NEW ZELAND
Airline cuts video
Air New Zealand said yesterday it was cutting an in-flight safety video showing an All Black rugby player Richard Kahui refusing to kiss a gay flight attendant after complaints it could spur gay suicides. The flag carrier said a university professor, whom it did not name, had raised concerns the homosexual rejection could lead to gay male suicides. The light-hearted video shows All Blacks running through safety procedures for passengers boarding Air New Zealand flights. The offending scene had All Black pin-up Kahui posing for photographs with female flight attendants then shaking his head, holding up his hands and refusing to pucker up when Will Coxhead points to his cheek hoping for a kiss. Coxhead said he was “absolutely gutted” at the complaints over a scene he described as a bit of fun. “I’m proud to be gay, proud to be an Air New Zealander and extremely proud of my role in the safety video,” he said.
CHINA
Cambodian PM visits
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has arrived for an official visit that’s expected to culminate in the signing of 15 agreements. Hun Sen said prior to his departure that the deals include the creation of a coal-fired power plant in a coastal province. Chinese companies have invested in Cambodia in fields such as energy and agriculture. Hun Sen is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, during his five-day stay.
INDONESIA
Radical cleric charged
Prosecutors promised a swift trial of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir after police charged him yesterday with inciting others to commit terrorist acts, a crime carrying the death penalty. “We want to try him very quickly,” South Jakarta prosecutors office chief Mohammed Yusuf told reporters after the aged extremist presented himself under tight security to hear the indictment. Dozens of heavily armed police and two armored vehicles were on hand as the alleged spiritual leader of Indonesian jihad was transferred from his prison where he has been on remand since August. The indictment charges Bashir, whose anti-Western tirades and conspiracy theories have made him a figurehead for local extremists, with multiple crimes under the anti-terror law.
MALAYSIA
Anwar may sue: lawyer
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday moved to stem the impact on his sodomy trial of US cables released by WikiLeaks claiming he had sex with a male aide in a honey trap set by enemies. Anwar’s lawyer, Sankara Nair, said he would file a complaint with the court hearing Anwar’s sodomy case over articles in the local media that could affect the former deputy prime minister’s ongoing trial. Most newspapers in the country carried the allegations on their front page with influential Malay daily Utusan running a headline stating: “Singapore spy agency verifies sodomy act.” “The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligence services and [former prime minister] Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) have told ONA [Office of National Assessments] in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ‘did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted,’” a leaked US State Department cable from November 2008 read. “ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway.’”
IATLY
Alleged gang rounded up
A gang that robbed at least 50 tourists in Rome after offering them drugged wine at a gay bar has been rounded up after allegedly killing a middle-aged American. Police suspect that Kelly Cullen, 56, who was found dead on Nov. 14 in the Colle Oppio park overlooking the Colosseum, was one of the victims of the gang, which preyed for months on foreigners mingling in the street outside the nearby Coming Out bar. The gang, comprising two Romanians and an Egyptian, started offering the wine spiked with benzodiazepine to tourists this summer. As their victims began to lose consciousness, the gang would guide them into the park and strip them of their valuables. Up to 25 Americans were robbed, as well as British, Spanish, Swiss and German drinkers. Working on a tip-off from bar staff, undercover police spotted the gang at work on Nov. 16. “It was a quiet night and they left empty handed, so we arranged for a ‘random’ identity check, far from the bar, by police who confiscated their bottle of wine, which was positively tested for the drug,” police official Tiziana Lorenzo said. “The gang did not suspect a thing and two nights later they were back at the bar and we arrested them as they escorted a drugged Swiss man in the direction of the park.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Gilmour’s son arrested
Police arrested the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour on Sunday after he was photographed climbing a war memorial during violent student protests on Thursday. Pictures of 21-year-old Charlie Gilmour swinging from the national flag on the Cenotaph ran in many newspapers. Police said a 21-year-old man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of violent disorder, theft and “attempted criminal damage of the Union flag on the Cenotaph.” Police do not usually name suspects until they are charged. Charlie Gilmour issued a public apology on Friday, saying he felt “nothing but shame” for his behavior. A 17-year-old turned himself in at a London police station on Sunday and was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. Police have made a total of 36 arrests over the protests and have released photos of 13 other people they want to question.
NETHERLANDS
Latvian arrested for abuse
A 27-year-old man who worked in nursery schools in Amsterdam and hired himself out as a babysitter has confessed to multiple counts of sexual abuse of children, prosecutors said on Sunday. “The suspect said he had abused tens of young children,” an Amsterdam court statement said. “He is also suspected of having produced and distributed child pornography.” The suspect, originally from Latvia, was arrested on Tuesday after a tip-off from the US authorities. He had worked for Amsterdam nursery schools between February 2007 and January, the court said. His wife, a 37-year-old local woman had also been taken into custody on suspicion of possession of child pornography, but was not for the moment suspected of child sexual abuse.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cardle wins ‘X Factor’
Matt Cardle won The X Factor on Sunday, pipping Rebecca Ferguson in the final poll in the ITV show watched by millions. Cardle, 27, sang Many of Horror by Scottish band Biffy Clyro in the final, a track which will now be released as a single. Cardle, from Colchester in Essex, was the bookmakers’ favorite ahead of the show. Ferguson, 24, performed Distant Dreamer by Welsh singer Duffy in her last performance. Teenage boy band One Direction finished third.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not