■MYANMAR
Arrest made over blasts
Police said yesterday they had arrested a man in connection with blasts in at a water festival in a Yangon park on April 15 that killed 10 people and wounded dozens. “This brutal act was committed by four terrorist murderers who are members of a group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,” police chief Khin Yi said in a statement. One suspect was arrested while several others fled across the Thai border, police said at a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw.
■MALAYSIA
Liberian loses appeal
A Liberian on death row for drug trafficking has lost his final appeal in the nation’s top court. Prosecutor Nurulhuda Nuraini Mohamed Nor said the Federal Court upheld Nobies Weah Ezike’s 2005 conviction on Wednesday. The judges unanimously found that the prosecution proved its case based on witness statements and documents. Ezike was arrested in 1996 after sending a package containing heroin from Malaysia to the US. A date for his execution hasn’t been set.
■INDIA
Brogues ban sought
Heavy leather brogue shoes worn by millions of schoolchildren could become things of the past if a campaign by former environment minister Maneka Gandhi succeeds. Gandhi has asked national education boards to instruct schools to drop the flat-heeled brogues in favor of canvas shoes. She says the shoes are a legacy of British colonial rule. “Leather shoes are really bad for our children as they are destroying their feet,” she said, adding that the brogue was only suitable for cold climates. “India is a hot country and is the only country in Asia where brogues are used by children,” said Gandhi, who is also a wildlife campaigner.
■ITALY
First divorce fair begins
Milan is holding the country’s its first divorce fair, offering services such as life coaching and beauty advice to a booming number of separating couples in the Catholic country. The organizers said the fair, which will be held tomorrow and Sunday, aims to help divorcing people start a new, happier life. The services include divorce planning, anti-stalking help and “new look” tips, the organizers said. Visitors to the fair will also be able to sign up for “divorce gift lists” at local department stores.
■EGYPT
Writers slam Islamists
Writers’ union head Mohammed Salmawy hit back on Wednesday against Islamists seeking to ban One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights, saying it would file a legal complaint against them for “their stance against heritage.” A group of Islamist lawyers had filed a complaint to the public prosecutor against the publication of the classic because they said it was lewd. “Those who want to destroy our heritage are taking the same path as the Taliban when they destroyed Buddha’s statutes,” Salmawy said. “We will file a complaint, and it is time that we move from a defensive position to attack.” First published in medieval times, the collection of tales, including Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, is told by Sheherazade to put off her execution by a king who wants to bed his country’s virgins before executing them.
■AUSTRALIA
Stamp honors Russell Crowe
Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is to feature on the country’s latest postage stamp, mail officials said yesterday, in a series celebrating his portrayal of folk hero Robin Hood. New Zealand-born Crowe, 46, who holds Australian citizenship, produced and stars in Ridley Scott’s re-imagining of the Sherwood Forest legend, due to open at the Cannes Film Festival next week. Australia Post said the stamps were a celebration of Crowe’s achievements. Crowe, best known for his Academy award-winning role in Gladiator, has been featured on a postage stamp once before, as part of the country’s “Legends of the Screen” series.
■AUSTRALIA
Robber dresses in burqa
A gunman dressed in a head-to-toe black burqa and sunglasses robbed a cash courier in a shopping center parking lot, police said yesterday. The courier had just withdrawn a large amount of cash from a bank on Wednesday when he spotted two men following him, New South Wales state police said in a statement. Growing suspicious, he drove to a shopping center and was parking his car when a man approached wearing a black burqa and sunglasses. The man pointed a pistol, grabbed the cash and fled, police said.
■RUSSIA
‘Meeting with aliens’ queried
A minister of parliament (MP) has asked Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the eccentric leader of the Kalmykia region, to explain his behavior after claiming on state TV that he was visited at home by aliens in a UFO, media reported yesterday. Ilyumzhinov, who is also president of the World Chess Federation, announced without apparent irony on a high-profile chat show he had met the aliens in 1997. Liberal Democratic Party MP Andrei Lebedev has written to President Dmitry Medvedev to ask if Ilyumzhinov filed an official report about his contacts with alien representatives. “Is there an established procedure of informing about such contacts by high ranking people who have access to secret information like Ilyumzhinov?” Lebedev wrote.
■UNITED STATES
Scientist backs Chavez
A US scientist is supporting a theory that has been widely dismissed as a personal obsession of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — that his hero Simon Bolivar might have died from arsenic poisoning. Chavez rejects the traditional account that Bolivar, a brilliant Venezuelan military tactician who liberated much of South America from centuries of Spanish rule, died of tuberculosis in Colombia in 1830. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said Bolivar’s death was most likely caused by arsenic — either from drinking contaminated water or using the naturally occurring poison to try to cure headaches and hemorrhoids. At a medical conference in Maryland last week, Auwaerter said he did not rule out murder but thought it was unlikely.
■UNITED STATES
Carbon emissions down 7%
The nation’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions fell a record 7 percent last year, officials said on Wednesday, citing the economic slump and other factors including increased energy efficiency. The drop of 405 million tonnes was the largest absolute and percentage decline since energy data collection began in 1949, the Department of Energy said in a statement. Officials said that even though some of the decline came from reduced economic activity, the country’s so-called energy intensity also fell. Economic activity measured by GDP fell 2.4 percent last year, but the population increased an estimated 0.9 percent. Total energy consumption fell 4.8 percent, with the industrial sector seeing the largest drop of 9.9 percent.
■MEXICO
Security chief under threat
Authorities on Wednesday tightened security measures for the nation’s top public security official himself after police arrested three men filming his family members and cited “organized crime threats.” Prosecutors issued an order boosting security measures for Genaro Garcia Luna after the arrest of suspects photographing and filming his family, his office said in a statement. The security upgrade came after the suspects arrested “were casing his wife and two children,” a public safety statement said. Violent attacks have spiraled across the country since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime when he took office at the end of 2006.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Eye color genes identified
Scientists have identified three new genes that determine subtle variations in human eye color — clues that could help forensic investigators using DNA left at a crime scene to track down criminal suspects. Researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands used a technique called a genome-wide association study, which scans gene maps, to analyze the eye color of about 6,000 Dutch volunteers. The colors were then digitally quantified and collated using high-resolution photographs of the whole eye, and the scientists found that human eye color varies in many more ways than previously thought. Previous studies on the genetics of human eye color used broad trait information such as “blue,” “green” and “brown,” the researchers, led by Manfred Kayser, wrote in the study. But this study showed that variation in eye color runs in a continuous grading from the lightest blue to the darkest brown. Researchers said the three genes, together with previously identified ones, could explain more than 50 percent of eye color variance.
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
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