■ CHINA
PLA get new uniforms
The world's largest military will take on a fresh look as Beijing rolls out new uniforms for the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army (PLA), state media reported yesterday. Troops in Beijing and the Macau Special Administrative Region will change over on Aug. 1, which is Army Day, the official Xinhua news agency said. Forces elsewhere will make the switch over the next three years, it said. The changeover, which includes new bedding, is expected to cost 6 billion yuan (US$787 million), the report said, citing General Liao Xilong, chief of the PLA's General Logistics Department.
■ NEW ZEALAND
More sanctions for Fiji
New Zealand has imposed additional sanctions on Fiji, banning access to New Zealand to a wider range of people associated with the South Pacific island nation's military regime, Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday. Wellington's tighter sanctions come after Fiji expelled New Zealand's top diplomat on June 14, alleging High Commissioner Michael Green had been "meddling" in Fiji's domestic affairs. New Zealand rejected the claims. New Zealand imposed broad-ranging sanctions shortly after the Dec. 5 bloodless coup led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama - including halting all aid funneled through Fiji's government.
■ MALAYSIA
Police chief retains position
The government agreed yesterday to extend the tenure of the country's police chief despite claims circulated on the Internet and local newspapers that he was involved in graft and was linked to crime syndicates. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose portfolio includes the police, said he would retain Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Musa Hassan for an unspecified period. "I have decided to extend the IGP's service so that he can continue his agenda to fight crime and bring good the level of integrity to the police force," Abdullah said at his office in Putrajaya, the nation's administrative capital.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Tycoon gets 18 months
A court sentenced tycoon Kim Seung-youn to 18 months in prison yesterday over a sensational beating attack earlier this year against bar workers who had scuffled with his son. The Seoul District Court handed down the ruling. Prosecutors last month sought a two-year prison term for the Hanwha Group chairman in the attack on off-duty karaoke bar workers involved in the altercation with his 22-year-old son, a student at Yale University. Victims said that Kim's bodyguards confronted them after the scuffle in March and forcibly took them to a construction site near the capital, where the tycoon attacked them.
■ AUSTRALIA
Compensation considered
Canberra is considering compensating 247 people found to have been illegally detained by its immigration authorities over the past 14 years, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said yesterday. The move came hours after it was revealed that an average of 17.6 people - including citizens, permanent residents and lawful visa holders - were detained every year between 1993 and this year and held for anywhere between a few hours and more than six years. Government ombudsman John McMillan, who made the findings in four reports, said it was "inexcusable" that frequent errors by immigration officers had led to the detention of people who had a lawful right to live in the country.
■ UNITED STATES
Locusts threaten farms
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