■AUSTRALIA
Boat blast caused by arson
A blast on a boat smuggling people that killed five asylum seekers off northwest Australia earlier this year was caused by arson, police said yesterday. The explosion ripped through the boat carrying 47 asylum seekers and two Indonesian crew on April 16, shortly after it had been intercepted by an Australian navy vessel at Ashmore Reef. Authorities have previously refused to speculate on how the blast occurred, but Northern Territory police said yesterday a five-month investigation had concluded an asylum seeker set fire to gasoline in a bilge pump. “[It] was lit by one or more persons,” assistant police commissioner Mark McAdie told reporters. “What we can’t do is identify who did it.”
■MALAYSIA
Wife collects militant’s body
The wife of slain Islamist militant leader Noordin Mohammed Top has left for Indonesia to claim the body of her husband for burial in Malaysia today, a family representative said. “Noordin’s wife, Rahmah Rusdi, and his brother, Yahya Mohammed Top, left at 9:10am on Thursday morning for Jakarta to collect his body,” Badarudin Ismail said yesterday. “She will be meeting with Malaysian diplomats there and will be taken to the police morgue for the final paperwork. Once the paperwork is settled, we expect to receive Noordin’s body in Malaysia on Friday.” Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian who led a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah network, was killed along with several other militants at the bloody end of a nine-hour siege in central Java three weeks ago.
■INDIA
Boat death toll up to 36
Rescuers found another five bodies early yesterday from a double-decker tourist boat that capsized in a southern reservoir, raising the death toll to 36, with more than a dozen people still missing, police said. The boat carrying 74 tourists capsized on Wednesday evening after the tourists rushed to one side to look at elephants in a wildlife sanctuary, tipping the vessel, police officer R. Rajesh said. Rescuers have pulled 36 bodies from the reservoir in the Thekkady forest area in Kerala State and were looking for 18 missing people, Rajesh said. Most of the tourists were from Karnataka State, he said.
■JAPAN
Activists win rare victory
In a rare win for heritage activists, a court yesterday halted plans for a road bridge over the scenic and ancient port that helped inspire the animation hit movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. The court ruled that the impact would have been too grave on picturesque Tomonoura port — which is lined with traditional Japanese houses and faces the Seto Inland Sea — located in western Hiroshima Prefecture. It was the first time a court had halted a public works project in order to preserve a landscape, public broadcaster NHK said.
■BANGLADESH
Rat killer receives award
The goverment on Wednesday awarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a month-long campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce the need for food imports. Mokhairul Islam, 40, won a first prize of a color TV for killing some 83,450 rats in the past nine months in Gazipur district near Dhaka. He collected their tails for proof. “I am so happy to get this honor,” Islam said after receiving a 14-inch TV and a certificate at an official ceremony. “I had no idea that the government gives prizes for this. This is an exciting moment. I will continue to kill them,” he said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Candy causes violence
Willy Wonka would be horrified. Children who eat too much candy may be more likely to be arrested for violent behavior as adults, new research suggests. Experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades. Of the children who ate candies or chocolates daily at age 10, 69 percent were later arrested for a violent offense by the age of 34. Of those who didn’t have any violent clashes, 42 percent ate sweets daily. The study was published in this month’s issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. It was paid for by the Economic and Social Research Council.
■IRAN
Pro-reform figure bailed
A state-owned newspaper says authorities have released one of the country’s most prominent pro-reform figures on bail. Saeed Hajjarian is considered a top architect of the movement pushing for more social and political freedoms. He is among more than 100 opposition politicians and activists on trial since August to face accusations of fomenting unrest after the disputed presidential election in June. Yesterday’s edition of the IRNA newspaper said Hajjarian was released on US$200,000 bail on Wednesday.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Official pleads with Arnie
A government minister asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a US Web site that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London. Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, told the Labour Party’s annual conference that “Punternet” fuels the demand for prostitution — a vice she said degrades women and puts them at risk. She said the Web site was a “very sinister development” in the trade and exploitation of women and allows guests to compare and rate services in the same way as they would a restaurant, a hotel or a holiday.
