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■AUSTRALIA

Inquiry clears Rudd

A government-commissioned inquiry yesterday cleared Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of accusations that he lied to parliament about giving preferential treatment to a campaign supporter. Observers agreed that if substantiated, the dishonesty charge could have brought down Rudd’s 21-month-old leadership. In June, Rudd commissioned Auditor-General Ian McPhee to investigate whether he or Treasurer Wayne Swan had intervened on behalf of car dealer John Grant earlier this year when Grant asked for government credit to keep his business afloat during the global credit squeeze.



■NEW ZEALAND

Field found guilty

A High Court jury yesterday found a former member of parliament and government minister Philip Field guilty of 11 of 12 corruption charges filed against him. He was also convicted of 26 bribery and obstruction charges out of 35 laid against him. Field faces a prison sentence of up to seven years and was accused of providing immigration favors to Thai people in return for work on his properties, and creating elaborate falsehoods to cover his actions.



■CHINA

Teen dies after beating

A teenager was allegedly beaten to death by trainers at a rehabilitation camp where his parents had sent him to cure his Internet addiction, reports said yesterday. The three supervisors who allegedly beat Deng Senshan, 16, were arrested after the boy’s death early on Sunday, his father Deng Fei told the Global Times. Deng Fei said he paid 7,000 yuan (US$1,000) to give his son a month’s training at the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp to rid him of his addiction to the Internet.



■THAILAND

Pilot killed in plane crash

A Bangkok Airways plane skidded off the runway and crashed into an old air traffic control tower after landing on Samui yesterday, killing the pilot, an official said. About 10 people were hospitalized with minor injuries after the plane landed in stormy weather and hit the building, Department of Civil Aviation Director-General Kanikka Kemawutanond said. She said the ATR72 twin-turboprop had 68 passengers, two pilots and two crew members on board and was flying from Krabi, another popular resort area.



■NEW ZEALAND

Jogger attacked by dogs

A female jogger “looked like a blob of blood” from multiple bite wounds after eight pig hunting dogs attacked her as she ran past a rural property on North Island, her husband said yesterday. Margit Christensen, 36, suffered scores of bites to her scalp, arms and legs before the dogs ran off. She had nine hours of surgery overnight on Monday, emergency specialist John Bonning said.



■CHINA

Survey ranks trustworthiness

Prostitutes are considered more trustworthy than government officials and scientists, a recent survey of more than 3,000 respondents showed. The online survey of 3,376 people showed that 7.9 percent of respondents considered sex workers trustworthy, putting them in third place after farmers and religious workers, the Insight China magazine said on its Web site. The China Daily said the list showed scientists and teachers ranked “way below, and that government functionaries, too, scored hardly better.” Soldiers and students were ranked after sex workers on the list of trustworthy professions, the magazine said.



■KENYA

Pirates release vessel

Somali pirates freed a German container ship and its crew after the hijackers were paid ransom, maritime officials said on Monday. Pirates released the German vessel Hansa Stavanger and its 24-strong crew after being paid US$2.7 million. It was later escorted from the Somali coast by an EU naval force, said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program. The 20,000 tonne vessel was seized in April.



■ITALY

Tourists beat up bag thief

A thief thanked police for arresting him and putting an end to a beating from South Korean tourists whom he had robbed, police said on Monday in Rome. “I must thank you, they were massacring me,” the 48-year-old told police after he was arrested near the Theatre of Marcellus. The thief stole a handbag from a family when they were not paying attention. He threatened them with a knife when he was spotted and then tried to flee. Two men from the family, in their twenties, chased him several hundred meters before they got him down with taekwondo moves. They disarmed him and beat him. A patrolling police officer intervened, separated the three and arrested the thief. “Normally tourists will just call us and report the incidents,” the officer said. “In this case, the two got really excited and could have seriously injured the thief.”



