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World News Quick Take

■ JAPAN
Dog helps rescuers
A dog helped rescuers find her 88-year-old owner, who went missing the day before in Uwajima, police said yesterday. The pilot of a police helicopter searching for the missing man spotted the dog in an orange field about 1km away, leading to his rescue on Monday, Uwajima police spokesman Takatoshi Hirokawa said. The 88-year-old farmer was missing since Sunday evening after going to another orange field with his 11-year-old female dog Maru, Hirokawa said. The man, whose name could not be disclosed at his relatives' request, strayed away after falling down while cutting weeds, he said.

■ MALAYSIA
Seized beer won't be drunk
Beer will flow, but down the drain. Customs officials will pour out almost 200,000 cans of smuggled beer they seized over the weekend from a syndicate that planned to sell the duty-unpaid drink at one-third the market price, The Star daily reported Tuesday. Authorities won't auction the seized beer, as is usually done, because flooding the market with 63,000 liters of beer would affect prices, the report said. Customs department spokeswoman Noorlida Ibrahim confirmed the seizure in the Star report. The 8,000 cases of beer were seized from four shops in an industrial area of Kuala Lumpur.

■ NEW ZEALAND
Dead terrier gets medals
A Jack Russell terrier who died from injuries sustained when he saved a group of children from being mauled by two pit bulls is being given two posthumous medals. The Society for the Protection of Animals yesterday awarded the Jack Russell, George, a bravery medal, while a US Vietnam veteran who read news articles about the attack said he would send a Purple Heart to the dog's owner. Feisty, foot-high George fought with the pit bulls to keep them from attacking the youngest of five children as they returned home from buying sweets at a neighborhood shop in the small town of Manaia, North Island, on April 29.

■ INDIA
Lawmaker jailed for life
A court yesterday sentenced a lawmaker to life in prison for kidnapping and intending to kill a political rival. Sessions judge Gyanaeshwar Prasad Srivastava also fined Mohammed Shahabuddin 10,000 rupees (US$240). The Bihar State lawmaker belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, or National People's Group, a coalition partner of the prime minister's government. Politics in several states have been dominated by local strongmen who often use violence to intimidate rivals. Many of the lawmakers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states are facing criminal charges, including murder and kidnapping. Bihar, in the east, is considered India's most lawless.

■ NEPAL
Rights group makes appeal
Maoists should immediately free children recruited into their armed forces, an international rights group said yesterday. New York-based Human Rights Watch said thousands of former child soldiers should be allowed to return to their families after a peace accord placed them in camps for Maoist fighters. The Maoists have repeatedly denied having recruited anyone under the age of 18 in their armed division. In a statement, Human Rights Watch said it wrote a letter to Nepalese social welfare minister Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma "to secure the Maoists' cooperation with the United Nations and child protection agencies to allow children to return home without further delay."

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Politicians lose trust
Politicians are the least trusted career group, with more faith placed in car salesmen, a survey released yesterday revealed. The poll of 1,900 readers of Reader's Digest showed that firefighters inspired trust in 97 percent of respondents, the highest rate of any profession, followed by pharmacists, pilots, nurses and doctors. Faith in politicians, however, dropped from an already low 15 percent in 2002 to seven percent in the latest poll. Eight percent said they trusted car salesmen. It marks the first time in the survey's history that politicians have been the least-trusted profession.

■ NETHERLANDS
`Scavenger hunt' launched
Call it a different kind of scavenger hunt. A private bird of prey breeding center was inundated with calls on Monday after appealing for help tracking down a 1m tall white-backed vulture named Abu that was blown away in high winds while soaring over the park. Abu, who is normally kept in an enclosure, disappeared on Friday while training for flying demonstrations at the center in Schoonrewoerd. After taking off, the bird could not fight gusty winds and thermals to descend, and eventually disappeared into clouds, the center said. The center advised the public not to try to catch him, warning that he could peck at their ears or fingers, particularly as he likely has not eaten for a few days.

■ ISRAEL
King Herod's tomb found
An archeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, at a hilltop compound south of the city, the Hebrew University announced on Monday. The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 40BC. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem can still be seen today. It has long been assumed that Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations had failed to turn up the site.

■ RUSSIA
Traveling `DJ' cons press
The yellow bandana, colored dreadlocks and trendy tracksuit were enough to convince any skeptic. For months Rustam Dzhumaliyev hitched cross-country, posing as a DJ from Los Angeles, California, who was trying to get into the record books by traversing the country from east to west. Speaking English, the exotic "American" was feted by local newspapers, fed by kindly Siberians and given free entry to a string of provincial discos. But the hoax collapsed last week when he was exposed as a fugitive robber from a village near Vladivostok. He was arrested after police spotted him on a university campus.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Blair posts on YouTube
Prime Minister Tony Blair took to the Internet in English and French on Monday to congratulate former French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy on winning France's presidential election. Blair posted a message on video-sharing site YouTube, praising Sarkozy as "a strong leader." Blair said he was confident Sarkozy "will want to forge a good and close partnership between Britain and France for the good of our two countries, for Europe and the wider world." Sarkozy, who has cited Blair's transformation of the Labour Party as an inspiration, beat socialist candidate Segolene Royale in Sunday's presidential election.

■ UNITED STATES
Wayward seal captured
An Arctic seal was captured after eluding marine officials in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for several days. Rescuers used two nets on Monday to remove the 1.8m, 113.4kg bearded seal from a canal in a residential area. It was placed in a marine animal ambulance and prepped for a trip to SeaWorld where scientists planned to rehabilitate the lethargic animal and release it back to the North Pole. “This is the first time we have had a bearded seal show up in Florida,” said Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Their primary habitat is north of Newfoundland.”

■ UNITED STATES
Blind man isn’t fooled
Don’t try to dupe Kent Parker just because he is blind and operates a deli in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. Every once in a while, somebody tries to cheat him despite the security cameras trained on the cash register and about a dozen sheriff’s deputies a few steps away. In the past two weeks, two women offered bills smaller than they claimed and were arrested within minutes. “I have a lot of friends who watch out for me,” said Parker, 43, who has been operating the Courthouse Deli for eight years. Sometimes Parker can tell if a customer is acting suspiciously. “They test me, hand me money, seeing if I know what it is,” he said.

■ UNITED STATES
Wallet found decades later
Glenn Goodlove said he was likely kissing a girl in the expansive back seat of the 1946 Hudson automobile when his wallet slipped from his pants pocket more than five decades ago. The year was 1952. Goodlove was a sailor home on leave from the US Navy. The Hudson belonged to his grandfather, who lived in western Washington state. Goodlove had long since forgotten about the lost leather billfold, until last month when he got a phone call from a pair of southern Idaho car collectors who told him they had restored the car and found the wallet. Inside the wallet were a US$10 bill, a US$1 silver certificate banknote, military identification, a Social Security card and a handwritten Washington state driver’s license.

■ UNITED STATES
Kids rob day care center
What would be the best prize ever if you were a child burglar? How about milk, popsicles, paper, crayons and Play-Doh? That is what police say a pair of boys took during two break-ins at a Milwaukee day care center. An eight-year-old and 10-year-old broke into Day Care Services for Children, Inc on Sunday. A witness photographed the eight-year-old and 10-year-old breaking a window and leaving with two large bags at around 4:30pm on Sunday, Schwartz said. The boys also set off the day care’s alarm, she said. They allegedly grabbed paper, crayons and Play-Doh.

■ UNITED STATES
Family bicker over dog
A Memphis, Tennessee, man who didn’t have a will left a US$2 million estate, but the most hotly contested item in court has been his golden retriever, Alex. The four-way dispute over the 13-year-old pet was so intense, an attorney was appointed to represent the dog’s interest. On Monday, the judge decided the man’s divorced parents should split custody, the Commercial Appeal reported. “At first glance, the petition seems almost frivolous, but after speaking with all parties, it is evident that this is a highly emotional issue for all involved,” said Alex’s attorney, Paul Royal.


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