■ Afghanistan
Kidnapper's mom freed
Afghanistan has freed four people, including the mother of the man who kidnapped an Italian aid worker, but their release was not part of a deal to free the Italian from 24 days in captivity, a government spokesman said. Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a news conference on Thursday, shortly after Clementina Cantoni was released, that no concessions had been made to her kidnappers. But Jalali's spokesman said yesterday the mother of Timoor Shah, the leader of the kidnapping gang, and three other suspected abductors had been released.
■ Australia
Deluge ends drought
Farmers across drought-stricken areas of Australia's Outback could be forgiven for not knowing what hit them yesterday. It was rain. Meteorologists said up to 30mm fell across much of the parched west of New South Wales state, and there was more on the way. "It's definitely going to be helpful for farming areas, who've not had this type of rain for a period of at least six months," said Weather Company meteorologist Matthew Pearce. More than 90 percent of New South Wales is in the grip of what is widely reported to be the worst drought to hit Australian farmers in a century. The rain came in time to allow farmers to sow winter crops.
■ Japan
Student bombs classroom
Police questioned an 18-year-old student yesterday about why he threw a homemade bomb into a high school classroom in southern Japan, wounding 58 teenagers when the gunpowder-filled jar exploded, spraying the room with glass shards and nails. News reports said the boy told police he "had a grudge against a student in the class" and made the explosive using instructions found on the Internet. One male student was seriously injured with cuts to his legs and abdomen, and another student broke his finger in the attack Friday at Hikari public high school in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The other injuries were minor. Police said the boy fashioned the bomb from a glass bottle filled with a combination of gunpowder and other substances.
■ Singapore
Nude blogger shocks people
A 19-year-old girl who posted nude pictures of herself on the Internet has set Singapore's blogging community abuzz, but lawyers said on Saturday she is probably not breaking any obscenity law in the conservative city-state. Writing under the moniker Sarong Party Girl, her weblog details her life and numerous sexual escapades. "If someone were to flash himself physically, it's very clearly an obscene act," lawyer Jonathan Kok told the Straits Times. "But on the Internet, it's a grey area." The girl, waiting to enter a university, has gathered a daily following of about 3,000 readers since she started her blog in February last year.
■ Sri Lanka
Monks end fast
A senior Buddhist monk ended a six-day fast yesterday over government plans to share tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels, after assurances that President Chandrika Kumaratunga would consult leading Buddhists. Omalpe Sobitha had refused all food and liquids since Monday to pressure Kumaratunga to abandon a deal with the Tigers to share the distribution of billions of dollars in tsunami aid to Tamil-majority areas under rebel control. The rebels had complained that aid didn't arrive fast enough following the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami.
■ Germany
`Grandpa Gang' jailed
Germany's three oldest bank robbers were jailed Friday after admitting stealing more than £800,000 in 14 raids across a number of provincial towns. The men, who became known as the "Grandpa Gang," started their spree in 1988 and were arrested only last year when police set a trap for them. A court in Hagen sentenced 74-year-old old Rudolf Richter -- known as Rudi -- together with Wilfried Ackermann, 73, and Lothar Ackermann, 64, to between nine and 12 years each in jail. In total, they had made off with about 1.3 million euros, invariably raiding their targets on Thursdays in winter just as dusk was falling.
■ Sudan
`Last chance' talks begin
Sudan's government and Darfur rebels launched their latest peace effort with delegates meeting in Nigeria for talks aimed at calming a two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing. Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said Friday that the current peace parley in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, could be the last. It's the fifth round of as-yet unsuccessful talks. "If you do not have peace now, then ... you will see the fabric of Sudan crumble," he told assembled negotiators. "I can tell you: This will be the last chance."
