■ Japan
Housewife loses appeal
The Osaka High Court yesterday upheld a death sentence against a 43-year-old Masumi Hayashi for murdering four people and poisoning 63 others with arsenic-laced curry served at a summer festival. The court rejected an appeal by Hayashi, a mother of four, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing two children and two adults and poisoning 63 other people in 1998 in Sonobe. Hayashi was also found guilty of three counts of attempted murder, including giving her husband arsenic-laced food in February 1997.
■ India
Raped woman must divorce
A powerful Muslim body on Monday ordered a woman allegedly raped by her father-in-law to separate from her husband, but said she was free to remarry if she wished. Imrana Ilahi, 28, was allegedly raped by Ali Mohammed about two weeks ago. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board said the marriage would have to end. "Had she been raped by anyone other than a blood relation, she could have stayed with her husband ... but here a sacred relationship had been violated, the consequences of which have to be borne by Imrana and her husband Noor Ilahi," a board member said. Earlier a group of local Muslim clerics had ordered Imrana to marry her rapist and treat her husband as her son.
■ China
Police assault petitioners
Shanghai police assaulted about 30 people who were trying to petition the central government over the loss of homes and other complaints, Human Rights in China (HRIC) said yesterday. The attack allegedly occurred Friday evening as the group was trying to board a train to Beijing, HRIC said.
■ China
Accident triggers riot
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) yesterday confirmed that a riot erupted in Chizhou City, Anhui Province, after a traffic accident on Sunday. The Chizhou Daily said on a Web site on Monday that rioters set off firecrackers in a police station and hit officers with rocks. A car hit a pedestrian and the driver of the car then beat up the pedestrian who had to be taken to hospital. The driver and his car were taken to a police station, where an angry crowd gathered and grew to number 10,000. Some people smashed the car and set it on fire. They threw rocks at the police officers at the scene, injuring six of them.
■ Pakistan
Rape suspects face arrest
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the arrest of five suspects who were earlier acquitted of gang raping a woman on the orders of a village council. "Non-bailable warrants of arrest of the respondents ... are issued," Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said. The victim, Mukhtaran Mai, launched an appeal on Monday against the acquittals of the five men, who had been sentenced to death for the June 2002 attack. The men's convictions were overturned in March but they were rearrested on the orders of the government. They were then freed again earlier this month by the Lahore High Court.
■ South Korea
Chung hopes to meet Cheney
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young will try to convince US Vice President Dick Cheney to soften his stance toward North Korea, a newspaper said yesterday. Chung, who had a five-hour meeting with the North's leader Kim Jong-il on June 17, will start a four-day visit Washington today, trying to soften up Cheney, the Chosun Ilbo reported. The paper cited sources as saying a few kind words from Cheney could help convince the North to return to stalled six-party talks to end its nuclear weapons programs.
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