AUSTRALIA
Shark kills diver
Police say a man has been killed by a shark while diving with his brother off a beach in southwest Australia. It’s the fourth fatal shark attack in the country since September, all of them off the continent’s southwest corner. Police spokeswoman Sergeant Naomi Smith said the two men were diving from a boat off Stratham Beach, about 230km south of Perth, the Western Australia state capital, when one of brothers was attacked mid-morning.
SOUTH KOREA
Casino workers nabbed
Two casino workers were arrested on Friday on suspicion of using hidden cameras to rig the outcome of games in a scam that netted them at least US$620,000. A maintenance manager identified only as Hwang and a staff member surnamed Kim were accused of setting up tiny video cameras at casino tables to enable crooked gambling at the Kangwon Land Casino, police said. Kangwon Land, in the eastern mountain resort of Jeongseon, is the only one of the country’s 17 casinos allowed to accept domestic gamblers. Hwang, 42, allegedly asked Kim to install the cameras on the shoes of the croupier which deal cards and helped an unidentified gambler cheat dozens of times since 2009.
SOUTH KOREA
No kids at Gaga show
Youths aged under 18 have been banned from attending an upcoming concert by US pop diva Lady Gaga after it was rated unsuitable for younger audiences, organizers said on Friday. Lady Gaga will begin her third concert tour, The Born This Way Ball, on April 27 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The show had an initial age rating of 12 and older, but the Korea Media Rating Board, a state watchdog, has adjusted it upwards, said event organizer Hyundai Card. “Our company will respect the board’s decision and refund all ticketholders younger than 18,” a Hyundai Card official said.
AUSTRALIA
Abbott sorry over gaffe
Opposition leader Tony Abbott backpedaled on Friday after derogatory comments about the clothes and appearance of Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister. The furore began when well-known Australian feminist Germaine Greer told ABC television that Gillard wore unflattering jackets and had a “big arse.” “Every time she turns round, you’ve got that strange horizontal crease, which means they’re cut too narrow in the hips,” Greer said. “You’ve got a big arse, Julia. Just get on with it.” While meeting the public at a community forum on Thursday the issue came up and Abbott responded: “I know, I know, I know. Germaine Greer was right on that subject.” On Friday he said he regretted the remark after it was widely played on television. “It was an off-the-cuff remark responding to an observation of a member of the public and I shouldn’t have said it and I regret it,” he said.
CANADA
Ship heads for west coast
The government is monitoring an unmanned Japanese ship which was swept into the ocean during last year’s tsunami, and will not allow it to wash ashore on the west coast, the government announced. “The government of Canada will ensure the vessel does not wash ashore on the Canadian coast,” Transport Canada said in a statement. However, it added it will not prevent private parties from trying to take control of the ship, which is currently drifting 1,500km north of Vancouver.
MEXICO
Town police chief killed
Authorities said gunmen burst into the home of a small town’s police chief and killed him in the northern state of Durango. A statement from state prosecutors said police chief Macario Parada was already wounded from a shootout and was recovering at home when the attackers struck in the town of Ocampo. Prosecutors said the assailants kidnapped police officers assigned as Parada’s bodyguards before the attack on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Houston’s mother proud
Cissy Houston said in her first interview since daughter Whitney’s death that she’s “very proud” of her and did the best she could raising her. Houston talked to My9 on Thursday for an interview set to air tomorrow. The interview took place at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where Whitney first wowed a congregation as a girl and where her funeral was held on Feb. 18. Houston said her daughter “accomplished a whole lot in the short time that she had here” and “was a very wonderful person.” She said she does not blame herself for what happened to her because she knows she did the best she could.
UNITED STATES
Life sentence urged for Bout
Federal prosecutors asked a judge in New York to sentence a Russian arms dealer known as the Merchant of Death to life in prison. Prosecutors called Viktor Bout a “businessman of the most dangerous order” in court papers filed on Friday. They said Bout conspired to sell missiles to an “avowed terrorist organization seeking to kill Americans.” Defense attorney Albert Dayan said in court papers that the case against Bout was “the product of outrageous, inexcusable government conduct” and that his client was innocent. He called on the judge not to sentence Bout and to dismiss the indictment.
GUATEMALA
Drug proposal opposed
Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega issued a joint statement after meeting on Friday, saying they do not support Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina’s proposal to legalize drugs, but would continue to support regional efforts to fight drug trafficking. The leaders said they want to present a united front as Western Hemisphere leaders look for ways to fight drug trafficking at the Summit of the Americas in Colombia next month. Perez made his drug legalization proposal in February.
ARGENTINA
Menem ordered to stand trial
Former president Carlos Menem was on Friday ordered to stand trial for obstruction of justice in a probe of the 1994 bombing of a building housing Jewish charities that killed 85 people. Justice officials said Judge Ariel Lijo ordered the trial for Menem, president from 1989 to 1999, and former judge Juan Jose Galeano, who was in charge of the investigation for 10 years, but was dismissed from the case in 2004. About 300 people were wounded in the attack that leveled the seven-floor Argentine Jewish Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires. No one has ever been convicted in the bombing. Menem, 81, was initially charged in 2009 with concealing and tampering with evidence and abusing authority to cover up what was then called a “Syrian connection.” Prosecutors now say there is evidence that state intelligence services and security forces covered up and erased tracks for local accomplices of the attackers during the Menem administration.
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
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number