■SOUTH KOREA
Soldier punished for photo
A young soldier has been punished for selling a fake photo of the son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Yonhap news agency said yesterday. Japan’s TV Asahi last month aired what it called an exclusive image of Kim Jong-un, thought to be the likeliest successor to his father. It retracted its report after the picture turned out to be that of a South Korean construction worker. A 24-year-old staff sergeant, identified by his surname Oh, demanded 2 million won (US$1,600) for the photo, Yonhap quoted an unidentified army official as saying. The official said Oh has been suspended from duty for three months but he escaped a tougher penalty because his act was not a breach of military security.
■VIETNAM
Nigerians held in drug probe
Police have arrested five Nigerians in a probe into a smuggling ring suspected of trafficking heroin from India to China, Vietnam News Agency reported late on Wednesday. “The suspects, including five Nigerians and four Vietnamese, have apparently transported a significant amount of drugs by air from India to Ho Chi Minh City,” the agency said. Counternarcotics officers had seized more than 2kg of heroin, it said. The gang allegedly used Vietnamese women to transport the heroin from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and then to China, the agency said.
■NEPAL
Murder palace to be rebuilt
The government will restore the palace in which the late King Birendra and almost all his family were gunned down at a family dinner eight years ago, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said. The king, Queen Aishwarya and seven other royals were killed in 2001 by a drugged and drunk Crown Prince Dipendra, who was angered by his parents’ refusal to let him marry a women he loved. He later killed himself. Birendra’s brother Gyanendra, who succeeded him, ordered the demolition of the mansion and only a small brick wall now stands. “The Tribhuvan Sadan must be rebuilt. It will be restored to its old position,” the prime minister said on Nepal Television late on Wednesday.
■MALAYSIA
Model accepts sentence
A woman sentenced to flogging for drinking beer has accepted the Islamic court’s order, saying she wants the punishment to be carried out soon, news reports said yesterday. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old model, was arrested on charges of drinking beer after Islamic authorities raided a hotel nightclub last year. She was sentenced on Monday to six lashes with a rattan cane after pleading guilty in the Shariah High Court. Consuming alcohol is a religious offense in Malaysia for Muslims. Some politicians and women’s rights activists have criticized the sentence as too harsh. Kartika said she wants the penalty carried out quickly so that she can resume her life with her husband and two children.
■AUSTRALIA
Rudd upset by bomber’s age
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday he found it “sickening” that one of the Jakarta bombers was apparently a boy aged just 16 or 17. Rudd’s comments came after Indonesian police released digitally reconstructed images of two militants suspected of last week’s blasts, which killed seven. “If those reports are true, it is sickening that these evil terrorists would prey on children to do their dirty work,” Rudd said. “The thought that terrorists engaged in their evil business would also prey upon children defies any standard of civilized behavior.”
■ITALY
Berlusconi ‘not a saint’
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday that he was “not a saint” as he faced increasing pressure over a series of alleged sex scandals, ANSA news agency reported. “I’m not a saint,” the billionaire leader said at the inauguration of a highway construction project in northern Brescia. “You understand that, and let’s hope the people at La Repubblica understand that,” he added, referring to the left-leaning daily that has carried a stream of reports on the prime minister’s alleged peccadilloes since late April. On Monday and Tuesday the weekly L’Espresso — which owns La Repubblica — posted audio clips on its Web site seemingly proving a liaison with call girl Patrizia D’Addario, 42. D’Addario has said she filmed Berlusconi’s bedroom with her mobile phone. Berlusconi said later on Wednesday that visitors to his homes were never asked to surrender their phones. “We let people keep their mobile phones because, at least when I am there, no inelegant situations can arise because I am a person of good taste, culture and elegance,” Berlusconi told a meeting of his People of Freedom party.
