■ Indonesia
Suharto's sentence to be cut
The son of former dictator Suharto will be among thousands of prisoners whose sentences will be reduced next week to mark the end of Ramadan, the chief warden at a Jakarta jail said yesterday. Tommy Suharto -- serving time for the murder of a Supreme Court judge -- will have 45 days cut from his sentence for good behavior, making him eligible for release in roughly three years, said Joko Harjono of Cipinang Penitentiary.
■ Nepal
Error, weather caused crash
Human error and bad weather were responsible for last month's crash of a helicopter chartered by world conservation group WWF in which 24 people were killed, the chief investigator said yesterday. Junior forest minister Gopal Rai and diplomats were among those on board the helicopter that crashed on Sept. 23 near Ghunsa Village, 300km east of Kathmandu. The pilot had failed to inform the nearest control tower before and after taking off from Ghunsa, said Keshari Raj Pandit, chief of the investigation commission.
■ China
Protesters clash with police
Five hundred property owners in Shenzhen clashed with police during protests over government plans to build a highway, the South China Morning Post said yesterday. Residents of a housing estate staged a sit-in protest on one of the city's busiest streets on Friday after government officials refused to talk to them earlier outside a "citizens' center," it said. "There haven't been any hearings for residents about whether they will be inconvenienced," said Tang Tang, a protest leader. At least 10 people were arrested in the clashes but were later released.
■ Bangladesh
Clothes stampede kills five
Five people were trampled to death yesterday in a stampede for new clothes being distributed by a tobacco factory owner to mark Islam's festival of Eid-al-Fitr. The five were killed when a crowd of around 1,000 people at Muktagachar in the northern Mymensingh District rushed to get through the factory gate after it was opened early yesterday, police officer Ashraful Islam said. "Hundreds of poor people stampeded into the factory and five of them -- four middle-aged men and one woman -- were trampled to death," Islam said.
■ New Zealand
Vicar institutes knicker run
A vicar has come to the rescue of a small town that has run out of women's underwear. A group of women at the local Anglican church revealed the crisis that began when the only clothing shop in the small town of Inglewood, about 280km northwest of the capital Wellington, stopped stocking women's underwear. "Someone came up with the point that it was a bit difficult that ladies' essentials were not able to be bought in Inglewood," Gary Husband, the vicar, said. "So we're going to have what's been called a knickers run." Husband said volunteers would now take anyone without transport to the nearby city of New Plymouth, about 20km away, to buy their essentials.
■ Australia
Prisoner diets to escape
A prisoner who went on a crash diet so he could squeeze his way out of jail escaped to show authorities that he could go straight on the outside, a court heard on Friday. Robert Cole, 37, fasted and used laxatives to lose some 13kg before he squeezed through a hole he had chiseled with a butter knife to escape from a hospital in a Sydney maximum security prison in January. Weighing just 56kg, Cole squeezed through the hole he had made between brickwork and a window frame, scaled a razor-wire fence, walked along a prison wall and then jumped to freedom. He was recaptured three days later.
■ Vietnam
Hanoi suspends papers
The government has suspended two newspapers for a month over their critical reporting on the central bank's printing of new polymer bank notes, the Vietnam News Agency reported yesterday. It said the Ministry of Culture and Information suspended a newspaper run by the Supreme Court and another publication "for violating Press Law and not complying with the government's instruction." Newspapers in Communist-run Vietnam are all state-controlled, but they compete with one another and increasingly run articles criticizing government agencies and officials, particularly about corruption.
■ India
Soldier kills 3 colleagues
A soldier shot dead three colleagues at a security camp in troubled Kashmir after an argument before attempting to kill himself, an army spokesman said on yesterday. The shooting took place on Friday night in the district of Rajouri, southwest of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. "The jawan [soldier] used his service rifle and killed three of his colleagues. He later shot himself, and was admitted to hospital," Colonel D.K. Badola, an army spokesman said. Two other soldiers were wounded. Stress levels are high among the thousands of Indian policemen and soldiers in Kashmir.
■ Turkmenistan
Leader has heart disease
The country's leader has acknowledged that he has heart disease, confirming reports that his health is deteriorating. Niyazov said on Friday he could not fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends today. "Many of my deputies fast, but I cannot. I'm taking some drugs for heart disease -- in the morning, afternoon and evening," the 66-year-old leader told delegates to the World Turkmen Congress in Ashgabat. Niyazov underwent major heart surgery in a German clinic in 1997. He is also believed to have suffered a minor stroke in early October.
■ Turkmenistan
Leader's poems on stage
Five new theaters opened on Friday featuring plays based on poetry by President Saparmurat Niyazov, who is surrounded by a lavish personality cult. "All of our country's theater crews chose to debut with plays based on immortal works of the great Saparmurat Turkmenbashi [Father of the Turkmen], which bear a great spiritual energy and open wide horizons for creativity," a culture ministry official said. Niyazov was present at the opening ceremonies by television link, but was demure about the honor. "Please do not hail me quite so often, it is hard for me to listen to applause meant only for me," he said.
■ Germany
Meteor causes fire
A fire that destroyed a cottage near Bonn and injured a 77-year-old man was probably caused by a meteor and witnesses saw an arc of blazing light in the sky, German police said on Friday. Burkhard Rick, a spokesman for the police in Siegburg, said the fire gutted the cottage and badly burned the man's hands and face in the incident on Oct. 10. "We sought assistance from Bochum observatory and they noted that at that particular moment the earth was near a field of meteoroid splinter and it could be assumed that particles had entered the atmosphere," he said.
■ Germany
Boa found in van
A car rental clerk had to take apart the interior of a removals van to take out an 2.4m boa constrictor that had escaped from a cloth sack on the passenger seat and slithered behind the dashboard. Thomas Weber, a rental clerk in the state of Thuringia, told Bild newspaper on Friday that the snake's owner had brought the van back seeking help for his unusual problem. Weber then took the dashboard apart and the owner slowly pulled the giant snake out. "The snake was completely content in there and didn't want to come out," Weber said. "Evidently, he liked the warm and cozy feeling near the engine."
■ United Kingdom
Hit-and-runners arrested
Police said yesterday they had arrested two teenagers over the death of a toddler killed in a hit-and-run crash in front of his mother. The 19-month-old boy was killed on Friday afternoon when a stolen Jeep Wrangler with two young men inside struck a tree and then crashed into the pushchair he was sitting inside. The car's occupants then ran off on foot. The victim's mother was with him at the time, carrying another baby, though to be just a few weeks old in her arms. The baby suffered a bump to the head but has been discharged from hospital after treatment.
■ Germany
Model says models too thin
Claudia Schiffer believes models are now too skinny to be attractive even though the German supermodel may herself be slightly underweight despite a voracious appetite and predilection for chocolate. "It doesn't really look good any more," the 36-year-old was quoted as saying in an interview with Germany's Bunte magazine. "Fashion looks good on thin models, but when you look at today's models you can not help but think there is something wrong. They are way too thin. It is only bones that stick out," she said.
■ United States
Mannequin fetishist arrested
A man with a history of smashing store windows to grab female mannequins has been accused of indulging his fetish again, this time to grab a store-display dummy fitted with a French maid's uniform. Ronald Dotson, 39, was arrested and jailed on Oct. 9 after breaking a window at a cleaning-supply company to get at a mannequin in a black and white French maid's uniform, police said. A judge on Thursday ordered him to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on charges of attempted breaking and entering. Dotson had been out of prison for less than a week when he was caught.
■ United States
Minister, wife caught stealing
A Protestant minister and his wife were charged with swiping an antique set of leather-bound Bible books from their former church and selling them on eBay. Reverend William Shrout Jr. and Carla Shrout were charged with theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy stemming from the theft of about 30 books from the First United Church of Christ in Royersford, Montgomery County, where Shrout served as pastor from June 2003 until July last year. Hinkle said Shrout will undergo a church review of his pastoral fitness.
■ United States
Scouts learn about copyright
Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able to earn an activity patch for learning about the evils of downloading pirated movies and music. The patch shows a film reel, a music CD and the international copyright symbol, a "C" enclosed in a circle. The movie industry has developed the curriculum. "We have a real opportunity to educate a new generation about how movies are made ... and hopefully change attitudes about intellectual property theft,'' Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said. Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.
■ United States
Freight train derails
A freight train derailed and burst into flames over a bridge in southwestern Pennsylvania, leaving fiery rail cars dangling over a river, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The eastbound, 80-car Norfolk Southern Railroad train was carrying ethanol when it derailed above the Beaver River at about 10:50pm on Friday, said Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband. "There are cars on the bridge, hanging off the bridge and in the water," said Brian Hayden, spokesman for both the Beaver County Commissioner's Office and the county's Emergency Operations Center. Hazardous materials crews were on the scene.
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