■ JAPAN
Neighbours catch baby
A five-month-old baby was caught by neighbors after her mother threw her from the third-floor window of a burning building in Osaka yesterday, police said. Rion Morioka was uninjured in the fall but was being treated for smoke inhalation, as was her mother Miyuki, 24, Kyodo news agency said. She and the baby's father, Junichi, 22, both jumped from the window, about 7m above the ground. Junichi suffered broken bones. Neighbors had spread bedding on the ground and shouted to the couple to throw the baby after the fire broke out, the agency said.
■ MALAYSIA
Fight disrupts wedding
A wedding for 22 couples in Sabah state was abandoned after the imam leading the ceremony came to blows with a religious official, the Star newspaper said yesterday. An officer from the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department claimed the imam -- who was from Borneo -- did not have permission from the town's religious affairs unit to conduct the marriages. The argument degenerated into a scuffle between the two men, causing the 22 couples and their family members to flee.
■ JAPAN
Velvet Revolver banned
US hard rockers Velvet Revolver have canceled a tour after being denied visas. The band, featuring three members of rock legends Guns N' Roses and the Stone Temple Pilots' former frontman Scott Weiland, issued an apology to Japanese fans on their Web site. "We don't understand why the authorities won't give us visas when they granted them for us in 2005 for what was a successful tour and a great experience. We love Japan and look forward to our return there," they said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Kidman says she was scared
Nicole Kidman told a judge yesterday that she was "really, really scared" when chased in her car by Jamie Fawcett two years ago. Fawcett sued the Sun-Herald for defamation over an article that said he was Sydney's most disliked freelance photographer and that his behavior toward Kidman was so ``intrusive and threatening'' that he scared her. A jury has already found that the article defamed Fawcett. The court is mulling whether to award damages.
■ KENYA
Lion, hyenas attack man
Kenyan surgeons have amputated the arms and reconstructed the face of a herder who slew a lion, only to be mauled later by a pack of hyenas, an official said yesterday. Moses Lekalau, 35, on Friday speared a lion to death in Samburu, about 260km northeast of the capital Nairobi, only to be savaged by hyenas that emerged from the bush. Lekalau speared the lion that had attacked him while walking home with his livestock, then bludgeoned it to death. Lekalau hails from a nomadic pastoralist community where boys are ritually required to kill lions as a signature of maturing into manhood.
■ ITALY
Berlusconi starts party
Opposition leader and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced the creation of a new political party on Sunday, saying the People of Liberty party would ensure democracy, development and freedom for the future. The hasty announcement came as a surprise: Berlusconi announced it during an impromptu news conference in a Milan piazza where his existing Forza Italia party was collecting signatures calling for early elections. The media mogul said his supporters had gathered so many signatures calling for change -- 7 million by his count -- that he felt the time was right to announce the creation of a new party.
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