■ INDONESIA
Komodo dragon kills boy
A rare Komodo dragon has mauled a boy to death on an island that is part of the Komodo national park in eastern Indonesia, police said yesterday. Mansur, 9, was defecating in a bush area on Komodo island on Saturday when he was attacked by a Komodo dragon, Manggarai Barat District police chief Buce Hello said. "The Komodo attacked him, bit him and tossed him around, and only released him after villagers came and threw stones at it," Hello said. The island, one of the largest in the Komodo national park, has no medical clinic and the boy, a local villager, died shortly after the attack, he said.
■ AUSTRIA
Diplomat freed on bail
Austria freed the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president on 1 million euros (US$1.35 million) bail on Sunday but he must remain in the country to face extradition proceedings over kidnapping charges in his homeland, officials said. Austrian police arrested Rakhat Aliyev, the former Kazakh ambassador in Vienna, on Friday on an international warrant that also accuses him of running an organized crime network in the Central Asian country, a former Soviet republic. The powerful businessman has urged Austria not to extradite him to his homeland, saying in a media interview released over the weekend that he would fear for his life if sent back.
■ SINGAPORE
Bra contest leads to fine
A Singapore radio station will be fined S$15,000 (US$9,900) over a bra contest that was "exploitative and inappropriate," the city-state's media regulator said yesterday. MediaCorp Radio breached the broadcast code with a March competition in which women had to remove their bras as fast as possible without taking off their clothes, the Media Development Authority said. "The broadcasting of such a contest, requiring the removal of bras by young women, has a negative influence on young impressionable listeners," it said. It said the two DJs involved in the program had also "made sexually suggestive comments on how fast the bras were removed, as well as the color, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls' breasts."
■ INDONESIA
Hardliners attack church
Muslim hardliners stormed a church during a service, smashing images of Jesus Christ and demanding that it be closed down, the pastor said yesterday. Dozens of churches have had to be closed in Indonesia in recent years, and Sunday's attack was the second on the small Protestant church in the West Java town of Soreang since 2005. Reverend Robby Elisa, who heads the church, said around 100 hardliners attacked while Sunday school was in session. He said his wife was beaten and that at least four stained glass depictions of Jesus were smashed.
■ MALAYSIA
Language's name changes
Malaysia's government has changed the national language's name back to "Bahasa Malaysia," or the "Malaysian Language," to promote a sense of belonging among multiethnic communities, the national news agency reported yesterday. Bahasa Malaysia had been the name for the national language since the country achieved independence in 1957, but the government renamed it Bahasa Melayu, or the "Malay Language" in 1986 to better reflect the cultural heritage of ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly 60 percent of the population.
■ TOGO
Sports minister dies in crash
Togo's sports minister and 20 other people were killed on Sunday when a privately owned shuttle helicopter they were flying in crashed at Sierra Leone's Lungi international airport, sporting and airport officials said on Sunday. The helicopter caught fire while descending in preparation for landing at Lungi and crashed on the tarmac at around 8:30pm. One of three Russian crew members survived the crash and was said to be in critical condition. "It was shocking to see the helicopter disintegrating," senior airport maintenance officer Alfred Yelinkeh said. Sierra Leone Football Association public relations officer Chernor Ojuku Sesay said 18 Togolese officials and supporters died in the crash.
■ GAZA STRIP
Anchors rally against threat
A group of female TV anchors marched through Gaza City on Sunday to protest a fundamentalist group's threat to behead them if they did not don modest Islamic dress. About 50 anchors and staffers from the state-run Palestine TV marched from the station's offices in Gaza City toward the office of President Mahmoud Abbas to protest the threat from a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, known for firebombing Internet cafes and record stores. Most of the 15 female anchors wear headscarves, but they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which extremists consider immodest.
■ UNITED STATES
Guitarists aim for record
More than 1,680 guitar players turned out, tuned up and took part in what organizers say was a world record rendition of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water -- a song that was the first many of them ever learned. Some came from as far away as California and Germany on Sunday to take part in a Kansas City radio station's effort to break a Guinness world record for the most people playing the same song simultaneously. The record had been 1,323 people playing the same song in Vancouver, Canada, in 1994. Preliminary numbers show 1,683 people played the popular early 1970s guitar riff at CommunityAmerica Ballpark on Sunday.
■ UNITED STATES
Wild turkeys moving to city
Wild turkeys have been showing up on the streets of a Detroit suburb, pecking at windows and eating from bird feeders. The skittish birds are generally found in rural areas or large parks, but naturalists and wildlife experts say the turkeys could get used to life in this city of more than 78,000 people. "Wherever you have a suburb that still has large stands of big trees left, where they think they are comfortable, you may be prone to having wild turkeys," said Joe Derek, city naturalist for Farmington Hills.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
`Collins' adds new words
Hoodies, wags, carbon footprints and muffin tops have entered the English language, the ninth edition of the Collins English Dictionary launched yesterday. A hoodie is "a young person who wears a hooded sweatshirt, regarded by some as a potential hooligan," the new dictionary said. And wags, the pampered wives and girlfriends spending their partners' cash, take their place after a sterling performance accompanying the England soccer team at last year's World Cup. From fashion circles, muffin tops, the flabby bulge over the top of a tight pair of jeans, squeezes in. A Collins spokesperson said that many of the words "will undoubtedly sink back into obscurity being bound up with today's ephemera, but others will take root."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of