■AUSTRALIA
No wrinkles, no cruelty
A man who has bred sheep with no wrinkles said yesterday the animals were a cruelty-free alternative to mulesing, the painful cutting of the hide to prevent disease. Australian wool is boycotted by some retailers because of concerns about the practice, which is carried out to prevent the animals dying from fly-strike. Jim Watts, who runs the breeding consultancy SRS Company, said merino sheep genetically bred to be wrinkle-free were immune to fly-strike. The former research scientist said animals with smooth skin had less chance of urine and moisture getting trapped in tight skin folds and thereby developing the conditions suitable for flies to lay eggs.
■AUSTRALIA
Cancer threatens devil
The Tasmanian devil will be listed as an endangered species this week as a result of a deadly and disfiguring cancer outbreak, the state government said yesterday. The disease, a fast-growing head tumor which spreads over the marsupial’s face and mouth and prevents it from eating, often killing it, has cut the island’s devil population in the wild by as much as 60 percent. A spokeswoman for Tasmania’s primary industries minister said the animal would be listed as an endangered species tomorrow. The facial tumor is extremely unusual in that it is a contagious cancer, spread from devil to devil by biting.
■THAILAND
Officials allow ‘human zoo’
Provincial officials have allowed a “human zoo” featuring “long-necked” or “giraffe” women to open in Sattahip near Bangkok despite mounting international criticism of the exploitative tourism practice, reports said yesterday. The residents are part of an ethnic group whose women wear brass rings around their necks. They are called the Padung or long-necked Karen in Thailand, but they consider those terms denigrating and call themselves Kayan. The new “village,” which recently opened in Sattahip in Chonburi Province, charges an entrance fee of 25 baht (US$0.80) for Thai visitors and 250 baht for foreigners, the Daily XPress said.
■HONG KONG
Cops easy on elderly crooks
Police are letting some elderly criminals off with a caution in a new, soft approach. Nearly 1,300 people aged 65 and above were arrested last year, mostly for minor shoplifting, the South China Morning Post reported. A policy has been introduced to let many of the suspects off with a caution. Officer guidelines allow them to issue a caution in cases where the senior citizen is not part of a criminal gang and is not involved in sex offenses or child pornography. Fifty-five cautions have been issued out of 371 arrests of seniors since the policy was introduced in January.
■PHILIPPINES
Voters may block peace deal
Voters could block a proposed revenue-sharing deal aimed at ending a protracted Muslim separatist rebellion in the south, Manila’s chief peace negotiator warned yesterday. Rodolfo Garcia said Manila has agreed in principle to give Muslims a bigger share of revenues from the natural resources on Mindanao Island, but that voters could reject the change to the Constitution this would require. Peace talks with the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front have stalled after the rebels accused Manila of delaying. The rebels’ claims for “ancestral domain” in the region are also “potentially controversial,” because they would force a change in the law. Only Congress, dominated by the Christian majority including Mindanao landowners, can pass laws.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown launches Web site
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has been struggling in the opinion polls, launched an Internet version of the weekly question session in parliament yesterday by appearing on his own Web site on YouTube. Internet users can pose their questions directly to Brown by posting a video message on the Ask The PM site, just like parliamentarians ask questions during Prime Minister’s Questions every Wednesday. Brown has promised to answer the most popular queries regularly with his own video messages. Describing the move as an “exciting new initiative,” Brown said: “I am here to answer your questions. Politicians get the chance in Prime Minister’s Questions. I think it is time the public had a chance.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Gamers attend contest
Hundreds of videogame fans turned out in Birmingham, central England, over the weekend in the hope of booking a place in the finals of the world’s biggest games competition. Teams from four big European cities gathered to audition potential members for the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), an international contest for professional computer gamers. Those selected for the tour are being offered the chance to compete for US$1 million at the world finals in Los Angeles this summer. The championship, modeled loosely on a US sports league, features teams from around the globe competing against each other in games including soccer and rally driving simulations. More than 500 players and spectators were on hand at the £4 million (US$7.8 million) Omega Sektor gaming center as it hosted teams from Birmingham, London, Berlin and Stockholm. Professional gaming has a big following in Asia, with TV channels dedicated to “eSports.” Backers are investing heavily, including the construction of a 1,000-seat arena for computer game competitions in Wuhan, China.
■SPAIN
Car bomb damages club
Suspected members of the militant group ETA exploded a car bomb in a northern Basque town yesterday, causing considerable damage but no injuries, police said. The blast, which occurred at about 1am outside a boat club in the town of Getxo, near the Basque port of Bilbao, came after a warning call in the name of ETA to traffic authorities, a police spokesman said. Authorities said the bomb exploded 10 minutes before the time the caller had given. The blast caused serious structural damage to the club and blew out windows and damaged walls in nearby houses.
■TURKEY
Smoking ban takes effect
A law banning smoking in public places came into effect yesterday despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of men smoke. Cafes and restaurants will benefit from a transition period, with a total ban only applying to them from July next year. The law was passed by the Turkish parliament in January and prohibits lighting up in government offices, workplaces, shopping malls, schools, stadiums and hospitals. There are exemptions for special zones in psychiatric hospitals, retirement homes and prisons, whilst smokers will be allowed to light up in designated smoking rooms in hotels. Organizers of sporting events or concerts may provide smoking areas. Any establishment defying the ban will receive a written warning, followed by a fine of up to 5,000 Turkish lira (US$4,000). An individual caught illicitly smoking risks a fine of 50 lira. Around 60 percent of Turkish men and 20 percent of women are smokers.
■COLOMBIA
Minister denies claims
The nation’s defense minister on Sunday denied a Venezuelan claim that Colombian troops had crossed into the country. “I’ve investigated and there was no incursion,’’ Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told Caracol radio. Rough terrain along the border would have “made it practically impossible for [the incursion] to have happened the way they say it happened,’’ he said.But Venezuelan Information Minister Andres Izarra told Venezuelan state television that officials had photographs showing “a military incursion in our territory.” Venezuela’s foreign ministry sent Colombia a diplomatic note on Saturday demanding an explanation for what it called an “illegal incursion” of 60 Colombian soldiers into Venezuela’s western Apure state. Santos said he’d spoken with the head of Colombia’s armed forces, who assured him no such incident had taken place.
■COLOMBIA
FARC leader surrenders
A wanted leader of Latin America’s largest guerrilla army handed herself over to authorities on Sunday, Colombia’s defense minister said. Eldaneyis Mosquera, also known as “Karina,” was one of the most senior women in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She operated in the country’s mountainous, northwestern region, where security officials blamed her for a series of attacks and kidnappings. “We’ve been after this woman for a long time,” Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters. The FARC has recently taken a number of hits in northwestern Colombia, where its leader was killed in March by a subordinate who then handed himself over to authorities. Earlier this month, President Alvaro Uribe asked Mosquera in a public speech to turn herself in.
■UNITED STATES
Men duel with Tasers
It wasn’t exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Tasers in a confrontation over parking in Boulder, Colorado. Police said neither man needed medical attention after the Saturday confrontation, but Harvey Epstein, co-owner of Mamacitas restaurant, was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and using a stun gun. A police report said Epstein and Casey Dane, a supervisor for Colorado Security Services, were arguing over a metal boot that one of Dane’s guards had clamped on a wheel of a van parked behind the restaurant. Dane told police he was afraid Epstein was going to hit him with a pair of bolt cutters. Epstein told police Dane put his hand on a holstered pistol and threatened to shoot him, an accusation Dane denies. Both men drew Tasers. “They shot each other,” Police Sergeant Pat Wyton said.
■IRAQ
Group calls for probe
A media rights group called for a full probe into a 2003 US shelling that killed two foreign journalists at a Baghdad hotel, claiming that new evidence showed the incident was not an accident. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the US should “tell the whole truth” about the incident at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, just a day before Baghdad fell to US invading forces. The IFJ said a former US army sergeant had reported seeing secret US documents that listed the hotel as a possible target, a statement which it said “exposed as a cover-up” the US position that the shelling was an accident. Spanish cameraman Jose Couso and Ukraine-born cameraman Taras Protsyuk were killed at the hotel, which was home to about 150 journalists and media staff at the time.
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