■ Australia
Aussies poll against Charles
Most people would support severing their country's constitutional ties with Britain if Prince Charles becomes king, according to survey results published in the Weekend Australian. Result showed 46 percent supported their country becoming a republic, while 34 percent wanted the British monarch to remain head of state. But if Charles -- the first in line for the throne -- replaces his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who turns 80 in April, support for a republic would rise to 52 percent and opposition would slide to 29 percent, the poll said.
■ New Zealand
Injured climber rescued
An Australian mountaineer who fell 100m while climbing on New Zealand's tallest mountain has been plucked to safety by a helicopter, police said yesterday. The 24-year-old man was descending with two companions on Friday from 3,754m Aoraki Mount Cook when he fell, said police Senior Constable Brent Swanson. Fellow climbers summoned help for the man, who was unconscious and suffering head and chest injuries and a broken ankle, Swanson said.
■ India
Actress to sue magazine
An actress who sparked outrage by saying Indians should not expect brides to be virgins said on Friday she planned to sue Maxim magazine for publishing a photograph of her face above the body of a scantily dressed woman. Khushboo said the magazine had called her to apologize, which appeared in this month's inaugural Indian edition. The photograph showed a woman in a transparent bra and panties and was stamped with the message "100 percent fake." Khushboo said Maxim's publishers probably thought she was an easy target.
■ Australia
Skinny escapee nabbed
A man who squeezed his way out of jail three days ago after fasting and taking laxatives was caught yesterday while window-shopping in a Sydney mall. Robert Cole, 36, who was serving time for stealing and assault, was being treated in the Long Bay prison hospital when he broke out of jail on Tuesday night. The mentally ill prisoner shed up to 14kg and managed to slip his slimmed-down 56kg frame through the gap between his cell bars and the brickwork, Australian Associated Press reported (AAP). AAP quoted a top prison service official as saying Cole would be sent immediately to another jail where he would spend the coming winter in a maximum security cell.
■ Japan
Winter weather hits Tokyo
Japan's harshest winter in decades finally caught up to Tokyo yesterday to blanket the capital in its heaviest snowfall for five years, forcing flight cancellations and slowing trains. Although snow can fall in Tokyo once or twice a year, temperatures usually hover above freezing, making significant accumulations rare. As of 3pm, about 7cm of snow had fallen in the Otemachi area of central Tokyo. At Haneda Airport, 82 domestic flights were cancelled, NHK national television said. One runway at Narita International Airport east of Tokyo was closed for about an hour. Roads remained clear in central Tokyo, but some train lines reported delays, while others ran fewer trains.
■ Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew wins apology
The Economist has apologized to former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) and has agreed to pay damages for statements in the London-based magazine's obituary on former president Devan Nair. Nair, the country's third president who served from 1981 to 1985, died of heart failure at the age of 82 in Canada on Dec. 7 last year. The apology was in response to a remark Nair had attributed to Lee. According to Nair, in 1981, when Workers' Party leader J.B. Jeyaretnam won a by-election, Lee said he would "make him crawl on his bended knees and beg for mercy."
■ China
Snow strands passengers
Authorities sent in armed police to help control some 100,000 passengers stranded at Beijing train stations after snowfalls in central China paralyzed a key section of the nation's railway grid, media reported yesterday. Some 1,100 police were drafted in to control crowds at the worst-hit station, Beijing West, which had already reported a "red-level emergency." The officers worked up to 18 hours without food or rest, the Beijing Youth Daily said. Another 60,000 people were stranded in Zhengzhou, many huddled in the cold outside the station, television pictures showed. Some trains were replaced by bus services, however, and the delays were shortening as workers raced to clear the line.
■ Australia
Expensive bag handed in
A handbag containing jewelry worth more than US$110,000 has been returned to a woman who left it hanging on a shopping trolley in a car park, Australian police said yesterday. The handbag, containing gold bracelets, rings, earrings, chains and pendants -- plus a large sum of cash -- was handed in to police in Melbourne by another woman, who wanted to remain anonymous. The owner told national radio she was overwhelmed by the return of the bag and its contents. "I can't believe it at all -- I am so grateful to that person," she said.
■ United States
Bomb trial witness freed
The government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials was released from federal prison on Friday after serving more than 10 years for failing to warn authorities about the plot. Michael Fortier, 37, received a 12-year sentence after striking a plea bargain in which he agreed to testify against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. He got time off for good behavior. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has declined to release any information about Fortier, and the secrecy surrounding his release prompted speculation that he was entering the witness protection program.
