■ Indonesia
Bomb threat was a hoax
Indonesian police said yesterday they have arrested a woman suspected of sending a hoax bomb threat that forced the closure of the British and Thai embassies in Jakarta. On Friday, National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar said the threat may have been the work of a person linked to Indonesia's most wanted men -- Malaysian terror suspects Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top. But yesterrday, a Jakarta police spokesman said the threat was in fact based on a woman's desire to keep her boyfriend -- a security guard at the Thai embassy -- in Jakarta.
■ Nepal
Security budget boosted
Nepal's government boosted security spending by 9 percent Friday in a bid to crush an increasingly deadly Maoist insurgency aimed at toppling the monarchy in the poverty-stricken nation. The increase came a day after a government ultimatum for the rebels to resume peace talks expired with no reply from the guerrillas, who have been fighting since 1996 to install a communist republic in the Himalayan kingdom. In the supplementary budget, the government boosted security spending by US$18.8 million, adding to the US$221 million already earmarked for the anti-rebel offensive in the financial year that began last July.
■ Indonesia
Priest murdered by drunk
Police investigating the murder of a Roman Catholic priest in Indonesia said yesterday the cleric was killed by a man who had been reprimanded for drinking. Police said the suspect attacked Father Thomas Harsidiyono with a blunt object at the compound of a Catholic retreat in the town of Purworejo in Central Java province on Friday. Provincial detective chief Muhammad Zulkarnaen was quoted by the Detikcom news Web site as saying that the murder was not religiously motivated. "The motive was purely criminal. He was angry because he was reprimanded for drinking liquor at the compound," Zulkarnaen said.
■ China
Man executed for bombings
A man who planted bombs in the northern city of Xian last year to avenge the death of his son has been executed, state media reported yesterday. Gao Delong, the former manager of a metal supplier in Xian, was executed by firing squad in the city on Thursday, Beijing News reported. He became embittered after his teenage son was beaten to death by seven youngsters in November 1998 and sought to take revenge on their relatives, it said. He planted several bombs in residential buildings in the city's Lianhu district on the night of Jan. 26, said the newspaper. Three of them exploded the next day but caused no injuries.
■ Japan
Boy gets six-organ transplant
An 11-month-old Japanese boy smiled and laughed in his mother's arms as doctors talked of his progress from a six-organ transplant, an operation done here because children's organ donations are banned in Japan. Yosuke Ohashi underwent the 8 1/2-hour transplant of a liver, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestines and spleen on Dec. 24 at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Medical Center. "Finally we got the gift of God on Christmas Eve," said Yukiho Ohashi, the boy's father. Yosuke, who has a healthy twin sister, was 5 months old when diagnosed with ``mid gut volvulus.'' The condition, where the intestine twists around its root, left him with only a tiny portion of his small bowel and large intestine.
■ Germany
Mother admits killing child
A nurse has admitted starving her three year-old daughter to death, decapitating her, cutting up the body and hiding it in plastic bags for two years on her balcony, police said Friday. The 26 year-old woman, whose identity was not immediately released, had made the admission to her husband after investigators searched her apartment Wednesday, police said. Police described the crime as "especially appalling and unimaginable." The woman, now in police custody, was apparently sane, according to prosecutor Ralf Herrenbrueck. She told investigators her daughter had begun to refuse to eat from November 2002 onwards, so she stopped feeding her.
■ India
Rivals in joint mission
Traditional South Asian rivals India and Pakistan will join forces next week to make peace in the African Democratic Republic of Congo. Contingents of the Indian and Pakistani armed forces will be located at the same military base for the first time ever as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the African republic, a senior official of India's defense ministry said yesterday. Mi-35 helicopter gunships of the Indian air force and 285 airmen will provide protection to a Pakistani armed battalion, he said. "Indian and Pakistani forces will live and work together at the UN mission's base in Bukavu to ensure peace in the area," the Indian official said.
■ Poland
Bank bomber surrenders
A Polish man who threatened to blow up a building in central Warsaw gave himself up after hours of negotiations that began early on Friday, police said yesterday. Television news channel TVN 24 reported the unnamed man had warned he would blow up the offices of a stock brokerage of Poland's Millennium bank unless he was allowed to talk to a well-known Polish television journalist. Police said the man wanted to tell Ryszard Cebula about how a forger had stolen his life savings. "It seems he didn't want to harm anyone and just wanted to find a way of expressing the fact he felt cheated by the banking system," a police spokeswoman said.
■ Luxembourg
Grand Duchess dies at 77
Members of 15 royal houses from Europe and beyond were in attendance yesterday for the funeral of Luxembourg Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte, who died this week aged 77. Luxembourg authorities said Friday that the burial service would be held at the national cathedral at 1110 GMT. A 21-gun salute will boom out, while the pallbearers will be drawn from the royal family and the tiny country's armed forces. Josephine-Charlotte, the Belgian-born mother of Luxembourg's reigning monarch Grand Duke Henri, died of lung cancer on Monday. Her younger brother, King Albert II, will lead the delegation of mourners from neighboring Belgium.
■ South Africa
Rollercoaster riders freed
About 20 people trapped on a rollercoaster at an amusement complex in the South African city of Cape Town were freed in a rescue bid on Friday. A machinery malfunction reportedly brought to a sudden halt the ride known as the "Cobra" and billed as one "not for the faint hearted" at the city's Ratanga Junction entertainment complex. Mountain rescue personnel scaled the rollercoaster, suspended at a height of 34m, with ropes to try and free those trapped.
■ Canada
Minister quits in scandal
Canada's Immigration Minister, already battling a visa row over a Romanian stripper, resigned Friday over claims she helped an Indian pizza store owner dodge deportation in return for political favors. CBC television reported that pizza store owner Harjit Singh said in a sworn affidavit that Sgro asked him for free pizza and garlic bread and for up to 16 volunteers for her campaign office. "I told her my whole situation and she assured me that if I helped out in her election campaign she would get me immigration in Canada," CBC quoted Singh as saying in the affidavit. The report said Sgro reneged on the alleged deal and ordered Singh deported when a scandal erupted over a temporary residence permit given to a Romanian stripper, who also worked on her campaign. Sgro angrily denied what she called "persistent and false" allegations and promised to fight to clear her name.
■Brazil
Mom thrown to pitbulls
A Brazilian man arguing with his 88-year-old mother threw her into a neighbors' yard where two pit bulls mauled her to death, police said. Painter Luiz Polidoro, 48, picked up his mother Maria and pitched her over the yard wall during an argument on Thursday afternoon at her house. Two pit bulls tied up in the neighboring yard then savaged her and she died later in hospital, a police spokesman said. "He is an alcoholic. He was robbing his mother's pension money so he could drink," the dogs' owner, Helder Bento Rodrigues, told a newspaper. Polidoro told police his mother had jumped over the wall on her own. The newspaper said he had tried to rescue her. When police arrived, he was cradling the blood-soaked woman. Polidoro has been jailed in Sao Paulo and charged with murder.
■ Colombia
Guard shoots colleagues
A mentally disturbed guard early Friday shot and killed five Colombian soldiers and wounded five others as they slept. Jaime Vasquez began firing on colleagues at their barracks in southwest Colombia around 4:00 am Friday. "We were sleeping and when we heard the shots we threw ourselves under the bed. I was beneath the (camp) bed with one of the dead men. He stopped shooting when his cartridge ran out," Mauricio Buchelly told radio station RCN. "He was yelling insults at us, but we didn't care what he was saying, just thought `Let me get out of here,'" Buchelly added. Colleagues said they had regularly seen Vasquez, since he joined the anti-rebel unit four months ago, talking to himself and that he sometimes made incoherent remarks. Some 30 soldiers were in the barracks at the time of the shooting. Vasquez is currently in military custody being assessed by psychiatrists.
■ Mexico
Oil tanker grounded
A coastal tanker that was headed to the oil port of Coatzacoalcos has grounded about 50m offshore and officials failed in efforts Friday to move it. Veracruz state civil defense officials said the vessel, the Orfeo, has not spilled any oil or fuel. It was empty, coming to take on cargo at the port 200km southeast of Veracruz and at the base of the Gulf of Mexico. The seven crew members were rescued from the 57m-long ship early Friday. The company said strong winds and waves dragged the Orfeo away from its anchorage and it grounded at about 7:30 p.m. Port Captain Ildefonso Carrillo Mora said bad weather had hindered communication with the ship on Thursday.
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
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the