■ NEW ZEALAND
Child murderers convicted
Two brothers were found guilty yesterday of murdering a three-year-old girl who was kicked to death after months of abuse, including being hung and spun on a rotary clothes line until she fell off and put in a tumble dryer that was switched on, news reports said yesterday. A jury in the Rotorua High Court took nearly 11 hours to convict Wiremu Curtis, 18, and Michael Curtis, 22, of the murder of Nia Glassie, who died from severe brain damage in August last year, 12 days after being taken to hospital. The girl’s mother, Lisa Kuka, 35, who had been in a relationship with Wiremu Curtis, was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter for failing to provide the necessities of life and not protecting the child from violence.
■INDONESIA
Trader faces jail for rumors
A share trader is facing six years in jail for spreading rumours about liquidity crises in local banks, police said on Monday. Erick Ardiansyah, an equity sales official at PT Bahana Securities, was arrested on Saturday after a bank complained about false rumours circulating in the market, police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said. “Erick sent out emails saying that several banks were facing liquidity problems and had trouble with their interbank transactions,” he said. “We did our checks and found that these were untrue ... the banks have no such problems. If found guilty, Erick can be jailed for six years.”
■INDIA
16 killed in bus accident
Sixteen people were killed and 31 critically injured when a bus carrying wedding guests crashed into a truck in northern India, police said yesterday. The bride and groom were safe, as they were travelling separately, according to a police spokesman in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Eighty wedding guests were returning from the festivities on the chartered bus. India has one of the highest road death tolls in the world. Lax enforcement of traffic rules, overloaded vehicles and poor roads are often blamed for accidents.
■HONG KONG
Cops pose as prostitutes
Two undercover policewomen posed as potential prostitutes to help crack an international sex syndicate that was sending women to work in overseas bars, a court report said yesterday. The two officers arranged a meeting with a man called Ho after answering an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper offering “quick money overseas by being public relationship officers in Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom” between December 2006 and June last year. At the meeting the women were told they could earn tens of thousands of dollars a month entertaining and having sex with customers in a bar in Chiba-Ken in Japan.
■INDIA
Pedophilia case probed
Police in the eastern part of the country were interrogating an Australian doctor on Monday who was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia, a police spokesman said. The doctor, a volunteer at the Mary-Ellen Gerber Children’s Village orphanage, had identified himself as Paul Allen, 60, but travel documents showed his name as “Allen Herbert Rose,” police said. “The accused doctor is not cooperating with the police,” Orissa police official Gyana Mohapatra said on Monday. The doctor was arrested in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state last Wednesday by police acting on complaints from orphanage authorities.
■ AUSTRIA
Skull turns heads
An oversize skull with a built-in sauna is turning heads in Vienna. The white walk-in structure is known as the “Wellness Skull” and also boasts a bathtub and shower On either side of the neck. The skull, the brainchild of Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout, stands about 4.5m tall and is made of wood and synthetic material. It is on display as part of an effort by Public Art Vienna to revitalize and enhance urban space around the capital. Although the skull was built to be fully functional, visitors won’t be able to try it out or witness steam emanating from its eye sockets — something that only happens when the sauna, which fits eight people, is in use.
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