■KYRGYZSTAN
Bakiyev to run again
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was nominated by his party yesterday for re-election amid growing tensions with the opposition, which has accused authorities of clamping down on critics ahead of the poll. Bakiyev will face opposition candidate Almazbek Atambayev, a former prime minister and ally. “The decision has been made unanimously. Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been nominated as a candidate,” Ak Zhol Deputy Chairman Avtandil Arabayev said at a party congress yesterday. Bakiyev came to power shortly after a disputed parliamentary election in 2005 triggered violent protests and forced long-serving leader Askar Akayev to flee the country.
■SOUTH KOREA
Suicide site owner nabbed
Police on Thursday announced the arrest of a Web site operator in a probe into a series of Internet-based group suicides that have left at least 14 people dead. Police said a 21-year-old man, identified only as Chung, was accused of opening a suicide cafe. Details on his background were not given. “He is the first to be arrested for operating a suicide Web site in our country,” an unnamed investigator told Yonhap news agency. Chung’s Web site was responsible for abetting suicide by four groups, police said, vowing to expand a crackdown on similar cafes. Aiding or encouraging suicide is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
■AUSTRALIA
Politician ‘grows’ taller
A politician who had bone-stretching surgery to become taller has admitted to having the painful procedure done eight years ago, saying she was self-conscious about her size. Hajnal Ban, a local government representative in Queensland state, spoke to reporters about the procedure after local media linked her to God Made Me Small, Surgery Made Me Tall, a book she wrote under the pseudonym Sara Vornamen and which detailed her insecurities about her height.
■SRI LANKA
Army Web site hacked
The army’s Web site has been targeted in a “cyber terrorism” attack by Tamil rebels, the defense ministry said yesterday, and replaced with gruesome photos of apparent victims of the civil war. The www.army.lk site had been removed by hackers, who replaced it with photographs of civilians said to have been killed in military action in the northeast. Army technicians were working to remove the images, officials said, blaming the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The ministry accused LTTE of resorting to “cyber terrorism” and said in a statement that the attack was “another sign of the LTTE’s inevitable defeat.”
■SINGAPORE
Couple fined for naked walk
A Swedish man and a Singaporean woman have been fined for strolling naked through a busy upscale bar and restaurant area for a stunt after a few drinks, local media reported yesterday. Jan Philip, 21, an exchange student with a local university, and Eng Kai Er, a 24-year-old Singaporean studying in Sweden, were each fined S$2,000 (US$1,300) for committing an obscene act, the Straits Times said. In January, the two attracted much attention when they strolled naked through Holland Village, a place popular among expatriates for its bars and al fresco restaurants, apparently after drinking beer. The two were fully clothed and wore sunglasses when they appeared in court on Thursday.
■SAUDI ARABIA
Court grants child divorce
An eight-year-old girl who was sold into marriage by her father has been given a divorce after an international outcry over the case, media reported on Thursday. The marriage of the girl to a man in his 50s was annulled on Wednesday in an out-of-court settlement overseen by a new judge in Onaiza, after the original judge in the case refused to bend to pressure to grant the divorce, reports said. Riyadh newspaper said the settlement was reached after the intervention in the case by an unidentified “important personality.” The girl’s father had sold her last year to the man in exchange for a dowry. When her mother found out, she petitioned the court for a divorce for the girl. The judge twice rejected her case — though he stipulated that the marriage could only be consummated after the girl attains puberty.
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