van Thanh, an official from a state-owned transport company, was also arrested and charged with falsifying official documents, the Thanh Nien newspaper said. Their arrests were part of a police investigation into corruption surrounding a large PetroVietnam project and came a day after a top Ministry of Construction official was charged with embezzlement as part of that probe.
■ Australia
Teacher gets light sentence
A teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old pupil walked free from a Melbourne court yesterday in a decision that was slammed as sexist. Karen Louise Ellis, a 37-year-old married mother-of-three, was sentenced to a suspended 22-month sen-tence, meaning she will not go to jail unless she commits another crime over that period. She had pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual penetration with a child under 16. The case comes just three months after tennis coach Gavin Hopper was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Crime Victims Association president Noel McNamara said the lenient sentence was a disgrace.
■ Sri Lanka
Norway urges more talks
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen is meeting with Sri Lankan President Chan-drika Kumaratunga and the reclusive head of the Tamil Tiger rebels this week to urge the two sides to resume talks on a permanent end to the country's two-decade civil war. The meetings come amid escalating rebel attacks in the country's volatile east. The peace talks broke down 19 months ago.
■ Ukraine
Elections result delayed
Ukraine's election commission early Wednesday postponed announcing final results from the presidential election 10 days earlier, adding to tensions over the vote count that left the Prime Minister and an opposition challenger facing a runoff. Central Elections Commission head Serhiy Kivalov had said Tuesday that the final results were likely to be announced later in the day, but after a commission meeting dragged long past midnight, he announced the meeting was adjourning until later in the day. The commission's failure to announce the final tally of the Oct. 31 vote had raised concerns about the commission's procedures and about the count for the Nov. 21 runoff. A tally from 97 percent of the precincts announced showed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and challenger Viktor Yushchenko within less than a percentage point of each other, each with about 39 percent of the vote.
■ Sudan
Darfur accord signed
Delegates at peace talks on the bloody conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur made a major breakthrough Tuesday as the government side bowed to international pressure and struck a deal to end hostilities. The Khartoum government and its rebel foes signed two accords -- the so-called humanitarian and security protocols -- in the Nigerian capital Abuja, which is hosting African Union-led peace talks. Union officials said that both sides would be held accountable for future ceasefire violations. The breakthrough was made possible after the Sudanese government dropped its objection to clauses in the security deal committing it to end military flights over Darfur and to disarm the notorious Janjaweed Arab militia.
■ Turkey
Ministers to be prosecuted
Parliament voted early yesterday to give the Supreme Court authority to prosecute two more former Cabinet ministers as part of a government crackdown on abuses of power. The decision to send the case against former ministers Koray Aydin and Yasar Topcu to the court came two weeks after Parliament approved the prosecution of former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and four other ministers on corruption charges. It was the first time that Parliament approved the prosecution of a former prime minister. Yilmaz is accused of rigging the privatization of a state-owned bank in favor of a businessman. The scandal led to the collapse of his government in late 1998.
■ United States
Tell-tale signs
The mother of an 8-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually abused by a woman who considered him her boyfriend said she knew something was wrong when the boy began to misbehave at school and even threw a chair at another student. "He tried to jump out the window at school," the woman said Monday. "He was acting out last year -- all kind of stuff." She said he would cry if he was not allowed to go to a neighbor's house, where he helped a 7-year-old girl with her homework and played games. Then the woman's older son found a letter in his brother's room that shocked the family and authorities. The letter led to charges that the girl's 29-year-old mother, Tammy Imre, had engaged in sexual relations with the boy. Imre, a divorced, part-time receptionist, has been charged with multiple offenses, including sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. A judge set bond at US$250,000.
■ Colombia
Anti-drug official steps down
Colombia's top anti-drug official resigned on Tuesday, two weeks after facing accusations that he rented out luxury properties seized from drug smugglers at below-market prices. Luis Alfonso Plazas, who worked closely with US anti-drug agencies operating in Colombia, was accused during a Senate debate of approving the lease of confiscated properties at low prices that brought little gain to the state. Vice Minister of Justice Mario Iguaran will temporarily replace Plazas as head of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency. The agency is in charge of 42,000 properties such as mansions, country houses and apartments that once belonged to smugglers.
■ Italy
Mob turf war erupts
The bullet-ridden bodies of three men were found in a car in Naples on Tuesday as police and government chiefs held emergency meetings over how to combat a mob turf battle in the southern Italian city. "There's a war under way," said General Vincenzo Giuliani, provincial commander of the Carabinieri police in Naples after visiting the murder scene. One of the dead men, all locals in their 20s and early 30s, was found in the trunk. Local media said the bodies showed signs of torture and speculated they were victims of a power struggle in a high-stakes trade in drugs, arms and prostitution.
■ Austria
Indecision over fusion plant
Talks on where to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor ended indecisively on Tuesday, while the EU toned down threats to site the plant in France. "The six-party talks ended without an agreement on the site," a Western diplomat familiar with the discussions said. He said that both France and Japan remained equal candidates to host the US$12 billion reactor project. Nuclear fusion has been touted as a long-term solution to the world's energy problems, as it would be low in pollution and use limitless sea water as fuel. The idea is to replicate the way the sun generates energy.
■ United States
Kerry backers traumatized
Shocked supporters of defeated US presidential candidate John Kerry are seeking help from psychologists, who refer to their condition as "post-election selection trauma," the Boca Raton News reported Tuesday. The daily said Palm Beach, Florida trauma specialist Douglas Schooler alone has already treated 15 clients and friends with intense hypnotherapy since the Democratic candidate conceded on Nov. 3. "I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated," Schooler said. "
■ United States
Twins born to 56-year-old
A 56-year-old single mother gave birth Tuesday to fraternal twins just three days before her 57th birthday. New York 1 broadcaster reported that the twins -- Francesca, and her brother Gian -- were delivered in a Caesarean procedure. With their delivery, the mother, Aleta St. James, a therapist, broke a national record as the oldest mother of twins in the US. The global record for late mother-of-twins-hood is held by a British woman who was 58 when she gave birth two years ago. St. James had postponed pregnancy while she was concentrating on her career and traveling. But she wanted children, and after two years of fertility treatment and using sperm from a former partner, the "miracle" occurred.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese