■VIETNAM
Bird flu kills man
A 32-year-old man has died of bird flu, becoming the second fatality from the virus in the country so far this year, a medical official said yesterday. “The patient, 32, died on Feb. 25,” said Nguyen Van Thai, head of the intensive care unit at Hanoi’s tropical diseases institute. He had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus earlier this month, said a female doctor at the hospital who did not want to be named. She said he fell sick on Feb. 3 and was moved to the hospital two days later with a high fever and respiratory problems.
■CAMBODIA
Lawyer skips UN court
A UN-backed war crimes court yesterday delayed the Khmer Rouge head of state’s appeal for release from jail after his famed lawyer Jacques Verges failed to appear at proceedings. Khieu Samphan stood in court and said Verges had not traveled from Paris to attend his appeal ahead of the trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “In order to make sure that the pre-trial chamber hears my comments fully according to the law, I would like to request that the pre-trial chamber adjourn this meeting to a later date,” Khieu Samphan said. Frenchman Verges, who has acted for some of the world’s most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist “Carlos the Jackal,” is known for attempting to sow confusion in the courtroom. After a short recess, Judge Prak Kimsan said the appeal would be adjourned until April 3, adding that it was in Khieu Samphan’s interest to deal with the matter as soon as possible. During proceedings, co-defense lawyer Sa Sovan called the situation “unexpected” and said a relative of Verges had an emergency operation. But after the hearing he told reporters it was an important colleague in hospital.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Ryanair mulls toilet fee
Irish carrier Ryanair might start charging passengers for using the toilet while flying, chief executive Michael O’Leary said yesterday. “One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound [US$1.43] to spend a penny in future,” he told BBC television. He said this would not inconvenience passengers traveling without cash: “I don’t think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound … We’re all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel.”
■ESTONIA
Patriots’ terms suspended
Three young men were given suspended prison sentences in Thursday after they admitted desecrating what they took to be a communist monument in a cemetery in Voru last December. The three took offense at the presence of the monument and painted it the blue, white and black colors of the national flag. However, the monument was actually dedicated to the victims of fascism. “The suspects regretted their offense. They said they committed the offense in a state of extreme alcoholic intoxication,” said Meelis Sarapuu of the Voru prosecutor’s office. The trio will also have to pay the cost of cleaning the monument.
■ISRAEL
Teen, 14, gets divorce
Rabbis have ruled that joking teens are legally married, forcing a girl to become a divorcee at the age of 14. It all began as a joke in a schoolyard, where a 17-year-old boy declared the girl his wife, reciting a Jewish ritual vow in front of witnesses, and she accepted his ring. The couple’s “mock wedding” was proclaimed valid because the two had a physical relationship and were therefore considered married by Jewish law. After the boy’s parents protested, the Jerusalem Regional Rabbinical Court ordered the boy to divorce her.
■GREECE
Guard sentenced for escape
A prison guard was given a three-year suspended sentence for assisting Vassilis Palaiokostas to escape by helicopter for the second time in three years, court officials said on Thursday. Sunday’s Hollywood-style getaway of Palaiokostas and his Albanian accomplice Alket Rijai was a major embarrassment to the government. The guard was convicted for allowing the pair to meet in the prison courtyard from where they escaped. He has been suspended.
■GERMANY
Cashier’s firing protested
A Berlin cashier who was sacked from a supermarket after 31 years of service because her employer accused her of stealing 1.30 euros (US$1.65) has become a flash point in a debate about unchecked capitalism. Leaders of the country’s major political parties criticized the supermarket’s decision to fire Barbara Emme, especially because the 50-year-old denies the charges that she kept bottle deposit receipts worth 1.30 euros.
■HONG KONG
Chan angry with Christie’s
Film star Jackie Chan (成龍) slammed Christie’s for its sale in Paris of two Chinese imperial bronzes that Beijing says were stolen and called for the return of the artifacts taken nearly 150 years ago. “It has broken the hearts of the 1.3 billion people of China. All these national treasures should be returned to their home countries,” Chan was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.
■UNITED STATES
Octopus causes flood
An octopus pulled open a valve in its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and flooded the facility with hundreds of liters of sea water. Staff arrived at work Tuesday morning to find their offices soaked. They quickly traced the problem to the aquarium’s resident two-spotted octopus, a tiny female known for being curious and gregarious with visitors. The octopus apparently tugged on a valve and that allowed water to overflow its tank. Aquarium spokeswoman Randi Parent said no sea life was harmed by the flood, but the new, ecologically designed floors might be damaged by the water.
■UNITED STATES
Beach town ends wood row
A two-year battle over a New Jersey beach town’s plan to buy boardwalk wood from the Amazon rain forest is ending. Ocean City voted on Thursday night to settle a lawsuit with a Baltimore lumber company that was to sell it nearly US$1.2 million worth of Brazilian ipe wood. The plan to use the tropical hardwood to fix the boardwalk drew the ire of environmentalists, prompting the city to cancel the order. That sparked a court fight between the city and the lumber supplier. Under the settlement, the city will pay the company nearly US$1 million. The company will ship about one quarter of the wood originally ordered. The rest of the boardwalk would be completed with less durable domestic pine, considered friendlier to the environment.
■UNITED STATES
Launderer found guilty
A federal jury in Florida found a Brazilian guilty of conspiring to launder US$13.5 million from a fraudulent telemarketing scheme in his home country, the Justice Department said on Thursday. Rodrigo Molina, 32, was convicted Wednesday after a seven-day trial and could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison, the department said in a statement. He was arrested along with fellow Brazilian Marcos Neto Macchione in Florida in a police operation that also netted 18 suspects in Brazil, including the alleged fraud boss Doron Mukamal. Molina and Macchione were found guilty of laundering the proceeds of a telemarketing scheme in which gang members posing as securities brokers convinced investors to part with taxes, escrow payments or other service fees for stock purchases.
■UNITED STATES
Magnets to tame crocodiles
Florida wildlife managers have launched an experiment to see if they can keep crocodiles from returning to residential neighborhoods by temporarily taping magnets to their heads to disrupt their “homing” ability. Researchers at Mexico’s Crocodile Museum in Chiapas reported in a biology newsletter they had some success with the method, using it to permanently relocate 20 of the reptiles since 2004.
■UNITED STATES
Scientists build snowflake
The random, symmetrical beauty of snowflakes has been recreated in a computer program, US researchers said on Tuesday. It took four years for two mathematicians from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Davis, to develop the computer model’s theory and perform the computations.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not