■ Malaysia
Mahathir attacks US, UK
US and British pilots whose bombs killed Iraqi civilians were murderers, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq by those two countries amounted to terrorism, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday. Several British and European diplomats walked out in protest against Mahathir's broadside in a speech at a national conference on human rights. The US Embassy has decided earlier not to send officers to the event. Mahathir, who ruled majority Muslim Malaysia for 22 years before retiring in 2003, also defended his human rights record in government. He was often criticized for detaining suspects without trial under a security law and for the imprisonment of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
■ New Zealand
Cheeky billboards removed
Three billboards in Auckland advertising an automobile trade magazine's Web site with the words "We've got rides for dirty bitches" will be taken down following several complaints from women, it was reported yesterday. The billboards included a picture of two fluffy dogs looking out the window of a mud-spattered sports utility vehicle. Tina Clyma, of ACP Media, publisher of Auto Trader, said the billboards would be taken down before the Advertising Standards Authority ruled on the complaints made to it. "It was a cheeky reference to New Zealanders love affair with vehicles," she said. "It was not meant to cause offense to anybody, but it looks like we are really in the dog-house over this one."
■ China
Cheaters could face charges
Students who cheat at exams are usually given a zero grade or sometimes expelled from school, but in China they could soon face criminal charges. A newly-published draft version of the country's first educational exam law has triggered widespread controversy by suggesting that cheating should be viewed as a criminal offense, Shenzhen Daily reported yesterday. It states that cheating, especially organized, large-scale cheating, is against the law.
■ Australia
Granny killer found dead
A notorious Australian serial killer known as the "granny killer" was found dead in his cell yesterday after apparently hanging himself, prison authorities said. A New South Wales state corrective services spokesman said John Wayne Glover's body was found in his cell at Lithgow jail, west of Sydney, early yesterday afternoon and he was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Glover, who was in his early 70s, was serving life without parole for the murders of six women in Sydney's exclusive North Shore area between 1989 and 1990. All but one of his victims were aged over 80.
■ Iraq
Airport closed in money row
The British company that polices Baghdad's airport closed it to passengers yesterday for the second time in three months, in another attempt to force the Iraqi government to pay what it says are months of unpaid bills. A senior spokesman for Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airport was closed over the money issue but said: "Within hours we will solve the problem ... We will pay them." "We haven't been paid for seven months," Giles Morgan, a spokesman for Global Strategies Group, which has guarded the airport with about 550 staff since the middle of last year, said.
■ Canada
Hu begins visit
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) started a landmark tour of North America on Thursday and said he wanted to expand relations with Canada ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin. The Canadian leader was expected to press Hu over China's human-rights record and huge pollution emissions at a meeting yesterday but his government is also anxious to build up trade. Hu said the Canadian and Chinese economies were "highly complimentary" and stressed the "vast potential" for further cooperation.
■ United States
Thompson left a note
Counterculture author Hunter S. Thompson wrote a suicide note to his wife four days before he killed himself, according to an article published on Thursday by his friend, biographer and executor Douglas Brinkley in Rolling Stone magazine. The brief message was titled "Football Season Is Over," Brinkley said, and it was scrawled in black marker. "No More Games. No More bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax This won't hurt."
■ United Kingdom
Old age begins at 80
Old age has been postponed, biologically and psychologically, and it now begins at 80, according to Ian Robertson, dean of research at Dublin's Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. The degree to which people retained their faculties after 50 was influenced by what they did, he said, and summarized with seven points. Aerobic fitness is probably most important, he said, as the function and structure of the brain are influenced by activity. Also important factors are mental stimulation, new learning, high and prolonged stress levels, a rich social life, and healthy eating -- such as a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and fish -- had profound effects on cognitive decline. Finally, think young.
■ United States
Haunted building in lawsuit
The landlords of an Orlando entertainment complex are suing two restaurateurs for refusing to move into a building because they claim it is haunted. Subcontractors who worked there and other people have reported seeing ghosts or other apparitions, said the attorney for the restaurant owners. The US$2.6 million lawsuit says an offer to hold an exorcism was refused. Christopher and Yoko Chung, the owners of a Japanese restaurant, objected to the exorcism offer because it is a Roman Catholic rite. The lawsuit asks a judge to decide whether the building is haunted and, if so, whether the ghosts would interfere with the restaurant's business.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was