■ China
Priests arrested, beaten
Police have arrested six priests from China's underground Catholic church and severely beaten two of them, a US-based religious rights group said yesterday. The priests all belonged to the diocese in Zhengding County in northern China's Hebei Province, said a statement from the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation and foundation president Joseph Kung. They were arrested on Nov. 18, the foundation said. Two of them, Wang Jinshan and Gao Lingshen, in their 50s, were severely beaten, it said. Gao bled profusely from his mouth. "They were beaten savagely, very badly," Kung told reporters, saying his sources saw Chinese state security officers beat the men with their fists. The other four priests -- Guo Zhijun, 36, Zhang Xiuchi, 60, Peng Jianjun, 30, and Zhang Yinhu, 45 -- were put under house arrest on the same day, then officially arrested and taken to a police station in nearby Gaocheng City, the foundation said.
■ China
WHO issues AIDS warning
Some 10 million people in China may be infected with the AIDS virus by 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, as it called for stronger political will by Asian governments to stop the spread of the disease. About 5 million people worldwide were infected last year, bringing to 45 million the number living with the virus despite measures designed to prevent AIDS from spreading, said Shigeru Omi, WHO director for the Western Pacific region. "We know what works and what doesn't. So why has the necessary action to prevent the virus from spreading not been taken?" Omi said in a statement ahead of World AIDS Day tomorrow.
■ Australia
Push for last cuddle
Death-row drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van should be allowed a last cuddle with his mother before being put to death on Dec. 2 at Singapore's Changi prison, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. The 25-year-old Melbourne salesman, who was caught with almost 4kg of heroin at Changi airport in December 2002, was given a mandatory death sentence and is to hang on Friday. "I would have thought it's not an unreasonable thing for a mother to hug her son before the son is executed," Downer said. Kim Nguyen, who is allowed daily visits before the execution at dawn on Friday, is separated by glass from her son.
■ Hong Kong
Legislator slams Blair
Leading pro-democracy Legislator Martin Lee (李柱銘)yesterday accused Britain of turning its back on the people of its former colony after Prime Minister Tony Blair denied him a meeting. Lee, who is visiting Britain and the US to explain why pro-democracy legislators oppose election reforms, said he had also been refused a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Before flying to the US, where he will meet Secretary for State Condoleezza Rice, Lee told Hong Kong radio station RTHK it appeared Britain was now "turning its back" on Hong Kong. "It says a lot that Hong Kong now comes under the Department of Trade," he said.
■ Nepal
Women OK to get passports
Women under 35 will no longer need their parent or husband's consent to apply for a passport in Nepal, after the Supreme Court ordered an end to the discriminatory practice, the court said yesterday. Supreme Court Judges Badri Kumar Basnet and Balram K.C. issued the order on Monday saying the practice was unfair as men did not have to follow the same procedure, the court said in a statement. The court has ordered the Prime Minister's office, the Home Ministry and the Women and Children's Welfare Ministry to end the practice immediately. The law had been enforced to prevent young women being trafficked to India for prostitution.
■ Vietnam
Glitter may get bail
Vietnam is considering releasing British rocker Gary Glitter, who has been charged with child molestation, on bail but he will not be allowed to leave the country, a state official said yesterday. The official, who declined to be identified, said US$40,000 was the maximum bail stipulated under the law. But Le Thanh Kinh, Glitter's lawyer, said that the 1970s rock icon would be held for at least one more month in a detention centre in Vung Tau for questioning before bail was granted. Last week, police charged 61-year-old Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, with "engaging in perverse activities with children" and ordered him to remain in custody pending an investigation.
■ Bangladesh
Suicide bombers kill eight
Eight people were killed and 23 badly hurt yesterday in what police said were the nation's first suicide bombings and the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists. The government and police accused the hardline Jamayetul Mujahideen, which wants to introduce strict Islamic law, of staging the attacks in Chittagong and in Gazipur targeting the legal system. "Jamayetul Muhahideen is using Islam's name to kill people. The government has taken a hard stand and will now take an even harder stand," Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said.
■ Saudi Arabia
Brides to get free rides
Four women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday. The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in the south-west were impressed with the man's "good morals" and decided to marry him and live together in the village where they teach -- avoiding a tiring daily commute. They were married in a short ceremony, and have agreed to pay the driver a share of their monthly salaries, Al-Watan said. Women are not allowed to drive, while men can marry up to four women according to Islamic law.
