■ Indonesia
Playboy studies in prison
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra -- the son of Indonesia's former autocratic leader Suharto -- is studying law in prison where he is serving a sentence for ordering the murder of a supreme court judge, a news report said yesterday. The former playboy billionaire has enrolled in the study program offered by International Business Law and Management to inmates and staff at Nusakambangan prison located on an island 316km southeast of Jakarta. The prison school program has also taken on former timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, also an inmate at Nusakambangan, as an assistant lecturer in business and entrepreneurship.
■ Hong Kong
Killer mother sentenced
An Indonesian maid has been sentenced to two years in prison for killing her baby daughter and then burying the body on a beach at an outlying Hong Kong island, a newspaper reported yesterday. Hong Kong High Court Justice Colin Jackson imposed the sentence Friday on Sugiati Giyono, 23, after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, according to the South China Morning Post. Jackson said Giyono could not be convicted of murder because she may have been mentally disturbed after giving birth, the paper reported. The eight-day-old baby, whose mouth, nose and eyes were covered with adhesive tape,was found floating off a beach in Cheung Chau last year.
■ Vietnam
No drug use in public
Hanoi authorities are looking to clamp down on people caught using illegal drugs in public in a bid to clean up the nation's capital before the upcoming Southeast Asia Games, state-run media said yesterday. Anyone found using heroin and other illicit substances in public is to be fined and sent to drug re-education centers on the outskirts of the city, reported Tien Phong newspaper. The newspaper said the draft recommended fining anyone aged between 12 and 60 years old who had been caught using illicit drugs in public.
■ New Zealand
Policeman too friendly
A New Zealand policeman has been reprimanded for addressing Prime Minister Helen Clark by her first name after she smiled at him, a newspaper reported yesterday. Police bosses said the junior officer embarrassed the force by saying "Hi Helen" as she and her advisers walked past at an Auckland hotel where she is chairing a summit meeting of Pacific island leaders, according to the New Zealand Herald. "She is the prime minister of New Zealand after all," said Inspector Mark Hall, who is in charge of police at the meeting, saying the officer had responded to her smile inappropriately.
■ Singapore
Judge praises teenager
A teenager who saved a man from being hacked to death was praised for his bravery by a Singapore judge and then scolded for dabbling in the sale of illegal compact discs. State Coroner Malcolm Tan said Edwin Yeo, 16, was "a brave young man" during the inquest into the death of Ng Sok Phua, 46, who committed suicide after carrying out the axe-wielding attack on April 3, The Straits Times said. Yeo stopped Ng from hacking to death Tan Boon Pang, 35, at a coffee shop. Police investigations revealed the three were allegedly involved in the sale of obscene and illegal discs. The coroner said Yeo should be concentrating on his studies, not the "sale of illegal" discs.
■ Germany
Man cuts off penis
A German cut off his own penis with a kitchen knife to cure his addiction to sex, police in the southern town of Tiengen said on Friday. "The man called a friend around eight o'clock to say he'd done something stupid," police said in a statement. He had been drinking vodka to pluck up courage for the amateur surgery. Police arrived to discover the blood-soaked man, 41, in his apartment and his organ under the kitchen table. Emergency services rushed the man and his penis to a nearby hospital. Police said the man did not want his penis to be reattached but were unable to say if doctors had complied with his wishes.
■ United States
Elvis song to be released
A lost Elvis Presley song recorded by the King of rock 'n' roll nearly 40 years ago has been found by a US songwriter and will appear on an album due out in October, the record company that will release the album said Friday. The rediscovered song I'm a Roustabout, recorded in 1964 for the movie Roustabout, will be on the album "Elvis: 2nd To None," which is to be released Oct. 7 by BMG, the music arm of German publishing giant Bertelsmann. The Elvis track disappeared in the private collection of songwriter Winfield Scott after the producer selected another song for the movie. Scott, who composed the song with fellow songwriter Otis Blackwell, found it in the basement of his house in New Jersey.
■ Russia
Couple tries to sell child
A young couple have stunned Russia by trying to sell their daughter for US$1,000 so they could buy a new house. In an incident betraying the poverty and desperation in which many Russians live in the regions outside of Moscow, Sergei Pivovarov, 29, and Olga Kemerova, 30, were arrested by police on Wednesday night. They had been walking the streets of Moscow, reportedly asking passersby if they were interested in buying their 18-month-old daughter, Margarita. The couple originally sought US$10,000 for the girl. Yet they became increasingly desperate and eventually agreed to US$1,000 offered by an undercover policewoman who approached them.
■ Northern Ireland
Omagh victims appeal to UK
Survivors of Northern Ireland's deadliest terror attack, the 1998 car-bombing of Omagh, appealed Friday for the British government to launch a public probe into the unsolved atrocity. About 400 people, among them representatives of the British and Irish governments, gathered at a memorial garden to remember the 29 people fatally wounded five years ago when a 225kg car bomb detonated in the crowded market center of Omagh. Irish Republican Army dissidents committed the attack in hopes of derailing the 1998 peace agreement.
■ United States
Dancer denies Affleck rumor
Rest easy, J. Lo. She says it never happened. Antonella Santini, the exotic dancer featured in salacious National Enquirer stories that purported to detail a sexual encounter she had with actress Jennifer Lopez' fiance, Ben Affleck, has sued the tabloid, saying she never had sex with the Gigli actor. But the Enquirer, which published two articles about Affleck's visit to Brandi's all-nude club in Vancouver, British Columbia, and his alleged encounter with Santini, says it is standing by its story.
■ Canada
Baby boom forecast
Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman predicted on Friday that a surge in births may be seen in nine months after the blackout that struck Canada's largest city, but he advised citizens against using candles in any get-togethers in the dark. "I guess in nine months we're going to see the biggest baby boom we've ever seen," Lastman told a news conference on Friday, responding to the state of emergency in the city. It is widely believed that the birth rate rises after times of crisis but many experts dismiss this phenomena as urban myth. Lastman also asked people to use flashlights instead of candles in any future brownouts, as well as to conserve energy. The mayor, criticized for being slow to appear during this crisis and for a lack of leadership when Toronto was struck by the SARS virus earlier this year, has a history of colorful comments.
■ United states-
This game is for keeps
Who wants to marry my daughter? That's not the latest reality TV dating game, but rather a sign planted on Donna Wood's front lawn in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Wood is seeking a soul mate for her 22-year-old daughter Karah, whose romantic choices over the years have left much to be desired, the mother said. Inspired by the NBC reality series Who Wants to Marry my Dad, Wood posted an ad in a local paper and planted a sign on her lawn seeking the perfect gentleman, who should enjoy movies, horse-back riding, long walks and watersports. "The last guy she dated prompted my husband and I to do this," she said. "He was covered in tattoos, was a lot older than she is and was just horrifying. She has no taste in men," she said. "We have to make the decision because if there's one bad guy and one good guy she'll pick the bad one."
■ Hungary
City seeks key to problem
The Hungarian city of Pecs is fighting a losing battle against padlocks which lovers are secretly clamping on statues and gates all over the city center as symbols of their enduring affection. The curious tradition dates back to the early 1980s when lovers began fixing single padlocks, without any markings, on a wrought iron fence in the heart of Pecs, which has a magnificent cathedral and ancient Christian tombs. With no room now left on the fence, couples, both locals and tourists, are fastening their love tokens on anything that will hold a padlock, including statues. The city management firm first tried removing the padlocks, then launched a campaign to discourage the practise, and now, in a final act of desperation, plans to erect an new iron fence exclusively for love padlocks.
■ United states
Meditation plan causes stress
If honking motorists and your boss are making you tense, Jeff Peckman thinks he has the answer: Force the city to come up with a stress-busting plan. The former transcendental meditation teacher collected enough signatures to put a proposal on the November ballot requiring the Denver City Council to reduce stress in hopes of ``defusing political, religious and ethnic tension worldwide.'' It's a plan that isn't exactly putting him in harmony with the council.``It's fantasy. We live in Denver, Colorado, not in Disney World,'' said Councilman Charlie Brown. ``What are we supposed to do, hand out incense sticks at Denver International Airport? Is that the image we want for our city?''
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
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