■ China
Businessman gets death
A court has sentenced a business executive to death for swindling 3 billion yuan (US$385 million) from investors in a bogus ant breeding scheme, state media and a court official said yesterday. Wang Zhendong, chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group, had promised returns of up to 60 percent for the fictitious project between 2002 and 2005, the Xinhua news agency reported. Prosecutors told the court that one investor committed suicide after realizing he had been duped.
■ Australia
Labor lead in poll trend
The conservative government has suffered its biggest slump in support in six years at the start of an election year and trailed the center-left Labor opposition by 13.4 points early this month, the latest Reuters Poll Trend found yesterday. The poll trend also found Prime Minister John Howard, who hopes to win a fifth successive election later this year, has lost his lead as preferred prime minister to opposition Labor's Kevin Rudd, who was elected party leader in December last year. Howard trailed Rudd as preferred prime minister by 1.3 points -- the first time Howard has been behind since May 2001.
■ Thailand
Jailed man kills himself
A 64-year-old German man arrested on child sex charges this week committed suicide in the jail where he was in solitary confinement, police said yesterday. Helmut Nehls, from Zeppernick, German, was found dead early on Wednesday in his cell in the northeastern town of Udon Thani, police said. Nehls was arrested on Saturday and charged with having sex with girls under the age of 13, a crime punishable by life in prison.
■ South Korea
Karaoke record set at 1,000
A woman belted out nearly 1,000 songs at a Seoul karaoke bar in just under 60 hours to claim a world record before dropping to the floor on Valentine's Day. Kim Seok-ok said she performed her feat to cheer up her ailing husband and bring hope to others living with sick family members. The 52-year old picked up the microphone on Monday and -- except for a five-minute break every hour -- did not stop for 59 hours and 48 minutes, 36 minutes beyond the previous record held by a German. "Life may be painful, but face the challenge," Kim said later. "I want people to live with hope like me." She accomplished the feat standing up despite rules that allowed her to sit and sing, saying it would not be the mark of a true singer.
Her 45-year-old husband is fighting a brain tumor.
■ Australia
US to build satellite base
The US is to build a military satellite communications base at Geraldton, 400km north of Perth, Canberra said yesterday, after three years of secret negotiations between the two allies. The new base will relay signals and intelligence to US forces in the Middle East and Asia. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told parliament the base, construction of which will start in months, would help underpin the close Australia-US alliance. But Greens lawmakers warned it would become a target for extremists. The US already has bases at Pine Gap and Northwest Cape in Western Australia, as well as another facility at Geraldton. The Australian Democrats said that the government was assisting a US defense policy which it called "deeply misguided and aggressive."
■ Japan
Gang leader kills himself
The head of a gang linked to the nation's largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, appeared to have committed suicide yesterday, a week after the fatal shooting of a rival group's member triggered fears of an all-out turf war between the two big yakuza clans. Kazuyoshi Kudo, 70, is believed to have killed himself with a gun in his home in Tokyo, Kyodo news agency reported. Tokyo police said Kudo was found dead at home. They did not give details.
■ Nepal
Child center scandal erupts
A Dutch national who ran a center for homeless children in Kathmandu has been arrested and charged with child abuse, police said yesterday. "Henk Molhuysen has been charged with molesting children after we arrested him as he was having sex with a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old child," Kathmandu police chief Dhak Bahadur Karki said. The 59-year-old faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
■ United Kingdom
Anita Roddick has Hep C
Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop and environmental campaigner, said on Wednesday she is suffering from the viral disease Hepatitis C. Roddick, 64, said she contracted it through a blood transfusion during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971. She also suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, a common long-term effect of the disease. Roddick set up the first Body Shop -- selling its own brand of simple, environmentally-friendly cosmetics, skincare and related products -- in the southern English town of Brighton in 1976.
■ France
Anti-terror squad arrests 11
Anti-terrorist police have arrested 11 people, most of them accused of connections to Iraqi insurgency recruitment rings linked to al-Qaeda, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. Two suspects were detained at Orly Airport on Tuesday night, and nine were detained on Wednesday, mostly in southwestern France. News reports said that the two men detained at the airport had been expelled from Syria. Le Monde said they had been arrested in Syria in mid-December as part of a group thought to be affiliated with al-Qaeda. The arrests took place after an investigation by intelligence services over several months.