■NETHERLANDS
Arson caused Frank fire
Arson was the cause of the fire that destroyed the barracks where Anne Frank worked during her imprisonment in a Dutch concentration camp during World War II, Dutch police said on Wednesday. Police said their investigation had ruled out any technical cause for Sunday’s fire that virtually destroyed the barracks where Anne Frank had worked in 1944. No suspects have been detained.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Opposition plans march
Opposition challenger Almazbek Atambayev said yesterday he would lead thousands of his supporters through the capital Bishkek ahead of presidential election results due later in the day. Kyrgyzstan, a nation key to US military operations in Afghanistan, was holding a presidential election yesterday, which incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev was widely expected to win. The West and Russia are watching the election closely for any signs of instability. Bishkek was the site of violent protests in 2005 that toppled Bakiyev’s long-serving predecessor.
■FRANCE
Language students catch flu
Forty-seven teenagers attending a language course near Paris were diagnosed with H1N1 flu but were not in danger, French officials said on Wednesday. The students, mainly Spanish but also including Britons, Americans and one Russian, were among 150 teenagers attending the course. Another 17 cases were diagnosed at another school near Paris, where Italian teenagers had been attending a language course. A total of 793 confirmed and probable cases had been diagnosed in France by Wednesday.
■RUSSIA
Activist’s body found
The body of a human rights activist who went missing two months ago in the Russian republic of Karelia has been found, the organization he worked for said on its Web site. Anrei Kulagin’s body was recovered from a sand pit after he went missing on May 14. The announcement was made by Spraveldivost (Justice) human rights organization wEB SITE, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday. Kulagin, whose work involved trying to improve prison conditions in Russia, was last seen by a taxi driver who drove the activist to a cafe for a meeting previously arranged by telephone. It was not clear how he died.
■UNITED STATES
Naked Cowboy seeks office
The Naked Cowboy wants to be New York’s mayor, promising transparency in politics — while running almost buck naked. “I know how to do more with less,” said entertainer Robert Burck, clad as usual in a pair of white briefs, boots and a cowboy hat, as he announced his bid on Wednesday in Times Square. On most days, the 38-year-old ordained minister collects tourists’ tips while posing for photos with “Naked Cowboy” emblazoned across his underwear, cracking jokes and making up funny songs on the guitar strapped across his bare chest. He’s running as a write-in candidate against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a buttoned-down billionaire vying for his third term.
■UNITED STATES
Marijuana taxes increased
Perhaps only in the sometimes hazy world of medical marijuana could higher taxes be considered good news, but sure enough, supporters of medical marijuana were pleasantly pleased on Wednesday after Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved a huge tax increase — 15 times the former rate — on sales at the city’s handful of permitted medical marijuana dispensaries. Believed to be the first of its kind, Measure F received nearly 80 percent of the vote, a landslide that pot professionals hailed as a significant step in the legitimization of the cannabis industry. “It’s one more victory in a big war,” said Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University, a downtown storefront where the aroma of marijuana pervades the sidewalk. “It’s a lot better than being arrested and thrown in jail.”
■UNITED STATES
Sex offenders to be housed
Homeless advocates and county officials intend to move a group of sex offenders living under a bridge in Miami to private housing this week. About 70 offenders live in tents or makeshift huts near a bridge that connects Miami to Miami Beach. In the past three years, the bridge has become a shantytown of men on probation who struggle to find affordable housing that doesn’t violate strict local ordinances against sex offenders living too close to schools and parks. The chairman of the county’s Homeless Trust said the group would move eight of the offenders off the property and into an apartment.
■UNITED STATES
No takers for US$10 shark
The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a downtown Miami street after two men tried to sell it to several fish markets. The men apparently carried the 1.5m-long fish around on the city’s Metromover downtown train, prompting calls to police. News footage on Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police officers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around US$10. Rob Orta, an employee at Casablanca Fish Market, told television station WSVN that the men offered his business the shark. “But we don’t buy sharks off the street,” Orta said.
■UNITED STATES
PETA releases abuse video
An animal-rights group has released a video showing what it says is the abuse of Ringling Bros circus elephants. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Wednesday released what it said was a secretly recorded video showing handlers striking elephants backstage. PETA said someone affiliated with the group made the recording during a circus tour earlier this year. Circus spokeswoman Amy McWethy denied PETA’s abuse claims.
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
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