INDONESIA
Aussie cooperation halted
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday that the nation is suspending cooperation with Canberra on people smuggling following allegations that Australian spies tried to tap his telephone and those of his inner circle. He told reporters in Jakarta that Jakarta would temporarily halt coordinated military cooperation with Australia, which includes assistance on people smuggling. “You are well aware that we are facing a joint problem of people smuggling that has been a problem for both Australia and Indonesia,” he said. He said that Canberra and Jakarta work together in an area called “coordinated military cooperation,” which involves patrols at sea. “I have asked for that to be halted until everything is clear,” he said.
PHILIPPINES
Jail hunting for escapees
It is 103 and counting — that is the number of prisoners on the loose after escaping Tacloban City Jail when a super typhoon devastated the central Philippines, flooded the prison and smashed open the main gate. The prisoners had been freed from their cells so that they could seek higher ground, but while some rode the water to the safety of the warden’s second-floor office, others followed the water out the front door. “They swam through,” warden Joseph Nunez said. “We are still missing 117.” That number had come down to 103 by late on Tuesday as some inmates turned themselves in and a team of correction officers, armed with M-16 rifles and 9mm handguns, hunted down a handful of others on the streets.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mandela charges dropped
The state prosecutor announced it had withdrawn charges of grave tampering and bigamy against Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, on Tuesday because of insufficient evidence. In July, Mandla — embroiled in a bitter family feud — was charged with tampering with the graves of his famous grandfather’s children, after he exhumed them without consent. “We have decided to drop the charges of grave violation because of insufficient evidence,” said Luxolo Tyali, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority. Mandla had also faced a long-standing charge of bigamy after his unceremonious separation from his first wife, Thando Mabunu, in 2008. “After studying the police docket on this matter, we also decided not to prosecute,” Tyali said. The 39-year-old is still facing a charge of pulling a gun on a motorist during a road rage incident last month.
BELGIUM
Widow sleeps with corpse
A Brussels widow slept next to her mummified husband’s corpse for a year, her landlord said after making the macabre discovery during an eviction, a Belgian daily reported on Tuesday. La Derniere Heure published striking pictures of a shawl-wrapped, emaciated body with a long white mustache, sunken eye sockets and protruding rib-cage, covered in a film of dried skin. The newspaper said the images were of a man who had died at the age of 73 after living in the Anderlecht district of the Belgian capital for a dozen years or so with his wife. According to initial medical tests, he died of natural causes a year ago. The gruesome find emerged because the rent on their apartment had not been paid since November last year and the landlord launched eviction proceedings. “I have seen dead people before ... but never in this condition,” the landlord was quoted as saying. “The lady slept next to her husband’s body.” Neighbors said the widow had told them her husband was away “receiving treatment.”
RUSSIA
Foreign activists get bail
A court on Tuesday granted bail to nine foreign Greenpeace protesters, the first non-Russians jailed and awaiting trial over a demonstration near a Russian oil rig to be made eligible for release. The decision came a day after the Primorsky court in St Petersburg refused to release an Australian activist and another court granted bail to three Russians, including prominent photographer Denis Sinyakov. The Primorsky court set bail at 2 million rubles (US$61,500) each for the activists from Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand and Poland. The court said they will be released if the bail is paid within the next four days.
UNITED KINGDOM
Train refuses obese man
A clinically obese Frenchman stranded in the US because he was deemed too heavy to fly finally took a plane to London on Tuesday — only to be refused travel home by the Eurostar cross-channel train. Kevin Chenais, 22, who weighs 230kg, arrived at London’s Heathrow airport with his parents after Virgin Atlantic agreed to fly him back from New York. He had been in the US since May last year for treatment for a hormone imbalance and had been set to return home on British Airways last month, but the airline refused to accept him as a passenger, saying he was too heavy. Chenais praised Virgin for flying him out from New York’s JFK airport and paying for the economy-class flights for him and his parents. Chenais and his parents were met at Heathrow by French consular staff who arranged for them to try for a Paris-bound Eurostar train later on Tuesday. However, Eurostar then said that he had been refused travel because of its regulations for evacuation procedures.
UNITED STATES
Senator’s son stabs him
The son of a state senator stabbed his father in the head and chest on Tuesday before apparently killing himself with a gun, according to initial reports from police. Authorities were still piecing together a motive and the circumstances that led to the stabbing of Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds. Deeds’ 24-year-old son, Gus, died at his home of a gunshot wound. Geller said Creigh Deeds and his son were the only people at the home and police were not looking for a suspect. The senator was in fair condition in hospital. He had previously been listed as critical. After the stabbing, Deeds was able to walk away from his rural home to a nearby road and a cousin who was driving by happened to notice the senator, police said.
CANADA
Anesthesiologist assaults 21
An anesthesiologist was found guilty on Tuesday of sexually assaulting 21 women while they were helplessly under anesthesia, but aware of what was happening. George Doodnaught was accused of kissing, fondling and forcing oral sex on the patients at North York General Hospital in Toronto during a four-year period that ended in 2010. The victims were aware of what was happening, but could not move, the court heard. The defense argued that the victims actually had vivid sexual dreams caused by sedatives and that Doodnaught could not have assaulted them undetected by others separated only by a surgical screen in the operating room. A researcher confirmed at trial that the drugs can cause hallucinations, but he added that it is unlikely that all of the women, who did not know each other, would come forward separately with similar accusations against the same doctor.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the