■ Nepal
Ex-PM jailed for embezzling
An anti-corruption commission yesterday found former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to two years in prison, officials say. Deuba was sacked in February following accusations that his administration misused 370 million rupees (US$5.3 million) from a road construction project. Chief Commissioner Bhakta Bahadur Koirala read out the verdict, saying Deuba has also been fined 45 million rupees. Prakash Man Singh, a former Cabinet minister, was handed the same sentence.
PHOTO: AFP
■ Japan
Governor taught a lesson
A group of Japanese professors annoyed at an attack on the French language by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara gave the outspoken politician a set of French textbooks yesterday and urged him to study during his summer holidays. Ishihara said last October that French was "disqualified as an international language because French is a language which cannot count numbers," prompting 21 teachers and researchers of French to file suit against him this month seeking a published apology and
?500,000 (US$4,500) each in compensation. Numbers in French can be a mouthful.
■ Indonesia
Vaccine rumors attacked
Muslims have nothing to fear from an upcoming polio immunization campaign, the highest Islamic body said yesterday, seeking to quell rumors that the vaccine violates Islamic law. The rumors mirror those that spread in Nigeria in 2003, where polio vaccinations were suspended after Islamic preachers warned parents not to vaccinate their children because they believed it was part of a US plot against Muslims.
■ Japan
Buyer pays cash for Kitty
A diamond-studded Hello Kitty pendant costing ¥5.7 million (US$50,000) was snatched up in a mere two minutes yesterday by a man who travelled hundreds of kilometers to buy the gift for his daughter -- and paid in cash. The middle-aged man carrying a black Chanel bag appeared at 10:02am, two minutes after the central Tokyo outlet of Mitsukoshi department store opened. Despite the price tag, the man said he came early as he was worried other consumers might also want the diamond-studded pendant with a ruby ribbon and sapphire nose. But he had an agonizing eight minutes as Mitsukoshi waited until 10:10 am to confirm no other customers would rush in to fight for the pendant, witnesses said.
■ Hong Kong
Official warns democrats
A top Chinese official has launched a stinging attack on Hong Kong democrats, saying those who take action harming national security would not be welcomed in Beijing, the South China Morning Post said yesterday. Chen Zuoer (陳佐洱), deputy director of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, said troublesome democrats would only be allowed in China if they changed their confrontational ways, the daily said. There is growing speculation that Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) will attempt to lead all 60 legislators on a visit to Beijing. Although a few democrats have been allowed to visit China, some are still barred, including outspoken legislators Emily Lau (劉慧卿) and Martin Lee (李柱銘).
■ Thailand
Severed head found
Authorities have discovered the head of a policeman's son who was believed to have been beheaded by Islamic militants in the southern province of Pattani, an official said yesterday. The torso was still missing. The head of 29-year-old Ekkasak Wisetsuwannaphum was discovered in a sack on a roadside, Lieutenant Colonel Chalor Yuankuert said. Ekkasak had been missing since Monday evening, Chalor said. He is the eighth person to be beheaded in the Muslim-dominated southern provinces in the past month.
■ Pjilippines
Teetotaler hacked to death
A 25-year-old man was hacked to death in Manila for refusing to join a drinking spree, a police report said yesterday. The report said Joseph Barcelona was passing by neighbors drinking liquor in Marikina city when he was invited to join by the suspect, 46-year-old Fermin Manquianos. Manquianos allegedly got mad at Barcelona for refusing his invitation and hacked the victim in the head and the chest with a jungle knife. Barcelona was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. Police filed homicide charges against Manquianos, who was arrested shortly after the incident.
■ Kyrgyzstan
US base can stay for now
The US won assurances from the Bishkek government yesterday that Washington could keep its military base in the ex-Soviet Central Asian state as long as the situation in Afghanistan required it. The pledge came after acting Defense Minister Ismail Isakov met with visiting US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
■ Israel
Settlers protests pullout
Jewish settlers threw scrunched-up garbage bags in the face of Israel's top army rabbi on Monday in protest at his visit to discuss removing graves during the planned Gaza Strip pullout. "How can you kill a person twice?" one of the 40 demonstrators shouted at Brigadier General Yisrael Weiss, chief military chaplain. The Orthodox rabbi did not reply. The black plastic bags were meant to symbolize burial shrouds. Israeli authorities plan to dig up the remains of 48 Jews buried in a tiny hilltop graveyard in Gush Katif, the main settlement bloc in the occupied Gaza Strip, and transfer them to cemeteries in Israel.
