■HONG KONG
Public opinion sought
Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang (唐英年) said the government would start consulting the public on expanding its 60-member legislature and the 800-member panel that picks the local leader in 2012 — part of a long path toward greater democracy in the territory. Tang, the territory’s No. 2 official, told lawmakers yesterday the government has issued a consultation document that proposes expanding the legislature by 10 seats and the leader selection panel by 400 seats. The limited reform proposals came after China ruled in December 2007 that Hong Kong can elect its leader no sooner than 2017 and its legislature after that, in 2020 at the earliest.
■HONG KONG
Killer in love triangle jailed
A cheating deaf-mute husband who killed his deaf-mute lover when she tried to persuade him to divorce his wife began a 15-year jail term on Tuesday in the territory. Yip Kai-ming, 47, stabbed to death 39-year-old Ng Kwai-fong when she pressured him to leave his wife, who is also deaf-mute, the High Court heard. The pair, both married with two children, met at the Hong Kong Deaf People’s Christian Church, where Yip was a deacon who helped parishioners by fixing faulty electric wiring or appliances at their homes. He began an affair with Ng in October 2007 and killed her last September when she pressured him to leave his wife.
■SRI LANKA
Banknote to mark war’s end
The government on Tuesday released a banknote to mark the end of the nation’s 37-year separatist war, following the crushing of Tamil Tiger rebels in May, the central bank said. The first commemorative banknote in the 1,000-rupee (US$9) denomination was given to President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday, the bank said in a statement. “The valiant contribution made by the nation’s victorious sons and daughters, of the security forces and the police, is the theme on the reverse of the note,” the bank said in a statement. “The design at the center depicts the hoisting of the national flag by members of the security forces.”
■INDIA
Gas leak affects 61 people
At least 61 employees from a plant belonging to South Korea’s Samsung Group were admitted to a hospital near New Delhi following a suspected gas leak on its premises, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred at the multinational company’s washing machine assembly unit in Delhi’s suburb of Noida on Tuesday night. Local police said workers reported breathing problems and a burning sensation in their eyes. Some of the workers fainted, which led to operations being halted and the affected employees being taken to a local hospital. They were discharged yesterday morning.
■AUSTRALIA
Lost man drives 600km
An 81-year-old man who became lost on an early morning drive to the shops and ended up almost 600km away told police he failed to stop because he “liked to drive.” Eric Steward was visiting friends in Yass in New South Wales, when he left to buy a newspaper at about 7:30am on Monday. But after taking a wrong turn on the highway, he drove for more than eight hours before stopping police to ask for directions near Geelong in Victoria. He said yesterday he could not remember what he was thinking during the drive. “I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew it was somewhere, and with a bit of luck I would eventually find my wife again,” he said.
■FRANCE
Woman marries dead fiance
A woman whose fiance asked her to marry him two days before he was killed in a car crash has been granted a posthumous white wedding in their village. Magali Jaskiewicz, who has been grieving for her partner since his death a year ago, became his legal widow in a ceremony held with family and friends on Saturday. The 26-year-old, who had lived with Jonathan George for six years and had two children with him, stood beside a portrait of him as the marriage rites were read in the town of Dommary-Baroncourt. Mayor Christophe Caput, who married Jaskiewicz, her request was “rock solid.” Posthumous marriages are possible in France as long as evidence exists that the deceased person had the intention while alive of wedding their partner. Dozens are said to take place in the country every year.
■FRANCE
Attacks discussed in e-mails
A nuclear physicist discussed possible terrorist attacks targeting the army in e-mail exchanges with North Africa’s al-Qaeda branch before his arrest last month, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Adlene Hicheur, a 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, had worked on the Large Hadron Collider as well as at a technology institute in Switzerland before he was taken into custody at his home in Vienne, France, on Oct. 8. His alleged e-email conversations discussed no concrete plans for an operation but cited examples of possible targets, the prosecutor’s office said. Confirming a report that appeared in Le Dauphine Libere, the prosecutor’s office said one potential target was the 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which is based near where Hicheur lived. The brigade has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.
