■AUSTRALIA
Faulkner becomes minister
One of the country’s most experienced lawmakers was appointed yesterday to replace the defense minister who resigned after failing to distance himself from his brother’s business dealings with the Defense Department. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Secretary of State John Faulkner would become the next defense minister a day after his predecessor Joel Fitzgibbon quit. One of Faulkner’s first official duties will be to represent Australia at a NATO summit in Brussels next week. Faulkner is one of only three members of Rudd’s government, which was elected in 2007, who had been ministers when the Labor Party was last in power in 1996. Rudd said he would announce further changes within days.
■INDONESIA
Four elephants poisoned
Four rare Sumatran elephants were found dead in the northwest near an oil palm plantation and are believed to have been poisoned by villagers, a conservationist said on Thursday. The carcasses of the protected giant animals were in a forest 900km from Jakarta, said Eddy Santoso, head of the local Conservation and Natural Resources Agency. The forest land has been rented by the government to local farmers for commercial purposes. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants remain, some of them in the forest in Riau Province. Parts of the forest were converted into oil palm plantations managed by villagers with the assistance of the state-owned plantation company Perkebunan Nusantara.
■AUSTRALIA
US husband jailed in death
An American salesman was sentenced to more than four years in jail yesterday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his new bride while scuba-diving during their honeymoon on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Bubble-wrap salesman David Gabriel Watson, known as Gabe, had been charged with murdering his wife, Christina, 26, in October 2003, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in court in Brisbane yesterday, avoiding a murder trial. Justice Peter Lyons sentenced Watson to four-and-a-half years in jail, suspended after 12 months. Watson, 32, was on honeymoon with his new wife when she drowned during a diving trip at a shipwreck off the city of Townsville, 11 days after their wedding in the US.
■JAPAN
Regulator bans rape games
A software industry body has decided to ban computer games in which players simulate sexual violence against females, a spokesman said yesterday. The industry move came after a Japanese computer game maker attracted furious protests from US rights campaigners against the game RapeLay, which lets players simulate stalking and raping young girls. In the game players earn points for acts of sexual violence, including following girls on commuter trains, raping virgins and their mothers, and then forcing them to have abortions.
■MALAYSIA
Non-Muslims may join party
The Islamic opposition party promised to let non-Muslims become full-fledged members yesterday as part of efforts to win over minorities who are suspicious of the party’s hardline policies. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, the Muslim-majority country’s biggest opposition group, has long alienated ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities because of its ambition to govern through an Islamic state with strict religious and morality laws.
■RUSSIA
Five die in shootout
Four suspected rebels and a member of the security forces were killed early yesterday in a shootout in the turbulent southern region of Ingushetia, Interfax news agency reported. Ingushetia has overtaken its neighbor Chechnya as the epicenter of violence along the country’s turbulent southern flank, challenging the Kremlin’s fragile rule and, security forces say, providing a foothold for global networks of Islamist militants. The battle took place near the village of Muzhichi, 14km from the border with Chechnya, after security forces engaged a group of 12 gunmen during a reconnaissance operation, Interfax quoted the source as saying.
■UNITED STATES
Killing in Mali condemned
Washington late on Thursday condemned the murder of a Briton in Mali, describing it as a “vicious and tragic act of terrorism.” “We are shocked and saddened by the murder of British citizen Edwin Dyer at the hands of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, operating in northern Mali. Our deepest condolences go to Mr Dyer’s family and friends,” said Ian Kelly, a department spokesman. “We condemn the recent killing, kidnappings and operations of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in northern Mali. This vicious and tragic act of terrorism highlights the need to continue our work against those who seek to spread violence and chaos throughout the region.”
■SOUTH AFRICA
Zuma to aim for two terms
New President Jacob Zuma will aim to serve more than one term despite having previously said he planned to step down after five years, a union ally said yesterday. Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of trade union federation COSATU, said the union had discussed the matter with the president. “He is not going to be a one-term president. And there’s no discussions about it,” Vavi said in comments broadcast on Talk Radio 702 yesterday. The presidency was not immediately available for comment, but local media quoted a ruling party spokeswoman as saying the matter had not been discussed by the African National Congress (ANC). The Constitution allows presidents to serve two five-year terms.
■GREECE
New group claims bombing
A newly emerged left-wing militant group claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded early yesterday outside the offices of a tax office in an Athens suburb, causing extensive damage, but no injuries. The bomb had been planted outside the offices of the tax office in the Athens suburb of Psyhiko. Officials received a warning after unknown individuals called the daily newspaper Eleftherotypia 10 minutes before the bomb was set to go off. The explosion caused extensive damage of the building. A newly emerged group calling itself the “Armed Revolutionary Struggle” claimed responsibility for the explosion.
■GUINEA-BISSAU
Gunmen kill candidate
Gunmen killed a government minister yesterday who was to be a candidate in the presidential election, state radio said. “Baciro Dabo was killed at 4 o’clock this morning by a group of unidentified gunmen,” the report said. In March, soldiers killed President Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira in an apparent revenge attack for the slaying of the army chief of the unstable West African country, a transit point for drug smuggling. Elections are scheduled for June 28.
■CANADA
PM rejects resignation
Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused the resignation of Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt on Wednesday after a binder containing confidential nuclear documents was left in a TV studio. The documents were left in a CTV studio after a visit by Raitt and at least one other official. CTV said it had kept the documents for six days to see if anybody would try to retrieve them, and no one did.
■UNITED STATES
Armstrong tweets newborn
Lance Armstrong announced the birth of his son on the social-networking site Twitter late on Thursday. Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven straight years after overcoming testicular cancer, posted a tweet welcoming Max Armstrong to the world. He said his son and girlfriend, Anna Hansen, were both fine and attached a picture of the newborn. “Wassup, world? My name is Max Armstrong and I just arrived. My Mommy is healthy and so am I!” Armstrong posted to his account. Armstrong also has three children with his ex-wife, Kristin.
■UNITED STATES
Fungus killing bats: experts
Experts warned Congress that a fungus attacking bats could spread nationwide in a few years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century. State and independent experts told two House of Representatives subcommittees on Thursday that money and manpower are needed to stop the spread of white-nose syndrome, named for whitish dusting the fungus creates on bats’ noses, ears and wings. First detected in 2007 in a New York cave, the fungus has spread to nine states and killed 500,000 to 1 million bats, mostly common species. Recently, it spread to areas close to some of the largest and most endangered bat populations in the country. Some caves have been closed to people as a way to prevent spread of the fungus.
■UNITED STATES
Killer to remain in hospital
A schizophrenic man who beheaded and cannibalized a fellow Greyhound bus passenger will remain in a psychiatric hospital for at least another year. Stanley Li was found not criminally responsible earlier this year for the July killing of Tim McLean, whom he stabbed dozens of times and dismembered as horrified passengers fled the bus. A judge ruled that he suffered from untreated schizophrenia and did not realize that his actions were wrong. The Manitoba Criminal Review Board ruled on Thursday that Li remained too dangerous to be freed. The board accepted the recommendations of Li’s psychiatrist, who said Li is taking his medicine and no longer hears voices in his head, but still needs to be under the “highest level of security possible.” Li’s case will be reviewed annually to determine if he is well enough to be released.
■RUSSIA
Spacewalk delayed
A planned spacewalk at the international space station is being delayed by high carbon dioxide readings in the suits of the two space walkers. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Mike Barratt are scheduled to take the first spacewalk since the space station expanded its permanent crew. They plan to install a new antenna and a new Russian docking port. High carbon dioxide levels can cause dizziness, nausea and other problems. Ground crews were trying to help resolve the problem yesterday as Padalka and Barratt waited to begin the scheduled five-and-a-half-hour space walk.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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