■ JAPAN
Dalai Lama arrives
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived yesterday for a week-long visit at the invitation of a Buddhist group. The Dalai Lama flew in on a commercial flight from India. A small crowd greeted him, with many bowing their heads to show respect as he walked by. During his stay in the country, which he last visited a year ago, he will go to the ancient Shinto shrine of Ise in Ise and give a speech at a forum on religion in Yokohama. He will also visit local schools in Tokyo. China has opposed visits to Japan by the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of being a dangerous figure agitating for Tibetan independence.
■ SRI LANKA
Army raids Tamil bunkers
Soldiers overran six Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers and attacked them in at least three other places in the north, in violence that killed 15 guerrillas and one soldier, the military said yesterday. Government troops pushed into rebel-held territory in northern Vavuniya district on Wednesday and destroyed the bunkers, killing eight rebels, a defense official said. Twenty-four rebels were wounded in the battle, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy. Elsewhere in Vavuniya soldiers fired mortars at rebel locations on Wednesday, killing five guerrillas.
■ AUSTRALIA
Protesters arrested
Police arrested 15 activists who broke into a power station yesterday before painting an anti-coal energy slogan and chaining themselves to a conveyor belt. The demonstration by Greenpeace activists at the coal-fired Munmorah Power Station, 125km north of Sydney, coincided with the release of data showing that the country's electricity production is the dirtiest in the world per capita. The demonstrators forced their way into the station before dawn and chained themselves to machinery, New South Wales state police said in a statement. TV footage showed the activists also painted the words "coal kills" on a building.
■ SWITZERLAND
Man told to learn German
A 70-year-old German seeking Swiss citizenship was told to go back to school to learn his own native tongue despite being proficient in German, a Swiss newspaper said. The Swiss town of Dielsdorf ordered Ulrich Kring, who has lived in Switzerland his entire life but is only now applying for citizenship, to take a German language course costing 250 Swiss francs (US$223), the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper said. The class is obligatory for all foreigners seeking a Swiss passport. Kring had lodged an appeal with a higher local authority, but had not received a reply.
■ GHANA
Kufuor unhurt in accident
President John Kufuor escaped unhurt when a car crashed into his vehicle on Wednesday, rolling it over several times, witnesses and officials said. "The car finally rested on the sidewalk and the people around helped his security men to pull him out. The president came out holding his head," James Kobinah, an electrician working nearby said. Presidential Press secretary Andy Awuni said Kufuor appeared to be unhurt but was undergoing medical tests.
■ SWEDEN
Man targeted PM's wife
A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of planning to kill the wife of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Aftonbladet newspaper said yesterday. Filippa Reinfeldt, 40, is a leading Conservative politician in the Stockholm County Council where she is commissioner of health services. The man lived near the County Council headquarters, the report said. It said the man wanted to "hurt" the prime minister. The man was alleged to have been in regular contact with psychiatric services in recent years and had disclosed his plans to doctors who decided to alert the police. Police found maps and sketches when they searched his flat.
■ NETHERLANDS
Police arrest online thief
Police have made their first arrest of an online thief -- a 17-year-old accused of stealing virtual furniture from rooms in the Habbo Hotel -- a popular teenager networking Web site. An Amsterdam police spokeswoman confirmed a report that the teenager was accused of stealing 4,000 euros (US$5,860) in virtual furniture by hacking into the accounts of other users. Four 15-year-olds have also been questioned in the case, which was instigated by the Web site. They are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own online hotel rooms. Habbo users can create their own characters, decorate their own rooms and play a number of games, paying with Habbo Credits, which they have to buy with real cash.
■ RUSSIA
Thieves steal luxury car
Thieves have stolen a Maybach luxury limousine worth 530,000 euros (US$777,000) while the car's owner had dinner in a Moscow restaurant, local media reported on Wednesday. Thieves bundled the owner's chauffeur into the back seat and threatened to kill him, the Kommersant newspaper reported. The driver was later abandoned outside Moscow's ring road. Police said they suspected the car was stolen to order by a special gang for sale in Kazakhstan or Ukraine. The Maybach has been adopted as the ultimate status symbol by the country's super-rich. There are only a few dozen in the country and this was the first case of one being stolen, the daily said.
■ UNITED STATES
Airport checkpoints fail tests
US undercover investigators successfully carried bomb-making material across security checkpoints during tests at 19 US airports earlier this year, a report said on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office report said agents were able to clear Transportation Security Administration checkpoints with components for making several improvised explosive devices (IED) or an improvised incendiary device (IID). The two investigators concealed the materials in their carry-on luggage and on their persons. "Our tests clearly demonstrate that a terrorist group, using publicly available information and few resources, could cause severe damage to an airplane and threaten the safety of passengers by bringing prohibited IED and IID components through security checkpoints," the report said.
■ UNITED STATES
Johnson wins book award
Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, a 600-page journey through the physical, moral and spiritual extremes of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, won the National Book Award for fiction Wednesday night. "I'm very sorry to miss this one chance to dress up in a tuxedo in front of so many representatives in the worlds of literature, and say thank you to the people who have given me my life," he said in a statement read by his wife, Cindy. The 58-year-old Johnson, who lives in New Mexico, rarely talks to the media and is currently writing on assignment in Iraq. Other National Book Award winners included Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA for nonfiction and Robert Hass' Time and Materials for poetry.
■ UNITED STATES
Pigs cause ruckus in Iowa
Two stray pot-bellied pigs stirred up a commotion while on the run from two animal control officers, two police officers and even a couple of utility company workers who joined the 35-minute chase. "They're tough," said animal control officer Leah Messmer. "They have no necks, so you really can't get a collar on them." The pigs were eventually caught. "They dart in and out of cars, and somebody could get hit," Messmer said. "That's why you have to catch 'em. Poor little buggers." The pigs will be sent to an animal shelter, Messmer said.
■ UNITED STATES
Sotheby's sale sets record
Led by a record-breaking Jeff Koons sculpture and a US$46 million Francis Bacon canvas, Sotheby's roared back from a dismal Impressionist sale to score the highest total in its history at a contemporary and postwar art auction on Wednesday. Bacon's Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 far exceeded its US$35 million-plus pre-sale estimate, while Koons' stainless steel Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold) soared to US$23,561,000, including commission, obliterating the artist's US$11.8 million record set one day earlier by his Diamond (Blue) sculpture.
■ UNITED kingdom
Al-Masri may be extradited
A court ruled yesterday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri could be extradited to the US to face terrorism charges including trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon. Egyptian-born Hamza, 49, currently serving a seven-year jail term for inciting his followers to murder non-believers, is wanted by US authorities on 11 charges. The US indictment accuses him of attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, from 1999 to early 2000, and also providing support to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not