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World News Quick Take

■ PHILIPPINES

Militant captured

Police and soldiers in the south have captured an Islamic militant allegedly involved in the beheading of 10 Marines last year, a military spokesman said yesterday. Sali Dungkal Alih, a member of the Abu Sayyaf group, was arrested by police and military agents on the southern island of Basilan late on Friday, Major Eugene Batara said. He said Alih had taken part in the beheading of the 10 Philippine Marines by Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim guerrillas in July last year in Basilan. The suspect had a bounty of 500,000 pesos (US$11,330) on his head.



■INDONESIA

Two drown in ceremony

Two people drowned when their boat capsized off West Timor during an annual ceremony to ward off evil, police said yesterday. The ethnic Chinese were killed when their boat capsized in heavy seas off Tanjung Bastian beach on the northern coast of West Timor on Sunday afternoon, district police chief Abdul Salam said. “Strong waves overturned one of the boats and two participants drowned and were found dead,” Salam said.



■NEW ZEALAND

Drought limits energy supply

People are likely to be asked to cut their electricity consumption from this weekend because of the effects of a prolonged drought, Energy Minister David Parker said yesterday. The drought has reduced the level of the most important South Island lakes used for generating hydro-electricity to about half of normal. About 64 percent of New Zealand’s power comes from hydro generation. “Rain over the weekend has had a small positive impact, but unless we receive significantly more this week, a power savings campaign funded by electricity generators will be stepped up, starting on Sunday,” Parker said.



■MALAYSIA

CD sniffing dog killed

A dog trained to sniff out pirated discs, from a Malaysian unit which criminals have made threats against, has been found dead in the undisclosed location where it was kept, a report said on Sunday. The New Straits Times said that Manny, a one-year-old golden Labrador which arrived in Malaysia in February, died about a week ago and that authorities were trying to determine the cause of death. “We have sent Manny’s body to University Putra Malaysia for a post mortem,” said Roslan Mahayuddin, the enforcement director of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry. “He had not started work yet so I doubt that there was anyone who wanted to harm him,” Roslan said. Manny and another dog Paddy were the latest additions to the world’s first anti-piracy canine unit. The first dogs in the unit, another pair of Labradors named Lucky and Flo, made headlines last year after uncovering huge stashes of pirated CDs, doing serious damage to the lucrative illegal industry. During a five-month stint during which they sniffed out 1.6 million CDs, leading counterfeiters placed bounties on their heads.



■CHINA

Race fatal to onlookers

At least three people have died and another five are missing after they fell into a river while watching a dragon boat race in Jiangxi Province, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The eight were watching the race in Tonggubao village around 5pm on Sunday when they fell into the water. Witnesses said the riverbank had become muddy and slippery after recent rains. A search was underway for the missing five.

■ UNITED KINGDOM

Fathers stage rooftop sit-in

Two fathers’ rights demonstrators scaled the roof of a senior lawmaker’s home in London on Sunday to stage a protest over family law policy. The men, dressed in superhero costumes, clambered on to the rooftops of the home of Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour party. Protest group Fathers 4 Justice said the men were Mark Harris and Jolly Stanesby, both from Plymouth. The group campaigns for reform of family laws and greater access rights for fathers who live apart from their children. The demonstrators said they planned to remain on Harman’s roof until she read a book written by Harris on problems fathers meet in the family courts system.



■ITALY

Bishop bans wedding

A bishop has told a young paraplegic he cannot have a church wedding because he is impotent, media reported. Salvatore de Ciuco, spokesman for Bishop Lorenzo Chiarinelli of Viterbo, told SkyTG24 TV on Sunday: “No bishop, no priest can celebrate a wedding when he knows of admitted impotence as it is a motive for annulment” of the marriage. The 26-year-old groom, who took part in a civil marriage ceremony on Saturday in Viterbo, has been paraplegic since he was involved in a car accident. The parish curate who was banned from marrying the couple was present at the ceremony.



■SOUTH AFRICA

Thieves add to power crisis

Theft of electricity cables has played a role in the power crisis, a senior government official said yesterday, urging communities to protect electricity networks. Mbhazima Shilowa, premier of Gauteng Province, told an energy summit that criminals stealing cables had been responsible for recent blackouts in the Johannesburg area. “There is no way that members of the community don’t see them [criminals], don’t know,” Shilowa said.



