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World News Quick Take

■AUSTRALIA

Canberra stands firm

The government insisted yesterday it would not bring home a boatload of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers rescued off Indonesia, as a stand-off over their fate deepened. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the Sri Lankans, picked up 10 days ago by an Australian customs ship in Indonesian waters, would be processed in Indonesia following an agreement between the two countries’ leaders. “There were always going to be humanitarian, refugee, or immigration implications,” Smith told public broadcaster ABC. “Those implications will be resolved in Indonesia on Indonesian soil, because that’s the agreement we have with the Indonesian government.” The Oceanic Viking customs ship has sailed to Bintan but the provincial governor there stopped it docking on Tuesday, saying the island was not a “dumping ground” for refugees.



■CHINA

Transvestites go on trial

Five Filipino transvestites have gone on trial in Shanghai, accused of drugging men and robbing them. Prosecutors told a court on Tuesday the five men “dressed as women and, after leading the victims into taxis or hotel rooms, induced them to eat chocolate and other foods laced with sleeping drugs,” Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The men stole mobile phones, credit cards and a Rolex watch. They used the cards to buy perfume and gold, the prosecutors said. The five men aged from 26 to 30 were accused of committing the crimes three times from late last year to February, and were detained by police in March. The men pleaded guilty to the charges, the Legal Daily said.



■INDONESIA

Tight pants banned in Aceh

Muslim women would be banned from wearing tight pants in a devoutly Islamic district of Aceh Province under proposed regulations to take effect on Jan. 1, an official said yesterday. Any Muslim caught violating the dress code, which also prohibits shorts for men, will be told to put on government-issued full-length skirts or loose pants, said Ramli Mansur, head of West Aceh District. Islamic police will determine if clothing violates the dress code, he said.



■JAPAN

Ships’ collision probed

The government began an on-site investigation yesterday into a collision between a naval destroyer and a South Korean container vessel on Tuesday night in the Kammon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu. The collision sparked fires on both ships and mangled the bow of the warship and the starboard quarter of the freighter. One navy crewmember was injured and five others suffered smoke inhalation.



■GREECE

Gunmen wound six officers

One police officer was in serious condition after being shot by unidentified gunmen in a northern Athens suburb on Tuesday, police said, adding that five others were injured in the attack. Leftist and anarchist groups have launched a series of attacks against police, businesses, public institutions and politicians after a policeman shot dead a teenager in Athens in December, prompting the worst riots in decades. “Two unknown assailants riding a motorcycle shot and injured police officers outside the police station of Aghia Pareskevi,” said a police official, who declined to be named.



■FRANCE

Employee attempts suicide

France Telecom said an employee at a Paris call center tried to commit suicide on the job on Tuesday by overdosing on medication but was rescued by colleagues. About 25 France Telecom employees have taken their lives in the past year and a half. Unions blame the suicides on stress because of restructuring. The company said the 32-year-old call center employee had been experiencing personal problems and that his workload had been lightened. France Telecoms has put corporate restructuring on hold until at least the end of the year in a bid to ease stress among employees.



■FRANCE

Rare vintage auction soon

The Tour d’Argent, the restaurant in Paris famed for dishing up more than 1 million ducks, is putting 18,000 bottles up for auction in December. Rare vintages common mortals may have read about but never actually seen — such as a Chateau Lafite Rothschild or a 200-year-old Fine Champagne — go under the hammer Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 and are expected to fetch up to a million euros, auctioneers Piasa said. Bottles on sale were selected from 450,000 stocked in the cellars of the restaurant. Bought directly from vintners, none of the bottles have ever been on the market.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Queen welcomes Patil

Indian President Pratibha Patil received a red carpet welcome from Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday at the start of a three-day state visit to former colonial power Britain. The queen hosted a banquet for Patil, the first Indian woman to be elected to the ceremonial role, after she was taken in a state carriage procession to Windsor Castle, where she will stay during the trip. The queen paid tribute at the dinner to the strong, historic ties between the two countries and the contribution of India’s population in Britain. Patil praised the shared values of their two countries. She also invited the queen to visit New Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.



■FRANCE

Free paper for young

To stave off a seemingly relentless decline in readers, the government is pushing forward with a novel approach: giving away papers to young readers in an effort to turn them into regular customers. The government on Tuesday detailed plans of a project called “My Free Newspaper,” under which 18 to 24-year-olds will be offered a free, yearlong subscription to a newspaper of their choice. “Winning back young readers is essential for the financial survival of the press, and for its civic dimension,” Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said. Emmanuel Schwartzenberg, a former media editor of Le Figaro who has written a book about the problems of the French press, said he was skeptical about the project. “This just reinforces the belief that newspapers should be free, which is a very bad idea,” Schwartzenberg said.



■BRAZIL

Rio prepares to fight crime

The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday it would release funds to fight crime in Rio de Janeiro earlier than originally planned ahead of the 2016 Olympics. “If the rhythm of investment in public security were to stay as it is, we would not get to 2016 in a satisfactory situation,” said Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro, noting the government needs to work three times as fast to reach its goal. Rio de Janeiro was picked earlier this month as the host of the 2016 Olympics, the first Olympic Games ever to take place in South America.



■UNITED STATES

Artists plan to freeze house

A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit, Michigan’s thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region. The project from Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune, dubbed Ice House Detroit, is the latest example of the remnants of Detroit’s population loss and industrial decline serving as both artistic inspiration and canvas. Holm, 38, plans to photograph the transformation of the house, which will be sprayed with water and gradually covered in ice. In the spring, crews will salvage what building materials can be reused and demolish the home. The lot will be donated, probably for a community garden.



■UNITED STATES

Life’s better on death row

A white supremacist gang member convicted of murder has told the Southern California jury deciding his penalty that he wants capital punishment because prison amenities are better on death row. Billy Joe Johnson is already serving a 45-year sentence for a different killing and is locked down most of the day. He testified on Tuesday in Orange County that he had heard death row isn’t so bad, especially compared with his current conditions. His attorney says the 46-year-old figures that by the time his death sentence appeals run out, he’ll be 65 or 70 years old and won’t want to live longer anyway. To try to convince the jury that he deserves death, Johnson testified he’s killed two other people and never been caught.



■UNITED STATES

FAA revokes pilots’ licenses

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their Minneapolis destination by 240km. The pilots — Timothy Cheney of Washington state, the captain, and Richard Cole of Oregon, the first officer — told safety investigators they were working on their personal laptop computers and lost track of time and place. The pilots, who were out of communications with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes, violated numerous federal safety regulations in the incident on Wednesday last week, the FAA said in a statement. The violations included failing to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly, the agency said.



■UNITED STATES

Obama daughters get shots

The daughters of US President Barack Obama have gotten their swine flu shots. The White House has been weighing how to address public interest in whether the first family has been vaccinated against A(H1N1), or swine flu. The administration posted the answer on its Web site on Tuesday: Obama and his wife, Michelle, will “wait until the needs of the priority groups” — including young people under 24, pregnant women and people with underlying illnesses — have been met.
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