■ PAKISTAN
Court to delay poll result
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that this weekend's presidential election can go ahead, but said results should not be announced until it has decided on legal challenges against the vote. The ruling clears the way for today's ballot in which President Pervez Musharraf is controversially standing for re-election while still holding his post of army chief. "The bench has unanimously resolved and directed that the election process should proceed as per the schedule announced by the chief election commissioner," chief judge Javed Iqbal said.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Condom summit to be held
Fresh from summit diplomacy with North Korea, South Korea's government now faces an entirely new challenge -- trying to set international quality and size standards for condoms. The five-day meeting is organized by the Seoul government and the International Organization for Standardization. South Korean firms led by Unidus Corp account for some 30 percent of global condom sales "The size of South Korean condoms now meets international standards, helped by an increase in the size of men's penises here," Unidus chief Kim Sung-hoon told Yonhap news agency.
■ JAPAN
Wikiwork reprimanded
The Agriculture Ministry reprimanded six bureaucrats for shirking their duties after an internal probe found they spent work hours contributing to Wikipedia -- including 260 entries about cartoon robots. The six civil servants together made 408 entries -- on issues unrelated to farm issues -- on the popular Web site encyclopedia from ministry computers since 2003, an official said yesterday. One of the six focused solely on Gundam -- the popular, long-running animated series about giant robots -- to which he contributed 260 times. "The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam," said ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Female pilot reinstated
A South Korean court yesterday ordered the defense ministry to reinstate a female helicopter pilot who was forced to retire after a double mastectomy. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of Lieutenant-Colonel Pi Woo-jin, who was discharged late last year following the surgery. She had filed a lawsuit fighting her sacking after almost 28 years of service.
■ NETHERLANDS
Bugs smuggling drugs
Drug smugglers have enlisted bugs to smuggle cocaine, a customs spokesman said on Thursday. When an alert customs officer took a close look at a consignment of more than 100 large, dead bugs sent from Peru to the Netherlands, he discovered that cocaine had been stashed in their backs. "We see a lot of things, but this was a first for us," customs spokesman Kees Nanninga said. "It looked like they were cut open, the drugs hidden in their backs and then they were glued back together again," he said. The insects held only 300g of cocaine, worth about US$11,300, Nanninga said.
■ FRANCE
Controversial bill approved
The senate yesterday approved a controversial immigration bill that would authorize voluntary DNA testing on foreigners wishing to join their families in France. Fierce opposition to the bill has led the government to make a series of concessions to win over critics. Supporters say the measure would make it possible for would-be immigrants to speed up the application process by proving their kinship with family members in France. They point out that 12 other EU countries carry out similar tests. But opponents say the bill would set a dangerous precedent by making genetic affiliation a criterion for citizenship.
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