■ UNITED STATES
Sex tour operator sentenced
An American man was sentenced to five years and five months in a US prison on Monday for arranging sex with underage girls in the Philippines. Daniel Cuneo, who was caught in a 2005 sting, was also fined US$3,000. Cuneo, 38, pleaded guilty on Nov. 20 to a single count of engaging in sex tourism. Cuneo, who operated a Web site called ladyparadise.com, admitted that he arranged a trip to an undercover agent who posed as a customer.
■ INDONESIA
Police seize amphetamines
Authorities seized US$440 million in amphetamines in a raid on an illegal factory and arrested six people, including two Taiwanese, the national police spokesman said yesterday. The drugs were destined for markets in Taiwan and China, said Major General Sisno Adiwinoto, adding that the bust at the weekend was made with help from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and the US. At least 568kg of the drug were seized on Batam Island, together with several tons of raw drug-making chemicals, he said. Those arrested will be charged with violating drug laws -- a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death, he said.
■ INDIA
Animals electrocuted
Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote northeast, a wildlife official said yesterday. The 40-strong herd uprooted an electric pole while looking desperately for food on Friday in Chandan Nukat, a small village. The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Also last week, five rare Asiatic lions were found electrocuted on the edge of western India's Gir National Park. Authorities said the lions were killed by an electrified fence that a villager had put up illegally to protect crops near the sanctuary.
■ CHINA
Panda bites teen
A male panda at the Beijing Zoo once bitten by a drunk tourist has attacked a teenager, ripping chunks out of the boy's legs, officials and a newspaper said yesterday. The 15-year-old had jumped over a 1.4m barrier surrounding an outdoor exercise area for pandas on Monday afternoon while eight-year-old Gu Gu the panda and another bear were being fed, said the zoo director, surnamed Zhang. The teen startled the 110kg panda, who responded by biting the unwanted visitor on both legs, Zhang said. The Beijing News identified the teen as Li Xitao, from Hebei Province, who makes a living selling recyclables.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Troops to stay in Iraq
President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday the government has decided to extend the country's troop deployment in Iraq for another year -- a move expected to face tough opposition in parliament. In a nationally televised address, Roh said the government made the decision in consideration of the country's alliance with the US and South Korea's economic interests in Iraq. South Korea has 1,200 troops in Iraq, but the government says it will halve this number. Their mission is due to expire at the end of this year. Washington has asked for an extension. "We're at a time when we need close cooperation with the United States more than any other time," Roh said, citing Seoul's efforts to resolve the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program and to improve relations with Pyongyang.
■ ITALY
Group releases crime data
Organized crime revenue from illicit activities including systematic extortion, drug trafficking, loan-sharking and prostitution rings amounts to about 90 billion euros (US$127 billion) annually, or about 7 percent of the country's GDP, a small business lobby said on Monday. The Confesercenti lobby laid out its estimates as part of a campaign to increase attention on the extent of organized crime, particularly in Sicily, the Naples area, Calabria in the "toe" and Puglia in the "heel" of the boot-shaped peninsula, where it has its claws on shopkeepers, industrialists and artisans, the lobby said.
■ LATVIA
Confidence vote called for
Opposition lawmakers on Monday called a vote of no confidence in the government because of its campaign to oust the Baltic nation's top anti-corruption investigator. Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis' four-party coalition has met harsh criticism for its decision to suspend anti-corruption bureau chief Aleksejs Loskutovs, a move many people viewed as politically motivated. Last week, thousands of demonstrators called on Kalvitis to resign in one of the biggest political rallies since Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union. Two ministers left the Cabinet as internal dissent over the issue caused cracks in the government.
■ NIGERIA
Seven workers released
Seven oil workers who were kidnapped from an offshore oil field in the Niger Delta were released on Monday after two days in captivity, police said. The workers -- three foreigners and four Nigerians -- were seized on Saturday night after gunmen in more than 30 speedboats attacked EA field, operated by Royal Dutch Shell. It was the first major attack since the president began a peace process in the region five months ago. "Yes, they have been released," Bayelsa state police spokesman Inyebom Inidong said. He had no further details.
■ SPAIN
Police search for mother
Police were searching on Monday for the mother of a five-year-old British girl who was critically ill after falling from the fifth floor of the hotel in which she and her family were staying on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, news reports said. The child, whose name was not released, was operated on for three hours and was said to be in serious condition, national news agency Efe said. She was said to have suffered several injures including a broken jaw and damage to her liver. The child is believed to have fallen from a balcony of a fifth-floor room of the Hotel Samoa in the Calas de Mallorca resort area at around 9:30am.
■ SPAIN
Skinhead caught on tape
Police said on Monday they had arrested a 21-year-old Spaniard for an allegedly racist attack on a young Ecuadorean girl on a commuter train after the incident was captured by security cameras. A video of the attack, placed on several Spanish news media Web sites, showed a skinheaded man arriving in a carriage and talking on a mobile phone. Within seconds, he stood up and started punching a young Ecuadorean girl sitting opposite him. Before stepping off the train, the man kicked the girl in the head. Police said the man insulted the girl while striking her, telling her to go back to her country, El Pais newspaper reported.
■ BRAZIL
Drug baron nabbed
A fugitive drug baron who ran a narcotics ring from Rio de Janeiro's biggest slum has been arrested after locals tipped off police, officials said on Monday. Joao "Joca" Rafael da Silva was apprehended at Fortaleza airport on Saturday as he arrived to pick up his girlfriend flying in from Rio, the head of Rio security, Jose Mariano Beltrame, told a press conference. Da Silva, 32, is alleged to have taken over the drug trafficking ring operated from Rio's southern Rocinha favela in November 2005, after the previous chief was killed in a shootout with police.
■ UNITED STATES
Convictions under review
Nineteen Texas inmates will be the first of 180 to get their convictions reviewed after shoddy blood analysis work by the Houston Police Department crime lab was revealed. Three other inmates have been released from prison because of mistakes by the lab. The lab's work has been under scrutiny since 2002, when the DNA section was shut down. Inaccuracies were later found in four other lab divisions that test firearms, body fluids and controlled substances. The DNA section has since reopened. The first 19 inmates of the 180 cases marked for review were told about it on Monday.
■ UNITED STATES
Model falls through hole
Fashionistas from Naomi Campbell to Carrie Bradshaw have made embarrassing missteps on the catwalk. But model Sarah Walsh trumped them all when she fell through a hole during an L.A. Fashion Week show. A video of Walsh's dramatic drop -- a sensation on YouTube -- shows her walking the runway at last week's presentation of the fashion line Shadang. She stares blankly ahead, not noticing the gaping hole left where a martial arts performer had cracked open the floor with a flip. "As a runway model, you have to keep your head up, you know," Walsh told KABC-TV. "So I didn't look down for a hole, particularly."
■ UNITED STATES
Koran angers lawmaker
An Oklahoma lawmaker is objecting to getting a copy of the Koran from the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council. "I object to the use of the state Centennial Seal and the state Seal all in an effort to further their religion," state Representative Rex Duncan said on Monday. Duncan also wrote his colleagues that he rejected the gift because "most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Marjaneh Seirafi-Pour, chairwoman of the governor's council and a Muslim, said she received a call from Duncan wondering whether state money was used to buy the books.
■ UNITED STATES
Spying landlord arrested
A landlord in Shirley, New York, has been arrested after being accused of placing an eavesdropping device under the kitchen cabinets of two tenants he was trying to evict, Suffolk County police said on Monday. John Gordon, 48, bought the mini electronic transmitter on the Internet and installed it when the tenants were not home, police said. Gordon was arrested on Sunday and charged with burglary and eavesdropping. Detective Lieutenant Michael Diffley said Gordon had been involved in a dispute with the two female tenants. "It wasn't going well," Diffley said. "He was trying to get information from them in the eviction."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in