NEW ZEALAND
Boy jailed for killing friend
A boy believed to be the country’s second youngest killer was jailed for 20 months yesterday for fatally shooting his 11-year-old friend, reports said. The boy, who cannot be named, was aged 12 when he shot his friend with a semi--automatic rifle at a farm in North Island in July last year, Gisborne High Court was told. Now 14, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter after an earlier charge of murder was downgraded. His father, whose name was also suppressed, received a two-year jail term after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by telling his son to lie about the crime, the Waikato Times newspaper reported.
PAKISTAN
Suicide attack targets official
A suicide attack targeted the convoy of the top elected official in the southern province of Baluchistan yesterday, killing one person but leaving the chief minister unhurt, police said. The bomber detonated alongside the motorcade of Nawab Aslam Raisani in Quetta, the capital of a province where violence connected to a separatist insurgency and Taliban violence has surged this year. “It was a suicide bombing. The convoy of the chief minister was damaged,” Quetta administration official Nasim Lehri told Samaa TV.
PHILIPPINES
Truth Commission ruled out
The Supreme Court declared yesterday that a “Truth Commission” created to investigate alleged corruption by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was unconstitutional. The ruling was a setback to the efforts of President Benigno Aquino, who took office in June, to bring his predecessor and rival to account for alleged massive graft and election cheating during her more than nine years in power. Supreme Court spokeswoman Gleo Guerra told reporters that the majority of the judges ruled against the commission” because the constitution did not allow government bodies to be set up to probe just one group of people.
PHILIPPINES
No greetings at airports
Visitors may get smiles from airport immigration officials, but they shouldn’t expect to hear “Merry Christmas.” Immigration Bureau chief Ronaldo Ledesma said officers at passport counters are banned from offering Christmas greetings because they may be misconstrued as soliciting gifts or cash. Instead, he said officials should give a warm smile, and efficient service. Ledesma’s bureau has been criticized as a beehive of corruption, and he has promised to clean it up.
AUSTRALIA
Trainee to sue Quantas
A flight attendant who was on her second training trip when an engine exploded last month said yesterday she would take legal action, claiming she was fired for complaining about counseling. Jessie Holgersson, 25, said her contract was terminated after she objected to waiting more than 24 hours for psychological debriefing following the Nov. 5 engine blowout on a Boeing 747 near Singapore. It was a terrifying and stressful experience, she said. “Basically I was looking out my window and I saw flame coming out from the engine,” she told ABC radio. “Afterwards we were told that it was a fairly normal occurrence and these things can happen and you know, not to worry about it too much, but at that stage, when you’re on your second flight ever and you see flame out your window, it’s a little bit disturbing to say the least.” Qantas confirmed that Holgersson’s lawyers had filed a case with a workplace tribunal.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mistletoe may soon vanish
Conservationists warned yesterday that mistletoe, favorite plant both of pagans and stealers of Christmas kisses, could vanish from the country’s halls and doorways within 20 years. The National Trust fears that the decline of traditional apple orchards, where mistletoe thrives, may lead to the parasitic plant disappearing — or becoming much harder to obtain. It is leading a campaign to prompt orchard owners and gardeners to think about nurturing the plant and wants householders to make sure they buy sustainably sourced mistletoe. The trust says that in the cider heartland — Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire — traditional orchards have declined dramatically in the past 60 years.
UNITED KINGDOM
Alleged spy wants to stay
A young Russian woman who works for a member of parliament (MP) and was detained by security services on suspicion of espionage said on Monday she was appealing against an order to deport her. Katia Zatuliveter, 25, was quoted by the BBC’s Russian language service as saying that she had been arrested early on Thursday last week and told she would be expelled. The Sunday Times had reported she had worked for the Russian foreign intelligence service as a “sleeper” agent. Zatuliveter had been working for Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock, who sits on parliament’s Defense Select Committee, which examines defense policy, but has no access to secret material.
GERMANY
Boar attacks butcher
A small-town butcher said on Monday he faces steep bills after a wild boar tore through his shop in an hour-long rampage, but will at least recover some of his losses by selling slices of the slain beast. The boar wandered out of a nearby forest and into the shop and caused about 5,000 euros (US$6,600) in damage before being shot by a local hunter, butcher Rainer Kraemer said. “Insurance covers theft and fire, but the butcher shop isn’t covered for a wild boar attack,” said Kraemer, whose shop is in the town of Hoehr-Grenzhausen near the western city of Koblenz. The 130-kg boar will only fetch about 400 euros in ham and wurst sales after Kraemer finishes carving it up.
ITALY
Missing balloonists found
The bodies of two US hot-air balloonists who went missing off the east coast during a race over Europe in September have been found, port officials said on Monday. Balloonists Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis went missing over the Adriatic Sea on Sept. 29 during the event, billed as the world’s oldest aeronautical race. The remains were found after their balloon became entangled in a fishing net cast by a boat off the coast of Puglia, news agencies reported. There were thunderstorms in the area when the last signal was heard from the balloon’s tracking device, which emits a signal to give its position every 15 minutes.
UNITED STATES
Edwards ends treatment
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, announced Monday she has ended treatment for cancer after doctors advised her any further therapy would be useless. Edwards, who separated from her husband after news that he fathered a child with another woman, has been battling cancer since 2004.
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