■ Thailand
Dwarf cows get hitched
In what has been billed as a world first, two dwarf Brahman cows have been scheduled to tie the knot in the northeastern province of Sa Kaew next month, media reports said yesterday. The nuptials were set over the weekend at the Sa Kaew cattle market, 160km east of Bangkok, where the owners of two male and female dwarf Brahman cows agreed to get their diminutive bovines together for the sake of reproducing the petite breed, the Nation newspaper said. Krachang Kanokprasert, owner of the dwarf bull, originally wanted to buy the intended bride, but her proud owner refused to part with her. Instead, the farmers agreed to join the diminutive breeding stock in matrimony.
■ Hong Kong
Activists stick to their guns
Pro-democracy protesters have vowed to hold an anti-government march in Hong Kong on Friday despite a police refusal to issue a demonstration permit, organizers said yesterday. July 1, the anniversary of the former British colony's reversion to Chinese rule in 1997, has become a key date for protests since 500,000 people took to the streets against the government in 2003 and again last year. However, this year's demonstration appeared under threat because police have yet to issue a permit because they have objected to part of the proposed route of the march.
■ Hong Kong
Jails close to breaking point
A prison service boss warned yesterday that riots could break out in Hong Kong's jails because of acute overcrowding and a shortage of guards. The situation is particularly acute in women's prisons, which are filled to more than double their normal capacity, said Sunny Leung, head of the territory's Lai Chi Kok reception center. Leung said overcrowding threatened to set off riots like those seen in Hong Kong's Stanley Prison in 1973. He also warned there were not enough guards to cope with the rapid increase in prisoner numbers. Lai Chi Kok reception center was built for 960 inmates but now holds 1,500, while the Tai Lam women's prison was built for 245 inmates but currently holds 610.
■ Australia
Trial absolves marines
Australia will press the US for a full report on a military trial which absolved two US marines of a brutal assault on an Australian man, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said yesterday. The charges were dropped against one of the soldiers and the other was acquitted earlier this month of slashing the throat of a student, Heath Twomey, outside a nightclub in the northern Australian city of Townsville in February last year. The marines were arrested and charged in Townsville, but transferred to the US to face a military court.
■ Nepal
Students still missing
Authorities yesterday said more than 90 high-school students seized by communist rebels in a remote Nepali village are still missing five days later -- unusual because the rebels typically hold such abductees for only two or three days to lecture them. Officials said the rebels have increasingly been abducting large groups of students in remote villages to teach them about their nine-year revolution, aimed at replacing the government with a communist regime. The latest abduction last Wednesday was of about 90 ninth- and 10th-grade students from Nepal Rastriya High School in Paudiamrai village, about 300km west of Kathmandu, the military said.
■ Russia
Deserting soldier found dead
A soldier who deserted from his unit last week in the Russian Far East was found dead of gunshot wounds, military prosecutors said yesterday. Sergei Nikolayev had left his unit in Radygino, a suburb of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, about 6,700km east of Moscow, armed with two Makarov pistols and ammunition. His weapons were found on Saturday, and his dead body was found in a different place the next day, said Alexei Naida, prosecutor for the Petropavlovsk garrison. Nikolayev was believed to have been shot and killed on the same day he deserted, and prosecutors were focusing the investigation on his fellow servicemen and local criminal groups.
■ United States
US is world's biggest jailor
An analysis by the International Center for Prison Studies (ICPS) suggests authorities around the world are sending their citizens to jail at an ever increasing rate. The US, China and Russia are responsible for half the world's 9 million prisoners. The total has risen in the US -- by far the world's biggest jailer -- from 1.86 million in 1999 to more than 2 million. The study, conducted at King's College London, shows a rise in the prison populations of 73 percent of those countries analyzed. England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe. There are 76,000 people in jails in England and Wales. Last week human rights group Amnesty International estimated that an additional 25,000 asylum seekers were locked up last year in the UK.
■ Austria
Haider in financial row
Far-right leader, Jorg Haider, was at the center of a financial row after disclosures about the lifestyle he led at taxpayers' expense. The accounts of the Freedom party, which he founded and turned into a vehicle for his career but abandoned earlier this year, appear to show that he used public money to hire private jets on a weekly basis, amass large bills on electioneering and run up expenses more than double that of the party's four top officials combined. A Vienna online news magazine obtained the Freedom party's accounts for the years since 1999. His allies yesterday dismissed the allegations as mudslinging by his embittered political enemies.
■ Kenya
Bombing suspects not guilty
A judge yesterday acquitted three men accused in the 2002 al-Qaeda-linked bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, bringing to seven the number of suspects found not guilty in the attack with no others on trial in the case. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said prosecutors had not proved their case against the three suspects who had been charged with conspiracy in the Nov. 28, 2002, suicide car bombing of the Mombasa Paradise hotel, and ordered the trio released.
■ Finland
Dieting may be risky: study
Overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat, according to a study. The new study suggests that dieting can cause physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits. The authors stressed that very overweight people should not be deterred from dieting, but added that researchers should consider the short-term advantages of weight loss against the potential long-term risks.
■ United States
Accused killer faces court
A 60-year-old suspected of being the serial murderer who called himself "bind, torture and kill" was due back in a Wichita, Kansas court yesterday for the scheduled start of his trial on charges he killed 10 people. Dennis Rader faces 10 counts of first-degree murder for killings that occurred between 1974 and 1991. Whether his trial would actually get under way was uncertain. Court officials said no jury pool had been formed in advance and there was speculation Rader might change his plea or ask for a mental evaluation first. Police arrested the former dogcatcher in February after a 31-year manhunt.
■ United States
Grizzly bear kills couple
Two people camping along the Hulahula River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, were killed by a grizzly bear, officials said. Officials discovered the bodies and an unused firearm in a tent on Saturday. They also shot and killed the animal. The couple was believed to be in their late 50s or early 60s, North Slope Borough police said. They were from Anchorage and had been on a recreational rafting trip down the river, officials said on Sunday.
■ United States
Blazes rage in the west
Firefighters battled in hot, dry and windy weather to contain wildfires that have prompted evacuations, closed a major highway and covered much of southwest Utah with a dark, smoky haze. Officials said the blaze about 30km north of St. George grew from 800 hectares to 3,200 hectares in less than 12 hours, and by late Sunday was within 8km of New Harmony. About 30km to the southwest, firefighters were continuing to battle a blaze that has consumed nearly 28,000 hectares. Firefighters also struggled to extinguish blazes in Nevada, California, Arizona, Alaska and Washington that have consumed more than 140,000 hectares.
■ United States
Protester nabbed after mass
A protester claiming to be a victim of sex abuse in the Catholic church was arrested on Sunday after handcuffing himself to the chair of the Archbishop of Los Angeles during mass, officials said. James Robertson, 58, was arrested on suspicion of disturbing a religious ceremony after attaching himself to Cardinal Roger Mahony's seat in Los Angeles's cathedral, according to a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman. The incident took place as about 200 survivors of sex abuse by priests demonstrated outside the new US$189 million cathedral to protest what they say is a cover-up by Mahony of sex abuse crimes in the church. Mahony was standing about 4.5m away from his chair, which is next to the altar, when Roberston rushed up and cuffed himself to the seat, said the archdiocese's spokesman.
■ United Kingdom
Diana-JFK Jr affair alleged
Diana, Princess of Wales had a passionate affair with John F. Kennedy Jr, according to a new book on the late royal. Diana and Kennedy met in New York in 1995 when he sought an interview with her for his magazine George, the Sun newspaper reported yesterday. "One thing led to another and we ended up in bed together. It was pure chemistry," Diana is quoted as saying in Simone Simmons' new biography Diana: the last word. Diana later had an astrological chart drawn up on Kennedy and concluded that they were not compatible enough, according to Simmons.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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