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World News Quick Take

■ Japan
Smuggler gets prison
A court handed down jail terms ranging from 11 years to life for three men suspected of involvement in smuggling large amounts of drugs from North Korea in 2002, an official said yesterday. The Tokyo District Court sentenced Atsunori Fukushima to life in prison and ordered him to pay fines and penalties totaling ?976 million (US$8.4 million), a court official said. It also sentenced Shishikura Kiyoharu and Tsunehiko Noto to 11 and 12 years in prison respectively, the court official said. Both men were ordered to pay fines and penalties totaling ?461 million.

■ Philippines
Hostage situation ends
Philippine police stormed a courtroom to end a two-day hostage crisis yesterday, killing the gunman and freeing all four captives who were held by a movie stuntman and his common-law wife. Gunshots and a blast rang out inside the Taguig City court building in suburban Manila as black-clad SWAT teams carried out the assault shown on nationwide TV. Moments later, Manila Mayor Sigfrido Tinga confirmed that the gunman, Al Bautista, was killed and the hostages rescued. Bautista's wife was in custody. Two hostages were wounded after one was pistol-whipped on the head by the suspect and another was kicked and punched during the 24-hour standoff.

■ Thailand
Tax evasion probe to widen
The attorney general recommended that criminal tax evasion charges be filed against deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's wife, her secretary and her brother, an official said yesterday. If the case is accepted by the courts, it would mark the first prosecution of those close to Thaksin, who was deposed by a September coup and accused of widespread corruption. A panel appointed to inves-tigate corruption linked to Thaksin had urged the attorney general's office last month to forward the case to the courts. The panel found that Pojaman Shinawatra and her brother failed to pay about 546 million baht (US$16 million) in taxes.

■ Hong Kong
Officials issues warning
A Chinese official warned that the territory risks being marginalized if its people do not stop "messing around with politics," press reports said yesterday. Cheng Siwei (成思危), a vice chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, said the former British colony should focus on economic development instead. He said Hong Kong people lacked a sense of crisis, and they must make efforts to reinforce the city's position as an international financial hub, the South China Morning Post reported. "You are very successful now, but you should think of a possible crisis when you are living in comfort," Cheng said.

■ India
Police glow in the dark
Police in the Western state of Gujarat are to wear new glow-in-the-dark uniforms impregnated with the fragrance of flowers and citrus to help improve their image. "Most policemen look hassled, drenched in sweat after coming from any scene of crime," said Somesh Singh, a designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. The uniforms, to be introduced in the next few months to the state's 300,000 police, use cotton with a fragrant finish, reflective prints and fiber optic technology to make sure the uniform not only smells good but glows at night so officials can be located easily.

■ Germany
Man glued to roof
A 91-year-old man was rescued by police and fire crews on Tuesday from a sticky situation. The retiree from the eastern city of Magdeburg had been taking advantage of good spring weather to re-tar the roof of his garden house when he slipped and became glued to the structure himself. Rescuers were able to free the man, whose name was not released, by prying him loose -- bit by bit -- from the gooey mess. Authorities said the man escaped the incident unharmed, but added that his clothes were a write-off.

■ United Kingdom
Medics bemoan lack of dead
Medics warned on Tuesday that a lack of donated dead bodies was damaging the quality of training for new doctors and surgeons, and possibly putting patients at risk. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) said there was a serious national shortage of cadavers which are needed to teach anatomy to medical students. "Visual demonstration is not enough," said Dick Rainsbury, RCS education director, adding that he had doubts about whether those who learnt by observation could perform operations with "any degree of competence or confidence." The RCS said it estimated 1,000 bodies a year were needed for medical teaching and that there was currently a 30 percent shortfall.

