FIJI
Church leader jailed
The leader of an evangelical church was jailed for two years yesterday after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman who approached him for counseling in June last year after suffering anxiety and depression after the birth of her fourth child, reports said. All Nations church founder Reverend Epeli Ratabacaca was sentenced in Suva High Court after being found guilty last week on one count of sexual assault and acquitted on two rape charges, Fiji Broadcasting Corp reported. Ratabacaca, 54, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, was initially sentenced to four years, but the jail term was reduced to reflect the military veteran’s previously clean record, news site fijivillage.com said. Judge Paul Madigan described Ratabacaca’s actions as “a gross breach of trust” that warranted a custodial sentence, adding that the cleric had expressed no remorse toward his victim. The All Nations Christian Fellowship’s Web site says Ratabacaca founded the evangelical movement 15 years ago.
TONGA
Drugs probe launched
Police yesterday said a multinational drugs investigation had been launched after the discovery of a mystery yacht with a dead body aboard stranded on a remote Pacific reef. A pair of divers spotted the yacht last week off the Vava’u island group and found the decomposing body of a Caucasian man when they boarded to investigate, police commissioner Grant O’Fee said. He said investigators were treating the yacht as a crime scene and a probe was underway involving police from Australia, the Cook Islands and the US Drug Enforcement Agency. O’Fee declined to say whether drugs had been found on the yacht, revealing only that Tonga was not believed to be its intended destination. He said the body had not been identified and an autopsy would be carried out this week.
SRI LANKA
Chief justice probed
Parliament has appointed 11 lawmakers to investigate the accusations in an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. A group of lawmakers submitted the motion two weeks ago that accuses Bandaranayake of having unexplained wealth and misusing her power. The lawmakers called for a select committee to investigate 14 charges cited in the motion. Bandaranayake has rejected the allegations against her. Opposition parties and independent analysts say the impeachment process is a politically motivated attempt to stifle the judiciary’s independence and concentrate power for President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
AUSTRALIA
INXS end 35-year tour run
Rockers INXS are giving up touring after 35 years. Drummer Jon Farriss announced the end of the band’s remarkable run of performances during a concert in Perth earlier this week. The band later confirmed the news in a statement. INXS was formed in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album in 1980. They achieved worldwide fame with hits such as New Sensation, Need You Tonight and Devil Inside. Frontman Michael Hutchence died in 1997. In a statement on Tuesday, the band paid tribute to their friend, saying: “We lived for each other in the trenches and we loved each other. It was the six of us against the world and then suddenly and inexplicably we were but five.”
SWITZERLAND
Diamond sale posts records
The flawless “Archduke Joseph” diamond, from India’s famous Golconda mines, broke several world records when it was sold at auction in Geneva late on Tuesday for US$21.47 million. The price which the 76 carat jewel fetched at the Christie’s sale is a record for the auction of a clear, colorless diamond. It is also the highest auction price per carat for such a gem and the record for a Golconda diamond, the same mines that produced the Koh-i-Noor which adorns the British Queen’s crown. The “Archduke Joseph,” which was bought by an anonymous bidder, once belonged to the Habsburgs, former rulers of the Austrian empire.
UNITED STATES
Petraeus in new game
Former CIA director David Petraeus has landed on his feet with a new gig in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The retired Army general who stepped down as intelligence chief last week amid a scandal surrounding his extramarital affair pops up in the highly anticipated Activision Blizzard Inc first-person shooter game released on Tuesday. A character with Petraeus’ name and likeness voiced by Jim Meskimen briefly appears as the secretary of defense in the year 2025. Black Ops II also features an encounter with Manuel Noriega, a female president resembling Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and an aircraft carrier named USS Barack Obama.
FRANCE
Lotto win breaks record
A lucky punter beat the national record for a EuroMillions lottery haul on Tuesday, winning a staggering 169.8 million euros (almost US$216 million), enough to buy nearly four tonnes of gold. The sole winner of the draw beats the former record, won by a man in the northwestern Calvados area last year, by more than 7 million euros. Organizers La Francaise des Jeux did not say what part of the country Tuesday’s winner was from. Whoever it is will instantly become the 221st richest French person, according to Challenge magazine’s rich list.
FRANCE
Two Sri Lankans charged
Two Sri Lankan men were charged on Tuesday with the murder of a former commander of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers rebel group in Paris, a judicial source said. Nadarajah Mathinthiran was gunned down on Thursday night last week as he was leaving the headquarters of the Tamil Coordination Committee in France (CCTF), an organization regarded as a front for what remains of the Tigers. The source said one of the men was suspected of ordering the murder and the other of carrying out the hit on the Sri Lankan-born French national. Mathinthiran was a leader in the Paris division of the CCTF, and in February was sentenced to five years in prison for extortion and financing terrorism. Mathinthiran’s daughter on Monday accused the Sri Lankan government of involvement in her father’s murder.
UNITED STATES
Man recants sex claim
The man who claimed he had underage sex with the puppeteer behind Sesame Street character Elmo recanted his claims on Tuesday, media reports said. The unnamed man, now 23, had claimed that Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash had a sexual relationship with him when the accuser was 16 years old. “He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr Clash was an adult consensual relationship,” the law firm Andreozzi and Associates, who represent the man, told media outlets in a statement. Clash, 52, had denied the allegations.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
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