■NEW ZEALAND
Clark may get UN post
Former prime minister Helen Clark is on a short list of candidates being considered to head the UN Development Program, local media reported yesterday. Prime Minister John Key, who has lobbied for Clark to get the job, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was preparing to make an announcement “very soon.” “If Helen Clark was to get the job obviously we would be delighted for her,” Key said. “It’s the sort of job she would carry out very well, the reason the government has been fully supportive” of her candidacy. The Trans-Tasman political newsletter reported that Clark’s appointment to the UN job was imminent and state-owned TV One News said it also had confirmation. Clark’s camp declined to confirm those reports.
■INDIA
Editor killed in northeast
Gunmen shot and killed the editor of a newspaper that supported government negotiations with militants in the troubled northeastern state of Assam, police said yesterday. Anil Majumdar, editor of the daily newspaper Aji, was shot in the chest seven times outside his house late on Tuesday in Assam’s main city of Guwahati. Majumdar had backed talks with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, an ethnic guerrilla force that has fought for an independent homeland since 1979. “He was returning from his office and was about to enter his residence when unidentified gunmen fired at him,” senior police official G.P. Singh said.
■PHILIPPINES
Fashion designer under fire
Fashion designer Angelo Fajardo was under fire yesterday for berating and insulting employees of a duty-free shop in a “creative outburst” caught on video. Fajardo even demanded a cashier at the duty-free shop outside Manila’s international airport kneel for his forgiveness after his tantrum on March 13. Fajardo’s flare-up was caught on a surveillance video and the footage was uploaded on YouTube. Ricky Rivera, Fajardo’s spokesman, defended the designer’s behavior as a “creative outburst.” “As a fashion designer, as an artist, sometimes he has creative outbursts maybe because of the fatigue he felt at the time of the incident,” Rivera said. The fracas erupted when the cashier asked for an identification card to support the credit card Fajardo used for purchasing several items at the store. Fajardo allegedly threatened to have the cashier fired unless he agreed to be slapped or to kneel down. The cashier knelt down to satisfy the furious designer. The embattled designer issued a public apology late on Tuesday, but the duty free’s union members have vowed to file criminal complaints against Fajardo.
■NEW ZEALAND
Hacker fights cyber-crime
A teenage computer hacker who caused millions of dollars of damage as part of a global cyber-crime ring has been hired by a telecom company to provide security advice. Owen Thor Walker was discharged without conviction as an 18-year-old last year after admitting six cyber-crime charges. He was the alleged brains behind a group of international hackers who used his programs to access personal data, send viruses around the world and commit other crimes, causing US$20 million in losses, police said last year. Walker — who went under the online name of “Akill” — designed an encrypted virus that was undetectable by anti-virus software, they said. He is now providing security advice for TelstraClear, the local arm of Australia’s largest telecoms firm Telstra.
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