■AFGHANISTAN
Cleric arrested over wedding
Police have detained a cleric for presiding over the marriage of a seven-year-old girl to a teenage boy in a remote northern town, police said on Thursday. The groom, his father and two brothers were also detained in Jawzjan Province last week, provincial police chief Khalilullah Aminzada said. They have been accused of violating a law that bans marriage for girls who are under 16 and men under 18, and are due to face trial, Aminzada said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Actor joins police hunt
Christchurch police hunting a teenage burglar have circulated a mug shot of 58-year-old British actor Robbie Coltrane who, they say, has a strong resemblance to their young suspect. Posters bearing a photograph of Coltrane were dropped by police this week in mailboxes around the area where the burglar has been most active. “Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar,” the poster says, “But imagine him aged 16 with lank, greasy hair and you have the picture.”
■AUSTRALIA
Police to reopen cases
Police will re-examine 7,000 crimes solved through DNA evidence after a mistake forced detectives to free a suspect wrongly accused of murder. Melbourne police withdrew charges against Russell John Gesah, accused last month of the 1984 murders of a 35-year-old mother and her nine-year-old daughter. “It’s obviously an embarrassment and we would rather not be in this position,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said on Thursday.
■JAPAN
Bomb threat disrupts flights
An Air China passenger jet was forced to return to Japan and four others were delayed yesterday after a bomb threat was e-mailed to the airline’s Tokyo office, the Japanese Transport Ministry said. The anonymous e-mail, written in Japanese, told the Chinese airline to suspend its flights or the writer would “bomb the aircraft,” ministry official Fumio Yasukawa said. China’s official Xinhua news agency said the airline ordered all of its flights not to depart from Japan until their safety was ensured. The plane that was forced to return to Japan, which was carrying 70 people from Nagoya to Chongqing via Shanghai, and four other delayed Air China flights took off later yesterday after no bombs were found on them, ministry officials said.
■MALAYSIA
Blogger detained for posting
Authorities have arrested a political blogger for possible sedition after he allegedly insulted police on his Web site, Victor Sanjos, a police official in the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department, said yesterday. Police detained Abdul Rashid Abu Bakar under the Sedition Act on Wednesday to question him about a blog entry that he posted last month. Abdul Rashid defaced the Royal Malaysian Police’s logo by replacing its image of a tiger with a dog and indicated in his comments that he believed Chinese criminal gangs controlled police data systems, Sanjos said.
■AUSTRALIA
Record ecstasy haul seized
Customs and police said yesterday they had seized 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy tablets worth nearly A$400 million (US$394 million), calling it the biggest haul of the drug in the world. Police said the seizure of the drugs, hidden in tins of tomatoes shipped from Italy, had resulted in the arrests of 21 people nationwide yesterday. Authorities had worked for more than a year to track the syndicate behind the drugs.
■UNITED KINGDOM
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