■ 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.
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