■ South Africa
Zuma to `step down'
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma, facing rape accusations, is likely to step down as number two in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the Business Day reported yesterday. Business Day quoted insiders as saying they believed the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) would charge Zuma by the end of the week. This would leave Zuma, who also faces a corruption trial, no option but to quit his post, the newspaper said. Even though the corruption scandal forced him out of office, he has strong grassroots support and many believe he will still be the next president.
■ Gaza
Thieves steal zoo animals
Armed robbers made off with a lion cub and two Arabic-speaking parrots in a recent raid on Gaza's zoo, Palestinian police chief and newspapers said. Suod al-Shawwa, the zoo's chairman of the board, told Palestinian newspapers four masked gunmen used blankets to try and snatch a pair of lion cubs, but only managed to capture one. "They wrapped the lion cub in a blanket and took him away," Shawwa said. He said the gang first tied the zoo keeper up in a cafeteria and then made their way to the cages, where they also seized the parrots. Palestinian police chief Ala Husni said he believed the animals were being concealed in a Gaza hide-out.
■ Spain
Genocide case rejected
A judge on Monday rejected a case of "genocide" and torture against Chinese Trade Minister Bo Xilai (薄熙來) filed by the Falun Gong religious group. Judge Ismael Moreno ruled that as none of the alleged crimes took place on Spanish soil the charges were beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. A British court earlier this month rejected an application to have minister Bo arrested because he had diplomatic immunity. The application related to Bo's time as governor of Liaoning Province, in northeast China. The Falun Gong Association in Britain alleges Bo was "actively involved" in persecuting, torturing and even killing their members.
■ Venezuela
Arms deal goes through
Spain signed an arms deal on Monday to supply military transport aircraft and patrol boats to Caracas, as both governments dismissed objections by the US. Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono defended the US$2 billion deal saying that no international embargo prohibited the sale. The US, which has accused President Hugo Chavez of destabilizing the region, had lobbied Spain to drop the deal and signaled it still might block the transaction if US technology was involved. Washington distrusts Chavez's leftist politics and his ties to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. US officials say they fear the arms could end up in the hands of rebels in Colombia.
■ United States
Turner says Iraq no better off
Media mogul Ted Turner said that Iraq is no better off following the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein than it was before the war. Turner also said the US and Russia still have thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at each other on a ``hair trigger,'' and he was afraid someone could make the mistake to launch them, including President George W. Bush. "You have to question ... the president on a lot of decisions he's made," Turner said on Monday in a lecture at Kansas State University. "He might just think launching those weapons would be a good thing to do. ... He thought Iraq was," he said.
■ United States
Congressman pleads guilty
Republican Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, 63, an eight-term congressman and hotshot Vietnam War fighter pilot, pleaded guilty to graft and tearfully resigned, admitting he took US$2.4 million in bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for government business and other favors. "The truth is I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my office," he said at a news conference on Monday. "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family." He could get up to 10 years in prison at sentencing on Feb. 27 on federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud, and tax evasion.
■ United States
Heroic cop slain
A police officer who was shot in the heart during a car chase ignored the wound and helped try to catch the gunman before dying later at a hospital, authorities said. Dillon Stewart, 35, died on Monday despite wearing a bulletproof vest. One round entered his left armpit, missing the protective plating "by no more than a quarter of an inch [0.64cm]," police commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Stewart, who was married with two children, "showed remarkable tenacity and courage in pursuing his assailant," Kelly said. The suspect, Allan Cameron, 27, also was picked out of a lineup on Monday in connection with the robbery and shooting of another officer on Nov. 19.
■ United States
Stores trashed in hate crime
A liquor store in Oakland, California, was heavily damaged by an apparent arson fire, just days after it was trashed by well-dressed black men who told the owners to stop selling to black people, authorities said. Police refused to say whether they believed the blaze at New York Market was connected to vandalism last week at the store and another one nearby. Investigators were looking into the incidents as hate crimes because the stores' owners are of Middle Eastern descent and are Muslims, deputy police chief Howard Jordan said.
■ United States
Killer executed after delays
Eric Nance of Arkansas, convicted of murdering 18-year-old Julie Heath in 1993, was executed on Monday, but only after US Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas delayed the lethal injection three times to consider last-minute appeals. After dismissing arguments by defense attorneys that Nance, 45, was mentally handicapped and thus ineligible for capital punishment and that DNA analysis could prove him innocent, Thomas allowed the execution to proceed almost 90 minutes after it was scheduled. Vance declined to make a final statement at a state prison in Arkansas.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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