INDIA
Activist sentenced: lawyer
A lawyer said a court has sentenced a top human rights activist and two others to life in prison after convicting them of helping communist rebels in the east. Amit Banerjee said the court on Friday found 60-year-old physician and outspoken government critic Binayak Sen, and two others, guilty of sedition. Banerjee said that Judge B.P. Verma however acquitted the three of the charge of waging war against the state, which is punishable by death. Sen has worked in tribal villages and repeatedly tried to rally people to fight for their rights, often invoking the ire of authorities. Banerjee told reporters yesterday he would appeal the verdict in a higher court next week.
JAPAN
PM mulls reshuffle: report
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is leaning toward a Cabinet reshuffle before a parliament session next month as he tries to woo a tiny opposition party into the coalition, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. Kan has offered Cabinet posts to the Sunrise Party of Japan, which has six MPs including former finance minister Kaoru Yosano, a fiscal hawk, and former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma, an outspoken nationalist, the business daily said. Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan is hoping to win the support of minor opposition parties to pass budget-related and other legislation in parliament, where the opposition controls the upper house and can block bills. Kan called for the Sunrise Party to join the coalition when he met Yosano, one of the co-presidents of the party, last month and again this month, the Nikkei said.
SOUTH KOREA
Chinese fishermen released
Three Chinese fishermen were released after questioning over a maritime scuffle with the coast guard. Coast guard official Roh Sang-gue says authorities handed the fishermen over to Chinese diplomats at Incheon International Airport yesterday. The coast guard has said that about 50 Chinese fishing boats were illegally fishing in western waters on Saturday last week when a coast guard ship approached them to try to curb their activities. Roh has said that one of the boats intentionally hit a larger coast guard ship, apparently to help compatriots sail back to Chinese waters, and then capsized. The scuffle left one fisherman dead and another missing.
CHINA
Police seek netizens’ help
Police are offering cash and other rewards to encourage the country’s millions of Internet users to help solve criminal investigations, state media said yesterday. Authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang this month posted a photo of a crime scene on the Internet alongside a reward of 500 yuan (US$75) to 5,000 yuan in cash or so-called QQ coin for information about the case, the China Daily said. QQ coin is a form of currency that registered users of the popular instant messaging service QQ use to pay for virtual products such as games. While the reward scheme has yet to yield any useful clues, authorities said it was a good way to tap the country’s vast online population — the world’s biggest at more than 420 million. Police in Jiangsu Province had more success with their online offer last month of 10,000 yuan or equivalent QQ coin for information about a case. A week after the appeal was posted, an online user contacted police and identified the suspect as his friend.
SERBIA
Ultra-rightists charged
Prosecutors are charging a far right leader with orchestrating violence during a gay pride march in Belgrade in October at which more than 150 people were hurt. The Higher Court in Belgrade says Milan Obradovic, leader of extremist group Obraz, or Honor, is charged with “committing violent acts at a public gathering.” Spokeswoman Dusica Ristic said on Friday that an unspecified number of other group members have been indicted, as well. They face up to 12 years in prison. Extremist groups attacked the police securing the first gay pride gathering in years, triggering day-long street clashes. Many shop windows and cars in the capital were destroyed.
CUBA
Cardinal says mass in jail
A church official says the Havana cardinal who helped broker a deal with the government for the release of jailed dissidents has said Mass at a prison where some of them are still held. Two of the 11 dissidents remaining behind bars are held at the Combinado del Este prison near Havana, where Cardinal Jaime Ortega said Mass on Friday. Havana archbishopric official Orlando Marquez says 20 prisoners attended the Christmas Eve Mass, but it wasn’t clear if the dissidents were among them. Marquez had no details about the sermon. Under the informal deal, the government was to release all 52 dissidents by early last month.
SOUTH AFRICA
Sugarcane killer guilty
A Johannesburg court on Thursday found a man guilty of murdering 13 women whom he lured with job offers before dumping their bodies in sugarcane fields in 2007. Thozamile Taki was convicted on 26 charges, including murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, the SAPA news agency reported. Taki’s girlfriend, Hlengiwe Nene, who was accused of acting as his accomplice, was cleared. Prosecutors said Taki would be sentenced on Wednesday. Local media dubbed the case the “sugarcane” serial murders after two bodies were discovered by farm workers at a cane plantation in September 2007, prompting police to launch a larger search with sniffer dogs.
UNITED STATES
Sarkozy to visit Washington
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Washington next month and hold talks with US President Barack Obama on Jan. 10, the White House said on Friday. “I can confirm” the French leader’s visit, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, without providing further details. The Elysee presidential palace announced Thursday that Sarkozy would visit the US capital to discuss the agendas of next year’s G8 and G20 summits with Obama. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20 forum of the world’s 20 largest economies, and next year will chair the G8, comprised of six major Western powers, Russia and Japan.
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal coin unveiled
The design of a souvenir coin commemorating the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton next year was unveiled on Thursday amid complaints the couple are barely recognizable. The profile image of William on the coin bears a passing resemblance to the second-in-line to the throne, but Middleton appears to have gained weight. Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty Magazine, told Sky News she was disgusted by the design. “This coin is of historical importance. To get it so wrong seems ridiculous,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Santa works his magic
It’s been a busy, busy day today for the plump man in red with wire glasses and a bushy white beard. From Thailand to Peru, Bethlehem to the West Bank, Santa’s been making his way around the globe delivering Christmas cheer — and a few tears — to people big and small. Among his stops, Santa swam with sardines in Seoul, dressed up as an elephant in Ayutthaya, Thailand, and made a two-year-old cry in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Outside Ramallah, a Palestinian protester donning a Santa Claus costume dodged tear gas, while schoolchildren in Lebanon dressed up in the bright red Santa garb to celebrate their last day of school.
CANADA
Young zebra dies
A zebra has died of unknown causes at a zoo that has come under fire for several animal fatalities in recent years, officials said on Friday. A 13-year-old Grevy’s zebra died at the Calgary Zoo’s breeding facility on Wednesday after it was found collapsed in a heated barn, the zoo said in a statement. Veterinarians at the satellite facility, located outside the city, managed to revive the animal, named Igali, but it was unable to stand and later died, officials said. The zebra, which is native to Eastern Africa, was born in Florida and had lived at the zoo for six years. A zebra’s life span is normally about 25 years. The zoo said its staff saw no previous health problems.
UNITED STATES
Weapons talks in pipeline
The government plans to resume nuclear arms negotiations with Russia next year in hopes of securing legal limits on the smaller, battlefield nuclear weapons, the New York Times reported late on Friday. The newspaper said these weapons are viewed as the most vulnerable to theft or diversion. Tactical weapons generally refer to those with ranges of 480km to 645km or less. In 1991, then-president George H.W. Bush announced that he would unilaterally withdraw most tactical nuclear weapons from forward positions, the report said. Then-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev soon reciprocated. But today, the Times said, the US retains about 500 tactical weapons. Russia has between 2,000 and 6,000 of them, depending on the estimate, the report said.
ECUADOR
Palestine given recognition
The country formally recognized Palestine as an independent state on Friday, following the lead of its neighbors Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay earlier this month. President Rafael Correa signed “the Ecuadoran government’s official recognition of Palestine as a free and independent state with 1967 borders,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Ecuador’s decision, the ministry statement said, “vindicates the valid and legitimate desire of the Palestinian people for a free and independent state” and will be a key contribution to a negotiated peaceful coexistence in the Middle East.
CANADA
AQAP declared terror group
The country has declared a Yemen-based group affiliated with al-Qaeda a terrorist organization on Friday, a move that allows the government to prosecute its citizens linked to it. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was blamed for this year’s attempt to destroy planes using bomb-laden toner cartridges. The designation makes it illegal for the country’s citizens to work with the group or contribute money to it and it gives law enforcement officials the authority to seize financial assets the group may have in the country.
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