■AUSTRALIA
Outdoor sex appreciated
Photographs published yesterday of an anonymous couple having sex in a Sydney clock tower in full view of midday shoppers sparked a flurry of confessions on talkback radio. Listeners rang in claiming to have copulated on the Harbor Bridge, between the soaring roofs of the Opera House and during a Shakespeare play in an outdoor theater. But none could offer the incontrovertible proof in newspaper photographs of the clock tower lovebirds. German tourist Dirk Gensler, who was staying at a hostel across from the Broadway clock tower, told the Daily Telegraph he was astonished by what he saw. “It was the middle of the day, and so many people could see it,” he said. “I thought it was pretty cool.” Speculation was that the young couple were students at nearby Sydney University in a state of euphoria at finishing their examinations.
■AUSTRALIA
Pandas bigger than Tiger
Two giant pandas due to begin a 10-year stay at Adelaide Zoo could give the local economy a bigger boost than recent visits by Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong, officials said yesterday. Wang Wang, 4, and Funi, 3, are due to arrive at the zoo on Saturday for a long-term loan from the Panda Protection and Research Center at Ya’an in China’s Sichuan Province. Zoos South Australia chief Chris West said the stay would be a “financial bonanza” for the state’s economy, reaping an estimated US$600 million benefit over the 10 years. “Each year [the pandas] could generate significantly more economic benefits than the much-vaunted appearances by golfer Tiger Woods or cyclist Lance Armstrong,” he said. The pandas’ first public appearance will be on Dec. 13, and zookeepers said they would focus on trying to breed panda cubs.
■MALAYSIA
Japanese faces execution
A Japanese woman was charged in court yesterday with trafficking 4.7kg of methamphetamines, and faces the death penalty if convicted. Mariko Takeuchi nodded her head as the charge was read out at a magistrates court south of Kuala Lumpur. The 35-year-old, who was detained at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Oct. 30, did not enter a plea. Her lawyer Gobind Singh said she had denied the allegations.
■JAPAN
US teens in trouble
Police plan to arrest on suspicion of attempted murder four children of US military personnel after a motorcyclist was injured by a rope stretched across a road, it was reported yesterday. The woman suffered a fractured skull after she was caught by the rope and thrown off her moped near Tokyo’s US Yokota Air Base, said the Yomiuri Shimbun daily. The woman told police she saw four foreigners shortly before the incident, reports said. A surveillance camera recorded images of three boys and one girl in the area at the time, who allegedly acted “suspiciously” when questioned by police. Police have obtained arrest warrants and planned to take the four teenagers into custody, the reports said.
■JAPAN
Murder suspect takes food
The only suspect in the killing of a 22-year-old British woman ate food yesterday for the first time since his arrest two weeks ago, police said. “He completely ate a boxed lunch we served him,” said a duty officer at the Gyotoku police station in Ichikawa, outside Tokyo, where Tatsuya Ichihashi is being held for investigation. In March 2007 Lindsay Ann Hawker was found dead in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi’s apartment in Ichikawa.
■RUSSIA
Police detained over death
Three Moscow police officers were detained on suspicion of severely beating a man from the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia who died shortly afterwards, Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday. The three policemen from the same unit have confessed to the attack, which they carried out while drunk, Interfax said, citing an unnamed security source. The Moscow police chief responded by suspending the commander of the unit where the three men served, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Investigators said earlier they detained one policeman and were questioning two of his colleagues for beating up two men from Abkhazia, one of whom later died inside a pharmacy.
■MALTA
Ex-justice guilty of bribery
Former chief justice Noel Arrigo was found guilty on Tuesday over his involvement in the biggest judicial scandal in the island’s legal history. Arrigo was forced to resign six years ago for accepting bribes to reduce a drug trafficker’s sentence. At the end of the two-week trial, which gripped the EU’s smallest state, Arrigo was found guilty of bribery, trading in influence and revealing official secrets. The sentence was expected to be handed down by yesterday. Arrigo was charged with accepting a bribe of 11,650 euros (US$17,400).
