■ Indonesia
Bird flu victim dies
Tests confirmed that a 25-year-woman who died overnight in the capital had bird flu, officials said yesterday, as they investigated the possibility that several members of one family were infected by the virus. Ilham Patu said the government would wait to update its human bird flu death toll, which now stands at seven, until the woman's lab tests were confirmed by a World Health Organization-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong. That could take several days. The H5N1 bird flu virus has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia since 2003, and jumped to humans killing at least 68, most of them in Vietnam and Thailand. So far, most human cases of the disease have been traced to contact with infected birds.
■ China
Five Tibetan monks arrested
Chinese authorities have arrested five Tibetan monks in a widening crackdown on followers of the exiled Dalai Lama, the US broadcaster Radio Free Asia said yesterday. Security officers also reportedly sealed off the Drepung Monastery -- Tibet's largest -- for two days when monks there staged a silent protest. The monastery, home to 300 monks, has since reopened to the public. The five monks, all from Drepung, were arrested on Nov. 23 as authorities were leading a patriotic education campaign aimed at boosting support for Beijing inside Tibet's monasteries. Officials reportedly insisted that the monks condemn Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 during an uprising against Chinese rule.
■ Japan
Differences must be resolved
Japan and China must resolve their differences in the interest of regional stability, the US ambassador to Tokyo said yesterday, adding that Washington's role as a mediator was limited. US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer also said Japan should be allowed to decide for itself how to honor its war dead, siding with its ally on an issue that has been at the root of recent tensions between Japan and China, and backed moves by Tokyo toward changing its pacifist constitution. "We hope Japan and China can resolve their differences because it's important for the whole region that everyone get along," Schieffer said at a news conference in Tokyo.
■ Bhutan
China is `encroaching'
Bhutanese lawmakers have accused China of encroaching on the tiny Himalayan kingdom's territory, warning that it could threaten national sovereignty, the country's official media has reported. The representatives levelled the charges at a National Assembly session in the capital, Thimphu, the government-run weekly newspaper Kuensel said in its latest edition dated Monday. "The Chinese government did not adhere to the 1998 understanding signed between Bhutan and China by constructing several roads in our territory," Kuensel quoted a lawmaker of Bhutan's Haa Province as saying.
■ Bangladesh
Bomb death toll rises
The death toll from overnight bomb attacks by Islamic militants rose to 11 yesterday as two critically wounded people died in hospitals, officials said. The condition of at least 40 injured victims of the twin blasts have worsened since late Tuesday, raising fears that the death toll could climb. The explosion was set off by a powerful device tied to the body of a suicide bomber inside the district court building in Gazipur, a semi-industrial town 55km north of the capital Dhaka.
■ Gabon
Bongo wins again
Africa's longest-serving leader, President Omar Bongo, has won another seven-year term with 79.2 percent of the vote, according to official results released on Tuesday. The 69-year-old has already ruled the central African nation for 38 years and easily defeated his four opponents. Bongo became the leader in 1967 when he succeeded the president. The next year, he created a one-party state. Protests caused him to reinstate a multiparty system in 1990, but it didn't stop him from winning elections in 1993, 1998 and this year. The votes, however, have been called unfair.
■ Italy
Vatican to eliminate limbo
It is an odd place. The inhabitants include Plato, Moses, Abraham and lots of babies. Now after more than 700 years of shadowy existence, limbo faces closure. The world's 30 leading Roman Catholic theologians were meeting behind closed doors in the Vatican on Tuesday to discuss a document which would sweep the concept out of the church's teaching. Limbo was concocted in the 13th century as a solution to the theological conundrum of what happened to babies who died before they were christened. According to doctrine, they could not go to heaven because their original sin had not been expunged by baptism. Limbo also proved a useful solution to other problems such as where to put holy people who lived before Christ and who also had no chance of baptism.
■ France
Ebola harbored by bats
Three species of African fruit bat harbor the Ebola virus, enabling the deadly pathogen to spring out and infect primates and humans, says a study appearing today in the British journal Nature. A thousand small invertebrates were examined in the quest to see whether a natural haven existed for the virus. Previous research has already shown primates suffer a greater mortality from Ebola during the dry season in the forests of central Africa. This, say the scientists, may be because they compete with the bats for fruit, and thus face a heightened risk of bites. Another potential form of transmission is from eating the bats, which is a custom among local people.
■ Honduras
Election still in balance
Partial results released late on Tuesday suggested that Honduras' presidential race was still too close to call, despite an earlier declaration by the nation's top electoral official that opposition candidate Manuel Zelaya had won. With nearly 28 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election counted, Porfirio Lobo Sosa of the ruling National Party had received 47.91 percent compared to 46.93 for Zelaya, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
■ Israel
Orthodox son turns porn star
The son of an Orthodox Jewish family living in an ultra-religious town has become Israel's newest porn star in a celluloid career set to ostracize him from the austere world of his relatives. Cable station Hot last week broadcast Secrets of Nina, the first breakthrough for 21-year-old Omer Klein in the full-length, made-for-TV industry, the Maariv newspaper reported on Tuesday. Klein, from the ultra-Orthodox community of Bnei Brak outside Tel Aviv, will shortly appear in a second steamy film Between the Sacred and the Profane, Maariv said.
■ United States
`Spider-Man' in court
Surveying the glass and steel skyscrapers that compose the downtown Houston skyline, France's "Spider-Man" on Tuesday acknowledged the only way he'll scale them is by elevator, like everyone else. "All these buildings are like mountains I would like to climb, but I am forbidden," Alain Robert, 43, said after a Texas court appearance on Tuesday. Robert presented to the court a prescription for pills found in his possession when police arrested him before he could climb a 46-story Houston office tower on Nov. 22. He says the pills were Urbanyl, a drug prescribed by his doctors to ward off epileptic seizures. Police charged him with illegal possession of the drug Xanax, a commonly abused anti-anxiety drug.
■ United States
Fake FedEx men take gems
Two bandits dressed as FedEx delivery men and carrying at least one gun robbed Doppelt & Greenwald Diamond Inc of US$4 million in goods in Manhattan on Tuesday. The men got in the door just before 1pm partly because they claimed the package they were delivering was too large to slip under it and that they needed a signature. The men tied up five workers and two customers. They filled a bag full of diamonds before leaving through an employee entrance. Employees were surprised the men managed to get a weapon inside, saying the facility has high security.
■ United States
Pilots slam airspace ban
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has imposed flight restrictions over Vice President Dick Cheney's new Maryland home, angering private pilots who say they can't fly overhead even when he isn't around. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association spokesman Chris Dancy said on Tuesday the FAA only imposes restrictions at Cheney's Jackson Hole, Wyoming, home when he's there. Cheney's new home is in St. Michaels, Maryland, about 50km east of Washington, in a region covered by airspace restrictions that were put in place after Sept. 11.
■ United States
Red tape snarls thieves
Two government employees were charged with taking kickbacks on the purchase of 100,000 rolls of red tape. Veterans Affairs workers Joseph Haymond and Natalie Coker were arrested on Tuesday in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and charged with taking bribes for buying the tape, normally US$2.50 per roll, for US$6.95 each. The two got kickbacks of US$1 per roll for the purchases. They could each face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. They worked at the VA's Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy, which mails prescription medicines to veterans. The red tape, stamped with the word "security," is meant to deter tampering.
■ United States
Baby killed with vodka
Police are searching for a Florida couple accused of killing their three-month-old baby by giving her large amounts of vodka to calm her colic. "She had high levels of alcohol in her system -- 0.47 percent, which is five times the legal limit for driving," Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Katherine Collins said on Tuesday. She said the parents told police after their daughter's death in February last year that they had given her vodka, believing it would cure her colic. However, "she had severe damage to her liver due to weeks of alcohol consumption, so it was not a one-time thing," Collins said. The parents cooperated with investigations, but detectives were unable to find them after an arrest warrant was issued.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of