■ France
Gay marriage appeal fails
Two homosexuals lost their appeal to have the nation's first "gay wedding" recognized as legal on Tuesday when the country's top court ruled only a change in the law would permit same sex unions. As the law stood, marriage was only possible between a man and a woman, the Cour de Cassation said in a statement that accompanied its ruling. "Only the adoption of a new law by parliament could allow the situation to evolve," the court said. Stephane Chapin and Bertrand Charpentier were united in June 2004 in a controversial ceremony in the southwestern town of Begles, arguing that the law did not explicitly state marriage had to involve persons of the opposite sex. Public prosecutors argued the law implied a union of heterosexuals.

■ Israel
UNESCO calls for halt of dig
A team of experts from UNESCO will call on the government to halt an archaeological excavation near Islam's holiest site in Jerusalem, local media reported yesterday. The Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is expected later in the day to issue its report on the controversial dig, 50m from a religious compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount. The Haaretz daily said the report called on Israel to halt excavations to allow greater international involvement.

■ Italy
Ex-PM's daughter pays bribe
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's daughter paid off an Italian photographer to halt publication of pictures taken of her in a drunken clinch with a stranger outside a Milan nightclub, local media reported on Tuesday. Barbara Berlusconi, 22, told investigators about the 20,000 euros (US$26,000) deal as the photographer was arrested on Monday on charges including blackmailing the Berlusconis -- the country's richest family -- as well as a string of celebrities including football star Francesco Totti and Lapo Elkann, scion of the Fiat dynasty. The arrest of Fabrizio Corona was part of a wider investigation.

■ American Samoa
Official arraigned for fraud
The head of the US territory's agency that coordinates local efforts during emergencies was arraigned on Tuesday on 70 counts, including criminal fraud, embezzlement, using a forged document and falsifying an affidavit and employment information. Faamausili Pola, director of the Territorial Emergency Management Coordinating Office, was accused of hiring two ghost employees as janitors at the office at separate times beginning in 2005, according to court documents. Pola, who was arrested on Monday, was placed on leave of absence without pay last month as territorial attorneys completed their investigation.

■ United States
Police contacted for drugs
A woman trying to phone a cocaine dealer accidently called a police officer, authorities in Oklahoma said. Durant police Lieutenant Mike Woodruff said the 42-year-old woman chose his number on her son's cellphone believing she was calling a drug dealer. His number was on the cellphone because her son had been arrested previously on drug charges. "She was looking through her son's cellphone directory and found my number," Woodruff said. "Her son had told her that if she ever needed help with anything to give me a call. I think she misunderstood." Woodruff said he played along and set up a meeting. She was arrested on a drug complaint.

■ United States
Reverend not censored
The board of the National Association of Evangelicals has rebuffed leaders of the Christian right who had called for the association to dismiss its Washington policy director because of his involvement in the campaign against global warming. Conservatives had sent a letter to the association this month accusing the policy director, Reverend Richard Cizik, of "using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time," which they defined as abortion, homosexuality and teaching children sexual morality. Board members said that the notion of censoring Cizik never arose last week at their meeting in Minnesota, and that he had delivered the keynote address at their banquet.

■ Suriname
Birthday bash costs official
The country's youngest government minister said she had resigned on Tuesday after charges she tried to spend US$13,000 in government money on a lavish 30th birthday party. If the allegations are proven, the birthday budget for Alice Amafo, former minister of transport, communication and tourism, would equal the monthly pension of 150 people in the country. An opposition lawmaker presented documents in the National Assembly last week he said were evidence that Amafo had tried to get the government to pay for last month's extravagant bash. Hundreds of guests attended the party. Some of the catering for the party was done by Ettina's Kitchen, run by Amafo's mother. Amafo insisted the paperwork had been doctored and that the department of finance had stopped the majority of the payments.

■ United States
Abortion e-cards on sale
A nonprofit organization has unveiled a series of electronic greeting cards that concerned friends and relatives can send to a woman after she chooses to have an abortion.The six cards available on the group's Web site were designed to be nonpartisan and encompass the range of someone's potential responses to going through an abortion. One card offers the gentle reminder that, "As you grieve, remember that you are loved."

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