■ Nepal
Students hurt in oil protest
Students protesting increased oil prices clashed with police in the Nepalese capital yesterday, student leaders said. At least six students were injured in the melee, said a student leader Kalyan Gurung. Police fired several rounds of tear gas at the protesting students, who retaliated by throwing bricks. The students opposed a decision by Nepal's royal government to raise the price of petroleum products. The government last week increased the prices of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel by 5 Nepalese rupees (US$0.07) per liter.
■ Australia
Drug smugglers stupid: PM
Australians who smuggle drugs into Southeast Asia are stupid and should not expect their government to bail them out, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. His warning came after a wave of drug busts in Indonesia that put some young Australians in jeopardy of death sentences or long prison terms. "It's beyond belief that any Australian could be so stupid as to carry drugs into any country in Asia," Howard told a local television station. "We have told Australians, young Australians, again and again, don't take drugs out of this country, don't take them into Asian countries, because you can't expect any mercy."
■ Singapore
Inmates do call-center work
Female inmates at a Singapore prison are working 12-hour shifts as telephone call-center operators and telemarketers in a state campaign to rehabilitate lawbreakers, an official said yesterday. "It's pretty much the same as a commercial call center, except it's behind bars," said Vincent Chan, a senior manager at the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises. "It's our way of upgrading the old prisons' industries and enhancing the inmates' employability," Chan said. He said the call center is a cubicle-filled room about the size of a basketball court at the Changi Women's Prison and Drug Rehabilitation Center.
■ Hong Kong
Gay sex laws discriminate
A Hong Kong judge ruled yesterday that laws against gay sex -- including one that demands a life sentence for men aged under 21 who engage in sodomy -- are unconstitutional and discriminatory. High Court Judge Michael Hartmann made the judgment after William Roy Leung, a 20-year-old homosexual, launched a legal challenge against what he considered discriminatory anti-gay laws. Hartmann said the laws "discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. [They] are demeaning of gay men who are, through the legislation, stereotyped as deviant."
■ Thailand
Penis issue dogs Cabinet
Thailand's prime minister is trying to ferret out a government minister who allegedly had a penis enlargement procedure, saying news of it is affecting the Cabinet's reputation, a news report said yesterday. "Who did it? Tell me," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told his ministers at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, triggering a round of banter and causing some to squirm in their chairs, the Nation newspaper said. Last week, a woman -- being sued for defamation by a clinic after she claimed it gave her a face-disfiguring silicon injection -- said a Cabinet member had received a penis-enlargement injection at the same clinic and urged him to come forward as a witness in her defense. Calling on the official, the woman said, "The problem of my face is bigger than the problem of your penis."
■ Sweden
Suspected arsonist arrested
Swedish security police on Tuesday questioned five people allegedly linked to a group that has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against embassies, and arrested one of them on suspicion of arson. The group, Global Intifada, claims to be a network of leftist organizations that seeks to overthrow capitalism. It has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the burning of cars outside the Russian and Danish embassies in Stockholm earlier this year. No one was hurt in those incidents. The suspect arrested on Tuesday could face arson charges, security police spokesman Jakob Larsson said, but would not give details. The other four were released.
■ Bosnia
Imam accused of sex abuse
An Islamic cleric was arrested Tuesday in the western Bosnian town of Jezersko after six girls said he had sexually abused them, the FENA news agency reported. The girls, aged 12 to 16, reported being sexually abused during religious classes by the man, who is the imam of the local mosque. Police said they had begun an investigation of the case, the first of its kind in Bosnia where almost 40 percent of the population of some 3.8 million people are Muslims.
■ Scotland
William Wallace honored
He may have been prettified -- and shrunk -- by Mel Gibson's portrayal, but William Wallace remains one of Scotland's biggest heroes. So on Tuesday, the 700th anniversary of his grisly death, Wallace was remembered with a variety of patriotic tributes. The freedom fighter, commemorated in the movie Braveheart, became a symbol of Scottish nationhood after a famous victory over the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. In London, the Scottish National party hosted a memorial service at Westminster Hall, where Wallace's trial took place and from where he was dragged to Smithfield for execution.
