■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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of