■ Hong Kong
Gucci lover grounded
Armed police removed a woman from a Cathay Pacific flight after she refused to stow her Gucci handbag under the seat in front of her or in the cabin overhead, the Apple Daily reported on Monday. The flight to Tokyo was delayed for about an hour as the woman contested the cabin crew's instructions to put her luxury handbag on the floor or in the compartment above her seat, a Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said. Other passengers clapped when the woman with the bag was finally escorted off the airplane, the daily said.
■ Singapore
Rare turtles to be tracked
Twelve previously captive marine turtles on the endangered species list were released into the South China Sea yesterday fitted with satellite tracking devices for a study of their migratory patterns, scientists said. Researchers are interested in studying "their open sea migratory behavior and their dive behavior to see if they are able to travel on their own, and use their navigational cues to travel and migrate," said C.H. Diong, an associate professor of zoology at Nanyang Technological University.
■ Japan
DPJ, China to hold dialogue
Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), agreed on Monday with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi (王毅) that the first meeting of an institution for regular dialogue between the Chinese Communist Party and the DPJ will be held in early December in Tokyo, Japanese party lawmakers said. Wang Jiarui (王家瑞), head of the Central Committee's international department, will lead the Chinese delegation, while acting president Naoto Kan will represent the DPJ team.
■ Afghanistan
Ambush kills ISAF troops
Two soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed and one was missing after an ambush in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the force said. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a patrol in Helmand Province, it said in statement. "Two ISAF soldiers were killed in this attack, one wounded and one remains unaccounted for," it said. The attack came a day after the NATO contingent took over command of foreign security forces in southern Afghanistan from a US-led coalition that overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
■ Singapore
Paek visits city state
The foreign minister of North Korea, Paek Nam-sun, held talks yesterday with his Singaporean counterpart George Yeo as part of a four-day trip to the city state. Paek met with his Singaporean counterpart at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a source said. The North Korean embassy said the two ministers would hold discussions on "bilateral cooperation." A statement issued on Monday by Singapore's ministry of foreign affairs said Paek would meet top leaders including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟) and President S.R. Nathan.
■ Singapore
Maid fails to ID accused
An Indian maid accusing her former employer of raping her repeatedly in 2004 was unable to identify him in High Court, but recognized the man in a photograph taken by police two years ago, news reports said yesterday. The alleged rapist, Sudarsanan Margasagayam, previously had a thick moustache. The 48-year-old man is now clean-shaven and wears spectacles with thick black plastic frames. The 32-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu told the court on Monday that he raped her on the first night and four other evenings during the week she spent at his flat, the Straits Times said. Sudarsanan threatened to strangle her and throw her out of his third-floor flat if she resisted him, the woman said. Sudarsanan denied the rape charges.
■ India
Bus plunges into canal
A crowded school bus carrying about 50 children plunged into a canal yesterday, killing at least six children, Indian media reported. Villagers near the industrial town of Sonepat, about 60km north of New Delhi, were helping pull people out of the water and had recovered the bodies of at least six children, the CNN-IBN television news channel reported. Local police superintendent Yogendra Nehra said authorities were still trying to work out how many children aboard the bus when it plunged into the Western Yamuna canal in the village of Kheri Gujjar. He said the driver survived and fled the scene soon after the accident.
■ Pakistan
Poet returns award
A respected poet on Monday said he had returned a top civilian award given by the government to protest against the country's military leadership. Ahmed Faraz, 75, regarded as the Urdu language's greatest living poet, said he was angered by offensives in tribal Waziristan and Baluchistan by the government of General Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup. "I have returned this award because of government polices against the people of Waziristan and Baluchistan," Faraz said. The poet said he was also protesting against Musharraf's decision to go back on his pledge to give up his dual role as head of the armed forces.
■ Israel
Llamas help Israeli troops
It may have one of the world's mightiest militaries, but Israel has turned to imported beasts of burden to help troops wage a 20-day-old offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Israeli newspapers carried pictures of South American llamas accompanying commandos out of southern Lebanon, their saddlebags full of fighting gear. Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted a senior Israeli military commander as saying the white-furred pack animals could carry up to 27.2kg each over rough terrain, were quiet and required feeding only once every two days.
■ France
Paris bans `indecent' attire
Parisian sunbathers will no longer be allowed to go nude or wear g-strings on the capital's artificial beaches and risk a fine if they are caught baring their breasts or buttocks. City hall has issued a decree banning indecent clothing to preserve the tranquility of the sandy beaches created on the banks of the River Seine every summer since 2001. "People must behave according to good standards to maintain tranquility, security and public order," the decree said, according to Saturday's edition of Le Parisien. "Notably indecent attire [nudity, g-strings and toplessness] is forbidden." Anyone caught baring too much flesh risks a 38 euro (US$48) fine.
■ France
GM crop vandals slammed
France's agriculture minister on Monday condemned the destruction of two fields of genetically modified corn by activists in southwestern France. Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau called Sunday's slashing of the crops "vandalism contrary to the rule of law and the respect of private property," a statement from his office said. More than 200 activists tore up 7.3 hectares of the corn in two fields located near the southern city of Toulouse. Five suspects were detained by police and held for questioning on Monday.
■ United Kingdom
Dead eel bashing banned
An English fishing town has banned the sport of conger cuddling after an animal activist complained. The tradition, once described as the most fun a person could have with a dead fish, involves one team trying to hit another with a conger eel tied to a rope. It was popular in Lyme Regis on England's south coast and used as a fund-raising event for the local lifeboat. But the sport has now been banned after an animal rights activist complained that it was "disrespectful" to dead fish and threatened to campaign against the event. Animal activists have a reputation for radical action in Britain.
■ United Kingdom
Beatle axe auctioned off
A US collector has bought Paul McCartney's first acoustic guitar for £330,000 (US$614,000) at auction. The guitar used by the former Beatle was bought by Craig Jackson at an auction at the Abbey Road Studios late on Friday. "This is such an important piece of rock history, and I am an extremely happy man tonight," Jackson said in a statement. "Without this guitar The Beatles may never have existed, and it is a fantastic acquisition." A spokesman for the auction house Cooper Owen said the auction had attracted bidders from Europe, the US and Russia. He had expected the instrument to sell for around £100,000. McCartney learned to play his first chords on the guitar which belonged to his friend Ian James.
■ Brazil
Military to airlift penguins
The air force and navy will transport more than 100 penguins to Antarctica next month after the flightless birds were stranded on Rio de Janeiro beaches. Penguins arrive from the Antarctic Circle on ice floes that melt in the vicinity of the shore and the birds wash up on Rio beaches every winter. Typically many of the birds are sent to local zoos. A plane carrying equipment for an Antarctic naval base will take the penguins to the country's southernmost region next month, an air force spokesman said on Monday. They will continue their journey on a naval ship, which will release them into the ocean in their Antarctic habitat.
■ United States
Bardot begs for mercy
Brigitte Bardot has begged the governor of Texas in an open letter to pardon convicted killer Farley Matchett before he is executed later this year. Matchett, 43, who Bardot says has been in jail for more than 13 years, says he acted in self-defense when he stabbed his victim in 1991. His execution date has been set at Sept. 12. "This man has unintentionally committed a serious fault, since he acted in self-defense. He is not a gangster, not a child's rapist, not a serial killer either," the French film star said in a letter to Governor Rick Perry published on Monday.
■ United States
Military brats get magazine
A new magazine is targeting a constantly shifting, often ignored group of Americans who have been among those most affected by the "war on terror" -- more than two-thirds of a million children whose parents are in the armed services and who call themselves "military brats." Military Brats magazine is distributed free at US bases around the world, and is written and read largely by teenagers growing up in far-flung outposts, many with at least one parent away fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. The 100-page magazine, paid for by advertising and grants, carries chatty guides to life on different military bases, an advice column for the sad and lonely, as well as stories about sports and reviews of electronic games.
■ Canada
Harper snubs AIDS summit
A record number of delegates were expected to attend an upcoming global AIDS summit -- including Bill Gates and former US president Bill Clinton -- but the prime minister of the host country will not be among them, organizers confirmed on Monday. The 16th International AIDS conference will bring some 24,000 scientists, world leaders and others to Toronto, but Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has declined an invitation and will instead send Governor General Michaelle Jean and his health minister. "Unfortunately, the prime minister will not be able to attend," Craig McClure, executive director of the International AIDS Society, told journalists.
■ Canada
Police pursue pedophile
Police in Whitewood, Saskatchewan, searched on Monday for a convicted pedophile suspected of kidnapping a 10-year-old boy while already with another missing child. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a warrant for Peter Whitmore, 35, for the abduction of 10-year-old Zachary Miller of Whitewood, who disappeared on Sunday. Mounties said Whitmore was also believed to be traveling with 14-year-old Jordan Bruyere, who was last seen on July 22 in Brandon, Manitoba.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema