■SOUTH KOREA
Florist held for pruning ads
Prosecutors have arrested a florist for pruning his rivals’ business by clicking repeatedly on their online ads. The Seoul prosecutors’ office said yesterday that the man, surnamed Jeong, was charged with breaking laws on promoting communication networks and protecting information. Victims claim Jeong, 44, caused 500 million won (US$376,000) in losses to rival florists, the office said. Companies pre-pay portal operators a fee which dwindles each time an ad is clicked. When the fee is used up, the ad disappears. Jeong is also suspected of launching denial-of-service attacks, in which a flood of messages forces a targeted Web site to shut down. Prosecutors said they were questioning four other florists for allegedly colluding with or funding Jeong.
■AUSTRALIA
Disaster musical panned
A survivor of the gold mining disaster that gripped the world two years ago said yesterday that a musical in Melbourne called Beaconsfield: A Musical in A-Flat Minor was disrespectful to a workmate who was crushed to death in the rockfall. “It’s better off being left alone,” said Todd Russell, who was trapped with another miner for 14 days. “People are trying to get along with their lives, trying to move forward, and they just keep using this tragedy of ours.” Director Dan Ilic said the musical was more about the reporters who covering the story than the disaster itself.
■PHILIPPINES
Manila protests BBC sketch
The government has protested a popular BBC comedy sketch in which a Filipino maid was told to have sex with a neighbor, officials said yesterday. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the Philippine embassy in London sent letters to the BBC and the Press Complaints Commission, to protest “this slur on our domestic workers” in Britain. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo also summoned the British Ambassador Peter Beckingham to discuss the matter, he said. Representative Risa Hontiveros demanded an apology from the BBC. She described the Sept. 26 episode of the TV show Harry and Paul, starring British comedians Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, as “revolting and disgusting” and called it an “insensitive and racist attempt to satirize a scene of exploitation.”
■MALAYSIA
Anwar ad criticized
A huge cutout of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a suburb just outside Kuala Lumpur has drawn fire as idolatrous and a waste of public funds, the Star newspaper reported yesterday. The 12.2m high image shows a smiling Anwar waving and bedecked with symbols of his opposition alliance. “It can deviate the Muslim’s faith,” said Asri Zainul Abidin, an Islamic scholar. “I don’t blame Anwar because it was not him who put up the cutout, but his supporters should not idolize [him] too much.” The cutout was put up by the municipal council on Sept. 28 at a cost of 5,000 ringgit (US$1,435) to wish people a happy end to Ramadan.
■MALAYSIA
Refugee kills himself, wife
A Filipino refugee living in Sabah blew up himself and his wife, leaving their 13 children orphaned, the Star reported yesterday. Babin Isang, 35, had gone to see his wife Indak Musa, 35, on Monday to persuade her to come home after she left him to stay with her sister more than a month ago. Babin was heard shouting at his wife when the blast went off, the Star said. Indak was believed to have threatened to divorce her husband.
■ISRAEL
PR firm hired over image
Officials have hired a British public relations (PR) firm to re-market it to the world, and the company is in the final stages of preparing to launch the new image, the Ha’aretz daily reported on Monday. “Our research shows that Israel’s brand is essentially the conflict,” Ido Aharoni, the foreign ministry official in charge of the program, said. “Even those who recognize that Israel is in the right are not attracted to it, because they see it as a supplier of bad news. The conclusion is that it is more important for Israel to be attractive than to be right,” he said.
■RWANDA
Woman elected speaker
The country’s parliament, the first in the world with a female majority, voted a woman legislator as speaker on Monday. The appointment of Mukantabana Rose will enhance the east African nation’s reputation as a bastion of women’s empowerment in a continent where men normally dominate the power-circles. Women hold 44 of 80 seats, making it the first country in the world where men are outnumbered in parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union says. Rose, from a small opposition party, beat a male candidate for speaker, Mukama Abbas, by 70 votes to 10.
■ISRAEL
Scent technique discovered
Scientists said on Monday they have discovered a way to genetically enhance the scent of flowers, a development that could also be used to breed extra-tasty fruits and vegetables. “Recent developments will help to create flowers with an increased scent as well as producing new scent components,” Alexander Vainstein, the head of a team of scientists at Hebrew University, said in a statement. Vainstein said his team had enhanced the scents of some flowers by a factor of 10 and caused them to give off their fragrance day and night. The intensity of a flower’s scent usually depends on a range of natural factors, including the time of day, the plant’s age and the weather.
■DENMARK
Royal referendum slated
Voters are to vote in June in a referendum on the order of succession to the throne, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday. The referendum was set for June 7 in connection with the elections for the European Parliament. “We want equality in Danish society, also concerning the Danish throne. As things stand today, boys precede girls. We feel that girls should have equal rights,” Rasmussen told reporters. The change will apply in future since Crown Prince Frederik’s oldest child, Prince Christian, was born before his sister, Isabella. Christian — born October 15, 2005 — is second in line to the Danish throne after his father. Crown Prince Frederik met his wife, Australian-born Crown Princess Mary, at a Sydney pub during the 2000 Olympics. They were married in 2004.
■AUSTRIA
Elderly cyclist hit by car
And you thought Lance Armstrong was tough? Austrian authorities say a 108-year-old cyclist was hit by a car while biking across a busy street in Vienna — and she suffered only a few bruises. Police say the woman had been pedaling her bike across the bustling Praterstrasse when a car pulled away early from a stop light and struck her in the crosswalk. Officials say the woman was taken to a hospital for examination but suffered only bruises in Monday’s accident.
■UNITED STATES
Bride and groom back
California health officials say the words “bride” and “groom” will reappear on all marriage license applications issued starting on Nov. 17. In a notice posted on its Web site, the California Department of Public Health says it is making the change because many couples still wanted the option of identifying themselves in traditional terms. When same-sex marriage became legal in the state on June 16, the department issued new gender-neutral marriage forms with the words “Party A” and “Party B” where “bride” and “groom” used to be.
■GUATEMALA
Shooter releases hostages
A man shot and wounded a security guard and held 40 people hostage at a call center on Monday but surrendered to police after a five-hour siege. Police said the 29-year-old man threatened to blow up the call center on the fifth floor of a Guatemala City building with an explosive device he was carrying. Police negotiators persuaded the man to free his hostages and give himself up. They said the man, Luis Fernando Escobar, had a “sentimental” problem and had demanded to see his former wife’s boyfriend who worked at the call center.
■UNITED STATES
Fairgoers catch toddler
Authorities say patrons at a carnival in Florida caught a toddler whose mother was forced to drop her when a ride stranded them 9m in the air. Authorities say the “Crazy Bus” ride started to move as passengers were exiting on Saturday night at a carnival about 10km south of Daytona Beach. Sherri Pinkerton had to dangle by one hand while holding her toddler in the other arm. She then dropped the girl, who was caught by fairgoers. Firefighters used a ladder to rescue Pinkerton from the ride.
■UNITED STATES
Mom guilty of murder
A California mother was convicted of second-degree murder on Monday for driving her teenage son and his friends to a fatal fight with a rival gang. Eva Daley, 31, had been charged with first-degree murder but the jury opted for the lesser conviction after deliberating for more than two days. She faces 15 years to life in prison when she is sentenced on Nov. 4. Her co-defendant, Heriberto Garcia, was also convicted of second-degree murder for fatally stabbing 13-year-old Jose Cano near a Long Beach skate park in June last year. Garcia, one of the passengers in Daley’s vehicle, is 17 but was tried as an adult. Five other teenagers, including Daley’s son, admitted a manslaughter charge in juvenile court and could remain in state custody until age 25. The case of another youth is still pending in juvenile court.
■UNITED STATES
Dead POWs may get award
An estimated 17,000 deceased US prisoners of war could be awarded Purple Hearts under a new Defense Department policy announced on Monday. Purple Hearts are awarded to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines wounded by enemy action. The medals have been denied in the past to POWs who died in captivity if it could not be proven they had been wounded or killed by the enemy. The revised policy the Pentagon announced on Monday presumes such deaths were the result of enemy action unless compelling evidence is presented to the contrary. The new policy is retroactive to Dec. 7, 1941 — when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor, the department said in a statement on Monday. Posthumous awards can be made to a family member or other representative of the deceased service member.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese