■ INDIA
Couple learn of ‘divorce’
A happily married couple in the northern part of the country got the shock of their lives when they learned they had divorced 10 years ago, the Times of India reported yesterday. Meena Verma, a mother of two children, tried to file a case against her in-laws for violence, only to be told by a court in Haryana state that she had been divorced for a decade. Her husband Virender told the Times of India his brother, a lawyer, had apparently forged the divorce a decade earlier, when the couple were contemplating making a similar complaint. “It seems the divorce was doctored to defeat Meena’s possible complaint,” he said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Couple drives wrong way
A couple, aged 100 and 99, who drove the wrong way along a highway for more than 2km in New Zealand before crashing will probably be asked to surrender their driver’s licenses, police said yesterday. The duo amazingly managed to dodge oncoming vehicles during their wrong-way jaunt on New Zealand’s busiest highway near Wellington on Sunday, police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said. Their vehicle eventually collided with on oncoming car. They suffered minor injuries. Calder said the pair are unlikely to face charges. “I don’t believe any legal action will be taken — they may just be asked to hand in their license, given their age” to prevent them driving in future, she said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Cop busted in drug ring
A senior Australian police officer was arrested in connection to an international plot to import hundreds of kilograms of drug-making chemicals involving suspects in Europe and Asia, authorities said yesterday. Mark Standen, an assistant director of the New South Wales state Crime Commission, was charged in court yesterday with conspiracy to import controlled substances and supply prohibited drugs, and with perverting the course of justice. He did not enter a plea and was ordered to be held in jail until another hearing next Wednesday. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
■ CHINA
Beijing issues warning
The organizers of this summer’s Beijing Olympics on Monday reminded foreigners coming to China for the Games to behave, warning them that everything from protesting without permission to sleeping outdoors was banned. The extensive list, written only in Chinese and put on the organizers’ official Web site (www.beijing2008.cn), also said that purchase of Olympics’ tickets did not guarantee the holder would automatically get a Chinese visa.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Cancer patient wins bet
A terminally ill man, who was told he had a few months to live after being diagnosed with cancer, collected £5,000 (US$9,800) from the bookmakers on Sunday. Doctors had told Jon Matthews it was unlikely he would live to see Christmas after discovering he had mesothelioma — a cancer linked to asbestos. The 58-year-old, from Milton Keynes in southern England, placed a £100 bet that he would still be around in a year. Matthews, who was diagnosed in April 2006, was told the longest anyone had survived was 25 months. “Today is 25 months and a week, so I’ve beaten that record,” he said. He said half the money would go to the cancer charity Macmillan. “The other half I’m going to spend on myself — booze and fags probably — I don’t have anything to lose.”
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Man questioned in stabbing
A man in his 30s was being questioned by police yesterday after a 15-year-old schoolgirl, who was found stabbed in a lift, became the 16th teenager to die violently in London this year. Officers found the girl, who has not been named by police, on Monday, suffering from multiple stab wounds in the lift of a block of flats near Waterloo Station. Scotland Yard said detectives were keeping an open mind about a motive for the attack, but said it was not gang-related. Police said they had arrested the man in the Lambeth area but gave no further details of the suspect. Media reports said the suspect, who has not been named, could have been obsessed with his victim and been stalking her. Knife crime has blighted the capital this year with several killings dominating the headlines. Authorities have since launched a campaign to discourage knife crime in the capital.
■ GERMANY
Two drown in heavy rains
Two women drowned overnight in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg after heavy rains struck the region, police said yesterday. One of the victims died while trapped in her car while the second, 7km away, died in the basement of her home. A train driver was also seriously injured in the region when his train crashed into a tree that had fallen on the tracks. One of his passengers suffered a broken arm and another was treated for shock. Rescue services worked through the night to reach people stranded by the sudden flooding. The water was so high on one main road near the town of Juningen that rescue service vehicles could not get through. Electricity supplies were cut to some towns and a house burned down after being struck by lightning.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Tube revelry turns ugly
Police arrested 17 people and had to close six London Underground stations after a party involving thousands of revelers to mark the last day of drinking alcohol on the tube turned ugly. Six assaults were reported on underground rail staff and police. Several damaged trains had to be withdrawn from service on a night of mayhem that had been dubbed “Last Round on the Underground” by revelers. The festivities were at first good-natured with partygoers wearing fancy dress as they swigged beer and wine, dancing and singing in the railway carriages. But police moved in when the mood turned sour and fighting erupted, spoiling what officers had called “a fun event.” The London transport ban on alcohol is designed to make buses, tubes and trains safer for the public but unions fear staff could be put in greater danger when they have to confront those breaking the ban.
■ UNITED STATES
Bo Diddley dies, aged 79
Pioneering rhythm and blues guitarist and songwriter Bo Diddley died on Monday after having battled for months with heart problems, his agent said. He was 79. Diddley was hospitalized last year after a heart attack and later had a stent implanted to improve blood flow to his heart. He had also suffered seizures and had been recovering at his home in Archer, Florida, when he died, Rolling Stone magazine said, citing a spokesperson. Known as “The Originator” of rock and roll, Diddley is cited as a key transitional figure of blues into rock and a pioneer of the rock guitar style who influenced such other greats as Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. He was born Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Mississippi. His name was Otha Ella Bates, which he later changed to Ellas McDaniel Diddley.
■ UNITED STATES
Ivy Leaguer admits fraud
An Ivy League graduate admitted in court on Monday that he and a girlfriend stole the identities of friends, co-workers and neighbors to finance their luxury lifestyle. As his grim-faced parents looked on, Edward Anderton, 25, of Everett, Washington, admitted to federal identity theft charges that likely carry a five-year prison sentence. His ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Jocelyn Kirsch, is expected to enter a similar plea today. A prosecutor called the pair “the poster children for identity fraud” after police released their travel photos, which show them enjoying lavish trips to the Caribbean, Paris and Hawaii. Anderton pleaded guilty to six counts, including bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The pair obtained more than US$116,000 in goods and services and tried to obtain at least another US$122,000 more, Assistant US Attorney Louis Lappen said.
■ UNITED STATES
Grammer has heart attack
A spokesman for Kelsey Grammer said the Frasier star was recovering in a Hawaii hospital after a mild heart attack this weekend. Stan Rosenfield said Grammer was “resting comfortably” in an undisclosed hospital after being stricken on Saturday. Rosenfield says the 53-year-old actor will be released early this week. Rosenfield says Grammer was paddle-boarding with his wife, Camille, when he experienced symptoms. The couple lives in Kona, on Hawaii’s big island. Rosenfield says Grammer was immediately taken to an area hospital where it was determined that he had suffered a “mild heart attack.”
■ UNITED STATES
Cops bust alleged smugglers
A couple ran a cocaine smuggling ring from their fortress-like multimillion-dollar suburban home, and amassed so many luxury goods that the wife needed photos to keep track of her 100 pairs of Prada shoes, authorities said on Monday. Vicente Esteves, 35, and his wife, Chantal, 30, were arrested on conspiracy and money laundering charges after a 14-month investigation, officials said. The US$1 million-a-week operation flew drugs from Mexico and Colombia into the US, investigators said. The couple “attempted to hide behind the beauty of suburbia,” said Gerard McAleer, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey office. “It’s like something out of the movie Scarface … There were also 100 Rolex watches. I’m not sure Donald Trump has 100 Rolex watches. That’s the kind of money that was being made.” The investigation began when the DEA got a tip that a large-scale drug ring was operating out of Manalapan, an enclave of wealthy homeowners, many of whom fled the urban ills of New York.
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