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World News Quick Take

■ AUSTRALIA
PM `disgusted' over party
Australia's prime minister said yesterday that he was "absolutely disgusted" that Indonesia's counterterrorism chief had hosted convicted terrorists at a party, and that the Australian government would formally object. Brigadier General Surya Dharma, the head of Indonesia's anti-terror unit, threw a party last month whose guests included two Islamic extremists convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Dharma said the party was part of his unit's strategy of co-opting extremists as informers or preachers of moderation.

■ CHINA
Motorists reject `WC'
Some Beijing motorists are flushed with anger over new license plate numbers that contain the letter combination "WC," saying it gives them "unpleasant images." Along with "OK", "hello" and "bye-bye," the abbreviation for the Victorian "Water Closet," or toilet, has became one of the most well-known English expressions in China. It remains all-too-vivid for some of the 800 Bejing car owners issued with the initials on their license plates. Authorities, however, say they will not change the policy.

■ THAILAND
Ex-PM extradition possible
A team of Thai prosecutors flew to London yesterday to talk to British counterparts about extraditing ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on corruption charges. "We are not yet submitting, during this trip, any formal request for Britain to repatriate him," Nanthasak Poolsuk, head of the team of prosecutors, said. The case against Thaksin, ousted in September of last year and accused of over rampant corruption, stems from his wife's purchase of land in Bangkok at an auction in which other bidders dropped out.

■ SOUTH KOREA
Former adviser arrested
A former top policy maker has been arrested with his suspected lover on charges of bribery in a sex-for-favors scandal, prosecution authorities said yesterday. Byeon Yang-kyoon, 58, and Shin Jeong-ah, 35, were detained late on Thursday after a court issued arrest warrants for them, prosecutors said. Byeon was dismissed from his powerful post as top policy advisor for President Roh Moo-hyun after allegations surfaced a few months ago that he abused his position to help Shin along her career path.

■ SOMALIA
Pirates beat crew: captain
Pirates who seized two South Korean fishing vessels off the coast of Somalia are beating the crews and giving them rice mixed with sand to eat, the vessels' captain said yesterday. Captain Han Seok-ho appealed for government help, saying the pirates were demanding an unspecified ransom. "We are living like animals," Han was quoted as telling Yonhap news agency by phone. "The situation is very dangerous. Today, they dragged us to the beach [from our ships] and beat us with metal pipes." An Hyeon-su, the ships' owner, said on a radio program that negotiations to win the crews release hit a snag last week after the government refused to help raise ransom money.

■ BELGIUM
Teen given life sentence
A teenager who targeted foreigners on a shooting rampage last year was jailed for life on Thursday after he became the country's first person to be convicted on a new charge of racially motivated murder. Hans Van Themsche, 19, was charged with killing a two-year-old white girl and her Malian nanny and attempting to kill a Turkish woman in Antwerp in May last year before a policeman shot him. The murders shocked the country as Van Themsche admitted wanting to kill foreigners and because members of his family belonged to the far-right Vlaams Belang party, whose stronghold is the port city of Antwerp.

■ NETHERLANDS
Islam critic loses protection
The parliament on Thursday supported the government's move to stop paying for protection abroad for outspoken Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, despite international criticism. A majority of deputies did not support a motion by the Green Left party that would have called on the government to extend the US protection of Hirsi Ali, who left for the US last year, saying death threats made her life unbearable. Somali-born Hirsi Ali is a high-profile and controversial figure, who has criticized Islam as "backward."

■ SYRIA
`Oldest' painting found
French archeologists say they have excavated an 11,000-year-old wall painting in red and black and which they describe as the oldest in the world, although it looks like a modern work. The 2m2 painting was found below ground at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo, mission head Eric Coqueugniot said. "Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9000BC," he said. Rectangles dominate the ancient painting, which formed part of an adobe circular wall of a large house with a wooden roof.

■ ITALY
Bill attacks backpacks
Members of parliament passed a bill authorizing the education ministry to set up a "techno-scientific unit" to compute the maximum desirable weight of school bags. The proposed law is a reaction to public concern over a study this month by Bologna University. They found 36 percent of students aged 10 to 15 were suffering from back problems from carrying overloaded school bags. The researchers established that the average daily load for an Italian schoolchild was 7.7kg. An earlier study by the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that schoolchildren should not be expected to carry more than 15 percent of their body weight. Half of those surveyed in Bologna were over that limit.

■ RUSSIA
`Kissing policemen' banned
A photo of two policemen kissing each other passionately on the lips is among 16 art works Russian Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov has removed from an exhibition of contemporary Russian art scheduled to be exhibited in Paris next week. Sokolov on Monday described the photo, entitled Kissing Policemen (An Epoch of Clemency), as political provocation. The exhibits were all displayed this year at Moscow's state-owned Tretyakov gallery. "If this exhibition appears [in Paris] it will bring shame on Russia. In this case, all of us will bear full responsibility," Sokolov said.

■ ISRAEL
Iraqi children get help
Two Iraqi children suffering from critical heart conditions were brought to Israel for emergency surgery on Thursday in a rare display of cooperation between Arab nations and the Jewish state. The children, a five-month-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, were among 40 Iraqi children who were screened a day earlier in Jordan by doctors from Save a Child's Heart, an Israeli humanitarian organization. The two Iraqi children will undergo open-heart surgery at Wolfson Hospital in the city of Holon. "We pulled a lot of strings security wise to get them into Israel," said Rachel Lasry Zahavi, a spokeswoman for the group.

■ UNITED STATES
Shooting plan foiled
Pennsylvania officials said on Thursday that a 14-year-old boy was arrested after police found weapons at his home and that a high school said may have been targeted for a Columbine-style school shooting. Police seized a semi-automatic rifle and several air-powered guns at the home of the teenager, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said. The teenager's identity was not disclosed. "The BB guns are not illegal and can be bought anywhere ... the rifle ... the information we have [is] that his mother bought it from a gun show," the official said, adding that charges were being considered against the mother and other members of the household.

■ UNITED STATES
CIA critic under review
CIA Director Michael Hayden has ordered an internal review of his inspector general, who has issued a series of highly critical reports on the agency's conduct before and after the Sept. 11 attacks, media reports said. The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, citing unidentified officials, said the highly unusual move has raised concerns that Hayden is trying to squelch the work of Inspector General John Helgerson, who has criticized senior figures including former director George Tenet and officers involved in the CIA's detention of terrorist suspects. The CIA sought to play down the reports, with an agency spokesman saying on Thursday that Hayden firmly believed in the work of the inspector general.

■ UNITED STATES
Man convicted of hate crime
A man who tried to fend off gay bashing charges by telling a jury that he himself is gay was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime on Thursday for his role in a fatal attack at a remote New York City beach. Jurors deliberated several days before convicting Anthony Fortunato in the death of Michael Sandy, a gay man who was beaten and then chased into the path of a moving car on Brooklyn's Belt Parkway on Oct. 8 last year. The jury acquitted Fortunato of murder, which could have put him behind bars for life. At his sentencing, he will face a jail term of five to 25 years.


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