■ AUSTRALIA
Man dies in lawn altercation
A 66-year-old man was beaten to death while watering his lawn in an argument over Sydney's water restrictions, reports said yesterday. A 36-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was to appear in court yesterday charged with murder following the fatal altercation on Wednesday, police said. The alleged killer approached the older man as he watered his lawn in southern Sydney with a hose and an argument ensued. The alleged victim reportedly sprayed the younger man with the hose. Police said the younger man responded by punching and pushing the older man to the ground and kicking him. He died soon after being taken to hospital. The alleged victim was complying with Sydney's water restrictions when he was killed.
PHOTO: REUTERS
■ SINGAPORE
Airline bans sex on A380
Singapore Airlines, the first operator of the new Airbus A380, has dashed the hopes of sexual thrill-seekers planning to engage in amorous activity aboard the world's biggest jumbo jet. The carrier said it would ask passengers on the A380 to refrain from sex while ensconced in one of its 12 first class suites, which boast the world's first airborne double beds. "All we ask of customers, wherever they are on our aircraft, is to observe standards that don't cause offence to other customers and crew," the company said in a statement. While private, the double cabins are neither sound proofed nor completely sealed.
■ AUSTRALIA
Rape blamed on spider bite
A man who kidnapped and raped a woman blamed his actions on a spider, local media reported yesterday. Philip Spiers pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape, but told a court that the poison from a funnel-web spider bite had left him with a viral illness which led to his actions. But a toxicologist told the New South Wales State District Court there was no medical evidence to suggest a spider bite could be responsible for anger and hatred. Spiers, who kidnapped and raped the woman in 1997, was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in jail.
■ FRANCE
Arrests made in crackdown
Police have arrested 20 people this month as part of a European-wide crackdown on people who shared child pornography over the Internet, police said on Wednesday. Three of those rounded up were suspected of having abused children during trips abroad, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media. Police said the operation concerned countries throughout Europe, including Germany, Italy, Belgium and Britain, though they did not say how many people have been arrested in total across the continent.
■ GERMANY
Funeral TV to launch
A businessman plans to launch the country's first television channel dedicated to funerals and mourning, complete with death announcements and documentaries about cemeteries. The channel, which will be called Etos TV, is meant to inform people about funeral practices and act as a counter to a growing trend in the country to be buried anonymously, said Kerstin Gernig from the German undertakers' association. "Every person has left his mark, raised children, paid taxes, done something. We would like them to be shown respect. This channel will inform people in a discreet, serious way how to bury their loved ones," she said.
■ IRELAND
Metric switch going slowly
When police caught driver David Clarke driving 180kph in a 100kph zone, he looked likely to lose his license. But a judge reduced the charge and let the 31-year-old stay on the road after concluding the speed did not look as bad when converted into miles, or 112 miles per hour. District Court Judge Denis McLoughlin lowered the charge to driving carelessly, and fined him 1,000 euros (US$1,450); if convicted of the tougher charge of driving dangerously, Clarke would have lost his license. The episode underscored the country's slow mental conversion to metric. The country switched its speed limits from miles to kilometers in January 2005.
■ IRELAND
Bulb furor hits hospitals
The major labor union for electricians has ordered members to lay down their tools in several hospitals because the government's Health Service Executive has authorized maintenance workers to change light bulbs. Hospital-contracted electricians began refusing to do work in July, arguing that the hospital needed to negotiate new terms and conditions for their light bulb-changing expertise following the installation of new lighting fixtures. The dispute worsened this week when electricians withdrew backup for potential losses of power at two hospitals needed to keep patients' dialysis and life-support machines running.
■ RWANDA
ITU to invest in Africa
Africa is set to receive investment worth US$55 billion to boost its goal of securing universal Internet access for the continent by 2012, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said on Wednesday. The commitments were made at the two-day Connect Africa summit that ended in Kigali on Tuesday, with a pledge to speed up the availability of technology, the ITU said in a statement. The ITU along with the African Development Bank jointly vowed to connect all African capitals and major cities with a broadband infrastructure.
■ UNITED STATES
Chinese national charged
A Chinese man has been charged with attempting to export night-vision technology in violation of the arms embargo, federal prosecutors said. The effort was thwarted by an undercover agent working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said a criminal complaint filed on Wednesday by the agency. Xu Bing, 37, who prosecutors said works for Everbright Science & Technology of Nanjing, China, was ordered held without bail by Magistrate Esther Salas on Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine if convicted. Xu was arrested on Monday, accused of making false statements on his entry visa application.
■ UNITED STATES
Church fined millions
A jury ordered an evangelical church on Wednesday to pay nearly US$11 million in damages for picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq and claiming the war was punishment for tolerating gays. The nine-member federal jury ruled that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church caused mental suffering to Albert Snyder, who says he became depressed after they paraded outside the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew last year. They waved signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Fag troops." A video of the protests was played in court during the week-long trial of Fred Phelps, who founded the church in 1955, and two of his daughters.
■ UNITED STATES
Scout leader pleads guilty
A former Girl Scout leader has pleaded guilty to stealing her scouts' identities in order to obtain US$87,000 in illegal tax refunds. Holly Barnes, 33, entered pleas to 19 counts of making false tax refund claims to the Internal Revenue Service and 15 counts of identity theft before US District Judge Casey Rodgers on Wednesday. Barnes, who is being held in jail, could face a maximum of 230 years in prison on those charges and an unrelated shoplifting count when sentenced. Her lawyer did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Barnes admitted asking parents of the girls in her troop to provide their children's social security government identification numbers for a fake medical release she claimed was required to take trips. She then electronically filed false tax returns that included Social Security numbers of 15 Scouts and her own four children to obtain refunds.
■ CANADA
Dalai Lama issues plea
The Dalai Lama asked Canada to take in thousands of Tibetan refugees living in exile in Nepal and India, he said in an interview with the daily Globe and Mail, published on Wednesday. The Tibetan spiritual leader told the newspaper he had made the request during formal talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday. During the meeting, the Dalai Lama said he thanked Harper for Canada having previously accepted 4,000 Tibetan refugees and asked: "Please take a few thousand more." Immigration officials, however, were cool to the proposal, saying the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) does not view Tibetans as a population in need of resettlement because they are not facing persecution in India. "According to the UNHCR, they're not facing persecution in India. But having said that, we are prepared to review applications on a case-by-case basis if they're referred to us by the UNHCR," said Mike Fraser, spokesman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was