■ Guinea
Death toll reaches 64
Soldiers fired into the air in the suburbs of Guinea's capital as the death toll from days of violent protests rose to 64 and union leaders urged renewed negotiations with the government -- but stopped short of backing off demands that the president step down. Rabiatou Serah Diallo, head of one of the West African country's major unions, called for negotiations with the government to recommence. Opposition leaders say the ailing president has let corruption overrun Guinea as people struggle to meet basic needs.
■ United States
Plane grounded by squirrel
An American Airlines flight from Tokyo made an unscheduled landing in Honolulu after pilots heard something skittering about in the space over the cockpit, which turned out to be a stowaway squirrel. The Tokyo to Dallas flight made an emergency landing because pilots feared the animal could have chewed through wiring or caused other problems, said John Hotard, a spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported last Wednesday. It was not known where or how the squirrel boarded the plane.
■ West Bank
Coalition talks in crisis
Coalition talks between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hit a snag, the first crisis since last week's power-sharing deal between the two sides, and Abbas postponed a planned speech to the nation. Hamas leaders on Wednesday presented a list of conditions for the resignation of the Hamas-led government, said an Abbas aide, Nimer Hamad. Without the resignation, which Hamas initially said would come on Thursday, the power-sharing deal cannot proceed. Most problematic for Abbas is likely to be a Hamas demand that he approve the so-called Executive Force, a 5,600-strong militia set up by Hamas last year over the president's objections. Relations between the two sides remain tense, after weeks of fighting in Gaza that left scores dead and hundreds wounded.
■ United States
Feng shui expert goes ape
The Los Angeles Zoo hired an expert in the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to ensure three endangered golden monkeys on loan from China can feel at home. "It's very experimental, we don't have any books on feng shui for monkeys. We just have to assume that Darwin is correct and that there is a connection and what is good for humans is good for monkeys." said Beverly Hills-based feng shui expert Simona Mainini. The enclosure was designed to create the feel of a rural Chinese village.
■ Argentina
Tests refute Peron claim
A woman who contends she is the daughter of former president Juan Peron said on Wednesday she would keep up her quest even though DNA tests she fought for years to obtain do not support her claim. The tests show no genetic link between Martha Holgado, 72, and the three- time president. "We're going to request a retest," said Holgado, who has waged a decades-long legal battle to prove she is Peron's only child. Holgado says she is the product of an affair between Peron and her mother, and fought for years against Peron's third wife and widow, Maria Estela "Isabel" Martinez de Peron, to get DNA testing to back up her claim.
■ Venezuela
Chavez warns hoarders
President Hugo Chavez threatened to nationalize any privately owned supermarkets and food storage facilities caught hoarding inventories or violating price controls imposed on basic goods. Accusing private companies of hoarding foods such as beef, Chavez on Wednesday warned supermarket owners and distributors that he would nationalize their facilities as soon as they gave him "an excuse" to seize such assets. "If they remain committed to violating the interests of the people, the constitution, the laws, I'm going to take the food storage units, corner stores, supermarkets and nationalize them," Chavez said during a televised broadcast. "So prepare yourselves!"
■ Brazil
Samba school head killed
The leader of a famous samba school was gunned down in front of his group's headquarters in Rio three days before the start of Carnival, police said on Wednesday. Academicos de Salgueiro vice president Guaraci Paes, 42, and his wife were killed late on Tuesday when unknown gunmen riddled their car with bullets in front of the samba school in northern Rio, police said. Police said it did not have any leads on the assassins' identity. Medical reports determined that the killing had the trademarks of an execution. Guaraci's brother, Valdomiro, who led the Salgueiro samba school, was killed three years ago in a crime police linked to a conflict between illegal slot machine bosses. Carnival officially starts today.
■ United States
Man fakes kidnapping
A California man who allegedly faked his own kidnapping to keep his wife from finding out he crashed her new car could face criminal charges, police said. Jorge Alberto Mejia, 35, told police two kidnappers held him up at gunpoint at a San Rafael bar on Saturday and ordered him to drive to Santa Rosa where he purposely crashed the car into a wall to escape. Under questioning on Monday, Mejia admitted to investigators he made the story up. Mejia was actually heading to a casino in Sonoma County when he accidentally crashed his wife's Ford Focus and was worried about how she would react, a police spokesperson said.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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