■SPAIN

Forest fire under control

Officials said yesterday a forest fire on the Canary Island of La Palma was under control, while another that raged for two weeks in Catalonia was extinguished. La Palma island security counselor Jose Miguel Ruano said: “There are no prospects of the fire [on La Palma] spreading. It’s now in a controlled area and all that is left to do is put it out.” The four-day blaze in the southern part of the island has destroyed some 3,000 hectares and 50 houses. Elsewhere, Catalonia officials said a 15-day fire that killed five firefighters in Horta de Sant Joan, west of Barcelona, was finally put out.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Female police don ‘niqab’

Two female police officers dressed in full-body Muslim niqab as part of a daylong community relations exercise. Media reported on Monday that officers in Sheffield dressed in conservative Islamic garb and wandered around the city’s center accompanied by a group of Muslim women. The Press Association news agency cited an interview with one of the officers in an in-house police magazine in which she said the experience gave her an “understanding of what Muslim females experience when they walk out in public in clothing appropriate to their beliefs.” The program, called “In Your Shoes,” took place earlier this year.



■ISRAEL

Controversial law passed

Parliament on Monday passed a controversial land reform law that allows local officials to privatize state land in urban centers, triggering the ire of the Arab minority. The law, which had the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was passed in the third and last reading by 61 votes against 45 in the 120-seat Knesset. Arab members of parliament denounced the law, which they said would block efforts by Palestinians who fled the creation of Israel in 1948 to recover their property or seek compensation for what they have lost. Arab Israelis account for some 20 percent of Israel’s population.



■CANADA

Family calls for aid cuts

Family and supporters of a Canadian sentenced to life in prison in Ethiopia on terrorism charges said on Monday they would press Ottawa to cut off development aid if Ethiopia does not repatriate him. Bashir Makhtal was last week convicted on charges that he supported the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian separatist movement. The Canadian, who had also been accused of supporting Islamist militias in Somalia, was sentenced on Monday by the high court in Addis Ababa. Makhtal’s family said the sentence would be appealed. They also urged the Canadian government to withdraw tens of millions of dollars in aid earmarked for Ethiopia if he is not released.



■CANADA

Wildfires ravage coast

Almost 3,000 people have been evacuated since Sunday and 85 percent of British Columbia remains on high alert as lighting strikes and tinder-dry forests continue to fuel wildfires on Canada’s Pacific coast. British Columbia Forest Service spokeswoman Alyson Couch said on Monday conditions remain hot and dry. She said firefighters from across Canada and some from Australia are joining those already in the forests. Since April, 2,200 fires have torched 68,867 hectares compared to 1,066 that burned 11,000 hectares last year.



■MEXICO

Quake rocks gulf

A powerful earthquake on Monday shook fishing villages along Mexico’s Gulf of California and prompted alarm as far away as Phoenix, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The US National Earthquake Information Center said the 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 12:59pm and was centered 122km north-northeast of Santa Isabel in Baja California and 533km southeast of the border city of Tijuana. It was the strongest of four quakes of 5.0-magnitude or greater that struck the area over a 45-minute period late Monday morning. Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Alex Rangel said a high-rise near downtown shook violently enough that workers evacuated, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.



■UNITED STATES

Jackson doctor wants say

A Los Angeles judge named Michael Jackson’s mother as permanent guardian of the star’s children on Monday, ignoring a surprise late bid by the singer’s male dermatologist to have a say in their upbringing. Lawyers for Katherine Jackson, 79, and the King of Pop’s ex-wife had last week agreed details of custody arrangements. However, what was expected to be a straightforward hearing to approve the agreement took a bizarre turn when an attorney for Jackson’s Beverly Hills dermatologist, Arnold Klein, appeared at the hearing. Lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said Klein wanted to “have a voice” in issues concerning the children’s “education, healthcare and welfare.” Klein was “not a presumed parent,” Kaplan said, although Monday’s twist is likely to stir speculation about whether the doctor is the biological father of Jackson’s two eldest children.



■UNITED STATES

Family visits 52 zoos

It’s been a wild year for members of an Ohio family, who say they have visited 52 zoos in 52 weeks. Columbus resident Marla Taviano, her husband and three daughters began last August with the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky and spent weekends and vacations going to zoos across the US. Their visits included the Dallas Zoo, New York’s Central Park Zoo and the San Diego Zoo.


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