■ Australia
woman humps horse
police have charged a woman with bestiality after she was allegedly caught naked in a paddock having sex with a horse, police said. officers found the 35-year-old woman committing an indecent act with the horse when they were called to a field in the small town of lismore, north of sydney. "the woman was arrested and charged with bestiality and behaving in an offensive manner," a new south wales police spokesman said. the woman was granted conditional bail and is due to face lismore local court on dec. 18.
■ Australia
stingray stabs fisherman
a fisherman has survived being stabbed in the chest by a stingray, the marine creature that killed crocodile hunter steve irwin two months ago, police said. the fisherman was on board a prawn trawler off the south coast of the country on wednesday when one of the usually-placid creatures plunged a razor-sharp tail barb into his chest. police said the barb did not lodge in the fisherman's chest or cause any respiratory problems and he was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. stingrays are frequently caught up in fishermen's nets and have been known to lash out when they land on the deck of a ship.
■ Philippines
doctor goes on rampage
a police doctor upset with being demoted shot his commanding officer and hurled a hand grenade at colleagues killing one, a spokesman for the police said yesterday. five colleagues and the doctor were injured in the blast late on wednesday night at the national police headquarters in camp crame in manila. chief inspector renato costabio flew into a rage when he was told of his demotion, reports said. he pulled out his service revolver and shot his commanding officer senior superintendent federico damata. damata was not seriously injured and was recovering from his wounds yesterday. he then hurled a hand grenade at colleagues killing one officer who tried to smother the blast with his body, police said.
■ Indonesia
us wrestling axed from tv
several popular us wrestling programs have been pulled from television, a spokeswoman said yesterday, following the death of a nine-year-old boy whose friends practiced fighting moves on him. smackdown and other shows produced by the stamford, connecticut-based world wrestling entertainment inc were last screened on tuesday evening, said a spokeswoman for indonesia's lativi broadcaster, the only company to have aired the programs. linda rifai said the screenings were stopped "to avoid stoking controversy" and not because the company was admitting a "correlation" between the death and its shows. the decision was taken following weeks of pressure from parents and educators who blamed the programs for violent child behavior and the boy's death on nov. 16 in bandung, west java.
■ Australia
troops home from tonga
about 50 australian troops returned home yesterday from tonga in a show of confidence that security had been restored in the south pacific island kingdom that was crippled by riots two weeks ago. "the situation in tonga has now stabilized and the tongan security forces can control security without australian military support," defense minister brendan nelson said in a statement.
■ United Kingdom
Amputee daredevil jailed
A double amputee was jailed for a year on Tuesday for having led police on a high-speed car chase in northeast England using wooden poles and broom handles to control the accelerator and brake. Robert Bate, 27, was sentenced in Newcastle Crown Court after admitting dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drugs, driving without a license, driving without insurance and failing to stop. "It's a miracle nobody else was injured," Judge David Hodson told Bate sentencing him to prison for 12 months and banning him from driving for two years. Bate lost both his legs in a rail accident when he was nine. The court heard that the pursuit hit speeds of 129kph.
■ United States
Snoop Dogg arrested
Rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested for investigation of illegally possessing a handgun and drugs as he left NBC Studios in Burbank, California, after performing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, police said. The 35-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, and two people in his entourage were arrested at around 6pm on Tuesday after a search of his home and car, Sergeant Kevin Grandalski said. Police seized a handgun and some illegal drugs, Grandalski said.
■ United States
Offenders face deportation
Immigration agents on Wednesday arrested 45 foreign-born New Yorkers from 19 countries who face deportation because they committed sex offenses against children. Those arrested included a man from Trinidad who got six months in jail for raping his 15-year-old stepdaughter and a woman from Romania convicted of endangering the welfare of a child after having sexual contact with a 13-year-old boy. The men and women were arrested after they showed up for scheduled visits with probation officers.
■ United Kingdom
Marines disappointed
More than 4,000 Marines serving in Afghanistan were left disappointed after the Ministry of Defense led them to believe that they would be getting a large increase in their wages, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. Marines who serve outside of Britain are paid an extra separation allowance and the way this was paid to troops was changed this month as part of reforms to the system. A ministry spokeswoman said that because of a blunder, marines thought they were getting a bonus of around ?3,000 (US$5,800).
■ Canada
Nude pothole protest
People in the small town of Leader, Saskatchewan, are so fed up with the rotten state of their main road that they came up with an unusual form of protest -- a calendar that shows them posing nude in the potholes. One man is shown sitting in a canoe that is perched in a pothole. Another has his dignity preserved by a well-placed hubcap. "The potholes are not small, one-foot [30cm] diameter potholes ... sometimes they're as deep as a foot deep and sometimes they will stretch for yards," Wayne Elhard, the local member of the provincial legislature, told CBC television on Wednesday.
■ Qatar
Chess players face tests
Chess' world governing body will introduce dope testing at the Asian Games this week, although the sport's top official in Doha said he had no idea how drugs could enhance chess performance. "I would not know which drug could possibly help a chess player to improve his game," competition manager Yousuf Ahmad Ali said.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in