■ Sri Lanka
Hardliner gets top post
Sri Lanka's new president Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday gave the ceremonial prime minister's post to former premier Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, a government spokesman said. Rajapakse, 60, who was sworn in on Saturday, dropped previous plans to give the premiership to foreign minister Anura Banda-ranaike, an official said. Instead, Wickrem-anayake, 73, was named, spokesman Anusha Pelpita said. Wickremanayake is known as a hardliner and has advocated that the Tamil Tiger rebels should be militarily defeated.
■ Australia
Canberra mulls court bid
Australia is considering taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice in a desperate bid to prevent the execution of a heroin trafficker on Dec. 2, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. Singapore has refused Canberra's repeated pleas for clemency for Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, an Australian citizen who was arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002 while flying from Cambodia to the southern Australian city of Melbourne carrying 396 grams of heroin.
■ Malaysia
Overstayers tracked
Malaysia's prime minister yesterday ordered authorities to track down about 50,000 Chinese nationals reported to have overstayed their tourist visas, amid concerns that some may have been lured into the sex trade. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged the police and immigration officials to enlist the help of the Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to uncover the whereabouts of those who overstayed, the national news agency Bernama reported.
■ Vietnam
Inquiry probes Glitter
Police opened a judicial inquiry yesterday into accusations that Britain's disgraced 1970s glam rock star Gary Glitter, now under arrest, had underage sex with girls in Vietnam, a police spokesman said. Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was arrested on Saturday at Ho Chi Minh City airport as he tried to flee Vietnam. "We are trying to determine whether he indulged in lewd acts with children," police spokesman Do Minh Dan said. Glitter, who served time in the UK after being found with a collection of child pornography, arrived in Vietnam in March and applied for permanent resident status.
■ Japan
Could girls rule?
A government panel discussing imperial succession yesterday decided to propose allowing females and their descendants to ascend Japan's imperial throne, Kyodo News agency reported. The panel also reached a consensus that the firstborn child should be given a right to ascend regardless of gender, Kyodo said. The advisory panel has been meeting since January this year to study the succession issue and make recommendations as a shortage of male heirs threatens to trigger a crisis unless the Imperial House Law is changed. Under the 1947 law, only males who have emperors on the father's side can become emperor.
■ The Philippines
Slip-up can make money
Filipinos could have collectors' items in their wallets after a small number of 100-peso (US$1.83) bills slipped into circulation with an error in the president's name. The foul-up happened at a currency printer in Europe, which was making the bills in time for the Christmas spending spree in the Philippines, one central bank official said yesterday. On the front of the new 100-peso note, the last name of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is spelled "Arrovo," with a "v." The central bank "has apologized to the president over the incident," Deputy Governor Amando Suratos said in a statement.
■ Malaysia
`Snake King' gets cobra
A man caught a rare, 5.4m-long poisonous king cobra using just his hands after firefighters and a team of volunteers failed to capture it outside a school in northern Malaysia. Wildlife officials called in snake charmer Mohamad Shaiful Abdul Aziz, 21, nicknamed the "Snake King" by the locals in Penang State, after firefighters spent about an hour trying to capture the cobra hiding among bushes at a rehabilitation center for juvenile delinquents, the Star newspaper reported yesterday. Mohamad Shaiful, who performs at snake shows, took 10 minutes and used no nets or other equipment, just his hands.
■ New Zealand
`Sausage' saves diver
A young Japanese diver was saved as she drifted out to sea during a weekend scuba trip that went wrong near the New Zealand capital, Wel-lington. Yuki Fujita, 28, from Kobe, went diving for crayfish on Saturday. When she surfaced early from the dive, she couldn't find her diving buddy, the dive group or their boat, local media reported yesterday. She had drifted 4.5km away from the party near Cook Strait between North and South Islands. After two-and-a-half hours adrift, a police search launch suddenly appeared close by. "I yelled `help, help' and waved my rescue sausage," she said, referring to the bright orange inflatable plastic strip divers carry to attract attention in an emergency.
■ Spain
Basque trial opens
Fifty-six people were to go on trial yesterday on charges of directing the logistical side of the Basque separatist group ETA's battle for an independent homeland, allegedly raising funds, forging passports and helping commandos communicate with one another. The trial will be the largest ever in terms of the number of defendants to go before the National Court, the Spanish tribunal that deals with affairs of state and terrorism cases. Spain, the EU and the US classify ETA as a terorist organization.
■ France
Homemade rocket goes off
An elderly man, his son-in-law and their wives were recovering on Sunday in a hospital after a home-made rocket-launcher the men were tinkering with exploded in the basement of a house. The man, aged in his 60s, lost a hand and his son-in-law, aged 40, suffered serious leg injuries in the explosion in a villa near Aubagne. The two women were also hospitalized suffering from shock. The men appeared to have been working on a rocket in their basement.
