■HONG KONG
Judge gives convicts vote
A court ruling yesterday set the stage for prison inmates to be able to vote in elections for the first time in the territory’s history. Justice Andrew Cheung ruled that inmates have the constitutional right to register as voters and cast their ballots while serving sentences. The case was brought by two men, Chan Kin-sum and Choi Chuen-sun, who are currently in jail, and legislator Leung Kwok-hung, who had previously served time for offenses against public order. Cheung gave the justice department and the electoral commission 14 days to work out how to implement his decision.
■AUSTRALIA
Sex-crazed rhino unzips pen
A sex-crazed rhinoceros that smashed through the steel bars of its pen in search of female company had to be shot with a tranquilizer dart to keep him within the bounds of Adelaide’s Monarto Zoo. Monarto chief executive Chris West said keepers used a helicopter to locate the white rhino called Satara in the open-range zoo while visitors were kept out. “It was before zoo opening times so as soon as there’d been a realization then we’d have secured the whole site,” West said. Satara, 18, was captured in Africa’s Kruger National Park and brought to Australia six years ago as part of a captive breeding program.
■JAPAN
Fire at nuclear plant
A fire broke out at a nuclear power plant and a worker was sickened by smoke inhalation, but there was no release of radioactivity, the plant operator said yesterday. A small fire broke out at a turbine facility at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex during welding of pipes aimed at enhancing quake resistance, Tokyo Electric Power Co said in a statement. A worker was sickened from inhaling smoke, but not seriously, said the company, known as TEPCO. The fire was extinguished within one hour and there was no radiation leak from the incident, the company said.
■AUSTRALIA
Raunchy calendar not hot
Is a bare-all calendar a sure-fire way for your community group to raise funds this Christmas? A researcher said yesterday total exposure was a turn-off and that calendars leaving something to the imagination were the better sellers. University of Tasmania lecturer Pamela Turton-Turner said that pubic hair and nipples were out and strategically held teacups and flowers were in. What makes a charity calendar a success, she said, was the “stark comparison between the ageing, sometimes bizarre, non-classic bodies of the men and women in them compared with the classic, idealized and erotic bodies of people in movies and advertising.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Protesters arrested at airport
Four people were arrested early yesterday after 50 demonstrators against global warming broke into a secure area of Stansted Airport near London, police said. The demonstrators occupied the area near the runway of the airport north of London at around 3:15am, organizers Plane Stupid said. The area had been closed for renovation. “About 50 protesters have gained access to Stansted Airport and they are airside,” an Essex police spokeswoman said. “We have arrested four people so far. Police have contained the area where the protesters are and they will be dealing with them in due course.” In a statement, Plane Stupid said the disruption to flights would prevent “the release of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.” The organization said the demonstrators had chained themselves up and were protected by barricades. They wanted to remain near the runway to prevent the airport from opening to traffic at 5am.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Winter wonderland canceled
A Christmas theme park that promised ice rinks, elves and reindeer canceled its opening on Saturday after a local council warned customers the event was no winter wonderland. Lapland West Midlands had promised visitors an “authentic taste of Christmas” with huskies, reindeer and snow blown every hour at a site at Essington, 220km northwest of London, but early visitors previewing the event saw only a handful of tents in a muddy field, garishly painted figurines, and no sign of the promised ice rink. Local authorities warned people not to show up. “There aren’t any animals up at the site. There’s not a lot up there in the way of an event,” said Carol Dean, an official from the local Staffordshire County Council. Another Christmas park in southern England closed earlier this week after customers complained the decorations were shoddy and events badly organized. Some customers there reportedly became so irate they attacked the park’s Santa Claus and physically abused an elf.
■EGYPT
Eleven killed in bus accident
Eleven Egyptian Christians were killed and 30 injured when their bus overturned yesterday during a church outing, police sources said. The Christians were traveling from the central town of Minya to the city of Alexandria and the crash took place about 30km southwest of Cairo.
■SPAIN
Politician sparks outrage
A Spanish politician’s shout of “Death to the Bourbons,” Spain’s royal family, has stirred nationalist tensions and sparked demands he resign. Lower-house deputy Joan Tarda made the cry as members of his Catalan nationalist party, which seeks independence from Spain, burnt a coffin symbolizing the Spanish constitution to mark its 30th anniversary on Saturday. Under Spanish law, anybody who insults the royal family can face up to two years in prison. Leaders from across Spain’s political spectrum said his comments were unacceptable and the conservative opposition Popular Party demanded Tarda, a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), be thrown out of Congress. In a statement on Sunday, Tarda said he did not suggest anyone kill members of the royal family and he meant to criticize the monarchy as an institution. Opinion polls show Spain’s King Juan Carlos remains broadly popular three decades after he helped usher in the constitution and end 40 years of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco.
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
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