■ United States
Defense analyst jailed
A court on Friday sentenced a former Defense Department specialist to 12 years and seven months in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat and two pro-Israeli lobbyists. Lawrence Franklin, who had worked as a top US analyst on Iran, was also fined US$10,000. But he has been cooperating with government investigators and will remain free while his lawyers seek to negotiate a reduction in the sentence.
■ United Kingdom
Teens held over murder
Two teenagers were remanded in custody on Friday over the murder of a London lawyer who was stabbed to death last week in a vicious street attack. Donnel Marcus Carty, 18, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons appeared before West London Magistrates Court charged with the murder and robbery of Tom ap Rhys Pryce. They were remanded in custody and ordered to appear in court on Feb. 3. Rhys Pryce was killed as he walked home late at night, despite handing over his few items of value during the robbery. A third youth was bailed by police pending further inquiries.
■ Germany
Man trapped in toilet
When a 58-year-old motorist nipped into a highway rest stop public toilet on Friday morning, he had no idea how cruel nature could be. Off highway A6 in Bavaria, the man found himself trapped in the toilet stall after the lock froze while he was inside. Unable to pry the door open, the man finally was able to explain his predicament when someone occupied the stall next to him and get them to call the police. After about an hour in the chilly cubicle, police were able to get the door open and free the man, whom they described as ``thoroughly frozen through, but in good general health.''
■ Canada
Medication linked to deaths
The belief that sulfonylurea drugs increase mortality in patients with type two diabetes now gets support from a new study. A previous study had shown that metformin, another type of anti-diabetes drug, confers a survival advantage over the sulfonylureas. It was unclear if this was due to a protective effect of metformin or from a potentially adverse effect from the sulfonylureas. To investigate, a team from the University of Alberta analyzed data for 5,795 subjects who were prescribed an oral anti-diabetic drug and were entered in the Saskatchewan Health databases between 1991 and 1999. As reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, at higher daily doses sulfonylurea-type drugs were associated with an increased risk of death, but this was not seen with metformin.
■ United Kingdom
Wife stays mum on lotto win
Plenty of national lottery big winners opt for secrecy, but none of them has gone as far as a mystery British woman who revealed on Friday that her husband is still in the dark about her £1.5 million (US$2.66 million) win three years ago. The mother of two said she had kept the bonanza quiet as far as her family was concerned, in case they started insisting on luxury holidays or were tempted to give up work. Ringing a phone-in about money and happiness on BBC radio, she spoke under an assumed name but satisfied producers that she was genuine. She said she had a policy of rationing her extra spending power in the form of "family treats," each one attributed to a pay rise, bonus or prudent saving.
■ Mexico
Guns for computers offered
Mexicans are being invited to exchange their weapons for computers under a quirky new idea to curb rampant crime in Mexico City. Authorities in one of the city's 16 districts are offering a new computer, out of 150 donated by a charitable foundation, for each gun handed in. "People often have a gun at home, which could perhaps be for self-defense, but sadly it becomes a family tragedy when it is not used properly," said Guadalupe Lopez, local government head for the central district of Alvaro Obregon. Shootings are a daily occurrence in Mexico City, a sprawling megalopolis of 18 million people where muggings, carjackings and kidnappings are common.
■ United States
Victim gets compensation
A man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for a toddler's death, now believed to have been an accident, was awarded US$756,900 by California state's compensation board -- US$100 for every day he spent in prison. The payment awarded on Thursday to Kenneth Marsh, now 50, was the largest the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board has offered for a wrongful conviction, a spokeswoman for the board said. "Nothing can make up for the time I spent in prison unless they gave me 21 years back," Marsh said after the hearing. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1983 death of his girlfriend's two-year-old son.
■ Northern Ireland
Police to reopen `killings'
Thousands of unsolved murders from Northern Ireland's Troubles are to be reinvestigated by a specialist police team, which vowed on Friday to attempt to lay to rest the ghosts of 30 years of violence for the sake of the victims' families. The team, led by retired London police commander Dave Cox, said they will examine 3,268 killings in order to build up an overall profile of Troubles killings and to consider cases where one person may have been convicted while other suspects avoided arrest. The process is seen as a step toward healing wounds in the psyche of Northern Ireland, where thousands believe loved ones' deaths were not adequately investigated.
■ Chile
Pinochet's immunity lifted
A court opened the way for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to be prosecuted in 59 cases of torture and kidnapping that took place at one of his regime's secret prisons -- one that once held president-elect Michelle Bachelet and her mother. The president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Juan Escobar, said on Friday the justices voted 13-5 to lift Pinochet's immunity, but the ruling must be upheld by the Supreme Court before Pinochet can be tried. His defense said an appeal will be filed. Judge Alejandro Solis described the Villa Grimaldi as "one of the worst houses of torture in Santiago."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not