■ Singapore
Officials permit Sex Expo
Singapore will host its first-ever Sex Expo in November after receiving in-principle approval from the tightly controlled city-state's authorities, a local newspaper reported yesterday. The Singapore police have already imposed certain conditions on organizers -- no obscene acts can be put on display and all exhibits and promotions will face government scrutineers, the Straits Times reported. The exhibition will feature furniture "designed to enhance lovemaking" and an erotic toy section, the paper said. An exhibition on the history of condoms is also scheduled for show.
■ Hong Kong
Landslides kill one
Hong Kong battled landslides and road closures yesterday as torrential rain caused chaos in the territory and buried one man alive in mud and rubble. The 42-year-old man died on Saturday night after being buried in a landslide on a slope beside his home in Tsuen Wan district, the first victim of a landslide in Hong Kong in 10 years. His death came after two days of continuous heavy rain which has caused 98 landslides since Friday night. Four families had to be evacuated from their homes in rural Pat Heung yesterday morning when rocks and mud poured down on their homes from a hillside.
■ Philippines
Aussie teen kidnapped
An Australian teenager was among three people kidnapped by armed men in Manila at the weekend, police said yesterday. Men who identified themselves as government agents and armed with handguns barged into a home in suburban Quezon city on Saturday and seized Jayson Rea, 21, Alfred Batolio, 30 and Charles Sajor, a 15-year-old Australian, police said. A housemaid told police that the five suspects identified themselves as members of a special anti-crime group. They "forcibly abducted the victims" and sped away in a blue car. The Philippines is facing a resurgence of kidnapping for ransom, just months after the government said it had neutralized major crime gangs operating in the capital and nearby suburbs.
■ China
PRC `Apprentice' fires up
US property tycoon Donald Trump is planning a Chinese edition of his US hit reality television show The Apprentice. "There have been 11 copies of The Apprentice and every one of them has failed," Trump said in a seeming swipe at his Hong Kong business partner Vincent Lo (羅康瑞), whose show Wise Man Takes All features Chinese contestants pitching business plans to win 1 million yuan (US$123,000) as start-up capital. The Chinese version of The Apprentice is set to further sour relations with Lo, whom Trump is suing for US$1.76 billion for allegedly underselling a plot of prime land in New York's Manhattan. Trump said the show would be fronted by 41-year-old Beijing real-estate mogul Pan Shiyi (潘石屹).
■ Malaysia
Sultan weds again
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has married a 26-year-old former Malaysian TV journalist who has become his second wife, reports said yesterday. The 58-year-old ruler of the oil-rich state married Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim at a private ceremony in the Malaysian capital on Friday night, the New Straits Times said. Azrinaz was educated in Malaysia and spent several years as a broadcast journalist and later as a newscaster with private station TV3. Polygamy is legal in the Muslim nation.
■ Indonesia
Fires mostly extinguished
Yesterday firefighters had extinguished all the fires from land clearance on Sumatra island blamed for causing a choking haze which smothered the region. Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban said the peat could continue burning underground. He also said the blazes were caused by small farmers and plantations clearing non-forest land for planting, rather than forest fires. While the government banned the practice of using fire to clear land for farming or plantations, he said, "the environmental awareness and commitment of entrepreneurs are still low."
■ Japan
Emergency landing made
A Qantas jet made an emergency landing in Japan early yesterday after what was most probably a false smoke alarm, and nine people were injured when they used chutes to escape. The Perth-bound Airbus A330, carrying 178 passengers and 13 crew, landed in Osaka shortly after leaving Tokyo.
■ Philippines
Gasoline blast injures 39
At least 39 people were injured yesterday when a huge gasoline spill sparked a series of explosions and fires in Manila. About 5,000 litres of gasoline leaked from a broken valve of a tanker, spilling into an underground canal and a creek in Quezon. A garbage fire later ignited the spilled gasoline, triggering underground explosions that blew off concrete manhole covers and set shanties on fire. At least 39 people were injured in the accident; most suffered burns and bruises. At least one man was in critical condition, after being hit by debris from an exploded concrete manhole cover. The tanker was delivering supplies to a nearby gasoline station, which has promised to pay for the hospital expenses of all the victims.
■ South Africa
Police hunt kidney marketer
South African police are hunting a suspected Israeli mastermind behind a cash-for-kidney scandal involving top surgeons who performed more than 100 transplants two years ago, the local Sunday Times newspaper reported. Ilan Perry, claimed to be the kingpin behind a syndicate that paid more than 100 Brazilian nationals to sell their kidneys, mainly to Israeli patients, is wanted by police after at least five prominent surgeons appeared in court on Wednesday. The paper said that the doctors face charges of contravening South Africa's Human Tissue Act, more than 100 charges of assault to do grievous bodily harm and fraud.
