■ North Marianas
Korean businessman killed
Police in the US-administered Northern Mariana Islands were yesterday investigating the murder of a 60-year-old South Korean businessman found strangled in his apartment on the main island of Saipan. Police said the victim was found by his wife on Friday after she returned to the central Pacific island from a trip to China for medical treatment. The identity of the man had not been released by police, who ruled out robbery as a motive for the killing. Valuables remained untouched in the apartment, Department of Public Safety spokesman Eric David said. After returning to the apartment after her trip, the man's wife found the man's lifeless body tied up with a bag over his head.
■ The Philippines
Journalist death toll rises
A radio broadcaster who accused officials of being close to drug dealers was shot dead after his show on Sunday, becoming the sixth journalist to be murdered in the country this year, police said yesterday. Rolando Morales of DXMD station was ambushed on Sunday night while riding his motorbike with an unnamed companion near Polomolok town in southern Mindanao, police said. He was pronounced dead in hospital and the unidentified woman was wounded. There had been no arrests and the motive of the attack was not known, according to police. The journalist had long been a vocal critic of the proliferation of illegal drug dealers in the area and had often accused local government officials of either protecting the powerful drug dealers or being involved in the highly lucrative trade themselves, police said.
■ Australia
Landmark collapses
Part of one of the country's most famous natural landmarks has been reduced to a pile of rubble after one of the ruggedly beautiful Twelve Apostles rock pillars collapsed in front of stunned onlookers. A 45m pillar that geologists say took 20 million years to form took just seconds to collapse into the Southern Ocean on Sunday after witnesses said a large crack appeared in its side. "Reports were it sort of shimmied and shuddered a bit, it fractured and sort of imploded in on itself and pretty much slid straight into the ocean," Victoria state park ranger Alex Green said. "So we've gone from a 50m stack to a 10m pile of rubble."
■ Australia
Shark nets developed
Electronic barriers to keep sharks away from popular beaches are to be given a go in Australia and South Africa. Australian company Seachange Technology said yesterday it had signed a deal with South Africa's Natal Sharks Board to trial electronic devices that give out a signal that drives sharks away but is harmless to them and to dolphins and whales. Australia protects most shark species just as it does dolphins and whales. The announcement comes a week after three swimmers were attacked by sharks off US beaches in Florida. Seachange manufactures electronic shark repellent products that can be strapped to diving suits, boats and surf boards.
■ Japan
Embezzler financed gigalos
A 61-year-old woman has been arrested for swindling millions of dollars from a taxi drivers' pension fund to finance time with young male entertainers. Noriko Miyata, a single woman who had been the sole accountant at the pension fund for 34 years, was arrested last week for fraud and other charges in Kanagawa, southwest of Tokyo. She was fired in October 2003 after an internal investigation found she allegedly stole ?3.3 million (US$29,570). However, the real amount of money she siphoned off is believed to be as much as ?280 million over 20 years. "I spent it on wining and dining at host clubs," as well as clothes, jewelry and other personal belongings, a policeman quoted her.
■ China
Web site offers alibis
A Web site offering alibis for cheating spouses has been launched in northern China. The Web site provides dated documents to allow unfaithful spouses to hoodwink their partners into thinking they were at legitimate business meetings at the time of their indiscretions. Around 40 people have already subscribed to the service in Harbin, Heilongjian Province. A sociologist quoted by the newspaper called for the service to be banned, saying it took advantage of technology to encourage extramarital affairs.
■ North Korea
Nouveau riche like pink
Pink, red and yellow are the fashion colors of choice for the nouveau-riche who no longer want to be seen in the drab black and white outfits of the proletariat. The fashion accessories of choice for people who have been able to acquire money are no longer just red portrait badges of the late founder Kim Il-sung. The well-off women prefer pink dresses and umbrellas. The women and a few men also opt for bright red rubber rain boots and men have shed the jumpsuit style clothes favored by leader Kim Jong-il, for colorful shirts. The rich have made their money in service industries, such as karaoke bars and video taping events for families. North Korea's per capita income was estimated at US$914 last year, about one-fifteenth of the South.
■ Syria
War on terror being waged
Syria said on Sunday it was a "pioneer in fighting terror," and announced the killing of an Arab extremist trying to sneak across its western border into Lebanon as proof it was battling terrorists. The official news agency, SANA, said on Sunday that Syrian security forces had killed the man after he'd opened fire on a Syrian border patrol. In the ensuing clash two Syrian soldiers were also killed, the agency said. No details were provided on the nationality of the slain man or when or where the battle occurred. The agency also said that 34 extremists of various nationalities were arrested following the clash.
