■PHILIPPINES
Frenchwoman murdered
A 54-year-old Frenchwoman was shot dead, and three suspects were arrested for alleged involvement in the murder, police said yesterday. Genevieve Sonia Mas, who arrived in the country last December, was killed while riding a tricycle in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental province, 540km south of Manila, on Tuesday. The suspected gunman, Melchorito Alcala, 31, was arrested shortly after the shooting. Police later arrested Abdullah Benamirouch, a French national, and his Filipina wife, Rose, who allegedly hired Alcala to kill Mas.
■NEW ZEALAND
Opera keeps vandals at bay
Opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has been credited by a local mayor with keeping vandals away from his city center because they find her singing “bloody hideous.” Bob Harvey, the mayor of Waitakere City, said classical music has been playing through speakers in an area between the city’s transport hub and council offices for the last three years. There has been no defacing or damaging of art works in the area since the music was switched on. “We have been playing ... Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and a dash of Dame Kiri,” Harvey was reported as saying in the New Zealand Herald yesterday.
■PHILIPPINES
Arroyo slammed over pardon
The family of assassinated Philippine opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr yesterday accused the president of denying them justice by pardoning 10 soldiers convicted of the 1983 murder. Aquino was gunned down at Manila airport as he was returning from US exile. President Gloria Macapacal Arroyo on Wednesday commuted the sentences of the last 10 convicted murderers. They were freed on Wednesday. Senator Benigno Aquino III suggested Arroyo was hitting back at his mother, former president Corazon Aquino, for joining calls demanding Arroyo step down.
■INDONESIA
Couples ordered to buy trees
A cash-strapped Indonesian district in West Java has ordered couples planning to get married to provide 10 trees to local authorities for a reforestation program, an official said on Wednesday. Anyone filing for divorce in Garut in West Java would also have to fork out for at least one tree, district secretary Wibowo said.
■AUSTRALIA
‘Amnesty’ drug bins offered
Last-chance disposal bins for illicit drugs will be offered following the overdose death of a schoolgirl at a rock concert, police said yesterday. Friends of 17-year-old Gemma Thoms claim she quickly swallowed three ecstasy tablets at the entrance to the Big Day Out festival in Perth last month when she spotted police with sniffer dogs. She died in hospital of organ failure after collapsing at the festival. In a bid to prevent similar incidents, so-called “amnesty bins” would be trialed for the first time this weekend at the Rock-it concert in Western Australia state, police said.
■INDIA
Party buys rights to ‘Jai Ho’
Aiming to spice up its election campaign, India’s ruling Congress party has bought the rights to Jai Ho, the Oscar-winning song from Slumdog Millionaire. The world’s largest democracy will hold a general election between April 16 and May 13 in a mammoth logistical exercise in which 714 million people will cast their votes. Congress leaders said the song, whose title is Hindi for “Let there be victory,” will be played during rallies in rural towns, villages and cities.
■UNITED KINGDOM
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