■ Libya
Qaddafi invites Bush, Rice
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, keen to improve ties with the West, has invited US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit his country, a visiting US senator said on Saturday. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, ending a two-day trip to Libya, told a news conference he had held talks with Gaddafi on normalising relations after decades of estrangement, following Tripoli's decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction.
■ Zimbabwe
Lions kill Japanese woman
A 50-year-old Japanese embassy worker died after she was attacked by a group of lions in a tourist park on the outskirts of the Zimbabwe capital Harare. The Sunday Mail quoted a police spokesman as saying the attack occurred on Thursday after the woman and a fellow embassy worker entered one of the lion enclosures in the company of a guide at the popular Lion and Cheetah park situated around 20km outside Harare. "One of the lions suddenly attacked the woman as she was about to leave the lions' pen," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted as saying. "Other lions also went for the helpless woman," he said.
■ Mexico
Police quell riot at resort
Mexican riot police on Saturday clashed with protesters in the luxury hotel zone of the Caribbean resort of Cancun, firing tear gas and arresting hundreds of protesters after they blocked a roadway. Demonstrators were protesting the recent jailing of Leyda Campos, a former state prosecutor under investigation for her legal work on behalf of a shelter for children and women. At least three families have accused La Casita shelter of holding relatives against their will, but protesters charged that authorities are carrying out a vendetta against the shelter.
■ Ivory Coast
Fireworks cause panic
A display of fireworks in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan caused panic late on Saturday, with officials rushing to assure residents that a threatened rebel attack on the city was not under way. The fireworks, fired from the southern neighborhood of Treichville and followed by brief bursts of automatic weapons fire, sparked panic, notably in the Cocody area where President Laurent Gbagbo has his residence. Shops shut down and young people began putting up barricades until top officials went on state television and radio to say that there was no reason to be alarmed. Security Minister Martin Bleou said that the fireworks were let off as part of a commercial event. He banned any further use of fireworks or firecrackers in the city.
■ Sweden
Delegates focus on water
Water management, seen as the key to fighting poverty and promoting economic growth in Asia and Africa, will take center stage at the World Water Week, which gathers experts from 100 countries in Stockholm starting today, officials and participants said. "Water is the key to dealing with the twin challenges of poverty and growth," said Sunita Narain, whose Indian environmental organization The Center for Science and Environment won this year's US$150,000 Stockholm Water Prize for its work to improve water management. "Water will make or break India," she said.
■ Ecuador
Soldiers escort oil workers
Ecuador deployed army troops on Saturday to bring oil workers to their jobs and restart production that had been interrupted by six days of protest in key oil-producing provinces. The troops were deployed to end roadblocks and protect oil facilities from attack, the state oil firm Petroecuador said in a statement. "With the cooperation of the armed forces we have managed to reopen some roads and gain access to the operational areas, thanks to which the Petroproduccion workers can restart operations in those stations and wells which are not heavily affected" by the protests, the statement said.
■ Zimbabwe
Youths recruited by police
Three hundred graduates of Zimbabwe's controversial youth training camps have been hired to work with police in Harare to help curb "illegal businesses" in the wake of the government's clean-up campaign, the Sunday Mail reported. Touts and pavement vendors have flocked back to the streets of the capital after police chased them away in May, when Operation Restore Order was launched. More than 18,000 youths have graduated so far from the National Youth Service program, introduced in 2001. Thegovernment says the program is meant to instil discipline and patriotism in Zimbabwe's young people, but critics say the youths are indoctrinated in anti-opposition politics.
■ United States
Bush, Armstrong go cycling
US President George W. Bush and fellow Texan Lance Armstrong, fresh from his unprecedented seventh victory in the Tour de France, took a two-hour ride through the president's private ranch. Escorted by Secret Service bodyguards and a few staffers, Bush and Armstrong covered about 27km, according to the White House. Armstrong, 33, a cancer survivor, retired from cycling after his latest victory in the Tour de France, the sport's most grueling and prestigious race. Bush, 59, was an avid runner until knee problems forced him to turn to cycling for fitness and recreation.
■ United States
Pot lovers swarm to festival
Thousands of marijuana fans openly celebrated their love of cannabis at a Saturday festival, despite a recent ruling by the nation's highest court backing federal law making pot illegal. The crowd of revelers that strolled, snacked, socialized and smoked their way through Hempfest in the northwestern US city of Seattle tallied approximately 75,000 people by sundown, according to organizers. Many festival attendees wandered the downtown park toking marijuana cigarettes in the summer heat. Seattle police safeguarded the cannabis aficionados, not bothering to enforce local pot laws that make recreational marijuana smoking the city's lowest crime priority.
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