■Indonesia
More Bali suspects charged
Indonesian prosecutors yesterday charged another nine suspects over last year's Bali bombings, including Ali Gufron, the alleged operations chief of the al-Qaeda linked terror group blamed for the attacks. Gufron, alias Mukhlas, is charged with helping to plan and execute the bombings, and could face the death penalty if convicted, chief prosecutor Muhammad Salim told reporters. Local and regional law enforcement officials say Jemaah Islamiyah funded and organized the Oct. 12 attacks, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The other eight suspects were charged with indirect involvement in the attack, said Salim, adding they face prisons terms of between 12 years and life imprisonment.
■ China
WHO queries SARS figures
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday questioned a reported sharp fall in new SARS cases in China, the world's worst-hit country, saying it was "concerned" at how the counting was being done. China yesterday announced just three new cases of SARS, two of them in Beijing. It has gone nine days in a row with fewer than 10 officially reported fresh infections. "We are concerned about how these cases are being counted ... We do not know enough about where these numbers are coming from," WHO spokesman Iain Simpson told journalists. "It may simply be that there has been a dramatic drop off in the number of SARS cases, but clearly because of the way that SARS emerged in China, China has a credibility problem," he said.
■ China
Wife gets sex compensation
A young wife in southern China has been awarded US$1,300 dollars for the loss of her sex life after her electrician husband lost both legs in an accident, a news report said yesterday. The woman sued her 32-year-old husband's employers after her husband fell from a telegraph pole and had to have both legs amputated, the South China Morning Post reported. The accident left him unable to have sex and the woman, from Guangzhou, sued the company over the loss of her right to have sex, the newspaper said.
■ Australia
Famous tree cashes chips
It had stood unharmed by man for almost four centuries. Dominating the lush Tasmanian rainforest, the tree known as El Grande, the largest hardwood plant on earth, was revered by environmentalists and tourists alike. Many came to gape in awe. Not any more. The 79m tree has been accidentally `cooked to death' after a fire started to provide woodchips raged out of control. `This is akin to blasting at a Sydney demolition site and saying "Whoops, we got the Opera House as well,'" said Bob Brown, a senator for Tasmania's Green party.
■ New Zealand
Handyman building missile
A New Zealand home handyman is building a cruise missile in his garage with parts bought over the Internet, and he tells how to do it on his Web site, a newspaper reported yesterday. Bruce Simpson, 49, who lives near Auckland, told the New Zealand Herald he was not building the missiles for terrorism but to test his home-made jet engines. The paper quoted security experts as saying that the ease with which he obtained parts and built a working jet engine was a warning that such weapons could be built by the wrong people. Simpson said anyone with half a brain could build a cruise missile: "You don't have to be a rocket scientist."
■Canada
SARS claims more victims
Health officials reported another death and 10 more cases of SARS in Canada's largest city Monday, and said a public review of how they handled a renewed outbreak of the illness was possible. SARS now has claimed 32 lives in Toronto, including a 60-year-old man who died May 20 and had his case reviewed under increased monitoring for possible undiagnosed patients, said Colin D'Cunha, the Ontario commissioner of public health. D'Cunha reported 62 probable cases of SARS with 6,800 people under home quarantine for possible exposure, an increase of more than 1,500 over the previous day. He also said more than 5,000 health care workers were in ``working quarantine,'' which means they continue working but must wear mask, gown and gloves both inside and outside of hospitals and isolate themselves at home.
■ Italy
McDonald's sues critic
Once the legions marched forward to repel the barbarian hordes; now a lone Italian food critic has ridden out against what he sees as their contemporary equivalent. Edoardo Raspelli is taking on an enemy armed with slick lawyers whose standard is a pair of golden arches. Raspelli, a leading Italian food critic, is being sued by McDonald's, the giant US burger chain, after panning the food they serve to more than half a million Italians each day. Raspelli, who is known for his trenchant dismissal of poor cuisine, was unimpressed by the fare he sampled -- "obscene French fries tasting of cardboard" and "rubbery buns."
■ United Kingdom
Finding a solution that sticks
Move over Spider-Man -- mere mortals may soon be coming to a ceiling near you. Researchers at the University of Manchester say they have cracked the secret of one of the reptile world's greatest climbers, the gecko, and produced a sticky tape that can mimic the lizard's gravity-defying abilities. Soon, people could walk on walls like comic-book superhero Spider-Man, the university said. "The new adhesive -- gecko tape -- contains billions of tiny plastic fibres which are similar to natural hairs covering the soles of geckos' feet," the university said in a statement. "The research team believes it won't be long before Spider-Man gloves become a reality."
■ United Kingdom
Abduction case thrown out
A London court Monday threw out a case against four Romanians and a Kosovan Albanian in connection with an alleged plot to abduct Victoria Beckham, formerly the pop singer Posh Spice and the wife of England football captain David Beckham. Prosecutors said the evidence of a key witness, a Kosovan parking attendant, was unreliable, and Judge Simon Smith expressed criticism regarding payment made to the witness, named as Florim Gashi, 27, by Sunday tabloid News of the World.
■ France
Politician linked to murders
Frances most notorious serial killer has claimed that he murdered at least one victim on the orders of highly placed personalities in Toulouse because of a blackmail threat linked to sadomasochistic orgies involving politicians, judges and police. Dominique Baudis, the city's former mayor and current head of the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel was among four people named by the murderer, Patrice Alegre, who is serving a life sentence for five killings, involving extreme cruelty, and six rapes.
Agencies
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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