■ Japan
Military upgrade touted
The Defense Agency should be upgraded to a full ministry as soon as possible to meet the country's growing international military obligations, the defense chief told parliament yesterday. Fukushiro Nukaga said that the upgrade is necessary as Japan's troops are becoming more engaged in overseas dispatches. Tokyo has military personnel currently in Iraq, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. "There are growing global expectations and demands regarding overseas activities," Nukaga told lawmakers. "We think it is necessary to upgrade the agency to meet such expectations." Japan's current constitution, drafted by US occupation forces and unchanged since 1947, bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits maintaining a military for warfare.
■ Japan
Mystical harem investigated
Police are investigating a 57-year-old fortune teller who has effectively started a harem and is living with 10 women, media reports said yesterday. The man has repeatedly married and divorced the women, all in their 20s or 30s, but they all live together in a house in Tokyo along with at least one child, the reports said. "I had a dream in which I heard a voice. It said that as soon as I saw a magic word, I will attract women even if I'm not attractive now," the man told Nippon Television, which blurred his identity. "I stay at home and my women work for me," he said. He met the women through fortune-telling. Police are reportedly probing whether the man coerced the women or broke laws against polygamy, as some of the women keep his surname and nine of them jointly own the land of his house.
■ Thailand
This marriage has legs
The "Scorpion Queen" and "Centipede King" will tie the knot on Valentine's Day and then consummate their nuptials in a coffin, organizers of the wedding said yesterday. Kanjana Kaetkeow, 36, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 for spending 32 days in a glass cube with 3,400 scorpions, has agreed to marry Montri Siangwong, 29, a 2003 Guinness record holder for spending 28 days with 1,000 centipedes, said Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of Ripley's World of Entertainment in Pattaya. "The couple met and fell in love when they were touring together after winning their Guinness records," Somporn said.
■ Thailand
Fishermen appeal sentence
Two Thai fishermen have appealed their death sentences for murdering a British backpacker, arguing their punishment was too harsh and their conviction secured without eyewitnesses, a lawyer for the men said yesterday. At the end of a speedy trial, a Thai provincial court last week sentenced Boiloy Kothisit, 23, and Wichai Sonkhaoyai, 24, to death for raping and murdering Katherine Horton, 21, on New Year's Day on the resort island of Samui. "Both of them had little education; they didn't even know what the maximum sentence they could face," lawyer Amarin Nuimai told reporters. The British government has also said it opposes the execution of the fishermen.
■ Australia
Find worth a fortune
A couple could reap a fragrant fortune after what they thought was an odd-looking tree stump turned out to be a rare lump of ambergris, a whale excretion used in perfumes and known as "floating gold." Loralee and Leon Wright were walking along a remote beach near Streaky Bay on a fishing trip three weeks ago when they saw the strange object. Leon, thinking it could have been some kind of cyst from a large marine animal, suggested they take the 14.75kg lump home. The couple returned two weeks later and retrieved the lump. Jury said the Wrights' find is worth at least US$295,000.
■ Tonga
Noble guilty of bribery
The speaker of parliament was found guilty yesterday of day of bribery and trying to avoid paying duty on a container shipment of Fijian rum, a report said. Tongan noble Veikune and another man were found guilty and will be sentenced in the Supreme Court in the capital Nukualofa on Feb. 15, the Matangi Tonga Internet news site said. The two had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which involved trying to avoid duty worth 300,000 pa'anga (US$145,000).
■ Australia
Howard urges tolerance
Prime Minister John Howard called for racial tolerance yesterday as police prepared to deploy 1,200 officers to deter any repeat of violent race riots on Sydney beaches last month. Howard urged Australians to celebrate their diversity and national unity on the eve of Jan. 26 -- a public holiday marking the 217th anniversary of the first British colonists' arrival in Australia. "Racial intolerance is incompatible with the kind of society we are and want to be," Howard said a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. His remarks came as members of the nationalist Australia First Party planned a peaceful protest today at North Cronulla beach, where 5,000 mostly male, Caucasian youths launched a beer-fueled rampage on Dec. 11 against people who appeared Middle Eastern.
■ Colombia
Uncle shoots nephew
A man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday. After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said. The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors. Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who works as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off.
■ Colombia
Oil workers taken hostage
Unidentified kidnappers in the eastern part of the country took hostage three contract employees for Occidental Petroleum Corp, killing one and releasing the other two unharmed, police said on Tuesday. David Moreno was found dead on Saturday and the other oil workers were released on Monday, said Colonel Juan Carlos Martinez, acting police commander in the oil-rich state of Arauca, 460km northeast of the capital of Bogota. The trio, employed by a company hired by Occidental to help construct an oil pipeline in the area, were kidnapped on Thursday, Martinez said. All three were Colombian, he said. It was unclear whether the suspected kidnappers were linked to armed guerrilla groups that operate in the area or were common criminals, Martinez said.
■ United States
Chris Penn dies
Character actor Chris Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead on Tuesday at an apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, police sources said. No cause of death was immediately determined but there was no signs of foul play, the sources added. A family spokeswoman confirmed the death and said the Penn family "would appreciate the media's respect of their privacy during this difficult time." Penn, 43, was a character actor who appeared in dozens of films including Reservoir Dogs, Mullholland Falls and the 2004 film Starsky & Hutch.
■ United States
Boy shoots girl
An eight-year-old boy accidentally shot a seven-year-old girl in the arm on Tuesday with a handgun he pulled from his backpack at a day-care center, police in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, said. The wounded girl was flown to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, police spokesperson Lucille Baur said. There were six children at the For Kids We Care day-care center at the time the shooting and no one else was injured, she said. The shooting happened just before 7am as the boy was handling the gun, which he brought to the center in his backpack, Baur said.
■ United States
Paper empowers readers
Wisconsin's second-largest newspaper is letting readers help decide what to put on the front page. In an experiment designed to boost reader interest, the Wisconsin State Journal allows readers to go on its Web site every weekday from 11am to 4pm and vote for their favorite out of five story ideas. Barring late-breaking news, the winning story typically will appear on page one the next day. Tuesday's front page included the first "reader's choice," a look at Ford's plant closings and job cuts.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese