■CHINA
Model murderer confesses
A young Chinese man confessed to killing a Canadian model during a robbery at her apartment, police in Shanghai said on Friday. Diana O’Brien, 22, arrived in the city to work as a model less than two weeks ago and friends said she was unhappy and planned to return home early. Chen Jun (陳軍), 18, was arrested on Friday in Anhui Province. He was in possession of O’Brien’s laptop and other belongings, a police statement said. Chen told police he followed O’Brien into her shared apartment on Sunday night, it said without giving further details. O’Brien’s friends did not believe her death was work related.
■INDONESIA
Militant may be in Indonesia
A suspected Islamic militant believed to be heading a Singapore cell of regional network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) may be hiding in Indonesia, where language and cultural similarities would allow him to blend in more easily, Indonesia’s police chief said yesterday. Mas Selamat bin Kastari escaped from a Singapore detention center in February, where he was being held for allegedly plotting to crash a plane into Singapore’s airport. Indonesian police chief Sutanto told reporters police were still investigating a network of suspected militants detained recently in Palembang on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. The group of 10 was detained in raids by Indonesia’s anti-terrorism unit and a large cache of bombs was found.
■CHINA
Red Cross hacker sentenced
A Chinese man has been sentenced to two years in jail for hacking into a Red Cross Web site and asking for earthquake relief donations to be sent to his bank account, state media reported yesterday. Yang Litao, 23, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced on Friday by a court in eastern Jiangsu Province, the Xinhua news agency reported. He hacked into the Red Cross’s local site in Kunshan, near Shanghai, six days after the May 12 quake in Sichuan Province, the report said. Yang stole the site administrator’s identity and password and then posted a fake notice asking for donations to be deposited in his account, the report said.
■JAPAN
Two held over whale meat
Greenpeace said on Friday that two of its activists had been indicted by Japanese prosecutors for stealing whale meat in a bid to uncover alleged corruption in Japan’s controversial whaling program. The Aomori Prosecutors’ Office on Friday indicted Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, who are both still in custody, Greenpeace said. Greenpeace has said it intercepted one box of meat and handed it to prosecutors in Tokyo as evidence of an alleged embezzlement ring. The group was aiming to prove that whalers on the taxpayer-backed hunt had sold whale meat on the black market. The state-backed Institute of Cetacean Research, which commissions the whaling, said that crew members were given meat as a “gift.” Prosecutors opted not to pursue the allegations against the crew members and instead arrested the two members of Greenpeace.
■BANGLADESH
Wild elephant kills four
A wild elephant straying into a village trampled four members of a family to death and injured another in southeastern Bangladesh, witnesses said on Friday. The elephant attacked the villagers on Thursday night in the Bandarban hill district’s Lama area, 350km from the capital Dhaka. It damaged several shops and three houses before returning to the forest, villagers told reporters.
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