■PHILIPPINES
Five killed in gunfight
At least five people were killed in a gunfight among relatives over a long-standing land dispute in the south, a regional police spokesman said yesterday. Superintendent Danilo Bacas said several members of the Muslim clan were also wounded in fighting that erupted late on Thursday in a village in Datu Blah Sinsuat Town in Shariff Kabunsuan Province. “They are actually relatives by blood and by affinity, but they refused to settle their land problem amicably,” Bacas said.
■PHILIPPINES
Wife ensures fidelity
A housewife on Thursday cut off her husband’s penis while he was sleeping in their house to ensure his fidelity, Manila police said. Officer Rolly Lipata said that 37-year-old Lenly Bayabado had suspected her younger husband was having affairs, prompting her to cut off his organ. Lipata said neighbors rushed the screaming victim, 32-year-old Joelito, to a nearby hospital in the Manila suburban city of Pasig. Bayabado underwent several hours of surgery to re-attach the organ, but hospital sources said there was no assurance he would still be able perform sexually. Bayabado denied he was cheating, but said he would not file charges because he wants to keep the family intact for the sake of their four children.
■MALAYSIA
Crocodile found in shop
Fire and rescue officers caught a 3m-long crocodile that was found trying to climb the stairs of a two-story shop, a report said yesterday. The 200kg reptile, believed to be from a nearby swamp in Malacca, was halfway up the flight of steps when shocked onlookers called the fire and rescue department late on Wednesday, the Star daily said. The captured creature was transferred to the state zoo on Thursday.
■SINGAPORE
Glue-sniffing on the rise
Glue-sniffing among youth is making a worrying comeback after a decade in decline, news reports said yesterday. Seven in 10 of those caught recently were below 20, mostly students, and represented all the major races in the city-state: Chinese, Malays and Indians. The number of inhalant abusers caught has risen from an all-time low of 120 in 2005 to 644 last year, according to Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) data in the Straits Times. Four in five nabbed were male. CNB deputy director S. Vijakumar said that boredom, peer pressure and curiosity were the three reasons most often given by those who abuse glue. When the problem was at its peak in 1987, 1,112 abusers were caught.
■INDONESIA
Providers lift YouTube ban
Internet providers said yesterday they have restored access to YouTube and other sites carrying a controversial anti-Islam film following “overwhelming” protests from Web users. The move comes just days after Web providers here blocked the sites at the government’s request, sparking a storm of complaints. The government is facing accusations of censorship over the ban, which small business owners say is affecting their livelihoods. Internet providers said they would instead try block access to pages carrying the film, Fitna. Access to the video-sharing site YouTube and the social networking site MySpace were blocked on Tuesday following protests against the film, which intersperses images of terrorist attacks with quotes from the Koran. The Alliance of Independent Journalists said the move amounted to censorship, comparing it to “destroying a restaurant to kill a fly.”
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