■NEW ZEALAND
Tourist rescued via Internet
A tourist who got lost on a mountain was rescued after sending text messages to his family in Greece, newspapers and Web sites reported yesterday. Marios Symeonidis was visiting Mount Ruapehu, home to the country’s largest skiing and snowboarding area, last weekend with a friend, but then lost his companion while taking photographs, Web site www.stuff.co.nz reported. He was not equipped for an overnight stay and was only wearing light clothing. Symeonidis sent text messages to his family, telling them he was lost. They then passed on the information to local police via Greek emergency services. Four teams were dispatched to rescue Symeonidis, who ended up spending the night on the mountain and was then picked up in the morning by another tourist, who drove him to the rescue teams.
■JAPAN
Body found in landing gear
Authorities have found the body of a man in the landing gear of a Delta airliner that arrived in Tokyo from New York and said yesterday they were seeking US help in identifying him. The man, dressed only in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, was carrying no passport or personal belongings. A mechanic found the body in the landing gear bay of the Boeing 777 after Delta Flight 59 landed at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport at about 6:05pm on Sunday, a Chiba prefecture police spokesman said. “Doctors say he probably froze to death and that he suffered a shortage of oxygen at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters,” said another police official, Narita airport station spokesman Yoshimi Ichihara.
■NEPAL
Police hunt for killers
Police said yesterday they were hunting two men suspected of gunning down Jamim Shah, a prominent media tycoon who owned the first cable television company. Shah, who also ran a television station and satellite network, was shot dead on Sunday by two assailants on a motorbike near the French embassy compound in the heart of Kathmandu. Kathmandu police chief Ganesh K.C. Ganesh declined to speculate on a possible motive for the attack, but said that elements of the shooting suggested the possible involvement of an “international crime syndicate.” Shah, a Nepalese of Kashmiri origin, had been accused of having links to the South Asian underworld, including the most wanted man in India, organized crime kingpin Dawood Ibrahim.
■AUSTRALIA
Myanmar aid boosted
Canberra will boost humanitarian aid to Myanmar while maintaining sanctions on the military regime, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday. Smith said it was important to help Myanmar prepare for a time when it would have a civilian government. Smith said Australia would increase its aid allocation by 40 percent to A$50 million (US$43 million) a year, to help fight extreme poverty and improve child health and education in Myanmar.
■INDIA
Police ready to stop protests
Authorities in Indian Kashmir deployed thousands of police and troops yesterday to prevent a protest outside a UN office over the recent killing of two teenage boys allegedly by the security forces. Barbed wire barriers were erected to seal off the area around the small UN office, which houses staff monitoring ceasefire violations along the Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
■UNITED KINGDOM
John Dankworth dies at 82
Saxophonist Sir John Dankworth, one of the leading figures in jazz for more than half a century, has died, his agent said on Sunday. He was 82. The saxophonist worked closely with jazz legends like Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson and composed the music for a string of films and television programs. His wife, the singer Cleo Laine, announced the death from the stage during a concert to mark the 40th anniversary of a music venue they founded next to their home in Buckinghamshire, north of London. The musician, described by Jazzwise magazine as “one of the totemic figures of British jazz,” died in a London hospital on Saturday after a short but undisclosed illness.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Doherty ‘worst neighbor’
Britons have voted rock star Pete Doherty the country’s least desirable celebrity neighbor after a string of lurid headlines about his wild parties, a poll showed yesterday. The Babyshambles singer’s infamous celebrations that have left his homes filled with litter and covered in blood pushed him to the top of the survey carried out by property Web site Zoopla.co.uk. Doherty has also had repeated run-ins with the law and has a string of drug and motoring offences to his name. Coming in a close second to Doherty in the nightmare neigbors poll was troubled singer Amy Winehouse, while glamor model Katie Price — also known as Jordan — was the third least desirable neighbor.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Gerry Adams threatened
The leader of Northern Ireland’s Catholic party Sinn Fein has received a death threat and a junior minister in the group has been warned that he will be “executed within 24 hours,” the party said on Sunday. Gerry Adams, president of the republican group, had been made aware of a threat against his life, said a statement from the party, one of the groups which shares power in the province’s administration. The Ulster Freedom Fighters, a paramilitary Protestant group classified as a terrorist organization by London, threatened to kill junior Sinn Fein minister Gerry Kelly in a call from a public phone, the party said.
■UAE
Hotel caters to Valentines
The Emirates Palace hotel, which often hosts celebrities and visiting government officials, is offering a US$1 million Valentine’s Day package. The deal includes first class airfare on Etihad Airways, the emirate’s official carrier, a Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH complete with chauffeur, and a seven-night stay in a Palace suite, the hotel said in an e-mailed statement. Further perks include a private helicopter trip to the desert resort of Qasr Al Sarib and a personal shopper.
■IRAN
British Museum ties annulled
Tehran cut ties with the British Museum on Sunday in protest at repeated delays in the loan to Tehran of an ancient Persian treasure, the Cyrus Cylinder, a senior official said. In London a British Museum statement expressed “great surprise.” Hassan Mohseni of the cultural heritage and tourism organization said relations were annulled after the London museum failed to transfer the artifact to Tehran. “We confirm the cutting of ties and we consider it a closed chapter,” said Mohseni, who heads the organization’s public relations. The decision to sever ties with the museum was revealed earlier by Hamid Baghai, who heads the cultural heritage and tourism organization.
■ARGENTINA
Ex-president has surgery
Former president Nestor Kirchner, husband of President Cristina Kirchner, underwent emergency surgery on Sunday, the government said. “The news is good, the operation is over, everything’s fine,” Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said on his way out of the hospital where the ex-president was being treated for problems with his right carotid artery. Nestor Kirchner, 59, is still a lawmaker and leader of the Peronist party.
■UNITED STATES
NY trial possible: Obama
President Barack Obama said on Sunday he did not rule out trying top Sept. 11, 2001 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City despite local opposition, but noted tough logistical questions involved. “I have not ruled it out, but I think it is important for us to take into account the practical logistical issues involved,” Obama said in a live interview from the White House on CBS. “If you have got a city that is saying no, and a police department that is saying no, and a mayor that is saying no, that makes it difficult.” But he added: “We have not ruled out anything.”
■UAE
Tower lookout shuttered
The Burj Khalifa’s owner said yesterday the observation deck of the world’s tallest tower has been unexpectedly shut down, just a month after it opened. The precise cause of the Dubai skyscraper’s closure remained murky. In a statement, building owner Emaar Properties blamed the closure on “unexpected high traffic,” but then suggested that electrical problems were also at fault. Emaar did not say when the observation deck would reopen.
■GUINEA
Three die in clashes
At least three people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in the southeast of the country that have entered their third day, witnesses and officials said on Sunday. The trouble appears to have been sparked by a religious dispute but the region is the home of junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara, and there are fears the dispute may become politicized. Mamady Kaba, a local official with a pan-African rights group, said that mostly Christian supporters of Camara appeared to be attacking Muslims. Violence erupted last week after a Christian woman, accused of wearing indecent dress while passing Muslims at prayer, was attacked. In retaliation, Christians stoned Muslims trying to pray.
■EGYPT
Arrests target opposition
Security forces detained senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood yesterday, sources close to the group said. The Brotherhood, though banned, won a fifth of the seats parliament in 2005 when members ran as independents but since then authorities have squeezed the group out of mainstream politics. Security forces raided the homes of deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat and other senior members early yesterday and detained them, a lawyer said.
■UNITED STATES
‘Endeavour’ blasts off
The space shuttle Endeavour is rocketing toward a space station on one of the shuttle program’s last scheduled missions after blasting off early yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Endeavour is carrying a new room for the International Space Station and an observation deck. These are the last major pieces for the orbiting complex. The shuttle is scheduled to reach the space station tomorrow. Only four more shuttle flights are left before the program shuts down.
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
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the