■ New Zealand
Man pleads to go to jail
A 38-year-old New Zealander who has spent nearly half his life in prison asked a judge to give him another 10 years in the jail he called "home" after pleading guilty to theft, a newspaper reported yesterday. "I don't want to muck anyone around. I'm very sorry for what I have done. I just want to go back home, Waikeria Prison, and sit there for another 10 years," Dane Pukepuke told the court at Rotorua on Monday, the Daily Post reported. He admitted stealing cigarettes, cash and telephone cards from a supermarket and a shop assistant's car.
■ Australia
Migrants under microscope
The federal government has commissioned a study into the impact on the community of its migration policy in an attempt to encourage "social cohesion," an immigration department spokeswoman said yesterday. Almost a decade after former firebrand politician Pauline Hanson accused immigrants of failing to assimilate and forming ghettos, the government has called for a report on the effects of migrants on communities.
■ Australia
Terror case `fast-tracked'
The father of Australian terror suspect David Hicks yesterday accused the US and Australian governments of hurrying his son's case through a military commission to prevent the charges from being challenged in a federal court. Hicks, 30, a former kangaroo skinner who was arrested while allegedly fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001, is facing trial before a US military commission on charges of conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attempted murder. A US appeals court last week opened the door for the military trials to begin.
■ Japan
New memorial preferred
Almost two-thirds of Japanese favor building a new war memorial as an alternative to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, criticized as a symbol of the country's past militarism, a newspaper poll said yesterday. About 63 percent of respondents to the Mainichi Shimbun poll said the government should build a new secular memorial to the war dead, while only 28 percent opposed the idea, the paper said. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to Yasukuni have sparked anger in China and North and South Korea.
■ Nepal
Students battle police
Police yesterday used batons to break up a protest by hundreds of students in Kathmandu against the king's seizure of absolute power, injuring at least 36, witnesses said. About four policemen were also hurt. Police arrested several students, said Keshav Singh of the Nepal Student Union. The demonstration was organized by student groups affiliated with the country's seven major political parties, which have banded together to organize joint protests against King Gyanendra's seizure of power earlier this year. About 500 protesters blocked a key street yesterday morning when police charged at them with batons.
■ Indonesia
More bodies recovered
Divers have recovered 79 bodies from a ferry that capsized off eastern Indonesia nearly two weeks ago, and dozens more are believed to be trapped inside, officials said yesterday. Survivors said 200 people were on the ferry when it sank in choppy waters between the port town of Merauke and Tanah Merah -- four times the number listed on the passenger manifest. Only 15 people have been found alive, said Sumpeno Juono of the local search and rescue. Divers have pulled 79 bodies from the vessel, he said, but as many as 100 more were believed to be inside. Bad weather and high waves were hindering recovery efforts, he added.
■ Australia
Egyptian treasures returned
The government yesterday handed over to Egyptian authorities several 2,500-year-old tomb antiquities at the center of a smuggling racket. Police recovered the ancient artefacts as part of an investigation that has led to a prosecution in Egypt, a spokeswoman for the department of environment and heritage said. The seven objects include small funerary statuettes or shabtis, a bronze axe head, a ceramic bowl and amulets to help the dead find their way to the afterlife. The spokeswoman said no arrests had been made in Australia since the artefacts were smuggled out of Egypt under false papers as reproductions before being sold.
■ New Zealand
Warship gear up for grabs
The contents and fittings of a former Royal New Zealand Navy warship -- including the control panel for the ship's torpedo tubes and a two-tonne aluminum funnel -- are to be auctioned on the Internet, it was announced yesterday. The frigate HMNZS Wellington is being scrapped by the navy and will be sunk off the coast of Wellington in November to create an artificial reef for divers, but everything that can be removed is up for sale on the auction site Trade Me. Site manager Sam Morgan said: "We've made some inquiries and to our knowledge it's the first time a warship has been offered up, in part or whole, on an online auction site."
■ Uae
Robot camel jockeys a hit
The United Arab Emirates has conducted the first successful robot camel jockey race after the country recently tightened a ban on the use of children in the races. With the reins in the left hand and the whip in the right, 10 blue and red jersey-wearing robots passed the 3km trial race at Al Wathba racetrack Monday in Abu Dhabi, watched by hundreds of cheering fans. Handlers of the robots drove their four-wheel-drives alongside the camels to control the robots, which performed to expectations. The 15kg robots will cost US$2,000.
