■ AUSTRALIA
Gay Jesus play offends
Church leaders have condemned a play shortly to open in Sydney depicting Jesus as a gay man who is seduced by Judas, a report said yesterday. The play, named Corpus Christi, is due to open next month as part of the city's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper reported. A senior Sydney churchman called the play "historical nonsense." "It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it," Robert Forsyth, Anglican bishop of South Sydney, was quoted as saying. Apart from the relations between Jesus and Judas, the play also features Jesus conducting a gay marriage between two apostles.
■ AUSTRALIA
Activists pan 'posing'
A militant anti-whaling group trying to stop Japanese hunters in the icy Southern Ocean yesterday accused rival Greenpeace of "ocean posing" after it refused to hand over the coordinates of the fleet. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it was forced to move away from the area by Australian officials aboard a customs vessel late last week when it made a rendezvous to pick up two of its activists rescued from a Japanese whaling ship. As a result it lost track of the fleet, its chief Paul Watson said from the society's ship the Steve Irwin. Greenpeace officials on board their vessel the Esperanza know the location as it has been tracking the mother ship Nisshin Maru, but Watson said that Greenpeace had refused to divulge the coordinates.
■ AUSTRALIA
Rudd visits flood defenses
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited a flood-threatened town in his home state yesterday as emergency services said they were battling to build defenses to stop rising waters. Floods have hit large parts of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales for weeks, with the latest surge threatening the Queensland towns of Charleville and Emerald. The state's fire and rescue service said it had raised levees around Charleville to 7.5m, with emergency workers flying in from New Zealand to help. "I wanted to come here myself to make sure that anything that could be done, has been done," said Rudd as he toured Charleville with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
■ China
Beijing to battle pollution
Beijing will try to cut emissions and curb pollution for the Summer Olympics but it will be an uphill task to clean the city's air, the mayor was quoted as saying yesterday. Guo Jinlong (郭金龍) vowed to provide services in "high-level and high-caliber ways" for the Aug. 8 to Aug. 24 Games, the official Xinhua news agency cited him as saying. "The task to control pollution and traffic congestion is still arduous," Guo said, adding that Beijing will cooperate with neighboring cities to improve environmental conditions.
■ MALAYSIA
PM's tours hint of new polls
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has started a new round of nationwide tours in the clearest indication yet that national elections are imminent. Abdullah, who has been tight-lipped on the polling date, has had his hands full with unprecedented street protests, a slowing economy and public anger over high fuel and food prices. However, the New Straits Times in a front page spread said members of his Barisan Nasional coalition government believe the election could probably be held in March.
■ UNITED STATES
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