■ JAPAN
Two-year-old girl stabbed
A woman stabbed a two-year-old girl in a busy underground shopping arcade south of Tokyo yesterday, a police official said, the latest in a series of crimes that have shocked the country. News reports said the toddler was seriously injured. Two off-duty police officers grabbed the 29-year-old woman after hearing screams at the shopping arcade, which is connected to a main train station in Yokohama, according to a local police official who refused to give his name, citing protocol. The woman, identified as Shio Kikuchi, was arrested, he said.
■ CAMBODIA
3,000 rally for HIV care
Some 3,000 people, including 500 who are HIV-positive, took to the streets yesterday to demand better HIV and AIDS care in the country. "We need better access to treatment. Most HIV-positive people still lack access to even cheap ... treatment," said Kong Vanny, a 42-year-old woman, who was infected by her husband. The crowd, including Buddhist monks, university students and government officials, also lit candles to mark Cambodia's annual AIDS Memorial Day at a central park in Phnom Penh. "We hope this event will help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among Cambodian people," said Hor Bunleng, undersecretary of state at the National AIDS Authority.
■ AUSTRALIA
Drop that blaster!
An Australian movie fan on his way to pose for a Star Wars 30th anniversary photo shoot was arrested by police after his replica laser pistol was mistaken for a more earthly machine gun, media reported yesterday. The 32-year-old man, dressed in black and carrying a backpack with a replica laser blaster poking out the side, alarmed diners at a food court in central Melbourne. "It was a replica gun. We weren't sure what we were dealing with," Senior Constable Daniel Sage told the Herald Sun newspaper. Photographs showed a gun closely resembling the weapon carried by Han Solo in the cinema classic. The man had been on his way to pose for a community newspaper ahead of the 30th Star Wars movie anniversary.
■ JAPAN
Minister opposes bomb ban
The country needs cluster bombs to protect itself and opposes an international ban on the weapons being discussed in Peru, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday. "There is no substitute to replace them when defending Japan," Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said. "What's at issue regarding cluster bombs is when they are used by the side on the offensive. Japan will never use cluster bombs for the purpose of attacking others," he said. The country has been officially pacifist since World War II and its US-imposed 1947 Constitution bans the country from even possessing a military.
■ GERMANY
Two arrested in Thailand
Two German men suspected of sexually abusing children have been arrested by police in Thailand in a joint operation with German authorities, federal police said on Thursday. The men, aged 56 and 62, were arrested on Sunday at a hotel in Khorat near the border with Cambodia in the company of a 16-year-old boy. German police said they had seized computers belonging to the men containing pornographic photographs. The 56-year-old man has been a resident of Thailand since 2002 while the 62-year-old regularly visits the country but lives in Munich.
■ FRANCE
Vineyard planted in Paris
Nestled among rows of skyscrapers, a vineyard was inaugurated on Thursday in the heart of Paris' main business district with the aim of producing a wine harvest in three years' time. Boasting 350 plants of Pinot Noir grapes and 350 plants of Chardonnay, the vineyard was planted on rich earth trucked in from surrounding farmland to the concrete, high-rise La Defense complex on the western rim of Paris. The "Clos de Chantecoq" covers 1,000m2 as part of a public project to renovate Europe's largest business district.
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