■ Thailand
Rice-for-planes approved
The Cabinet has given the go-ahead to a defense ministry proposal to buy two Jetstream planes from Brazil worth more than 1 billion baht (US$14.4 million) under a barter deal, media reports said yesterday. The army will set aside 100 million baht from its budget for this year for the planes and pay for the remaining 900 million baht with rice, should Brazil accept the deal, the Bangkok Post said.
■ Uzbekistan
US to withdraw from base
US troops will leave their base in Uzbekistan by year's end at the Uzbek government's request, a senior US diplomat said, adding that bilateral ties have been in a "very difficult period." The ex-Soviet nation hosted the US soldiers for operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but demanded in July that they leave within six months as relations soured following US criticism of the Uzbek government's crackdown in May on protesters in the city of Andizhan.
■ Australia
Dutch break solar record
The favorite to win the 3,021km World Solar Challenge did so in record time yesterday. The Dutch team's Nuna 3 led 19 other sunshine-powered vehicles from the start in Darwin to the finish in Adelaide to claim a third title in a series that began in 1987. Race director Chris Selwood said Nuna 3 had broken its own race record of 30 hours and 54 minutes set in 2003. A final time has yet to be announced but Selwood said Nuna 3 may have averaged more than 100kph for the three-day journey. Australia's Aurora was in second place more than an hour behind the leader.
■ Sri Lanka
Tamils denounce EU ban
A European-based Tamil group said yesterday that a EU travel ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has done "irreparable damage" to the country's fragile peace process. The British government said in a statement on Monday that Tamil Tiger representatives will be refused entry to EU member states "until further notice" while the body decides whether to add the LTTE to its list of terrorist organizations. The Geneva-based International Federation of Tamils, an umbrella group of 150 smaller Tamil organizations, said in a statement that, "The decision not to receive any LTTE delegations into any of the EU member states denies the Tamil people and the LTTE the opportunity to present their case to the EU countries."
■ Australia
Student to guard rights
A kangaroo-hunting, beer-drinking 22-year-old student has been appointed academia's first "heterosexuality officer" with a vague mission to safeguard straight rights, a report said yesterday. The student association at the University of New England in New South Wales state appointed law student Dave Allen to the position earlier this year, the Australian newspaper reported. Many universities in Australia have gay and lesbian student groups, which receive a portion of their funding from mandatory student-union fees paid by every student. But the federal government has recently announced plans to make paying such fees voluntary, prompting protests from students who say the quality of student life on campus will decline if funds are cut. When asked what his duties were, Allen replied: ``None at the moment.''
■ South Africa
Magnate gunned down
A controversial mining magnate was shot and killed late on Tuesday in what police said may have been a deliberate attack. "Brett Kebble died in Johannesburg after shots were fired at his car," family spokesman David Barritt said in a statement. Kebble, 41, who sponsored a major South African arts prize, stepped down recently as chief executive from three South African mining firms after they ran into financial problems. Police spokesman Chris Wilken said officers were investigating the murder: "The motive is uncertain. There are two possibilities: Either it was a direct attempt on his life or it was a hijack attempt," Wilken said.
■ United States
New citizen wins big
A man who immigrated from Kenya found prosperity beyond his expectations on the day he became a US citizen. Shortly after Moses Bittok took the oath of citizenship on Friday, he discovered he had a US$1.89 million winning ticket in Iowa Lottery's Hot Lotto game. "It doesn't happen anywhere -- only in America," he said. Bittok said he took the citizenship oath in Des Moines on Friday, then went shopping with his family. They stopped to check his lottery ticket from the Sept. 21 draw. Bittok, 40, said he doesn't know exactly what he will do with his winnings.