■ United Kingdom
Exotic spider bites man
A major British supermarket chain apologized yesterday to a pensioner who collapsed after being bitten by an exotic spider as he reached for a bunch of bananas. Phillip Travenen, 65, felt a tickle on his finger as he touched the bananas last Monday during a trip to his local Sainsbury's grocery store in Newport, south Wales. He spent the night under observation at the hospital after it was discovered he had been bitten by a venomous crab spider the size of a large coin. "I believe the customer is now fine. We arranged for his shopping to be dropped at home after the incident," a Sainsbury's spokeswoman said. "We are sorry for any distress this may have caused, and we are currently investigating how this incident could have happened."
■ Portugal
Huge gang attacks beach
A gang of about 500 youths attacked and robbed people on a beach near Lisbon, Portugese news reports said yesterday. Youths between the ages of 12 and 20 attacked people on Carcavelos beach, the reports said, quoting police. Officers shot into the air to drive the attackers away. There were injuries and arrests, but no further details were provided. The attackers, who appeared to be well-organized, were from a bad section of Lisbon, the reports said.
■ Germany
New UN plan has backing
German UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said Friday three of the five veto powers on the UN Security Council support bringing new permanent members onto the council. Speaking in New York, Pleuger said France had decided, as one of the countries sponsoring the reform resolution, to publicly back the reforms. Britain also has officially announced its support, and Russia also has said it views the reforms positively. On Wednesday a compromise was announced under which the new members of the council would forgo the veto power afforded to the current five permanent members for at least 15 years.
■ United States
Border security slammed
Massachusetts lawmakers on called for a closer look at border security after customs officials allowed a man carrying a sword, a hatchet, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood to cross the US-Canadian border. Two days after being allowed into the US in late April, Gregory Despres, 22, was arrested in Massachusetts in connection with the beheading of his elderly neighbor and the stabbing death of his wife in the New Brunswick town of Minto. Customs officials had fingerprinted Despres, determined there were no warrants for him and let him into the US. They maintain they could not have detained him because he is a naturalized US citizen and there was no evidence at the time that he may have committed a crime.
■ United States
Hurricane warning issued
Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for part of the northern Gulf Coast, including areas still recovering from last year's Ivan, as Tropical Storm Arlene moved toward a strike yesterday. The warning stretched from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Destin in the central Florida Panhandle. Arlene could build into a Category 1 storm by landfall, with its heavy rains and winds arriving much earlier. The storm was 394km south-southeast of Pensacola and moving northwest at 26 kph.
■ United States
Traffic pileup kills four
A fiery pileup of 14 trucks and cars on Long Island, New York on Friday morning killed four people, injured several others and tangled up traffic headed toward the Hamptons on the brink of a summer weekend. Shortly before 9:30am, eastbound traffic on Sunrise Highway was turned into a disaster as a tanker truck hauling heating oil slammed into a dump truck at a spot where traffic merged into a single lane. The tanker did not explode but its cab, the dump truck and another truck burst into flames that burned other drivers and terrified onlookers. The tanker's driver was among those killed.
■ Aruba
Killer leads cops to body
One of three suspects arrested in the investigation into the disappearance of an 18-year-old American high school student has confessed to her murder. The suspect has agreed to lead police to the body of Natalee Holloway. The three have been identified as brothers Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Depak Kalpoe, 21, and their friend, 17-year-old Joran Van Der Sloot. They were taken into custody and were the last people to have reported seeing Holloway. Police did not say which of the three confessed to killing Holloway, who was in Aruba with classmates celebrating their high school graduation.
■ United States
Panhandling policy changed
A federal judge ordered the New York City police, county prosecutors, and state judges to stop arresting and punishing people who are peacefully begging on the streets, an order first issued nearly 13 years ago. The judge, Shira Sheindlin, also instructed city officials to immediately release anyone in custody who is charged with loitering for the purpose of begging. Sheindlin acted after a class-action lawsuit was filed showing that the Police Department had quietly but openly disregarded a ruling in 1992 by two federal courts that the state's panhandling statute, the basis for arresting peaceful beggars, violated the First Amendment. The Bronx district attorney said that such prosecutions were a mistake.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
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