■ Malaysia
Harassment cases probed
The government is planning new measures to prevent sexual harassment of female workers in the private sector. Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn said the steps were expected to be approved in parliament next month under various amendments to Malaysia's employment act. "There was a consensus that all private companies establish sexual harassment committees," Fong said. The committees would investigate complaints by female workers on violations such as being asked for sexual favors, being ogled at by colleagues and being the target of offensive jokes. The measures would be similar to guidelines on sexual harassment that were implemented earlier this year in all government offices.
■ Singapore
Guitarist falls to his death
A 16-year-old Chinese boy studying in Singapore fell to his death from a hostel room after jumping up and down on his bed while playing a guitar. Li Xiaomeng, a private-school student from Beijing, was with his roommate Wang Bingyi, also 16, in their third-floor room on Thursday night when the freak incident happened. Li's bed was right next to an open window. "We were in the room and he was playing the guitar. He got excited and started jumping on the bed and continued playing at the same time," Wang said. "Then I turned my back for a while and the next thing I heard was a loud bang and he's not on the bed anymore." The Singapore police classified the incident as an "unnatural death" requiring further investigation, but another friend said Li was prone to jumping on his bed while playing his guitar.
■ Indonesia
School expels randy students
An Indonesian school has kicked out 11 high school students for doing illegal sexual activities inside the classroom, a local report said yesterday. Members of the school board in Cianjur, West Java, some 120km southeast of Jakarta, decided to return all the students to their parents after ruling them guilty of "shameful" acts. According to Laelasari, the 11 students were expelled after the school found out they had engaged in illegal sexual acts inside the school property. Two couples reportedly performed oral sex activities when the teacher left the classroom, and recorded their acts with mobile-phone cameras in front the entire class. Indonesian authorities in some provinces often raid hotels and arrest "illegal couples" for having sex without a marriage certificate, since it is forbidden by law.
■ Malaysia
Officials bristle at terror link
Malaysia has urged other countries not to perceive it as being a springboard for terrorists, even though some of its citizens have been linked to militant activities overseas, news reports said yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak expressed regret that two Malaysians, Azahari Husin and Noordin Top, have been among Indonesia's most wanted terror suspects in recent years. Azahari, who was considered a key leader of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, was killed by Indonesian police earlier this month, while Noordin remains on the loose. "We feel that it was unfortunate that Malaysians were involved but, other than that, we should not by right be held responsible for their actions," Najib was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.
■ Japan
Coffee good for you: study
A Japanese medical research team has discovered drinking a cup of coffee or two a day could lower the risk of high blood pressure, a report said yesterday. The team led by a researcher at Keio University conducted the study on 4,554 men aged from their 20s to 70s who visited Tokyo clinics for checkups on lifestyle-related disease from October 2003 to March last year, the Tokyo Shimbun said. The study found that people who drank no coffee had the biggest ratio of high blood pressure, with the lowest risk of high blood pressure in the category drinking three cups or more, it said.
■ Indonesia
Christian couple shot
Masked gunmen shot and wounded a Christian couple in the latest violence to hit the restive Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, police and a hospital official said yesterday. A lecturer at the state Tadulako university and his wife were shot at around 7:45pm Saturday while on their way home from a church service in the provincial capital Palu, city police chief Guntur told reporters. "They were riding a motorcycle when they were attacked by two men on another motorcycle in a small, dark alley in East Palu," Guntur said.
■ Indonesia
Strong quake rocks Sumatra
A magnitude 6.5 quake rattled two islands off the coast of Sumatra on Saturday, triggering a tsunami alert and panicking some residents, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake's epicenter was located off Simeulue Island, about 255km southwest of Medan on Sumatra's west coast, according to the US Geological Survey. It struck just after 9pm local time. The island is near the epicenter of the Dec. 26 quake that caused a massive tsunami.
■ Rwanda
Belgian priest charged
A Belgian priest detained by Rwanda on suspicion of genocide left on Saturday for his homeland where he will face trial on the charges, according to reports. Earlier this month, the Rwandan high court ordered that the reverend Guy Theunis, 60, should be extradited after Belgian diplomats arrived in Kigali to negotiate his repatriation. Belgian prosecutors will pursue the charges, and Rwandan authorities said they had received assurances that Theunis would be tried in Belgium. Charges against Theunis relate to a magazine called Dialogue, of which he was editor-in-chief from 1989 to 1994.
■ Sudan
Clashes reported in Darfur
Troops and rebels clashed in the western Darfur region clashed on Saturday and a rebel group said 14 civilians and eight insurgents had been killed in the past 48 hours. A senior US envoy, Jendayi Frazer, made an unannounced visit to Darfur in a peace drive, meeting two leaders of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), who have been squabbling over the SLA's presidency. Sudanese forces said they had attacked Chadian rebels who had crossed the border to the mountainous Jabel Moun area, but one Darfur rebel group said this was untrue and that the government was attacking its bases.
■ United Kingdom
George Best on life support
George Best's family was at his bedside on Saturday night as the football star lay unconscious on a life-support machine in a London hospital. The former Manchester United star is critically ill in intensive care with a severe lung infection. He was put on the support machine early on Friday morning, when his condition deteriorated. Widely acknowledged as the best British player in history, Best, 59, has severe medical complications linked to his years of heavy drinking. "Mr Best remains seriously ill in intensive care on a life-support machine," said hospital spokesman Jeffrey Brandon.
■ Kenya
Leaders urge people to vote
Leaders made a final push to encourage voters before a Kenyan referendum that has triggered bitter and sometimes violent debate, telling thousands of people not to take anything for granted and to ensure all eligible voters cast their ballots. Speaking during the final campaign rallies on Saturday before Kenya's first referendum since its 1963 independence from Britain, leaders from rival camps presented their reasons for supporting or opposing a proposed constitution that will be put to the vote today. "We support it because the proposed new constitution has more checks [on presidential powers]. It has taken 15 years [to get a draft constitution] and cost 8 billion shillings [US$106.7 million], why shouldn't we support it?" Vice President Moody Awori told a crowd of supporters of the draft charter.
■ Azerbaijan
Protesters demand re-run
Around 15,000 opposition supporters rallied on the outskirts of Baku on Saturday, demanding that Azerbaijan's leaders re-run parliamentary elections that Western observers said were marred by fraud. It was the third major protest since a Nov. 6 poll handed victory to those loyal to President Ilham Aliyev. Observers said the vote was marred by ballot stuffing and police interference. The opposition have promised a popular uprising.
■ BrazilBR>Bikinis banned in postcards
Postcards showing scantily clad women alongside Rio de Janeiro's famous landmarks have been banned under a new law in the state famed worldwide for Carnival. The law, which went into effect on Friday, outlaws the popular cards showing Brazilian women in tiny bikinis, known as "dental floss," together with local attractions like Copacabana Beach, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue. Representative Alice Tamborindeguy introduced the bill in October, saying the ``photos are risque and encourage sexual tourism.''
■ Mexico
Drug violence on the rise
Unidentified attackers killed two Mexican police officers in Ciudad Juarez on the US border in a resurgence of drug-related violence last week, authorities said on Saturday. Hit men armed with assault rifles gunned down municipal police officer Jorge Luis Carrillo on Friday. Later in the day police found the body of another officer, Oscar Lucero, in an abandoned car in the city. He had been suffocated with a plastic bag, and his body showed signs of torture, Chihuahua state prosecutors said. The killings came less than a month after police found the bodies of a former Interpol chief and his lawyer crammed into oil drums and sealed with concrete in Juarez.
■ United States
Boy charged in shooting
A 12-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the shooting of a 26-year-old man at a sidewalk dice game. Witnesses told police the boy had been watching a teenage cousin shooting dice with other players on the city's far South Side on Nov. 13. They said Deon McGary, 26, was also watching the game and traded insults with the boy's cousin. When the quarrel turned physical, the boy reportedly pulled out a handgun and shot McGary four times, police said. Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman John Gorman said that if the boy is found guilty, he would face penalties ranging from probation to placement in a residential treatment facility until he is 21.
■ United States
Animal rescuer sentenced
An animal rescuer who abandoned 35 kittens in two parks has been sentenced to a night in the woods without food or shelter. Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti sentenced Michelle Murray to the spend the cold night alone when she begins her 15-day jail sentence this week. "How would you like to be dumped off at a Metropark late at night, spend the night listening to the coyotes coming upon you, listening to the raccoons around you in the dark night, and sit out there in the cold not knowing where you're going to get your next meal, not knowing when you are going to be rescued?" the judge asked. Murray, 25, pleaded guilty last month to abandoning domestic animals.
■ HonduraS
`Teen killer' escapes
A teen accused of killing a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and implicated in 16 other slayings has escaped from a youth correction facility -- just as he promised he would -- officials said Saturday. Herlan Colindres, 16, slipped out of a youth rehabilitation center in Tegucigalpa on Friday, authorities said. Colindres and Manuel Romero, 13, were arrested in July in connection with the murder of DEA agent Michael Timothy Markey. Markey, 44, came to Honduras to train local drug police. Friday was the fifth time in three years that Colindres has escaped from the crumbling facility.
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