■FRANCE
Sarkozy touts cameras
President Nicolas Sarkozy made a rare foray into the suburbs of Paris on Tuesday to promise that a surge in the number of security cameras would make life better there. With regional elections coming up in March and opinion polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with him, Sarkozy used the visit to refocus on the themes of crime and security which served him well during the 2007 presidential election campaign. “If we are installing more security cameras, it is because those places that have cameras have all experienced a spectacular improvement in security,” he told community representatives in the suburb of Le Perreux-sur-Marne.
■ISRAEL
Mossad recruit arrested
An apprentice spy for Mossad was arrested by rank and file police during an abortive training exercise in the country’s metropolis of Tel Aviv. “Let’s hope the Mossad is more effective abroad,” the commercial Channel 10 said as reports of the incident swept an aghast media on Tuesday. The want-to-be James Bond was spotted on Monday planting a dummy bomb under a vehicle in the bustling commercial capital by a woman passer-by who swiftly alerted a passing policeman, media reports said. It was only after questioning at the local police station that the rumbled trainee assassin managed to convince his captors that he was indeed a member of the spy agency.
■ITALY
Escort describes sex
The prostitute at the center of a sex scandal involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has explicitly claimed for the first time that she had sex with him. Since first alleging she spent a night last November at Berlusconi’s Rome residence, Patrizia D’Addario has limited herself to saying she shared a bed with the 73-year-old prime minister. But in Gradisca, Presidente — take Your Pleasure, Prime Minister — D’Addario wrote: “He told me he wanted contact with my skin, he held me tight, he took my breath away. I took him inside me, he suffocated me with kisses.” “This is the first time she has really made it clear that they had sex,” said Maddalena Tulanti, a journalist who co-wrote the book with D’Addario.
■UNITED STATES
Census death a suicide
The death of a US census worker that sparked fears of anti-government violence after he was found bound to a tree with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest was ruled a suicide, police said on Tuesday. Bill Sparkman’s body was discovered in September amid a wave of anger-charged protests against US President Barack Obama’s policies. The story made national news and some reporters theorized that Sparkman’s work for the Census Bureau — which is a federal government agency — made him a victim of anti-government sentiment. But police say Sparkman — who had recently taken out life insurance policies that would not pay out in the event of suicide — staged his gruesome death to make it appear as if it were a homicide.
■UNITED STATES
Church robber apologizes
Someone made off with loot from a church but also left behind an apology. A note scrawled on the wall said: “Sorry but I’m poor. Forgive me Lord.” The Reverend Roger Davis told WSB-TV that expensive equipment including microphones and a laptop containing important records were stolen over the weekend from Berean Baptist Church. The robber broke locks and the church’s safe, but it was empty. It was the fourth time the church in Ellenwood, southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, has been robbed in two years. Davis joked he’s considering putting up a note telling potential robbers to call him instead and the church will take up a collection for them.
■UNITED STATES
Red-haired kids attacked
Authorities say there were at least five attacks on red-haired students at a Southern California middle school after a Facebook group announced “Kick a Ginger Day.” However, nobody was seriously hurt and no arrests were made. A 12-year-old boy reported being kicked and hit by classmates on Friday at a middle school in Calabasas. A sixth-grade girl told KABC-TV that some fellow students kicked her in the legs from behind. Investigators say the Facebook message may have been inspired by a South Park TV episode that satirized racial prejudice by portraying a campaign against red-haired, fair-skinned “ginger” people.
■UNITED STATES
Reindeer dung for sale
Sparkly reindeer-dung necklaces are going on sale at an Illinois zoo that hopes to attract the same holiday shoppers who swept up its dung Christmas ornaments last year. The limited-edition Magical Reindeer Gem necklaces will debut tomorrow at the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington. The US$15 pendant necklaces contain dried, sterilized reindeer droppings — sprayed with glitter — on a beaded chain. Miller Park Zoological Society spokeswoman Susie Ohley admits it’s a bit silly but estimates the zoo could make $16,500. The zoo lost $200,000 under city budget cuts this year.
■UNITED STATES
Military ships turkeys
The US military is preparing to ship thousands of kilograms of turkey to Afghanistan and Iraq for soldiers who won’t be able to make it home for the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. The gesture is aimed at recognizing the sacrifices of the roughly 180,000 soldiers deployed to the two countries while Americans gather around dinner tables today for the national holiday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Tuesday. In another annual Thanksgiving tradition, US President Barack Obama will “pardon” a special turkey on Wednesday to spare it from the roasting pan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema