■AUSTRALIA
Koalas in decline: research
Koalas have suffered a sharp population decline because of development, bushfires and global warming, and could vanish within decades, researchers said yesterday. The wild koala population was between 43,000 and 80,000, well under previous estimates of more than 100,000, with the animals facing possible extinction in about 30 years, the Australian Koala Foundation said. In one area of northern Queensland state that had 20,000 koalas a decade ago, a team of eight people did not find even one koala in four days of searching.
■AUSTRALIA
‘Sheikh’ waves flags
A self-styled sheikh accused of sending abusive letters to families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan wrapped himself in chains and waved Australian flags after a court appearance yesterday. Man Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, then made the bizarre suggestion that popular children’s band The Wiggles should perform a peace concert for children whose parents were killed during the conflict. “I love Australia. I want safety for Australia,” he told journalists, while waving small Australian flags. “When the Australian government kills innocent Afghan civilians they might kill our civilians.” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the hate-mail allegations as “sickening” when they came to light last month. “I ask Mr. Kevin Rudd ... did your stomach turn when you heard the news that the Australian army has killed innocent civilians?” Monis asked.
■FRENCH POLYNESIA
Former president detained
Former president Gaston Flosse, an ally of former French president Jacques Chirac, has been questioned and detained in a graft probe by authorities in Tahiti, the prosecutor in the case said. Gaston, 78, was accompanied to prison in a suburb of Papeete on Monday by dozens of party supporters and friends chanting slogans and denouncing France’s justice system. Hundreds of supporters earlier spent the afternoon outside the Palace of Justice where Gaston was questioned for two hours by Judge Philippe Stelmach before going before a court that placed him in detention. Flosse, a French senator, served four terms as head of the French Pacific territory.
■THAILAND
Airport moves statues
The main airport is to relocate 12 giant “demon statues” to boost the morale of staff who thought the figures brought bad luck, local media and officials said yesterday. The statues at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport will move from the arrivals area to the check-in zone at a cost of around 1.7 million baht (US$51,000), Airports of Thailand (AOT) president Serirat Prasutanond said. The English-language Bangkok Post newspaper reported that airport director Niran Thiranartsin said the decision had partly resulted from complaints from airport staff. “The shopkeepers are blaming the ‘demon statues’ for the problems they have faced at the airport,” the paper said. “The guardian spirit statues will be shifted from the inner zone of the passenger terminal to the check-in area to ‘improve morale.’”
■PHILIPPINES
Four abducted in Maluso
Al-Qaeda-linked militants abducted at least four factory workers yesterday, police said, a day after authorities found the severed head of a previous kidnap victim. Armed men in military-style uniforms seized the workers from the Hitech Wood Craft Corp in Maluso town on Basilan island before dawn, provincial police chief Abubakar Tulawie said.
RSS