■ United States
Gunman opens fire in mall
A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall, wounding at least six people and taking three others hostage in a music store before he surrendered to police. Witnesses described seeing a clean-cut man walking backward through the mall on Sunday, firing a rifle. At least six people were injured, one critically, as shoppers and store clerks scrambled for cover. Dominick Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma was booked on six counts of assault and three counts of kidnapping, and held on US$450,000 bail. Court records show he has an extensive juvenile criminal history.
■ Brazil
School menu to offer coffee
The country's coffee industry has brewed up a plan to serve up to 1 million schoolchildren a free breakfast -- complete with a cup of java. Brazil's Coffee Industry Association is seeking the support of 50 roasters to launch a pilot "Adopt-a-School" program to feed breakfast to 1 million school children aged 6 to 18. Under the plan, a coffee roaster would adopt a school and provide them with a free breakfast of coffee, milk and bread, at a cost of US$15,000 per school. "Kids have soft drinks at school. ... Why not coffee instead to make them alert and attentive?" Darcy Lima, a project scientific adviser, said.
■ France
92-year-old mystery solved
The riddle of a villager's 1913 disappearance ended after a skeleton was found in a cave. Henri Mouttet, 30, worked at the cheese factory at Gresse-en-Vercors, south of Grenoble. One night 92 years ago, Mouttet vanished after spending the evening in village cafe. But no body was found until last April, when two amateur potholers exploring the Cheteau-Vert cave complex stumbled across the remains of a human skeleton at the back of a cavern. Inside the wallet was a 50-centime piece dating from 1913. Police found a few descendants of Leopold Girard -- a shepherd whom people always mentioned in connection to Mouttet, and one admitted that just before Girard died in 1915, he told a man that he was responsible for Mouttet's disappearance. The gendarmes have concluded that Leopold and Henri spent the evening in the bar together, fought to the death at some stage after leaving it. Both men were in love with the same girl, Leoncie, from the village.
■ Israel
Fake kosher snacks held
Border officials on the lookout for arms smuggling from Gaza uncovered more contraband on Sunday -- a truckload of fake kosher marshmallow snacks. The Chief Rabbinate, which ensures anything labeled as kosher complies with the Jewish dietary law, said the boxes of "krembos" were sent back because they had forged kosher seals. A spokeswoman for the Chief Rabbinate said Israel does not import any krembos. The chocolate shells filled with marshmallow cream on a biscuit are popular winter snacks.
■ Russia
Gunfight kills 3
Police shot and killed a top wanted militant during an operation in eastern Chechnya that also left two police officers dead. Another officer was wounded in the gunfight on Sunday near the city of Gudermes. Several other gunmen who were holed up in the house with the killed militant, Lecha Askhabov, managed to escape. Also on Sunday, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in the Vedeno district, wounding one serviceman.
■ Zimbabwe
Uranium for electricity
Uranium has been discovered but the commodity will be mined only to generate electricity, not for use in making nuclear weapons, President Robert Mugabe said on Sunday. "We have found uranium, which is used to make electricity [and] the bombs that you hear about, but when we mine it we wouldn't want it to be used in bomb-making ... We would use it to give us electricity," Mugabe said on state television, while speaking at a function at a plant owned by state power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. Zimbabwe imports 35 percent of its electricity from South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and DRC.
■ Germany
Transport of waste delayed
A trainload of nuclear waste made its way toward a disputed storage site in northern Germany yesterday, despite efforts by demonstrators to block its route. The train, carrying 12 containers of reprocessed waste from a plant at La Hague, France, to the Gorleben storage site, crossed into Germany on Sunday and was held up temporarily by a group of protesters. Police arrested 15 people who tried to delay the train in the university city of Goettingen. Another 11 were arrested further along the route, but the train was not stopped. The convoy was expected to arrive later yesterday in the town of Dannenberg. Farmers blocked a road in the area with about 100 tractors on Sunday. Police removed the vehicles overnight.
■ United States
Longevity to be studied
Kuakini Medical Center of Honolulu has won a US$1.5 million grant to study the genetic, diet, and lifestyle factors behind the longevity enjoyed by Hawaii's Japanese-American men. The new grant is the first to look specifically at genes that affect lifespan. The researchers want to study those born in 1915 or before to see what differentiates them from ordinary people in society who die on average at 77 and younger. A preliminary look at data shows the long-lived study volunteers had lower blood sugar and better cholesterol levels, drank more green tea and weighed less than others their age. The team leader said about 30 to 40 percent of the men can walk up to 800m with no difficulty, have strong hand-grip strength and high cognitive function. About 1,300 or 1,400 of the original group are still alive -- the oldest is 105; the youngest 85.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion