■ Malaysia
Insulting boss allowed
It's OK to use derogatory and vulgar language about your superiors in the office as long as it is done behind their backs, a court has ruled. The Industrial Court said that a secretary at Malaysia National Insurance Bhd was not guilty of misconduct when she sent e-mails from the office computer to friends, griping about her superiors, the national news agency Bernama reported on Friday. Court chairman Syed Ahmad Radzi Syed Omar said that Ratnawati Mohamed Nawawi's sacking for misconduct was unjust. The court awarded her back wages and compensation amounting to US$18,570.
■ India
Condoms too big
Condoms designed to meet size specifications used internationally are too big for many men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, a study has found. The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run center, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 percent of men in Mumbai had penises about 2.4cm shorter than those condoms catered for. For a further 30 percent, the difference was at least 5cm. A poor fit meant the prophylactics often didn't do the job they were bought for.
■ Singapore
Containers for US screened
The government has announced measures to more closely screen shipping containers bound for the US in a move to keep nuclear material and illicit weapons from the wrong hands, a newspaper reported yesterday. The island-state already checks cargo for radioactive material and uses powerful sensors to scan steel containers. The stricter new measures, to start next month, are in response to the US-led Secure Freight Initiative. The US Department of Homeland Security launched the first phase of the initiative on Thursday.
■ Turkmenistan
Nationalist theme park open
Authoritarian leader Saparmurat Niyazov on Friday formally opened an amusement park named after himself. Niyazov, who has ruled the country for 20 years, has created an extensive cult of personality around himself, including ordering citizens to call him Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen. The 33-hectare amusement park in the capital is named "The World of Turkmenbashi Tales." It has 54 rides including a Ferris Wheel echoing designs of Turkmen jewelry and a roller coaster swooping over a model of the Caspian Sea, the source of Turkmenistan's rich oil and gas reserves.
■ Australia
Wildfires disrupt flights
Smoky skies disrupted flights through the main airport in Victoria state yesterday, as firefighters battled what many fear will become the state's worst wildfires in almost 60 years. More than 20 towns were warned they could soon be threatened by the blazes, though no injuries or property damage had been reported. The country's largest airline, Qantas Airways, reported flight delays of up to an hour through the airport in Victoria's capital, Melbourne. Heavy smoke across much of the eastern part of the southern state reduced visibility and triggered fire alarms in the airport's baggage handling area and control tower. More than 170,000 hectares of drought-stricken farmland and forests have been incinerated by 18 major fires.
■ Somalia
Soldiers, Islamists clash
Islamists and pro-government soldiers shelled each other in a second day of fighting yesterday, witnesses said, a major escalation of violence many fear will erupt into all-out war. The fighting occurred in Maddoy village about 40km from the interim government's headquarters in Baidoa, the only town it controls in its own country. The two sides fought in the area on Friday, killing at least two bystanders. "The war restarted about 30 minutes ago," Maddoy resident Ahmed Mohamed Adan told reporters by telephone.
■ United States
Space chic the final frontier
You've booked your seat on the spaceship and passed the medical -- but what to wear for that flight into the final frontier? Orbital Outfitters has the answer. The new Los Angeles-based company on Thursday promised to dress the first space tourists and crew members in style. "When someone puts on an IS3 [sub-orbital space suit], they will be protected by the best technology we cam muster, yet they will look like they've stepped off the set of a science fiction movie," Orbital Outfitters president Rick Tumlinson said. Tumlinson said Orbital Outfitters planned to be on the leading edge of space suit fashion in a tourism industry expected to blast off around 2008.
■ France
Storm knocks out power
A powerful storm with gusting winds lashed on Friday, knocking out power to 400,000 homes and one pedestrian was killed when a billboard collapsed in Paris. The northern, western and central regions of the country were the worst hit, with the weather service saying that wind gusts reaching 148kph and 137kph atop the Eiffel Tower. Authorities raised the weather alert to orange -- the second the highest of four levels -- for 26 out of the country's 95 regions. A pedestrian was crushed to death on Friday morning by a falling billboard, Paris firefighters said.
■ United Kingdom
DNA tests on Diana driver
DNA tests on blood samples back up initial findings that the chauffeur of Princess Diana's car was drunk on the night she died in a Paris crash in 1997, the BBC reported late on Friday. The BBC said on its Web site that the tests indicate that the samples taken from driver Henri Paul just after his death were indeed his and show him accurately to have been three times over the French drunk-driving limit. A source close to the French authorities said the DNA tests were done in France within the last year, adding that DNA taken from Paul's blood samples matched with that of his parents. Diana, 36, and Dodi Fayed, 42, were killed with Paul when their high-powered Mercedes crashed in Paris.
■ United States
Youth indicted for murder
Authorities on Friday indicted an 18-year-old in Arizona with the murder of a female Japanese tourist earlier this year. Randy Wescogame is accused of stabbing 34-year-old Tomomi Hanamure to death after robbing her on the Havasupai Indian Reservation on May 8. Wescogame, a member of the 650-strong Havasupai tribe, has been in Indian tribal custody on unrelated assault charges since May and was transferred to federal detention on Friday. He has been charged with five counts of murder, robbery and kidnapping and faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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