■ Fiji
Aussie actions irk Fiji
The country's political crisis simmered yesterday as the military demanded the police chief's resignation in a standoff that has involved Australia. Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has been at loggerheads with armed forces chief Commander Frank Bainimarama for the past month over two contentious pieces of legislation. Australia was dragged into the crisis when the military accused it of breaching Fiji's sovereignty by sending police and equipment into the country last Friday.
■ South Korea
Budding kidnapper caught
A 31-year-old man was arrested on charges of plotting to kidnap the father of Chan Ho-park, a South Korean baseball pitcher in the US Major League, a prosecutor said yesterday. The man, known only as Choi was arrested on Sunday in Chuncheon City. Choi, who had major debts, allegedly drew up a detailed plan to abduct Park's father and demand US$2 million in ransom. Choi was caught after trying to recruit fellow kidnappers through the Internet.
■ Hong Kong
Henry Fok mourned
Hailed as a "patriotic businessman" in China, Hong Kong native Henry Fok (霍英東) received a high-profile send-off in his hometown yesterday. Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) were among those who sent their best wishes. Born to a poor family, Fok became a successful businessman with investments in property and petroleum. He was a member of the National People's Congress. Fok passed away at age 83 in Beijing on Oct. 28.
■ Japan
Nine killed in tornado
A tornado ripped through a northern town yesterday, killing at least nine people and injuring 25, officials said. Several hours after the twister, two people were missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble of flattened homes and offices. The tornado, which knocked out electricity and flipped over cars, hit the town of Saroma on the northern island of Hokkaido. It was the worst tornado-caused disaster on record. Local TV showed a scene of devastation, with a wide swath of collapsed buildings, badly damaged cars and utility poles strewn across streets. Many of the victims were construction workers building a tunnel near the town, officials said.
■ India
Police brace for protests
Police and paramilitary forces fanned out across New Delhi preparing to confront striking shop owners angered by government plans to demolish illegally constructed buildings. Fearing violence by the protesters -- who have repeatedly clashed with police in recent months -- authorities also ordered all schools closed in the city. Countless commercial buildings in New Delhi have been thrown up in recent years with little regard to zoning laws, and a government campaign to tear them down has in the past year sparked repeated protests.
■ Malaysia
Tabloid suspends editor
A government-linked tabloid suspended an editor yesterday following an uproar over his paper's weekend edition on sex. The Malay Mail announced that Zulkifli Jalil was suspended starting yesterday as part of an internal review by parent company New Straits Times Press into a set of articles on sexual habits of citizens in Kuala Lumpur. The government, through various holding companies, controls the New Straits Times Press group of companies, which owns the English-language Malay Mail and its weekend version.
■ Nepal
Peace talks resume
Government and communist rebel leaders resumed peace talks yesterday after clearing their biggest hurdle with an agreement to lock up the guerrillas' weapons -- a major step in ending a decade-old insurgency, officials said. Details of the agreement on how the weapons would be placed under UN supervision were finalized at a meeting on Monday between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, leaders of the seven-party ruling coalition and Maoist rebel leader Prachanda. The leaders resumed discussions in small groups at the prime minister's official residence yesterday morning in bid to settle unresolved issues ahead of a formal meeting later in the day.
■ Vietnam
'Terrorism' trial begins
Seven people, including three US citizens, will go on trial this week over an alleged attempt to take over state radio stations to call for an uprising against the communist government, a court official said yesterday. The seven will stand trial on Friday at the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City on charges of terrorism, an offense that carries possible sentences ranging from 12 years in prison to death by firing squad, the court's chief judge Bui Hoang Danh said. The defendants, who were arrested in September of last year, include three US citizens of ethnic Vietnamese descent, three Vietnamese nationals and a Vietnamese national who is a resident of the US.
■ Hungary
This just won't wash
Customs agents in Hungary on Monday said they had confiscated more than 25 tonnes of fake washing powder at three sites across the country. In many cases, the counterfeit materials were packaged in bags and boxes with the logos of some of Hungary's best-selling brands of washing powder, but were actually mostly common table salt. According to experts, if the fake powder were to be used, it could cause environmental damage and harm the washing machines, customs officials said. The officials estimated that the value of the powder confiscated at US$34,000.
■ United Kingdom
Students pan healthy meals
Healthy school meals are proving so unpopular with pupils that some school caterers are facing a financial squeeze as students vote with their feet and eat elsewhere or opt to bring lunch from home. A push to get better quality food onto school menus to improve the poor diet of millions of children has led to a drop in the number of pupils eating at school, a BBC survey on Monday showed. The backlash against the so-called "Jamie Oliver effect" found that of 59 local education authorities, 35 reported the number of kids eating from the new, healthier school menus had dropped. Only six authorities reported more pupils taking school meals.
■ France
Animals show memory skill
Pigeons and baboons have a remarkably good long-term memory, according to a study by French and US animal behaviorists published on Monday. Joel Fagot of France's National Center for Scientific Research in Marseille and Robert Cook of Tufts University in Massachusetts looked at the performance of both species in an innovative test into picture recall. Two male 18-year-old baboons and two pigeons were placed in front of computers and were shown pictures. Over five years, two birds memorized 800 to 1,200 different pictures before reaching their limit. The baboons had memorized 3,500 to 5,000 pictures and had not yet reached a limit by the end of the study.
■ Mexico
Gay unions get early OK
Mexico City lawmakers gave preliminary approval for same-sex civil unions on Monday and the measure could become law this week. The human rights commission of the capital's legislative assembly approved giving same-sex unions a contract that grants legal rights in the city. "We're taking the first steps to recognize and to give equal rights to people of sexual diversity," said leftist local congresswoman Leticia Quezada, head of the commission. "These type of laws are revolutionary," she said. The motion will go to a vote, likely on Thursday in Mexico City's full assembly.
■ Spain
Bombers face long jail stay
The country's top prosecutor is calling for a record 270,000 years in jail for 29 people due to stand trial in February for the Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people, a judicial source said on Monday. Some of the seven main suspects could face prison terms of up to 40,000 years, although the legal maximum they can actually serve is 40 years under Spanish law. The high court was scheduled to spell out the full extent of the terms sought for those implicated in Spain's worst-ever terrorist attack prior to a trial scheduled to start in February and due to last six months.
■ United Kingdom
Prince denied VIP treatment
Britain's Prince William was denied access to a club class lounge on a ferry when he tried to get in without a ticket, the Times newspaper reported yesterday. William, second in line to the throne, was turned away from the lounge, which was serving free champagne, tea and coffee, by a stewardess who apparently failed to recognize him, the paper said. He was with a group of friends on a car ferry -- The Pride of Kent -- from Dover, southern England, to Calais, northern France, when the incident occurred, it added. The route is, though, popular with day trippers traveling to France from Britain to stock up on cheap alcohol.
■ Cuba
No date on Castro's return
The foreign minister stepped away from an earlier assertion that Fidel Castro would return to power next month and declined to say whether the ailing Cuban leader would be well enough to attend next month's celebration of his 80th birthday. Less than two months after saying that he expected Castro to be fully back at the helm early next month, Felipe Perez Roque said he couldn't discuss when Castro, who is recovering from intestinal surgery, will return. "It's a subject on which I don't want to speculate," the minister said in an interview. Castro's return, he said, "will come when it's the right moment."
■ Spain
Police arrest four
Police arrested four men on Monday on suspicion of forging identity documents for use by Islamic fighters returning undercover to Europe from insurgency activity in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. Three of the men, aged 35 to 58, were from Algeria and the fourth from Egypt, the ministry said in a statement. A fifth man was detained in the apartment of one of the suspected forgers for not having any identity papers, the statement said. Among items seized were forgery-related equipment, false residency papers, computer equipment as well as an Italian identity card. All objects had been sent for laboratory analysis, the statement said.
■ United States
Prosecutor kills himself
A prosecutor killed himself as police tried to serve him with an arrest warrant alleging he solicited sex with a minor, authorities said. Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr., 56, a chief felony assistant district attorney in Texas, died on Sunday. Police had moved to arrest Conradt following a sting operation aimed at exposing child sex predators set up by a TV news program. Police forced their way into Conradt's home in Terrell, Texas, after hearing a gunshot when he refused to answer the door, a police spokesman said. The officers found Conradt with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
■ United States
Marine pleads guilty
A US Marine admitted in a military court on Monday that his squad deliberately gunned down an Iraqi man in April and then agreed to lie that they had a legitimate reason to kill him. Lance Corporal Tyler Jackson, 23, of Tracy, California, said he agreed to go along with the plan to kill an Iraqi man they believed was a terrorist during a patrol near the village of Hamdania. "Everyone there verbally agreed. Not much more was said," Jackson told a court-martial at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base north of San Diego. Jackson pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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