■ Russia
Prisoners `forced to protest'
Prosecutors in the Kursk region in southwest Russia have opened a criminal enquiry into prisoners they say pressured fellow inmates into mutilating themselves, refusing to eat and disobeying staff, Russian news agencies reported Sunday. "In their statements, detainees have said that some prisoners forced them to mutilate themselves with the aim of destabilizing the situation in the detention center," the Russian prosecutor general's office told Interfax. Valery Borshchev, a human rights defender and ministry of justice expert, said Friday that 437 inmates slashed themselves with razor blades in a protest that started in the night between June 26 and June 27 in Lgov prison.
■ Finland
Pair wins wife-carrying race
An Estonian couple reigned supreme once again in the wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, as Margo Uusorg sprinted home to win the Baltic country's eighth straight title in the offbeat competition. Forty couples from 10 countries gathered in the remote Finnish village of Sonkajarvi to complete a 253.5m-long obstacle course. A man must carry a woman, not necessarily his spouse, through a pool and across hurdles. The few rules require a minimum weight of 49 g for the "wife" and state that all contestants must have fun. Uusorg, 25, completed the course in 59 seconds with friend Egle Soll, 23, clinging to his back in the trademark "Estonian Carry." Uusorg's prizes were his partner's weight in beer and a high-tech mobile phone.
■ United Kingdom
Power lines, cancer linked
A new study has found a statistical link between living close to a high-voltage power line and childhood leukemia, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Gerald Draper and staff from the Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University and John Swanson, scientific adviser to the national grid company Transco, measured the distance from children's home addresses at birth from the nearest high voltage power line. They found that children living within 200m of a power line were about 70 percent more likely to develop leukemia compared to those who lived beyond 600m.
■ Albania
Poll goes down to the wire
The nation's parliamentary elections, seen as a crucial test for the Balkan country's future in Europe, were too close to call yesterday with both the ruling Socialists and opposition Democrats claiming victory. With vote counting underway following Sunday's polls, however, election monitors said neither Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano, nor the Democrats, led by Sali Berisha had a decisive lead.
■ Colombia
Drug-running rebel caught
Authorities have captured a Marxist rebel who engineered the smuggling of 300 tonnes of cocaine, worth about about US$7.5 billion into the US. Ferney Torres, 38, was arrested after being wounded by soldiers as he tried to escape an army checkpoint the southern province of Caqueta. "This was a very important capture because he was in charge of the logistics and finances of the Southern Block of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia," army General Carlos Fracica said, adding that Washington is likely to request Torres' extradition.
■ Iraq
Al-Qaeda member in custody
A Tunisian member of the al-Qaeda network who was captured in Mosul a month ago has provided a wealth of information about the group's operations in the region, the US Army said. The man, identified as Emad Amara with the alias Abu Hamsa, maintained several houses in the Mosul area where foreign fighters and potential suicide bombers were given shelter. The Tunisian is believed to have smuggled in more than 100 extremists using the hideouts.
■ United States
Two nabbed in iPod killing
Two New York City teenagers were under arrest on suspicion of killing another teen for his iPod portable music player, police said. The boys were facing charges of murder, robbery and weapons possession in the death of 15-year-old Christopher Rose. Rose and three friends were accosted by a group of young men Saturday evening in Brooklyn. Members of the group demanded Rose's iPod and stabbed him twice in the chest when he resisted. The group fled, taking Rose's iPod and a backpack. Police also have reported a wave of iPod robberies on city subways, saying in April that 50 iPods had been stolen this year.
■ France
Anti-terror center set up
The US and France set up a top-secret anti-terrorism center in Paris that does not gather information, but plans covert operations against terrorists, the Washington Post reported. The center, codenamed "Alliance Base," was set up in 2002 by the CIA and the French DGSE secret service and is run by a French general. According to the newspaper, the center is a unique set-up as several countries contribute to it, meaning that agents from Germany, the UK, Canada and Australia are at its disposal, working on specific cases. The facility permits German secret service agents, for example, to view criminal records from the police that would not be permitted under German law.
■ New Zealand
Anti-nuclear policy attacked
The US made yesterday a new attack on New Zealand's 21-year-old anti-nuclear policy, but it made no impression on Prime Minister Helen Clark, who leads the Labour Party which introduced the policy that banned visits by US nuclear-armed and powered ships when it came to power in 1984. Preparing to leave Wellington after nearly four years, US Ambassador Charles Swindells used his farewell speech to revive the stand-off, saying relations between the two countries could become irrelevant if they did not address the issue. "Any dialogue has to be within the context of the existing legislation," Clark said. "There's no way that this government is going to sell out on that." The opposition National Party has said it will not change the policy without a referendum and polls show most New Zealanders want to remain anti-nuclear.
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