■ Kazakhstan
Satellite launched on ICBM
An intercontinental ballistic missile converted into a booster rocket for civilian use placed two Japanese satellites in orbit yesterday, Russia's Space Forces said. The Dnepr rocket converted from an RS-20 Voyevoda missile -- known in the West as an SS-18 -- put the satellites in orbit 15 minutes after its launch from the Russian facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Space Forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov as saying. Citing the Russian space agency, ITAR-Tass reported that the OICETS and INDEX satellites would carry out research for Japan's space agency.
■ United States
Celebrities support reporter
More than two dozen European personalities, including filmmakers Pedro Almodovar and Wim Wenders and novelist Gunter Grass, on Tuesday called for the release of a New York Times reporter jailed for refusing to reveal her sources. The call came in a petition, organized by the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, urging the US courts to free Judith Miller, who spent her 50th day in prison yesterday. "At a time when the most extremist ideas are gaining ground, and when growing numbers of reporters are being killed or taken hostage, arresting a journalist in a democratic country is more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice," the petition said.
■ United States
Jackson accuser charged
The woman whose son accused Michael Jackson of child molestation was charged with welfare fraud on Tuesday for allegedly collecting nearly US$19,000 in payments while making false claims. At Jackson's trial, the woman invoked her constitutional protection against self-incrimination and refused to testify about the welfare matter. But Jackson's lawyers presented evidence that she and her family had received a US$150,000 settlement in a 2001 lawsuit against a department store at a time she claimed to be poor.
■ United States
Hacker hits air-force data
A suspected hacker has tapped into a US military database containing social-security numbers and other personal information for 33,000 air force officers and some enlisted personnel, an air force spokesman said on Tuesday. That figure represents about half of the officers in the air force, but no identity theft had been reported by Tuesday, a spokesman at Randolph Air Force Base said. Last Friday, the people affected were notified of steps they could take to protect their identity, he said. The military, while protecting classified information, has had trouble protecting data about its own people, a computer expert told the Washington Post, which first reported the story.
■ United States
Anti-Bush officer moved
An air-force officer accused of vandalizing car bumper stickers that support US President George W. Bush has been reassigned by the military to a non-supervisory position, an air-force spokesman said. Lieutenant Colonel Alexis Fecteau faces criminal mischief charges for allegedly blacking out Bush bumper stickers on cars at Denver International Airport and then spray-painting an expletive over them. Fecteau was reassigned on Aug. 10, said Colonel Dave Cannon, a spokesman for the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base. Fecteau had been director of operations for reserve forces at the National Security Space Institute at the base, supervising 11 full-time and 30 part-time reservists.
■ Mexico
Anti-dam protesters injured
At least 12 people were injured on Tuesday as protesters opposing a government plan to build a hydroelectric dam near the Pacific resort city of Acapulco clashed with police. The violence came as the Federal Electricity Commission announced that communal landowners in the community of Cacahuatepec had approved the expropriation of the land needed for the estimated US$800 million La Parota project. Some 400 demonstrators pelted a similar number of police officers with rocks and bottles, prompting authorities to fire tear gas. Investigators said at least 12 people had been hospitalized with injuries from the clash or because of tear gas inhalation.
■ Iraq
Saddam sacks lawyers
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has sacked his entire foreign defense team and will in future deal only with his Iraqi lawyer, the special tribunal trying him confirmed on Tuesday. The former dictator told the judge that the Iraqi lawyer would inform the court if "a need arises, to enlist the assistance of other lawyers or consultants." Saddam's family has accused the foreign defense team, which has about 20 active lawyers, of using its position to further interests not linked to the case. Saddam is in US custody near Baghdad awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in