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■AUSTRALIA

Witch doctor faces court

A bogus holy man tricked a woman into having sex with him for five years on the pretext it would lift a curse that stood to wipe out her whole family, a court was told yesterday. In a case that Sydney magistrate Graham Johnson described as “bizarre and evil,” the woman paid up to A$100,000 (US$80,000) for the supposed sex therapy. Tony Golossian, 61, faces 151 charges of sexual assault during what were termed “prayer sessions” with the woman, who is now 30. “I must say that if this is proven it would be one of the most bizarre and evil cases I have come across in more than 40 years,” Johnson said.



■INDIA

Dalai Lama told to rest

The Dalai Lama has canceled a planned trip to Europe next month after doctors advised the Tibetan spiritual leader to rest more while he recovers from exhaustion. The decision was announced late on Saturday by his office in Dharmsala, a northern hill town where he set up his headquarters after fleeing Tibet in 1959 in the wake of a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The 73-year-old holy man was admitted to a Mumbai hospital last month with what his advisers called exhaustion. He also underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. He has since returned to Dharmsala.



■INDONESIA

Australian pilots arrested

Police have arrested five Australians for illegally entering the sensitive easternmost province of Papua, an airport official said yesterday. The five Australians — two women and three men — flew from Australia in a light aircraft and landed illegally on Friday at Mopah airport in the Merauke district of Papua Province, the head of the airport, Herson, said. “They have been in an isolation room at the immigration office since Friday,” said Herson, who like many in his country only uses one name.



■INDIA

Spicy food kills woman

A British bride who died ten days after marrying a local man may have been killed by asthma provoked by eating spicy food, her doctor was quoted as saying yesterday. Charlotte Bending, a 24-year-old mother of two, wed Jitender Singh in the northern state of Haryana after they had met while working together in Plymouth, England, the Times of India reported. She died on Sept. 8 after she complained of a sore throat and collapsed, her doctor Bharat Bhushan was quoted as saying. “Three days before she fell ill, she had lots of spicy food which she couldn’t digest,” he told the newspaper.



■HONG KONG

Police search for prostitute

Police were seeking a slightly built prostitute in connection with the death of a man weighing more than 100kg yesterday. The 54-year-old man was found naked early on Saturday on the floor of a “love hotel” in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district where rooms are rented by the hour, a police spokesman said. He had checked in hours earlier with a woman aged around 30 who police believe was a Chinese prostitute. She raised the alarm then fled the hotel before police could interview her. Police were yesterday appealing for help in tracing her to ask about the death of the man, described by his wife as suffering from diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. Officers said the case was not being treated as suspicious and there were no signs the victim had been robbed before or after his collapse. His death follows a series of cases in which men have been drugged and robbed by prostitutes in hotel rooms.





■SPAIN

Royals home threatened

The Barcelona home of Infanta Cristina, younger daughter of Spain’s King Juan Carlos, had a Molotov cocktail thrown at it by a lone attacker during the night, police said on Saturday. The attack caused only limited damage, and the 43-year-old princess, her husband and their four children were not there. Police arrested the suspected arsonist on Saturday evening. There were no immediate details about his identity or motive. Media suspect that radical Catalan separatists, who view the Spanish royal family as occupiers, were responsible for the attack.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Author considered defection

Espionage writer John le Carre admitted he was tempted to defect to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper. The 76-year-old author, famed for his Cold War spy-thriller novels and whose real name is David Cornwell, said he was not attracted to communism but was curious to find out what life was like on the other side of the Iron Curtain in the 1960s. “When you spy intensively and you get closer and closer to the border ... it seems such a small step to jump ... and, you know, find out the rest,” the writer said. Le Carre worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Britain’s external intelligence agency. His career as a secret agent was wrecked by Kim Philby, a British double agent who blew the cover of many British agents to the KGB Soviet intelligence agency.