■KENYA
Ivory shipment seized
Wildlife authorities on Wednesday said they had seized more than 500kg of ivory at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport, the largest haul in years. The Kenya Wildlife Service said it seized 61 whole tusks in a Kenya Airways warehouse on Tuesday evening. The consignment was on its way to Bangkok, Thailand, via the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Another consignment of 637kg of ivory, which originated in Nairobi, was intercepted in Addis Ababa two days before.
■RUSSIA
Journalist threatened
A journalist said he had been threatened with physical violence and forced into hiding after posting a Web article critical of defenders of Soviet history. Alexander Podrabinek said that his life was in danger and his family faces psychological harassment from pro-Kremlin youth. Podrabinek wrote an article last month criticizing Moscow officials and military veterans for pressuring a restaurant to drop the name “Anti-Soviet,” claiming it insulted the country’s past.
■SOMALIA
Fighting breaks out
Heavy fighting broke out yesterday between rival Islamist factions in the port of Kismayo, shattering a key alliance in the insurgency against the Western-backed government. Hundreds of families fled the key southern port as the al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab and Hezb al-Islam battled for control. The city was wrested from government forces in August.
■UNITED STATES
ACLU laments border crisis
More than 6,000 people were killed trying to cross the US-Mexican border illegally in the past 15 years, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Wednesday. The ACLU urged the North American neighbors to declare a humanitarian crisis in the area, protect human lives and change policies that have led to an increase in the number of people who die trying to make the illegal move. The ACLU data were from the Mexican foreign ministry. It says 6,607 people died trying to cross the border since 1994. US officials have put the figure at 3,861.
■AFGHANISTAN
US reviews firefight
A top US military commander has ordered a new investigation of a firefight in Afghanistan on July 13 last year that claimed the lives of nine US soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. General David Petraeus, who heads the US Central Command, has appointed Richard Natonski, a Marine Corps lieutenant-general, to handle the inquiry, Central Command said on Wednesday. New issues have arisen since an official Army investigation into the battle was completed more than a year ago, the command said, but it would not say what those issues were.
■UNITED STATES
Dapper suspect escapes
Police are looking for a well-dressed robbery suspect who walked out of a Manhattan courthouse after an officer apparently mistook him for a lawyer. Ronald Tackman, 54, was wearing a business suit while waiting to appear before a judge on Wednesday morning. Authorities say Tackman slipped away from a prisoner holding area to a locked area behind a court room. A court officer spotted him and, thinking he was a lawyer, let him out.
■UNITED STATES
Woman fries, eats goldfish
Goldfish fried in lovers’ spat
Authorities say a Houston-area woman who was angry with her former common-law husband fried their pet goldfish and ate some of them. Pasadena police said it was a civil matter and no charges will be filed. The seven goldfish were purchased together by the couple during happier times. Police spokesman Vance Mitchell says the man reported on Saturday that the woman took the goldfish from his apartment. Officers who were dispatched to the woman’s home arrived to find four fried goldfish on a plate. The woman said she already ate the other three.
■UNITED STATES
WTF quietly changes name
A Wisconsin tourism lobbying group is changing its name after realizing its initials formed a crude acronym. The Wisconsin Tourism Federation group did a quiet rebranding in July, changing its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin and updating its logo from WTF to TFW after it was featured on Web sites and blogs poking fun at it. Chet Gerlach, lead lobbyist for the group, said the federation made the change after the meaning of the common text message lingo was brought to their attention.
■BRAZIL
Architect operated on twice
Celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer underwent colon surgery on Wednesday in the second operation for the 101-year-old in a week. Niemeyer underwent gall bladder surgery at Hospital Samaritano in Rio de Janeiro last Thursday. On Tuesday doctors discovered intestinal bleeding unrelated to the gall bladder condition. They then found a tumor in his colon and opted to remove a segment of the large intestine, a hospital spokesman said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the