■Ukraine

Workers rescue two miners

Rescue workers reached a pair of survivors yesterday morning, after a deadly pit blast trapped dozens of coal miners for more than a day, media reported. Emergency teams working an estimated 625m below the surface in the eastern Donetsk region broke through to a chamber containing the two miners pinned under fallen rock. A third survivor was still pinned and rescuers were working to free him, Inter TV reported. It remained unclear how many of the 34 miners survived Sunday’s methane gas explosion at the Karl Marx mine in Yenakiyevo.



■KENYA

ADHD may help some: study

A genetic propensity for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may actually help people thrive in nomadic environments, a study of Kenyan tribesmen published last Tuesday showed. US researchers found a gene associated with the disorder was linked to better health and body weight in a group of nomadic cattle herders, but could cause malnourishment in their cousins who have settled and begun to grow crops. “Our findings suggest that some of the variety of personalities we see in people is evolutionarily helpful or detrimental, depending on the context,” said lead author Dan Eisenberg. “This insight might allow us to begin to view ADHD as not just a disease but something with adaptive components.” The dopamine receptor gene the team studied is involved in impulsivity, reward anticipation and addiction and is believed to be associated with food craving as well as ADHD.

■ URUGUAY

Dead penguins wash ashore

At least 60 dead penguins washed up on Uruguay’s coast on Sunday in an incident that environmentalists linked to a fuel spill following a boat crash near Montevideo’s port days ago. Another 34 penguins, covered in oil but alive, also appeared on the beaches, Richard Tesore of SOS-Marine Life Rescue told online news outlet Observa. The birds were Magellanic penguins, which migrate between southern Argentina and the coast of southeast Brazil, Tessore said. They may have swum through oil spilled when Syros, a Greece-registered boat, and Sea Bird, a vessel registered in Malta, collided near Montevideo last Wednesday. Officials said the collision produced a 20km-long spill near the Rio de la Plata river.



■CHILE

Search closing in on plane

Officials have picked up signals from the emergency transmitter of a small plane with 10 people aboard that is missing in the country’s south. Air Force General Hugo Pena said three planes and one helicopter have joined ground patrols in the search for the Cessna 208 Caravan. Pena says the plane took off on Saturday from the Puerto Montt airport for the southern village of La Junta. Authorities said they picked up the signal from the area of La Junta. The Patagonia Airlines plane was carrying nine Chilean passengers and was flown by a Chilean pilot when it took off in strong winds and rain.



■UNITED STATES

Gay bishop in civil union

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop and his partner of 20 years have been united in a private civil union. The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson was legally joined to Mark Andrew, his partner of 20 years, in a ceremony on Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire said. Civil unions became legal in New Hampshire this year. The union was performed five years to the day after New Hampshire Episcopalians elected him as their bishop. The union and a following religious service were both held at St. Paul’s Church in Concord. Robinson had made public his intention to join his partner, but had kept the date secret out of concern about security.



■UNITED STATES

Helicopter crash kills four

A medical helicopter crashed on an isolated ranch in a national forest early on Sunday, killing a patient and three crew members and strewing debris over a wide area. The PHI Air Medical helicopter crew was taking a 58-year-old patient from a hospital in Huntsville, Texas, to one in Houston for surgery, said Butch Davis, Walker County chief sheriff’s deputy. The flight left Huntsville Memorial Hospital at 2:45am and the hospital lost contact with it two minutes later, Davis said. Searchers did not find the wreckage in the Sam Houston National Forest for almost six hours. The owner of the private ranch was not there at the time of the crash, Davis said. The cause was being investigated and the weather was clear at the time.



■UNITED STATES

Feds to probe mansion fire

Federal investigators were due in the Texas state capital of Austin yesterday to try to determine who set the fire that gutted the historic governor’s mansion. The 152-year-old Greek Revival style landmark was engulfed in flames before dawn on Sunday. More than 100 firefighters took part in a losing battle to save the iconic building, which officials believe fell victim to arson. “What has been lost today can never be replaced,” said Robert Black, press secretary for Governor Rick Perry. “It’s an extraordinary amount of loss.”


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