■ United kingdom
Afghan warlord jailed
Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a British court yesterday for torture and hostage-taking outside Kabul between Dec. 31, 1991, and Sept. 30, 1996 in a landmark case for international law. Zardad, 41, who lived in London, was convicted on Monday. He denied the charges, but his victims gave evidence against him via video link from the British Embassy in Kabul. Zardad went to London on a fake passport in 1998 and was managing a pizza restaurant when he was arrested. "By securing this conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service has shown there is no hiding place here for torturers and hostage-takers," said Director of Public Proasecutions Ken Macdonald.
■ Venezuela
TV trailer irks Colombia
Colombia on Monday berated a new Venezuela-based television station championed by President Hugo Chavez for featuring the leader of its deadliest rebel group in a promotional trailer. "Sureshot," whose real name is Manuel Marulanda, is the veteran leader of the 13,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Chavez said the Spanish-language Telesur (TeleSouth), formed by several South American governments, will be an antidote to what he considers biased coverage by European and US channels like CNN.
■ Germany
Gifts ban for civil servants
In an effort to stamp out sleaze the government has forbidden 50,000 civil servants in the finance ministry from accepting gifts of any sort, including hot and cold drinks. It sent out memos to the department's workforce warning them that even a free glass of water could be the slippery slope to imprisonment. The ministry's trade union leader, Andreas Meyr, dismissed the regulations as "absurd" and local media said tax officers in Bavaria were fighting to overturn the rules. Finance office director, Karl Kuhn, justifies his stance by citing an example 25 years ago in which tax officers ended up in prison after being bribed to overlook taxable imports and exports. "Even then, it all started with a free cup of coffee," he said.
■ United Kingdom
Girl, 12, pleads guilty
A 12-year-old girl pleaded guilty on Monday to harming a 5-year-old boy who was allegedly hung from a tree. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also admitted a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice when she appeared at Dewsbury Youth Court. Her victim was found wandering alone with red ligature-type marks around his neck and bruises on his body following the attack in a wood in May. Magistrates granted the girl conditional bail while reports are being prepared for the next hearing on Sept. 5 to determine the sentence.
■ United States
Vietnam War general dies
Retired General William Westmoreland, who commanded US troops in the Vietnam War -- the nation's longest conflict and the only war the US lost -- has died at age 91. Westmoreland died Monday night of natural causes at Bishop Gadsden retirement home, where he had lived with his wife for several years, said his son, James Ripley Westmoreland. The silver-haired, jut-jawed officer, who rose through the ranks quickly during World War II and later became superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, contended the US did not lose the conflict in Southeast Asia. "It's more accurate to say our country did not fulfill its commitment to South Vietnam," he said. "By virtue of Vietnam, the US held the line for 10 years and stopped the dominoes from falling."
■ Mexico
Hurricane strands tourists
Hurricane Emily stranded thousands of tourists along Mexico's luxurious Mayan Riviera and left hundreds of local residents homeless on Monday, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters. As residents of Yucatan Peninsula resorts including Playa del Carmen and Tulum began wading through knee-deep flood waters to assess damage under a light drizzle, the storm barreled out into the Gulf of Mexico. Emily was expected to regain strength before slamming into Mexico's northeast coastline. Residents of small coastal fishing villages boarded up windows and evacuated low-lying areas.
■ The Netherlands
Thousands start march
Around 45,000 registered walking enthusiasts began the Vierdaagse, or Four Days' Marches in the eastern city of Nijmegen yesterday. Billed as the world's largest walking event, the Vierdaagse walkers cover between 30km, 40km or 50km each day, depending on the level of difficulty they have chosen. About 90 percent of walkers who start usually finish. Last year, several men were arrested on suspicion of planning to plant a bomb at the event, but were eventually released without charge. Around 5,000 soldiers, including US and British troops, participate in the marches, which are open to everyone.
■ United States
Retired FBI agent sentenced
A retired FBI agent who pleaded guilty to lying about his affair with a suspected Chinese double agent was sentenced on Monday to probation and fined US$10,000 after apologizing for his behavior. Smith at one time faced up to five years in prison for lying to the FBI about his two-decade affair with accused Chinese double agent Katrina Leung. A plea agreement allowed him to cooperate with the government in return for leniency. In May Smith pleaded guilty to a single count of making a false statement -- admitting that he had a sexual relationship with Leung and lied about it to the FBI.
■ United States
Gore goes for TV
Former US Vice President Al Gore, co-founder of a new television channel launching next month, said he's shunning politics -- and so is his media venture. "I consider myself a recovering politician. I'm on step nine," Gore told a meeting of the Television Critics Association on Monday. Aimed at an 18 to 34-year-old audience, Gore said the channel will engage young people in the "dialogue of democracy" by providing stories that interest them. "We want to be the television home page for the Internet generation," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia