■Japan
Briton sent to prison
A British man was sentenced to 14 years in prison yesterday and given a 5 million yen (US$42,373 dollar) fine for smuggling drugs into Japan in a trial that has triggered fears of serious human rights abuses. Nicholas Baker's guilty verdict came despite a campaign by a British lawmaker and a human rights lawyer to push for a fair trial. Sabine Zanker, a lawyer for the London-based human rights group Fair Trials Abroad, argued that the prosecution had blocked key defense evidence from appearing in court and said Baker would appeal the decision. Baker, 32, was caught at Narita airport near Tokyo in April last year with more than 40,000 ecstasy pills and almost one kilogram of cocaine in a suitcase he insisted belonged to a "mate" and traveling companion.
■ Thailand
Alleged rape victim charged
A Hong Kong tourist who says she was gang-raped in Bangkok was arrested Thursday and charged with defamation and filing a false complaint, a senior police officer said. The 27-year-old freelance journalist holidaying here last week claimed she was raped by the driver of a three-weeled "tuk tuk" taxi and three other men on June 3 in front of Parliament House. The driver Thongbai Ummahear, whom police had arrested but dropped charges against on Thursday, filed the defamation suit while police posted the false complaint charge.
■ Australia
Lawyer sues counselor
A lawyer is suing a marriage guidance counselor for having sex with his wife only weeks after he was hired to help save their union, news reports Thursday said. Brisbane psychologist Owen Pershouse denies the claim brought by lawyer Michael Baker, the Courier-Mail reported. Baker alleges Pershouse began an affair with his wife only weeks after the joint counseling sessions began in 1993. The case comes before a Brisbane court in August.
■ Cambodia
Islamic terrorists hunted
Cambodia charged a fourth suspected Muslim militant yesterday as Southeast Asia intensified a crackdown on a shadowy radical Islamic network blamed for terror attacks in the region. In Thailand, police were hunting for accomplices of Muslims arrested in connection with a plan to attack US interests and beach resorts there. Sman Esma El, a 23-year-old Muslim teacher at a Kuwaiti-funded Islamic school west of Cambodia's capital, was arrested on Wednesday and charged him with international terrorism activities linked to the network of the Jemaah Islamiah southeast Asian militant group.
■ Indonesia
Soldiers jailed for beatings
An Indonesian court-martial yesterday jailed three more soldiers for beating up villagers during a hunt for separatist rebels in Aceh province. Military judge Major Hulwani jailed the two privates and a sergeant for between four months and four months and 20 days. They were the second group of soldiers to be court-martialled since Indonesia on May 19 launched its biggest military operation for a quarter-century to crush the Free Aceh Movement. The same tribunal at Lhokseumawe city in North Aceh on Monday sentenced three privates to four months in jail over the incident at Lawang in Bireuen district
■Germany
Housemate rots on couch
German authorities put a 43-year-old man into psychiatric care after he was found living with his housemate who had been dead a month. Police discovered the rotting body of the 58-year-old man on his living room couch, following a tip-off from a hired gardener who grew suspicious after being repeatedly sent away. An autopsy on the body gave no hint of foul play, police said. "The man told us he had just stopped eating," said Hans Roeck, a police spokesman in the town of Aalen.
■ United States
Legislator wants "fat tax"
Citing evidence that fatty foods are health hazards, a New York state legislator wants to make junk food junkies pay. Representative Felix Ortiz, a Democrat from the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, said on Wednesday he plans to introduce legislation imposing a one-percent sales tax on fatty foods. He said he believes government should use taxes to discourage the eating of "junk food," just as it does with cigarettes because of the growing cost of health problems related to obesity. "I'm trying to make everyone part of the solution," Ortiz said."
■ Canada
The elderly tested for SARS
Nearly two dozen people from two facilities for the elderly in Ontario were being tested for possible SARS symptoms, while hundreds more were quarantined as a precaution. Officials on Wednesday reported 63 probable cases of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, down one from the previous day. More than 100 people were being monitored due to SARS symptoms. That included 23 people moved from a nursing home and a retirement home in Whitby, Ontario, 70km east of Toronto, to other hospitals to undergo tests for SARS. "None are critical, they are not suggestive of SARS, but we're checking to make sure," said Dr. Donna Reynolds, a regional health official.
■ United States
Pox vaccine available
US officials said they would distribute the smallpox vaccine to people exposed to the monkeypox virus, as the number of suspected victims of the deadly virus rose to 54. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia said the vaccine would be released to veterinarians and health workers involved in the investigation to help them fight off the virus. The Department of Health and Human Services also banned the importation of rodents from Africa and the movement of prairie dogs within the US. With 54 suspected cases in four states, the US is doing everything it can to contain the source of the outbreak.
■ United Kingdom
"Bastards" pester Blix
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said the Bush administration criticized UN inspections -- but he denied that it pressured him or that he called US officials "bastards." Blix, who oversaw a fruitless search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for three months, was quizzed about an interview published in London's Guardian newspaper. "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media," Blix was quoted as telling the newspaper. Asked Wednesday whether he used the word "bastards" referring to the Bush administration, Blix replied: "No, no, absolutely not. I was talking about private individuals."
Agencies
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS