PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Ministers’ arrests ordered
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the arrest of two senior ministers on contempt charges in an extraordinary clash between the judiciary and the government. The order followed Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah’s announcement on Thursday that Supreme Court Chief Justice Salamo Injia had been suspended pending an investigation into multiple charges, including mismanagement of court funds. The Supreme Court then ordered that Namah and Attorney General Allan Marat be charged with contempt within a week and brought before the court on Dec. 12. The order also restrains the government from implementing its decision to suspend the chief justice. Acting Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga said police were acting on the order. Injia has been presiding over a court challenge to the constitutional legitimacy of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government. A decision by a panel of five judges is due on Dec. 9.
JAPAN
Emperor still in hospital
Emperor Akihito, who was taken to hospital on Sunday with a bronchial infection and was due to be discharged yesterday, was to remain in hospital for at least another day after his fever returned, Kyodo news agency reported. Akihito, who will turn 78 next month, had initial clearance to return to his palace, but will stay at the University of Tokyo Hospital until today or later after his cough worsened and his fever went up, the agency said.
NEW ZEALAND
Child sex operator guilty
An Auckland man was convicted yesterday of organizing a child sex tour to Thailand, in a case described as a legal first in the country. Police said the 47-year-old man, whose identity was suppressed, was arrested last year after a covert operation where an undercover officer posed as a potential customer. The man was convicted in the High Court in Auckland of organizing an underage sex tour, but found not guilty on a lesser charge of promoting the tour, police said. He faces a jail term of up to seven years. Prosecutors told the court the undercover police officer contacted the man through a Web site that offered tours to Thailand for people seeking sex with young boys.
NAURU
President resigns
President Marcus Stephen, resigned on Thursday amid allegations of corruption, a report said. Stephen, a former Olympic weightlifter who had been in power since December 2007, will be replaced by former minister of commerce, industry and environment Freddie Pitcher, the Sydney Morning Herald said on its Web site. The reported move came after opposition MP David Adeang last month used parliamentary privilege to read out what he said was correspondence between Stephen and a phosphate dealer in Thailand. Stephen allegedly asked in an e-mail for a kickback on the sale of 25,000 cubic tonnes of the mineral.
NEPAL
Accident leaves 18 dead
At least 18 people, including two children, were killed on Thursday when a tractor pulling a trailer packed with pilgrims fell into a roadside canal, police said. About 40 Hindu worshipers were heading to a religious festival in the southern Terai plains bordering India when their driver lost control just before dawn. The worshipers were on their way to Baraha Chhetra temple, one of the country’s holiest sites for Hindus, on the banks of the Koshi River.
MEXICO
Drug trafficker arrested
The military arrested a narcotics trafficker suspected of running operations on the home turf of the country’s most powerful drug lord, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, officials said on Thursday. Ovidio Limon Sanchez, who has a US$5 million price tag on his head, ran Guzman’s operations in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, the state after which Guzman’s powerful cartel is named, the US Department of State said. US officials were offering a reward of up to US$5 million for the capture of Limon Sanchez. He was detained by soldiers in Culiacan and would face extradition to the US, Mexican military spokesman Ricardo Trevilla said. Limon Sanchez allegedly smuggled tonnes of cocaine into Southern California for US distribution and hauled back to Mexico millions of US dollars in bulk cash shipments, the US Department of State said on its Web site.
PANAMA
All-night partying banned
The government has put an end to round-the-clock partying at bars and night clubs. It said that would help reduce street brawls, car accidents and domestic violence. A law that took effect on Thursday means bars, cantinas, night clubs and events halls can no longer be open 24 hours a day. Weekend business hours are now 9pm to 3am of the following day. Between Sunday and Wednesday, closing time is 2am. The measure promoted by the Department of Public Safety does not apply to bars and night clubs in hotels, nor does it prohibit the sale of alcohol at supermarkets. Critics say the change is just going to lead people to party in the streets.
UNITED STATES
Spider-Man actor injured
An actor making his Broadway debut as Peter Parker during matinees of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been injured during a performance, but he is expected to return to fly again. Matthew James Thomas was rushed to hospital after being hurt offstage on Wednesday afternoon. Show spokesman Rick Miramontez said on Thursday he would be back for his next scheduled performance today. Reeve Carney plays Peter Parker during the week’s other six shows. He was at the theater and finished the performance. Details about the injury were not immediately released.
UNITED STATES
Chopper crashes, five dead
A helicopter crashed into a Hawaii mountainside near an elementary school on Thursday, killing all four tourists on board and the pilot, authorities said. Blue Hawaiian Helicopters owner David Chevalier said the passengers were two men and two women from the US mainland. He declined to release the pilot’s name because his wife had not yet been notified. “We’re extremely grieved for our pilot as well as the passengers,” he said. “Something like this can’t be more devastating to us.” Molokai is a mostly rural island between Maui and Oahu, where world leaders have gathered for the APEC summit in Honolulu.
ALBANIA
EU to probe organ sales
An EU prosecutor is investigating allegations that a criminal network sold organs of civilian captives during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. John Clint Williamson of the Special Investigative Task Force met with top officials on Thursday, asking for their support in the probe. In a report last year, an investigator alleged that Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other rebel commanders ran detention centers on Albania’s border, where civilian captives were killed and their organs sold on the black market.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the