■Pakistan
Two charged with murder
An anti-terrorism court yesterday sentenced two Islamic militants to death after finding them guilty of stage-managing a suicide car bombing that killed 11 French engineers in southern Karachi last year, Prosecutor Maula Bakhsh Bhatti said. The sentence against Asif Zaheer and Bashir Ahmed, both members of Harakat-ul Mujahedeen al Almi, an outlawed Islamic militant group, was handed down in a heavily fortified jail in Karachi. The trial began in April 2003 and was located inside the Karachi Jail compound for security reasons. The death sentence was handed down on the charge of terrorism. The two men were also found guilty of a second charge of conspiring to kill foreign nationals and sentenced to life in prison on that charge. It's not known whether the men would be hanged or allowed to spend their life in jail.
■ Hong Kong
Firing blamed on being gay
A flight attendant claims he has been sacked from his job with Dragonair after his employers found out he was gay, a news report said yesterday. The 26-year-old, who asked not to be named, was dismissed days after being promoted to flight purser and told he was "not suitable for the job," according to the South China Morning Post. He claims he had earlier been told by an administrator that it was "okay to be gay" but had been urged to keep a low profile about his sexuality, the newspaper said. His case has now been taken up by action group Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities, which wants Dragonair to issue an explanation over the flight attendant's dismissal. Dragonair declined to comment on the allegations, saying it would not comment on cases involving individual members of staff.
■ Australia
Pacific nations back plan
The 16 nations of the Pacific Islands Forum announced yesterday they have unanimously backed intervention by an Australian-led multinational force of police and troops to restore law and order in the violence-racked Solomon Islands.
■ Thailand
Exiles face deportation
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday threatened to deport Myanmar exiles who stage protests in Thailand against the military government in their country. Thaksin said the Myanmar dissidents are becoming a national security problem and will not be allowed to demonstrate outside the refugee camps where they are registered. Myanmar refugees in Thailand have become more vocal in recent weeks, protesting against the detention since May 30 of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the junta.
■ China
Clayderman soothes litigants
A court in Beijing is playing Richard Clayderman songs as background music to sooth the tempers of litigants during trials, a news report said yesterday. Chaoyang District Court decided to use the music of the 49-year-old French pianist, famous for his easy listening style, as a way of trying to defuse tensions in trials, according to the South China Morning Post. The court has paid 200 yuan (US$24) to China's copyright association to allow it to play Clayderman's songs inside public court rooms, the newspaper said. Clayderman, born Philippe Pages in December 1953, has recorded over 1,000 songs in a career spanning 30 years and has sold more than 70 million records. He has played concerts in China.
■Nigeria
Police disperse protesters
Police fired teargas and live rounds in Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos and the inland capital Abuja yesterday to disperse protesters at the start of a general strike over fuel prices, witnesses said. "Protesters have made bonfires on the streets. The police have moved in and are firing teargas to disperse the people," a resident of Abuja's Area 1 district said. Police were firing live rounds in the air to disperse a large group chanting anti-government slogans around burning tyres in the middle of a major street. Pickets of the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress used buses to block the two main entrances to Abuja's federal secretariat complex.
■ Malawi
Muslims attack Christians
Police and army units were deployed across Malawi on Sunday to restore order after Muslim crowds attacked Christian and western targets in protest at the deportation of five Muslim men said to be suspects from the terror network al-Qaeda. The government breached a high court ruling last week by spiriting the men into US custody, apparently after heavy pressure from Washington. Several Christian churches and the office of an American charity were damaged by mobs on Saturday, prompting the security presence at church services yesterday. At least three people were injured and 13 arrested.
■ United Kingdom
Gays get legal rights
Gays and lesbians in England and Wales would enjoy the same legal rights as married couples under proposals released yesterday by the British government. If adopted by parliament, the reforms will create civil partnerships to give homosexual couples pension and property rights, so long as they sign an official registration document. It would also give next-of-kin rights in hospitals, allow gays to benefit from a deceased partner's pension, and exempt them from inheritance tax on a partner's home. The proposals were backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and a bill could be introduced into parliament this year.
■ Israel
Sperm saving doesn't work
Couples who abstain from sex in the hope of saving sperm until the woman is at her most fertile are wasting their time, a new study suggests. The research provides the strongest evidence yet that not only is abstaining of no benefit to couples with normal fertility, it can damage the chance of successful conception among couples seeking fertility treatment. A team lead by Eliahu Levitas, a fertility specialist at the IVF unit of Soroka University Medical Centre in Israel, looked at sperm samples from around 6,000 men who had abstained from sex for up to two weeks. Most had normal sperm counts, but roughly a third of their sperm counts were low.
■ Israel
Collapsed building kills 4
A two-storey building collapsed yesterday morning in Tel Aviv, killing at least four people, wounding three and trapping others in the ruins. One of the dead was a five-year old girl, said Moshe Mosco, a spokesman for the fire and rescue service. There were possibly five more people still trapped in the building, and army rescue teams were called in to help freeing those trapped under the rubble. "It is going to take us hours," said Mosco. The army brought in electronic equipment, dogs and heavy machinery in an attempt to find those still trapped. The building collapsed after a gas canister apparently exploded in the building.
Agencies
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
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