■ United kingdom
Tax rebel granny freed
A tax-protesting pensioner has been freed early from prison against her will after a mystery benefactor paid her US$93.77 tax bill. Sylvia Hardy, 73, was released from Eastwood Park Prison after serving less than two days of a week's sentence. She had wanted to serve the full sentence as protest against rises in council tax, which fund local services. But she said the prison service had no choice but to let her go after a "Mr Brown" offered to pay. She became the first female pensioner to be jailed for refusing to pay council tax arrears. Hardy had described the tax as "daylight robbery."
■ Colombia
Maradona inspires fatties
Impressed by how weight-reduction surgery has transformed soccer icon Diego Maradona, overweight Colombians are flocking to doctors -- and want the government to pay for it. Maradona weighed 121kg when he underwent gastric-bypass surgery, also known as stomach stapling, in March in a hospital in the city of Cartagena. The former soccer star has already dropped 50kg. Inspired by Maradona's successful surgery, which cost US$25,000, at least 14 obese Colombians have filed lawsuits to have government-subsidized health insurance pay for their surgery.
■ United Kingdom
Yacht lost in marriage row
A man allegedly scuttled the luxury yacht he and his wife owned after she had offered it for sale at a low price in southern England, newspapers reported yesterday. The man allegedly smashed open valves below the water line to sink the 35 foot fiberglass ketch, named Rebel, in Dartmouth harbor on Friday night, leaving just the twin masts protruding,. Mark Bridgwood, 49, was reportedly incensed that estranged wife Tracey had put the US$176,000 vessel up for sale at a knockdown price. "It was a beautiful boat -- and he sunk it. I say? I am really p***** off," she told the Daily Mail.
■ United States
No reward for `finger' man
A Nevada businessman will split a US$100,000 reward from Wendy's with another anonymous tipster for helping solve the infamous "chili finger" case, the company said. Mike Casey, who runs an asphalt plant in Las Vegas that employed both the man who lost the finger and the husband of the woman who claimed she bit into the digit, complained last week he hadn't received his reward. Wendy's said it was grateful to all who called a hot line set up after reports of the hoax hit headlines worldwide. Anna Ayala and Jaime Placencia face sentencing Nov. 2 after pleading guilty earlier this month to conspiring to file a false claim and attempted grand theft.
■ United Kingdom
Schools ban junk
Junk food high in fat, salt or sugar is to be banned in schools across England within a year, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced yesterday after a campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Healthier school meals became a big issue during the May election after Oliver made a television series in which he tried to feed children on the government's budget. He appeared visibly shocked in the program when confronted by modern-day school staples. The government responded by announcing an extra US$495.4 million to be spent on school food over the next three years.
■ United states
Self-help author dies
Author M. Scott Peck, who wrote the best-seller The Road Less Traveled and other self-help books, has died. He was 69. Peck died on Sunday at his home in Connecticut, longtime friend Michael Levine said. He had suffered from pancreatic and liver duct cancer. Peck spent more than 10 years in the private practice of psychiatry and had his first book The Road Less Traveled published in 1978. It sold more than 6 million copies in North America and been translated into 20 languages.
■ Egypt
President vows reform
President Hosni Mubarak was sworn for a new, six-year term, pledging to reform the economy and politics. However, the political opposition and economists remained deeply skeptical. In a 20-minute inauguration speech, he pledged on Tuesday to push ahead with political reforms, improve services and raise the living standards of Egypt's low-income majority. Mubarak won 88 percent of the vote in the Sept. 7 election, Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential poll. However, only 23 percent of the 32 million registered voters took part in the election. The low turnout has been seized on by critics as further proof of his regime's waning validity.
■ France
Algerians held over threat
Nine Islamic militants arrested outside Paris on Monday were plotting a terrorist attack on the subway system, an airport or France's intelligence headquarters, an intelligence official said on Tuesday. "We have to act on any threat," the official said, adding that the nine suspects had been under surveillance since the beginning of the year. France has stepped up surveillance in the wake of the London attacks and updated its emergency response plans to take into account multiple bombings. The nine suspects are suspected of being part of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian group that is fighting to install an Islamic government in Algeria.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited