■ India
Couple names boy `Tsunami'
Grateful that the killer wave of Dec. 26 spared his life, a couple in southern India have named their baby boy Tsunami, it was reported on Monday. When the tsunami hit their beachfront home in Tamil Nadu state two weeks ago, Stalin and his wife Jesurani ran for safety carrying their two-month-old baby, the Asian Age news-paper reported. They lost the child in a stampede of people rushing to higher ground. The couple searched for their baby among hundreds of bodies along the shoreline before being told he had been rescued and left at the local church. Jesurani said neighbors told her that the baby was passed from one person to another as they ran to escape the waves.
■ Thailand
Singer worried for orphans
Pop star Ricky Martin is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai today to raise concerns for children orphaned by the Dec. 26 tsunami, officials said yesterday. Martin, who runs the Ricky Martin Foundation -- a charity for orphans, will also visit Phuket and other beach resorts in the country that bore the brunt of the tsunami disaster. "He is here to express his concerns about what happened, so the meeting with the prime minister and foreign minister will highlight that message," said a foreign ministry spokesman.
■ China
Baby's parents spurn deals
The family of a baby boy named China's 1.3 billionth citizen has turned down advertising deals from firms making everything from diapers to infant formula, state media said on Monday. Many companies contacted Zhang Yichi's parents, hoping the boy would act as an "image representative" for their products, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the Beijing Daily Messenger. The family turned down all the invitations, except the offer of insurance. "It's lucky to be China's 1.3 billionth citizen," the baby's father was quoted as saying. "But it's unnecessary to act as an image representative for so many products, since Zhang Yichi is too young and too many commercial activities will have negative impact on the boy's healthy growth."
■ Australia
Guide faulted in croc swim
A tour guide who invited foreign tourists to swim in crocodile-infested waters acted in a "grossly negligent" manner that led to the death of a German visitor, a coroner's report said yesterday. Isabel von Jordan, 23, drowned in October 2002 after being mauled by a 5m-long, 500kg crocodile while swimming with other tourists in Kakadu National Park. Von Jordan had been holidaying in northern Australia after surviving the terrorist bombings in Bali only days before the croc attack. Tour guide Glenn Robless, who told the group it was safe to swim, pleaded guilty in 2003 to a charge of making a dan-gerous omission that caused von Jordan's death. He was given a three-year suspended prison sentence.
■ Malaysia
Counterfeiting gang nabbed
Police believe they have crippled a major syndicate involved in producing counterfeit money with the arrest of eight South African nationals, police and a news report said yesterday. Two of the suspects had approached a businessman last week and persuaded him to part with more than 600,000 ringgit (US$157,895) after promising to double the amount using "money-making expertise," a police spokesman said.
■ Argentina
Flag-tramplers charged
A Briton, an Australian and a South African arrested and jailed for trampling a flag flying outside an Argentine Falklands war veteran's bar were released on bail, officials said on Monday. David Fleming, 20, Benjamin Sargent, 28, and Darren Redden, 28, were arrested Jan. 6 in Ushuaia, the most southerly city in Argentina, and held on federal charges of desecrating the national flag. The trio had been heavily drinking at a wine bar owned by Pablo Vina -- who fought in the 1982 war when Britain ejected an Argentine force that invaded the remote South Atlantic islands -- when they noticed the flag flying outside. The tourists opened a window to tear the flag down, then walked outside, trampled it and threw it in a waste bin, witnesses said.
■ Germany
Soldier faces abuse charges
The first British soldier to be charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners appeared before a court martial in Germany on Monday, but the judge imposed a news blackout. Three other British soldiers are due to appear before a similar military court in Osnabrueck today. The four members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are alleged to have abused Iraqi civilians who they were temporarily holding near the southern city of Basra. British media reports said the soldiers are alleged to have stripped and humiliated their prisoners and taken photographs of the incident, which took place in a warehouse in May 2003.
■ Israel
Flying jets bad for teeth
Flying fighter jets isn't good for your teeth. About 70 percent of Israel's air force pilots suffer from "bruxism," or jaw clenching and teeth grinding, according the soldier's weekly, Bamahane. The results were based on a study of 57 young, healthy pilots by the Israeli air force medical branch, the weekly reported in its current edition. Bruxism, which can cause pain and permanent dental damage, can be triggered by tension, and flying military planes is a tense business, the weekly said.
■ Hungary
Rare bird smuggler busted
Hungarian customs guards discovered the carcasses of 511 rare birds hidden in the car of an Italian man about to cross the border into Austria, police said on Monday. The guards found the birds in two coolers in the trunk of the man's car during a routine check near Ronok, 250km west of Budapest on Sunday, police spokeswoman Gyorgyi Natkai said in a statement. Among the birds -- valued at 5.1 million forints (US$27,000) -- were yellow wagtails, field larks, sparrows and pipits. Customs guards regularly seize the carcasses of protected birds bound for Italy, where smugglers can sell them at high prices to restaurants.
■ France
Priest charged with fondling
French prosecutors on Monday demanded a six-month prison term for a former Orthodox priest charged with fondling a British boy who spent Christmas with him in 1999. Monsignor Paul, born Peter Alderson, denied accusations he abused the British boy, then 11, saying he only "helped him undress" and "rubbed his back a little" when the boy was bathing. The boy, who lost his parents and was under the care of his grandmother who had made the acquaintance of Paul, was not present at the trial and was "on the run" according to his lawyer.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not