■ Netherlands
Van Gogh killer gets life
A Dutch court sentenced the self-confessed killer of a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam to life in jail yesterday for a murder which whipped up racial and religious tensions in the Netherlands. Mohammed Bouyeri, an Amsterdam-born Muslim, was convicted of killing Theo van Gogh as he cycled to work in Amsterdam on Nov. 2, last year. He was found guilty of shooting and stabbing Van Gogh, slashing his throat and pinning a note to his body with a knife. Judge Udo Willem Bentinck told the court Bouyeri had murdered Van Gogh in a gruesome manner without mercy and had shown no remorse for his actions.
■ Italy
Six warrants issued
An Italian court has issued six new arrest warrants for people involved in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorism suspect by the CIA, a prosecuting magistrate said on Monday. The new warrants bring to 19 the number of suspects -- all believed to be US citizens -- being sought under suspicion of abducting imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from Milan in February 2003. The prosecutors say the US secret services took Nasr to Egypt for interrogation, a process known as "rendition." The CIA has declined to comment on the case.
■ Israel
Dayan's eyepatch on eBay
An original eyepatch worn by legendary Israeli chief of staff and statesman, Moshe Dayan, is being offered for a staggering US$75,000 dollars on Internet auction site eBay. The sellers obtained the eyepatch from a bodyguard of the late minister, who acquired it and a .38 caliber revolver minutes after Dayan died in 1981, the Haaretz newspaper said Monday. Born in 1915 in what was then still Palestine, Dayan lost his eye in World War II as he fought alongside British troops in Syria against the pro-Axis forces of Vichy France. Dayan served as defense minister during the 1967 Six Day War and as foreign minister in 1977.
■ Denmark
Sugar-takers stay thinner
People who put sugar in their tea or coffee greatly reduce the risk of gaining weight, according to a Danish study of 5,200 men, the daily Jyllands-Posten said Monday. "To our great surprise we found that there were significantly fewer obese people, or more thin people, among those who take sugar in their coffee or tea than those who don't," professor Finn Gyntelberg at Copenhagen's Bispebjerg hospital told reporters. Gyntelberg said the results were so far "mere observations" and stressed that further studies were needed to determine whether the combination of coffee and sugar activates hormones that reduce appetite.
■ United States
Soldier jailed for murder
A US military judge on Monday sentenced a National Guard soldier to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi policeman, military authorities said. Corporal Dustin Berg of the Indiana National Guard also admitted during his court-martial at Fort Knox, Kentucky, to intentionally shooting himself and lying to cover up the homicide, military authorities said in a statement. The judge, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Anderson, also ordered a bad-conduct discharge for Berg, the statement said. Berg had faced a charge of murder in the shooting, which occurred Nov. 23, 2003, while the two were on patrol together.
■ Lebanon
Warlord freed after 11 years
Notorious anti-Syrian Christian warlord Samir Geagea was released yesterday after 11 years in prison, his spokeswoman said. Antoinette Geagea, spokeswoman for the banned Christian Lebanese Forces militia which Geagea headed during the 1975-90 civil war, said that her relative "is a free man" as of yesterday morning. Geagea left his cell at the defense ministry in Beirut where he lived for the last 11 years of his life straight to the airport where he met with Lebanese Forces supporters, a senior Lebanese security officer said on condition of anonymity as the government had not officially commented on his release.
■ South Africa
`Deathtrap' taxis targeted
South Africa will drive 10,000 old and dangerous minibus taxis off the road by the end of next year and compensate their owners under a plan to rid its streets of "deathtraps," the transport minister said. The vast private taxi industry, a legacy of apartheid-era under-investment in public transport for the black majority, uses some 100,000 vehicles to transport around 70 percent of South Africa's commuters -- mostly poor and black. The government's 7.7 billion rand (US$1.15 billion) "taxi recapitalization" strategy aims to remove dilapidated and dangerous minibus taxis off the road within the next five years and replace them with new 18 and 25-seater buses.
■ United States
Gaming degree offered
A California Indian tribe on Monday said it would fund the first US university degree in tribal gaming to bring professional discipline to a multibillion-dollar industry often "run on intuition." Last year, casinos run by Indian tribes generated around US$21 billion in revenue, including hotels, restaurants and shows, compared with US$19.6 billion for Nevada casinos, according to the National Indian Gaming Association. The Sycuan tribe has donated US$5.5 million to start the research institute and degree program focused on tribal gaming at San Diego State University. The program is expected to start in the fall of next year and enroll about 20 students.
■ United States
Bush may use rare measure
The White House on Monday hinted that US President George W. Bush might use a rare measure to appoint John Bolton as UN ambassador in the face of opposition that has stalled his confirmation. Under US law, Bush could give Bolton a recess appointment that would install him at the UN until a new Congress convenes in January 2007. Asked about such a maneuver, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "There are important priorities we're working to advance, and it's important to have people in certain positions."
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