■ New Zealand
UN sends assessment team
The UN announced yesterday it was sending emergency teams to the Cook Islands and neighboring atolls devastated in a recent cyclone to assess their damage and needs. Cook Islanders were cleaning up from accumulated effects of four cyclones, hoping they had seen the worst with one month left in the South Pacific's annual five-month storm season. The latest storm decimated the houses of villagers in two northern atolls on Monday but passed 290km to the west of the main island of Rarotonga overnight, but brought no injury or serious damage.
■ Pakistan
Rape verdict overturned
Mukhtaran Bibi thought her nightmare was over when the men who gang-raped her -- on orders from village elders -- were sentenced to death more than two years ago. But the victim of the country's most notorious rape case wept bitterly after a court in Multan overturned the verdict against three of the four alleged rapists and two tribal elders, and quashed the death sentence against the sixth. "I am in pain. I will ask my lawyer to challenge this decision," said the 30-year-old woman. As five of the men prepared to walk free, dismayed human-rights activists said the decision was a blow to the struggle for women's rights in a notoriously male-dominated society.
■ Japan
Sex offenders to be tracked
Japanese police will soon begin keeping track of sex offenders after they are released from prison in a bid to prevent sex crimes against children, a National Police Agency (NPA) spokesman said yesterday. Under the new system, which begins on June 1, police would hold information on the addresses of those who have served prison terms for sex crimes involving children. Police do not plan to release the information to the public; specifics, including how long police might track the whereabouts of sex offenders, are as yet undecided. Among 466 perpetrators of violent sex crimes against children last year, 15.9 percent were repeat offenders.
■ Cambodia
PM wants graft crackdown
Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at a "mafia" of corrupt judges and prosecutors who take bribes to let suspects go free. He declared a crackdown on criminals and those who set them free before sufficient investigation of their cases has been done, and demanded some 274 people be re-arrested. "We have to re-arrest them because they were wrongly charged and released," Hun Sen said. "I can even say you are mafia," he said of the judges and prosecutors accused of taking bribes. "These activities not only damage the image of Cambodia, but the activities of some judges and prosecutors are destroying the reputation of the courts," he added.
■ Switzerland
Speed trap flouter busted
A young Swiss driver who was caught breaking the speed limit 19 times in a night was stripped of his driving licence, fined and given a suspended prison sentence on Thursday. The 19 year-old had removed his number plates to avoid being identified as he repeatedly drove through two fixed speed traps near the Swiss capital Bern at speeds up to 40kph above the limit. However, a policeman who had dealt with him a day earlier recognized the car on the speed trap photographs, which included snaps of passengers making obscene gestures. The youngster admitted he had drunk seven or eight beers before the speeding spree.
■ Argentina
Debt restructured
Argentina was poised on Thursday night to announce it had reached an agreement with its creditors to restructure US$103 billion of its debts, more than three years after declaring the biggest sovereign debt default of modern times. President Nestor Kirchner was to confirm overnight that about 75 percent of the country's bondholders had agreed to swap their old debt for new at a loss of up to US$0.70 in the dollar -- also a record and one that Kirchner has called "the biggest haircut in history" for investors. Six weeks ago the Argentine government made the offer to its 700,000 bondholders to swap debt of US$81 billion plus interest from 2001 for about US$41 billion of new debt.
■ Brazil
Biotech bill passed
In a significant victory for large biotechnology companies, the lower house of Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation paving the way for the legalization of genetically modified crops. After months of delays and heated debate, legislators passed a biotechnology law by a vote of 352-60. Besides lifting a long-standing ban on the sale and planting of gene-altered seeds, the legislation clears the way for research involving human embryonic stem cells that have been frozen for at least three years. The bill is expected to be signed into law in the next two weeks.
■ United States
Chimps attack visitors
Several chimpanzees broke from their cages at an animal sanctuary and attacked two visitors, seriously injuring them. Sanctuary workers shot and killed two of the powerful animals. Officials did not immediately release the victims' names, but a news report said they were a couple who were visiting another chimpanzee that had been removed from their home years earlier for his own aggressive behavior. One of those injured at the Animal Haven Ranch was airlifted to a medical center in critical condition. Another victim was in serious condition. One television report said the two were at the sanctuary to celebrate the birthday of Moe, who was taken from their suburban Los Angeles home in 1999 after biting off part of a woman's finger.
■ Vatican City
Papal condition improving
Doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital have yet to decide on a date for Pope John Paul II's discharge even though the Vatican said Thursday he was following the activities of the Roman Catholic Church from his sick-bed and was eager to go home. The pope's condition "continues to improve and show progress" and the wound in his neck following his throat surgery to ease his breathing was healing.
■ Brazil
Indigenous children starving
Six children have starved to death this year on a poverty-stricken Indian reserve in central Brazil and officials warned more could die in a scandal that has shocked South America's biggest country. About 11,500 traditionally nomadic Indians are crammed onto a reservation in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Infant mortality and suicides rates are up to three times higher than national averages on the reservation, originally created to house 300 people. "It's become a concentration camp," said Senator Delcidio Amaral of Mato Grosso do Sul, upper-house leader for the ruling Workers Party.
■ United States
Fewer joining the military
The army has fallen behind its recruiting goals, officials said on Thursday, amid the violence of an Iraq war that has now claimed more than 1,500 American lives. "The war is obviously having an effect," said Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith. "Our recruiters are having to spend more time with hesitation on the part of potential applicants and their families. People are very alert to the fact of the risks that go along with army service." The active-duty US army missed its recruiting target for February by 27.5 percent, and had slipped about 6 percent behind its year-to-date goal for fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30, the Army Recruiting Command said.
■ Sweden
Fat police set off sensors
Portly police have a new reason to work out thanks to a new security entrance at the National Police headquarters that won't let them in if they weigh too much. A construction error in the recently remodeled security entrance, which has a built-in scale designed to only let one person at a time pass through the door, has caused some embarrassing moments for officers who may not have spent enough time exercising. Those weighing more than 105kg who try to pass through the entrance are greeted by a recorded voice telling them to "Stop! One at a time!" and are not let through, police spokeswoman Linda Widmark said.
■ Israel
Sharon committed to pullout
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to press ahead with a pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank in the summer despite yet another slap from his own party, setting his sights on a parliamentary vote in two weeks. The vote Thursday by the Likud Party central committee called on its members of parliament to support a referendum on the plan. Sharon dismisses that as a delay tactic by opponents of the pullout. The Likud convention's action had only symbolic value, because there is no parliamentary majority for a referendum. However, Sharon has to survive a crucial budget vote to remain in power, and party rebels plan to vote against him.
■ Iraq
Attacks on `infidels' continue
Al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq said that suicide attacks carried out in recent days proved the group was still strong and capable of pursuing its war against "infidels," according to an Internet statement posted yesterday. "What happened ... and will happen in coming days is a response to infidel deceptions and claims that the mujahideen [holy fighters] are weaker and that their attacks have abated," said the statement attributed to the military commander of the al-Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq, Abu Aseed al-Iraqi. In a separate Internet statement, also dated March 3, the group said its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would soon issue a message to the faithful.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in