■YEMEN
Abductee captured again
Tribesmen recaptured a Japanese engineer shortly after they released him to mediators in a tribal area near the capital Sana’a late on Tuesday, a government official said. The kidnappers “changed their minds and refused to let the man go before their demand is met,” the official said. The kidnappers have demanded the release of a fellow clan member detained for ties with al-Qaeda. The engineer was grabbed on Monday. Mediators had promised the government would meet the kidnappers demand.
■IRAN
General warns Saudi Arabia
Chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi warned Saudi Arabia on Tuesday over its military offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels, saying it signals the start of “state terrorism” and endangers the entire region. IRNA news agency also quoted the general as saying the actions of Yemen and Saudi Arabia would fuel militancy and spread violence to the rest of the Muslim world. Tehran has been alarmed by the Yemeni and Saudi offensive against the rebels, whom the two countries accuse of receiving arms and money from Iran.
■GERMANY
Alleged extortionist gives up
The 26-year-old man charged with trying to extort US$100,000 from former model Cindy Crawford has surrendered, Stuttgart prosecutors said on Tuesday. Edis Kayalar walked into a police station late on Monday to give himself up, they said. He has been charged in Los Angeles with one count of extortion. Kayalar allegedly threatened to release a photo of Crawford’s daughter gagged and tied to a chair when she was seven years old that had been taken by her former nanny during a game.
■UNITED STATES
Oldest American dies at 114
A 114-year-old woman believed to be the oldest native-born American and the third-oldest person in the world has died at a New York nursing home. Olivia Patricia Thomas died on Monday in the St Francis Home of Williamsville, near Buffalo in western New York. She had lived there since 2004. She’s being remembered as a dedicated gardener who loved to travel the world. The Gerontology Research Group tracks supercentenarians and says Thomas was the oldest person born in the US. She was born on June 29, 1895.
■UNITED STATES
Motorcade car crashes
A police car working ahead of Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade was involved in a minor traffic accident on Tuesday evening, but it wasn’t part of the procession and the vice president was unhurt. Three unmarked police vehicles, with their lights and sirens on, were traveling five to 10 minutes ahead of the motorcade on Manhattan’s West Side and were checking traffic before Biden passed en route to a television appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, chief police spokesman Paul Browne said. The cars were going through an intersection when the second one collided with a livery cab around 5:40pm. Traffic had stopped for the police, but the livery cab driver pulled out around the line of vehicles and was trying to go through the intersection, police officer said. A passenger in the livery cab refused medical attention at the scene. The cab driver and two police officers were examined at a hospital and were released.
■UNITED STATES
Mother refuses deployment
A 21-year-old single mother serving with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division is facing a possible court martial because she failed to turn up for deployment to Afghanistan, saying she could not find anyone to care for her infant son. Alexis Hutchinson, who serves as an army cook, was meant to have joined her division for a flight to Kabul on Nov. 5, but failed to show up. She was arrested and temporarily placed in custody while her 10-month-old child Kamani was put into a daycare program on her military base in Savannah, Georgia. An army spokesman said Hutchinson’s deployment has been put on hold while an investigation is carried out.
■UNITED STATES
‘Geezer’ strikes again
FBI officials say an elderly, thin, gray-haired man nicknamed the “Geezer Bandit” is responsible for holding up five San Diego, California-area banks since summer. Investigators say the man appears to be in his 70s. Officials say that in the most recent robbery on Monday, he approached a Bank of America teller in La Jolla, displayed a handgun and asked for cash. He fled on foot. FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth says investigators believe the man is also responsible for robbing four other San Diego County banks since Aug. 28. Law enforcement officials are offering US$16,000 in rewards for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.
■UNITED STATES
State buys budget tree
South Carolina’s Statehouse Christmas tree is shorter than usual and doesn’t even reach above the roughly 11.5m Confederate soldiers’ monument on the front lawn. The Columbia Garden Club says it typically buys trees in North Carolina, but this year found a cheaper dealer in Pennsylvania. The shipping caused problems, however, including broken branches that left bare spots. The club has paid for the tree since 2003 and volunteers decorate it.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not