■ Australia
Crocodile hits car, dies
This was an auto accident with a difference. A 2m saltwater crocodile leapt out of a roadside culvert and slammed into the side of a passing car, authorities said on Thursday. The crocodile died in the collision and was given to local Aborigines, who ate it, said Garry Lindner, crocodile management officer at the Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. "It was probably startled and it just leaped in the wrong direction once it heard the vehicle coming," Lindner said. "The driver barely had time to respond and the [crocodile] become a road fatality."
■ Singapore
Bridge plan to be discussed
Malaysia's plan to build a bridge halfway to Singapore -- which has not yet agreed to build the other half -- would be discussed informally by officials from the two nations over the weekend, news reports said. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said he would meet with his Malaysian counterpart Syed Hamid Albar as Singapore hosts a weekend of friendly sporting events between the two countries' foreign ministries.
■ Singapore
Vessel to support US effort
Singapore yesterday deployed a naval vessel to support the US-led coalition in Iraq, the defense ministry said. The amphibious transport dock ship RSS Endeavour will carry out tasks such as "providing logistics support for coalition vessels and helicopters, protecting the waters around key oil terminals, as well as conducting patrols and boarding operations," the ministry said in a statement. It described the deployment as Singapore's "latest contribution to the multinational effort in support of the reconstruction of Iraq."
■ New Zealand
Newspaper runs caricatures
A local newspaper yesterday became the first in the country to reproduce Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, saying it was standing for press freedom and would not be intimidated by threats of trade boycotts or other reprisals. The Dominion Post in Wellington published the drawings on an inside page along with an article reporting international reaction to them. The Dominion Post's editor Tim Pankhurst said he decided to reproduce the drawings in the interests of press freedom and tolerance. "It's important for our readers to see what the fuss is about and to make up their own minds," he was quoted in the paper as saying.
■ Pakistan
Rebels attack pipeline, base
Tribal militants blew up a gas pipeline yesterday and fired more than 200 rockets at the main base of paramilitary forces southwest of the country, injuring one soldier and damaging part of the base, an official said. The gas pipeline was attacked in Dera Bugti, about 300km east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the region's top government official. The rockets were shot late on Friday and just before dawn yesterday by supporters of a renegade tribal elder, who was also suspected to be behind the pipeline blast, Lasi said.
■ Nepal
Passengers on bikes banned
The government yesterday posted a ban on passengers on motorcycles in a bid to prevent drive-by attacks by rebels ahead of a weeklong general strike and local elections in the coming week. The ban also required people to carry identification cards while moving through public places. Maoist rebels, who operate mostly in rural areas, are known to use motorcycles to attack targets in cities and towns, where the two-wheeled vehicles can easily maneuver the narrow, crowded streets. However, motorcycles are also a popular means of transport for the people in the country, commonly used as family vehicles. The government has stepped up security following increased attacks by the rebels, who have pledged to disrupt Wednesday's municipal elections.
■ Myanmar
Junta completes relocation
The military government was slated to complete yesterday the relocation of its civil servants to a new administrative capital several hundred kilometers away, officials said. The move, which began unexpectedly about three months ago, will shift almost all central government offices from Yangon to Pyinmana, a trading town surrounded by mountain ranges and dense forests. The government says the move will allow more efficient administration of the country. Pyinmana, about 400km north of Yangon, is expected to be officially declared the new capital sometime after the move is completed, but it is not clear when.
■ Indonesia
Jakarta pushes smoking ban
Some 1,000 officers took to the streets of Jakarta to enforce a ban on public smoking that went into effect yesterday, a report said. City administration offices, main thoroughfares in the capital and the buildings on them were slated to be the first places in Jakarta where the smoking ban, introduced one year ago, would be enforced. "Starting tomorrow [Saturday], everyone who does not follow the smoking ban rule will have to face sanctions as stated in the bylaw," Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
■ United Kingdom
Lip-synchers feel the heat
After an infamous tiff between Elton John and Madonna over lip-synching, Britain's Musicians' Union has called on performers to come clean -- audiences should be told if they are miming rather than singing. The union is urging promoters, producers and artists to back its campaign for lip-synching to be clearly labeled during TV shows, in pop arenas and on stage. "Stand up and be honest about it. We won't knock you for using recordings," said union spokesman Keith Ames.
■ Germany
Authorities fail to keep track
Thieves have dismantled and carted away some 5km of disused rail track close to the German town of Weimar, railway operator Deutsche Bahn said on Friday. The railway operator said the thieves would probably sell the tracks as scrap metal with the damage amounting to at least 200,000 euros (US$241,500). Deutsche Bahn said it had noticed the missing track after the mayor of a town alongside the train line phoned in to check if the dismantling was planned.
■ Russia
Mean polar bears shot
Russians have had to shoot three unusually aggressive polar bears so far this year, in what environmental group WWF said was a sign the bears' feeding patterns were being disrupted by global warming. The group said bears used to come ashore in winter along the sea ice to forage for food, but that the ice had retreated unusually far from the coast leaving predators with a long swim. "This makes them particularly vulnerable since animals in search of food lose their sense of danger, they enter villages and often attack people," the WWF said in a statement.
■ Bulgaria
Old beef gets the chop
Twenty-year-old Irish beef which may have been making its way to the processed food industry has been impounded in Bulgaria, which is toughening up food safety standards under pressure from the EU. Three truckloads containing 68 tonnes of the discolored meat were blocked at Bulgaria's southwest border with Greece last month because of suspect papers. Bulgarian media have reported that meat producers import old meat to use in salami and other processed food. However, the bluish-purple-tinged beef is unlikely to find its way to the dinner table, processed or otherwise. The Agriculture Ministry said it would probably burn it.
■ Italy
Mummy may not be a daddy
New DNA analysis indicates that the "Iceman", a 5,000-year-old mummy found in the Italian Alps, may have been sterile -- a hypothesis that would support the theory he may have been a social outcast, an Italian archaeological museum announced on Friday. The South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Italy's Alto Adige region, where the Iceman's remains are housed, announced the findings of anthropologist Franco Rollo's research in a news release. Rollo and his team carried out tests on the mummy's mitochondrial DNA and found two typical mutations that are common among men with reduced sperm mobility, the statement said. While not all men with reduced sperm mobility are sterile, a high percentage are, the museum said. Since offspring are typically associated with high social prestige, a sterile man would tend to be rejected by society, the statement said.
■ United States
Dart replaces car chase
The car chase is a staple of life in Los Angeles. But now the police pursuit could be history. The Los Angeles police department announced it is to test a sticky dart, called a "pursuit management system" by its manufacturer. The dart, more of a gooey ball fitted with a global positioning system, is fired from a compressed air gun fitted to the radiator of a police car. In theory, it will stick to a suspect vehicle, allowing police to avoid the danger of a high-speed pursuit.. "In the car chase capital of the world, this device is a very appropriate device," police chief William Bratton told a news conference. "It reduces the need for officers to have an active pursuit."
■ United States
Halliburton firm wins bid
The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to US$385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq. KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department in the event of an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people after a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said. KBR, which announced the contract last month, had a similar contract from 2000 to last year.
■ United States
Bush lauds study
President George W. Bush told the nation's students on Friday that if they studied math and science they would not be joining the "nerd patrol" but helping their own futures and the economic health of the US. "You know, a lot of people probably think math and science isn't meant for me -- it kind of seems a little hard, algebra," Bush said at a panel discussion, organized by the White House, outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Intel Corp.'s largest chip-making plant. "I can understand that, frankly." But Bush urged people to heed the story of a high school senior on the panel who told the crowd that she had joined gangs until two teachers steered her toward math and science.
■ United Kingdom
Navy seizes cocaine
The Royal Navy has seized cocaine with an estimated street value of £350 million (US$617 million) after a high-speed sunset swoop between Jamaica and Colombia in the Caribbean. The destroyer HMS Southampton was being refuelled by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Grey Rover on Wednesday evening when a suspect cargo vessel was spotted in a multinational surveillance operation involving the Dutch navy and US coastguard. The two ships immediately broke away from each other and approached the vessel in a pincer movement as the destroyer's Lynx helicopter intercepted it. Sailors found three and a half tonnes of cocaine wrapped in bales in the forward section.
■ United States
To phone or not to phone
One of life's ironic oases of solitude -- the peace people find amid the roar of a New York City subway -- could soon be gone. As New York plans to make mobile phones work in subway stations, experts say Americans eventually could be connected everywhere, underground or in the air. "It's technically feasible, both for airplanes and subways," said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "It's the social aspect that's really the most intractable."
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