■FRANCE

Pirates attack with grenades

French fisherman in the Indian Ocean called yesterday for a French naval presence after an attack on a fishing boat by Somali pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades. The tuna-fishing vessel Drennec was attacked by pirates on Saturday in a high-speed boat in an attempt to board the ship. The vessel managed to escape the pirates, the ship’s captain said. Piracy along the Somali coast has been a continual problem. The area has been plagued by chaos and clan-based civil war since dictator Mohamed Siad Barres was toppled in 1991.



■FRANCE

Two killed on Seine River

Two people have died after a private yacht sank in the Seine River in the heart of Paris, radio reports said yesterday. The boat was carrying 12 people, six of them children, when it began taking water and sank late on Saturday near the Archeveche Bridge, not far from the Notre Dame Cathedral. Rescue workers were able to pluck 10 of the passengers out of the water, but two people, a 45-year-old man and a boy of six, were trapped in the boat. They were taken to hospital, but died early yesterday.



■ITALY

Mob takes up baking

Not satisfied with control of the drug trade, building industry and rubbish collection in Naples, the local Mafia is getting into the bakery trade and ensuring that Neapolitans rely on the mob for their daily bread. A report released last week said officials suspect Camorra clans are behind many of the 1,400 unlicensed bakeries in the city supplying vendors who sell loaves out of their cars. Police say the bread slowly poisons customers because it is cooked over fires containing old varnished wood, nut shells covered in pesticides and even planks from exhumed coffins. “Whoever buys this bread is eating dioxins and carcinogenic substances and putting their health at serious risk,” said Francesco Borrelli, assessor for agriculture for the province.



■UNITED STATES

Umbrella lawsuit fails

It’s a rainy day for the Manhattan restaurateur who sued a supermodel claiming she intentionally damaged his designer umbrella, said to be worth US$5,000. State Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden threw out Nello Balan’s lawsuit on Friday. She also fined Balan’s attorney US$500 for filing a frivolous claim and said motions the attorney filed were a “waste of judicial resources.” Balan claimed he lent supermodel Le Call his limited-edition leather umbrella designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and she belatedly returned it to him in two pieces. Balan, owner of the celeb magnet Nello’s, sought US$1 million in the lawsuit and claimed emotional distress over the damaged umbrella.



■UNITED STATES

Author, teacher found dead

David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, was found dead in his home in California, police said. He was 46. Wallace’s wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30pm on Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department. Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College. “He cared deeply for his students and transformed the lives of many young people,” dean Gary Kates said. “It’s a great loss to our teaching faculty.” Wallace’s first novel, The Broom of the System, gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor.



■IRAQ

Pretrial begins for soldier

A pretrial hearing started on Saturday for one of two US soldiers charged with murdering an Iraqi detainee and lying about it earlier this year. The hearing was held at a US base near Tikrit for Staff Sergeant Hal Warner, of Braggs, Oklahoma, the military said. Major Peggy Kageleiry, an Army spokeswoman in Iraq, said witnesses testified and that the hearing was expected to finish yesterday. The hearing falls under Article 32 of the US military penal code and will determine whether there is sufficient evidence for a court-martial. It is equivalent to a civilian preliminary hearing.



■CANADA

US war-resisters supported

Members of anti-war organizations held demonstrations across the country in support of US war resisters. Protesters marched outside government buildings on Saturday to draw attention to war resister Jeremy Hinzman’s upcoming deportation on Sept. 23. The protest was part of a day of action to support US soldiers seeking refugee status as conscientious objectors against the Iraq War. Twelve former US soldiers are seeking refugee status. Robin Long became the first US resister to the Iraq war to be removed by authorities in July.



■VENEZUELA

Military holds exercise

President Hugo Chavez oversaw military exercises on Saturday with fighter jets dropping bombs and commandos resisting a mock invasion. The maneuvers in southern Bolivar State featured Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, ground troops, patrol boats and helicopters that fired rockets at targets. Two Russian Tu-160 bombers on a temporary deployment were not visible, but Chavez pointed to the sky during a speech afterward and said “they’re around up there.” The socialist president said the Russian planes’ presence shouldn’t be considered “an aggression against anyone.” While observing the maneuvers alongside a lake, Chavez wore fatigues and the red beret from his days as an army paratroop commander.


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