SAUDI ARABIA
‘Driving threatens virgins’
A rights activist says a report given to a high-level advisory group claims that women in the kingdom would have options for premarital sex if allowed to drive. The ultra-conservative stance suggests increasing pressure on Saudi King Abdullah to retain the kingdom’s male-only driving rules. Rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair said on Saturday that the document by a well-known academic was sent to the all-male Shura Council, which advises the monarchy. The report by Kamal Subhi says that allowing women to drive would threaten the country’s traditions of virgin brides, the activist said.
INDONESIA
Drugs boy released
A 14-year-old Australian boy has been released after serving two months in a detention center for buying drugs while vacationing with his family in Bali. The teenager wore a mask to hide his face from photographers as he walked out of the immigration detention center yesterday with his parents. The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, has promised to enter a drug rehabilitation program after returning home to Morrisset Park, just north of Sydney.
PHILIPPINES
Piranha sellers arrested
Police said they have arrested five people for selling carnivorous piranhas, raising fears over what could happen if the fish got into local waterways. At least 62 live piranha fingerlings were seized from the group after a sting operation where a fisheries officer posed as a buyer late on Thursday, senior superintendent Jude Santos said. “We immediately turned them over to the Bureau of Fisheries and their expert determined they were piranhas ... I think they have killed them by now,” Santos said. The fish, known for their sharp teeth, an appetite for meat and their ability to strip flesh from a carcass, were being sold to collectors of exotic fish to be placed in aquariums, the police chief said. However, if they got into local waterways, they could breed quickly and pose a threat to local fish — and even humans, Santos said.
PHILIPPINES
Chinese fishermen detained
Naval authorities detained six Chinese fishermen for alleged poaching in the country’s territorial waters, police said yesterday. The fishermen’s vessel was intercepted on Thursday off the coastal town of Balabac in Palawan, a western island facing the South China Sea where both countries have overlapping territorial claims. “Recovered from their possession and control were 11 sea turtles, fish nets and other paraphernalia,” national police spokesman chief superintendent Agrimero Cruz said. He said the six have been detained and their boat confiscated while charges against them were being prepared.
INDIA
12 charged with murder
Police have charged 12 people, including a fugitive reputed gangster, over the daytime murder of a Mumbai crime reporter almost six months ago. Jyotirmoy Dey had been working as investigations editor for MiD Day newspaper when he was gunned down on June 11 in a Mumbai suburb by motorcycle-riding assailants. Police believe that reputed gang leader and fugitive Chhota Rajan ordered the hit in retaliation for several negative stories and that he allegedly paid the attackers 500,000 rupees (US$9,700). The indictment filed on Saturday in a Maharashtra state court names Rajan along with 11 other people, including the alleged gunmen and those suspected of providing cash, cellphone SIM cards and the revolver used in the killing.
UNITED KINGDOM
Assange aims for top court
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange is to seek today to have his appeal against extradition to Sweden heard by the nation’s top court, playing his final card in a lengthy legal battle. Almost a year after his arrest over claims of rape and sexual assault, the 40-year-old Australian will ask two judges at London’s High Court to decide whether his appeal can proceed to the Supreme Court. For the appeal to be heard in the highest court, the judges must rule the case raises a question of general public importance. Today’s hearing comes a month after his first appeal against a ruling that he can be sent to Sweden was rejected. If the ruling goes against Assange, the British leg of his legal battle will end and he faces extradition to Sweden within 10 days.
GERMANY
Old bomb to be defused
Officials in the western city of Koblenz said about 45,000 residents had to be evacuated yesterday as officials tried to defuse a World War II era bomb discovered in the Rhine River. City officials said that the massive British 1.8 tonne bomb was to be defused yesterday, requiring all residents within a 1.8km radius of the bomb site to leave their homes for the day. Officials said seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison were evacuated in the biggest such operation in the city since the war. The bomb was found last week after the Rhine’s water level fell because of a lack of rain.
UNITED STATES
Portland protesters arrested
Authorities say riot police moved into a downtown Portland, Oregon, park area and arrested several anti-Wall Street protesters on Saturday night after they refused to leave. Occupy Portland demonstrators set up tents in the park earlier in the day and vowed to stay through the winter, defying city officials who said overnight camping will not be allowed. Police sergeant Pete Simpson said officers began detaining protesters at 8:30pm after the park was closed 30 minutes early. He said several arrests were made, but didn’t have an exact count.
JAPAN
Mammoth may be cloned
Scientists from Japan and Russia believe it may be possible to clone a mammoth after finding well-preserved bone marrow in a thigh bone recovered from permafrost soil in Siberia, a report said on Saturday. Teams from the Sakha Republic’s mammoth museum and Kinki University will launch joint research next year aimed at recreating the giant mammal, Kyodo News reported from Yakutsk, Russia. By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth’s marrow cells, embryos with mammoth DNA can be produced, Kyodo said, citing the researchers. The scientists will then plant the embryos into elephant wombs for delivery, as the two species are close relatives, the report said.
UNITED NATIONS
UN hunts Libya weapons
The UN Security Council on Friday added the hunt for rogue surface-to-air missiles and other weapons in Libya to the duties of the UN mission in the country. The 15-member council unanimously passed a resolution provisionally extending the mandate of the mission until March 16, which has mainly been giving political support to Libya’s transitional government. Growing concern over the weapons caches — particularly thousands of shoulder-fired rocket launchers — left by former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi led to the extension of the mission’s duties.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was