■ Australia
Santa strung up
Either somebody didn't like Santa's singing, or they're just a plain old Scrooge. A 1.5m statue of a singing and dancing Santa Claus was found hanging upside-down from an electricity pole in a Melbourne suburb. Concerned residents cut the statue down and took it to a local police station. "He sang all sorts of things until he went flat," police Constable Cameron Ryan said yesterday of the battery-operated Santa. "He was looking very suspicious, but he wasn't intoxicated."Constable Kellie Houlihan said police were trying to find the statue's owner.
■ India
Police shoot students
Police gunfire killed three college students as they were protesting the alleged sexual molestation of fellow students by police on a train in eastern India, student groups and officials said. A crowd of students and residents gathered on Friday at a train station in Assam state after other students aboard an approaching train telephoned friends in the area and said police on the train had molested female students on board. As the train pulled into the station at the town of Salakati, the protesters charged the traveling policemen's train carriage with bricks and stones and the police then opened fire.
■ Indonesia
Santa does security
Santa isn't just filling stockings in Indonesia. He's also checking packages for bombs in the world's most populous Muslim nation where authorities are gearing up to prevent possible militant attacks. More than two dozen hotel security men dressed like Santa Claus used metal detectors to inspect cars entering a five-star hotel in the heart of Jakarta. As policemen with machine guns looked on, some of Jakarta's Santas frisked visitors and opened bags to check for any unwanted Christmas gifts.
■ Japan
Weather warnings issued
Japan's weather agency yesterday issued warnings for blizzards and avalanches in northern and central Japan as severe cold winds brought record snowfalls to the region. The Meteorological Agency predicted up to 60cm of fresh snow in the northern Hokuriku region, parts of which have already had up to 2.75m of snow, the heaviest snowfall in decades. A blizzard swept through the nation earlier this week, triggering blackouts and injuring hundreds of people in snow-related accidents. One man died in a car crash on a snowy road and in Fukui, northwestern Japan, a 52-year-old construction worker suffered a broken hip and leg yesterday after being swallowed in an avalanche during a roadside snow removal operation.
■ Malaysia
Women charged over strip
Four women in conservative mainly-Muslim Malaysia have been charged with performing a striptease show. The four women, who were waitresses at a nightclub in a Kuala Lumpur suburb, were charged with behaving in an obscene manner while dancing in the nude on Dec. 16, the New Straits Times said. The women who were alleged to have been performing for a group of businessmen, face up to three months in jail or a fine or both if convicted, the Malay Mail said. Malaysia is one of the world's most developed Islamic countries, boasting modern highways, gleaming skyscrapers, resplendent mosques, high-tech factories and a pulsating nightlife of discos and restaurants.
■ Azerbaijan
Plane crash kills 23
The national airline AZAL yesterday said all 23 people aboard a flight bound for Kazakhstan were killed when it crashed overnight near the Caspian Sea coastline. Ten of the 18 passengers were Azerbaijani and four were Kazakhs. The four other passengers were from Australia, Britain, Georgia and Turkey. "Everyone on board was killed." AZAL said in a statement on the official AZTV television channel. The plane crashed shortly after taking off on Friday from the capital Baku en route to the oil town of Aktau.
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