■ PHILIPPINES
Bombing suspect out on bail
An Egyptian teacher accused of plotting a Christmas bomb attack was freed on bail on Thursday, Filipino officials said. Sheikh Mohammed al-Sayyid Ahmed Mussa, described by Cairo as an envoy of Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, posted a 200,000 peso (US$4,800) bond and was released into the custody of the Egyptian embassy, a court clerk said. Mussa was arrested on Dec. 18 during a raid on an apartment in the Majad Islamic School where he was a visiting professor. He allegedly planned to detonate an explosive device that was seized in his room on Christmas Day.
■ PHILIPPINES
Arroyo fires prison chief
President Gloria Arroyo has sacked the Philippine prisons chief over the premature release of a politician serving 16 years for having sex with a child, officials said on Thursday. Philippine former House of Representatives member Romeo Jalosjos walked out of the national prison in Manila under unexplained circumstances on Saturday, after the justice department rejected a parole board recommendation for his early release. Bureau of Corrections chief Ricardo Dapat was sacked on Wednesday after Jalosjos was recaptured in the southern city of Dapitan. Jalosjos, a 67 year-old ally of Arroyo, was convicted in 1996 for having sex with an 11-year-old girl.
■ CHINA
Lottery winner drops out
A college student withdrew from school after winning the 5 million yuan (US$683,000) jackpot in a lottery in Nanjing, media reported on Thursday. The Jiangsu Maritime Institute sophomore, surnamed Yong, was the sole first-prize winner in the "Double Color Ball" issued by the China Welfare Lottery on Tuesday. "After winning the lottery, Yong told his roommates that he would share 2,000 yuan with each of them," a report said. Yong told school authorities of his winnings and returned home.
■ JAPAN
Prisoners dislike pajamas
Prisoners dislike their unstylish pajamas, a survey has found. In a poll of inmates who left prison in the year to March, almost 70 percent of respondents who shared cells with others said they had too little space, while 44 percent of those in solitary confinement said their cells were too small, the justice ministry said in a report issued on Wednesday. The former inmates also found their vertically striped grayish pajamas to be unfashionable. Close to half said the colors were bad and 44 percent said the design was ugly.
■ UNITED STATES
Alleged nose-wiper charged
A woman in Dunbar, West Virginia, was charged with battery on a police officer after the officer said she wiped her nose on the back of his shirt. Officer S.E. Elliott said he had arrested the 36-year-old woman last week after seeing her slap a man, bite him on the elbow and spit in his face. Elliott said the woman wiped her nose on him as he led her into the police station for booking on a charge of domestic battery. Battery on a police officer is defined as intentionally making physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an officer.
■ UNITED STATES
Cougars freed from zoo
Two cougars freed from a zoo by vandals were captured without injuring anyone, the mayor of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, said. Vandals cut a chain-link fence overnight at the Lincoln Park Zoo to free the two animals. Both were found on Thursday inside the zoo's outside fence, tranquilized and returned to their cages. Mayor Kevin Crawford said he did not know whether the vandals were influenced by a Tuesday incident at the San Francisco Zoo in which a tiger escaped from its enclosure, killed one person and critically injured two others. Police are seeking the vandals, he said.
RSS