■ AUSTRALIA
Food crisis warning given
The Murray-Darling river basin where one-third of the nation’s food is grown is in dire straits because upstream farmers are taking too much water for irrigation, scientists warned yesterday. They said parts of the basin would be “beyond the point of recovery” unless the government bought back water allocations and got more water flowing by October. The scientists leaked their report to the press because the government that took delivery of it last month said it would not respond until the end of the year.
■ HONG KONG
Faye is top sexy veggie
Hong Kong singer-actress Faye Wong (王菲) has been voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian female in a survey by an animal rights group yesterday. Bollywood star Amitabh Bachan was voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian male in the poll conducted among members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Runners-up included Taiwanese drama star Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), Hong Kong actress Maggie Q (李美琪) and Cantopop singer and actress Stephy Tang (鄧麗欣). Outside Asia, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, pop star Leona Lewis and camp British TV host Russell Brand were among those who polled most votes as sexiest vegetarians.
■ HONG KONG
Apartment sets sale record
A luxury apartment has sold for HK$225 million (US$28.8 million), the most expensive per square meter ever sold in Asia, a report said yesterday. The 80th floor penthouse with a private swimming pool and spectacular view of Victoria Harbour sold for HK$440,300 per square meter, a report in the Sing Tao Daily said, citing an unnamed real estate source. The 511m² apartment, with its own rooftop terrace, is located in a new complex called The Arch on the Kowloon Peninsula.
■ EQUATORIAL GUINEA
UK mercenary stands trial
British mercenary Simon Mann, one of Africa’s last “dogs of war,” went on trial on Tuesday and the prosecution asked he be jailed for nearly 32 years for his role in a failed 2004 coup plot. Public Prosecutor Jose Olo Obono said Mann plotted to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The defense lawyer for Mann said that while his client was part of the coup plot he was a “mere instrument.” After the prosecution and defense cases were heard for Mann and eight others, including a former Cabinet minister, the trial was adjourned until yesterday.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Amnesty awards journalist
Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday awarded its annual Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat to a Yemeni newspaper editor. Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, the former editor of al-Shora, a political weekly, was jailed last week for six years for his coverage of clashes between government forces and backers of the late Shiite cleric Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi in Yemen.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Radical preacher released
The government will appeal a court ruling that has led to the release from jail of a radical preacher once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe,” it was reported yesterday. Abu Qatada, 47, was freed on bail from a prison in Worcestershire on Tuesday following a court ruling in April banning ministers from extraditing him to Jordan. Qatada, whose release was tied to strict conditions of surveillance while he is at home in London, has been convicted in his absence in the Middle East of involvement with terrorist attacks in 1998.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Minister’s computer stolen
A computer containing “restricted” information was stolen from the office of a Cabinet minister in a break-in, the government said on Tuesday. Police said they were investigating a weekend burglary at the constituency office of Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears in Manchester. “There was a break-in at the constituency office of Hazel Blears,” a government statement said. “A PC was stolen,” it said. “There was some restricted information on the PC, but as we have made clear, there is no secret or top secret information,” it said.
■ ITALY
No cheating for Carabinieri
The country’s highest court has ruled that the Carabinieri paramilitary police may not have extra-marital affairs, in order to avoid sullying the force’s name. The ruling stemmed from one Carabiniere’s appeal against a lower court ruling sentencing him to four months in jail for insulting and threatening to throw a desk at his boss, who had asked the policeman to end an affair with a married woman. The Court of Cassation agreed that any affair is a private matter, but noted that the military police were called to “exemplary conduct and could not bring discredit to the armed forces with extra-marital relationships.”
■ RUSSIA
New charges in murder case
Prosecutors charged three men with a role in the 2006 killing of anti-Kremlin journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A gunman shot Politkovskaya in her Moscow apartment block in October 2006. Prosecutors named the accused as Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Ibragim Makhmudov. Politkovskaya was well known in the West for her human rights reporting in Chechnya.
■ ICELAND
Polar bear sighted
In the second case of its kind in two weeks, a polar bear was sighted in northern Iceland after apparently making a journey of several hundred kilometers atop an ice floe from Greenland, the broadcaster RUV reported on Tuesday. A 12-year-old girl on a farm near the town of Saudarkrokur, on the Skaga fjord, spotted the bear on Monday and alerted the authorities. Two weeks earlier, another polar bear was spotted in Iceland — the first such spotting in 20 years. Authorities permitted police marksmen to kill the polar bear, sparking protests from environmentalists and animal rights’ groups. Authorities are now making plans to capture the second bear and have it shipped in a cage back to Greenland.
■ UNITED STATES
Dancing film star dies
Cyd Charisse, whose elegant dance moves on the silver screen wooed her co-stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, has died at the age of 86 in a Los Angeles hospital of an apparent heart attack, her agent, Scott Stander, told the news media. Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Texas, Charisse began her dancing career with the Ballet Russe, but fame came after the film studio MGM discovered her and cast her in leading roles at the height of the popularity of the Hollywood musical. She had minor roles in movies for nearly a decade before her breakout role came in 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain. A year later, she secured her first leading role in the musical comedy The Band Wagon opposite Astaire.
■ UNITED STATES
Girl chases lemonade thief
A young girl whose lemonade stand was robbed of US$17.50 chased the suspect to a nearby home and called police, who spent nearly an hour trying to coax the man into surrendering. “The guy came up and was, like, ‘Give me your money,’” 12-year-old Dominique Morefield said. “I was shocked. It was just my immediate reaction to chase after him.” Dominique dashed after the man, who ran into a house, and then she called police. Officers eventually persuaded Steve Tryon, 18, to come outside after 45 minutes and arrested him on a preliminary felony charge of robbery. Tyron, currently held in the Vigo County Jail in Indiana, will be formally charged tomorrow, a county prosecutor said.
■ UNITED STATES
Man threatens police
Police in Connecticut say they arrested a man after he ordered his pet to attack two officers. Lucky for them that 2.7m-long pythons are not very obedient. Bridgeport Police Lieutenant James Viadero said 21-year-old Victor Rodriguez was charged with threatening police and disorderly conduct after Monday’s incident. No one was hurt. Officers were called to Rodriguez’s apartment on a report that he was threatening his girlfriend with the pet reptile.
■ UNITED STATES
Man alleges torture
Videotapes alleging torture could become evidence in a federal lawsuit against Sheik Issa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the late United Arab Emirates (UAE) president and brother of Abu Dhabi’s crown prince. Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi, a former adviser to the sheik, is suing for millions he says he is owed for various business deals. He also charges Sheik Issa and other members of the royal family with false imprisonment and with torturing him. The tapes have not been made public, but “ultimately this video, or certainly large portions of it, will be played in court,” said Nabulsi’s lawyer, Anthony Buzbee, on Tuesday.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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