■INDONESIA
Greenpeace holds rally
Hundreds of Greenpeace activists rallied yesterday in support of a commitment by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation. About 200 people rallied in the capital displaying banners that said “Enough, stop destroying our forests” and “Stop talking, start acting.” “We urge SBY [Yudhoyono] to keep his promise in reducing emissions, especially from deforestation,” Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Yuyun Indradi said. “He promised to reduce emissions of up to 41 percent,” Indradi said.
■THAILAND
Group defends refugees
A leading rights group yesterday called on the government to allow 158 Lao Hmong refugees who have been detained for three years pending deportation to be resettled in four western countries. Human Rights Watch said the group was being “held in poor and abusive conditions” and should be allowed to leave for the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, which have agreed to resettle them. “Thai authorities have kept Lao Hmong refugees in fear and uncertainty for years to pressure them into giving up hope of refuge in Thailand or resettlement elsewhere,” said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director. Human Rights Watch said it had sent a letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that also raised concerns about the ongoing detention of some 5,000 Hmong being held in Phetchabun in northeast Thailand. The immigrants are expecting to be deported to Laos following an agreement between the countries.
■INDONESIA
Explosives confiscated
Officials say they confiscated 75 tonnes of an explosive material being shipped from Malaysia to Indonesia and are investigating possible links to terrorism. Customs official Nasar Salim says the ammonium nitrate was found on a ship captured in the South China Sea. Ammonium nitrate can also be used as fertilizer, but Salim says 95 percent of the material imported into the country is used in explosive devices. He says possible links to terrorists are being investigated. Salim said Friday that 17 crewmen are being questioned while police search for the shipment’s owner. Indonesia has been ravaged by terrorist attacks in recent years that killed more than 250 people. Bombings at two Jakarta hotels in July killed seven people and wounded more than 50.
■SOUTH KOREA
Model’s death mourned
Fans and friends yesterday expressed shock at the death of a supermodel who was found hanged in her central Paris apartment earlier this week. Daul Kim’s friends remembered her talent and the difficulties she faced, while her Internet homepage was swamped with tributes following reports of the 20-year-old rising star’s apparent suicide. Ahn Seong-jin, a photographer who had often worked with Kim, said she was full of ideas and creativity. “She was able to make various looks and postures on catwalks that can hardly be matched by others. She had an optimum body shape and an amazing capacity to adapt herself to changing circumstances,” he told journalists. A modeling agent said on condition of anonymity: “She was an excellent model but she used to say she had hard times off the job.” Kim wrote on her Web site on Aug. 22: “I need to learn how to stop destroying myself, stop being hard on myself and be nice to myself.”
■UNITED STATES
Officials nab lizard smuggler
Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said on Friday that 40-year-old Michael Plank of California was returning from Australia when customs agents found two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks — another type of lizard — fastened to his body on Tuesday. Plank has been released on US$10,000 bond and will be arraigned in federal court on Dec. 21. Authorities say the lizards’ value totals more than US$8,500. All Australian reptiles are strictly regulated and Plank did not have a permit for them.
■UNITED STATES
No guns in English class
The Oregon Court of Appeals has rejected a request by a high school English teacher to carry a handgun at school, the latest legal setback for the teacher who says she needs the gun for protection from her former husband. Shirley Katz had argued the Medford School District lacked authority to set a policy banning employees from carrying firearms. But the appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Jackson County trial judge who ruled the school district could prohibit guns on campus. District officials said they were pleased with the decision because it affected work rules intended to ensure staff and school safety. Katz has a concealed weapons permit and has said she needed her 9mm semiautomatic pistol because her ex-husband made threats during their divorce in 2004.
■UNITED STATES
Man files suit over lost ear
A New York man is giving city authorities and a Bronx hospital an earful for allegedly tossing his ear in the trash after it was ripped off by a dog, the Daily News reported Friday. Eduardo Garcia, 67, has filed a lawsuit alleging that ambulance staff threw away a large chunk of his ear in May last year, despite having initially put it on ice when he was attacked by his son’s bull terrier. “They deprived him of an opportunity to have treatment,” Garcia’s lawyer was quoted as saying. “Now he’s got a deformity.”
■CUBA
Free penis implants offered
Havana offered its first free penis implants, part of a program set to be expanded throughout the country, an official newspaper reported on Friday. It is likely not what Karl Marx had in mind when he imagined a society transformed “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” but Juventud Rebelde reported the silicon and silver penis implants are set to become more common. Men in seven Cuban provinces will be eligible for the procedure, which urologist Juan Carlos Yip said was normally “exclusive to first-world countries and at a high cost. It will be carried out in patients whose sexual suffering does not respond positively to traditional treatments.” Those over 40s and those with diabetes or circulation problems are set to be first in line, the paper reported.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez defends the Jackal
Hugo Chavez is defending alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was a “revolutionary fighter” rather than a terrorist. The president praised Carlos — whose real name is Ilich Sanchez Ramirez — during a speech on Friday night: “I defend him. It doesn’t matter to me what they say tomorrow in Europe.” Ramirez gained international notoriety during the 1970s and 1980s as the alleged mastermind of deadly bombings, killings and hostage dramas.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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