■ Japan
Oldest person turns 116
A Japanese woman believed to be the oldest person in the world turned 116 yesterday. Born in 1887, when Japan was still in the throes of its conversion from samurai rule to modern democracy, Kamato Hongo was recognized as the world's oldest living person by the Guinness Book of Records after an American woman -- Maude Farris-Luse -- died last March at the age of 115. Along with being the object of national pride as a symbol of this nation's unmatched longevity, Hongo is famous throughout Japan for her habit of sleeping for two days and then staying awake for two days. She has seven children -- three of whom have died -- 27 grandchildren, 57 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren. One of them has an Internet homepage devoted to Hongo that reveals her secret to long life. ``Not moping around,'' it says.
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■ The Philippines
Thief found in pawnshop
A thief was arrested in the Philippines when his victim bumped into him in a pawnshop where he was trying to cash in on a necklace he had just snatched, police said yesterday. The victim, 30-year-old Maria Liza Panizales, was on her way to the Goodyear Pawnshop in Quezon when the suspect snatched her necklace on Monday. But when Panizales arrived at the pawnshop to pay for another piece of jewelry she earlier pawned, she saw the suspect, 19-year-old Joven Baksal, inside trying to get money from her necklace. Baksal was brought to a nearby police station, where Panizales filed a complaint against him.
■ Pitcairn Island
Birth marks population boom
Remote Pitcairn Island in the Pacific experienced a population boom this week with the birth of the first child on the tiny outpost in 17 years and taking its population to nearly 50, according to a US academic. Emily Rose was born to Nadine Christian, 31, and her husband Randall Sunday night in the Pitcairn Island Medical Clinic both mother and daughter were ``doing fine.'' The child is a ninth generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, the English sailor who led a mid-Pacific mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the British navy ship the HMS Bounty in 1789 and then settled on the unpopulated island.
■ Malaysia
Underwear gang strikes
A team of house burglars dubbed the "Underwear Gang" by Malaysian police has struck for the fifth time this year. The three-man gang, armed with bolt-cutters and screwdrivers but wearing only T-shirts and underpants, broke into a house in Malacca by prising open a sliding door, police spokesman Gemon Ishak told said. The owner of the house, a 29-year-old woman, was awakened by the noise and went to investigate, surprising the scantily-clad burglars who bundled her and two maids into a room before fleeing with about US$7,895 dollars in cash and jewellery.
■ Zimbabwe
Newspaper editor quits
The publishers of Zimbabwe's sole privately owned daily said on Monday its top editor, editor-in-chief Francis Mdlongwa, had quit after authorities shut the paper down, but vowed to fight a closure that Britain branded an attempt to stifle democracy. Police shut down the Daily News last week after the Supreme Court ruled its publisher, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, was operating illegally because it had not registered with a media commission created by Robert Mugabe's government.
■ Saudi Arabia
Jail blaze kills 67 prisoners
A fire killed 67 prisoners when it swept through a jail near the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday, but officials said it was too early to say what caused the blaze, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.The head of prison affairs said 20 inmates and three security guards were injured. It was not immediately known if the prison housed any of the more than 200 Islamic militants arrested in recent months in a nationwide hunt for supporters of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
■ Antarctica
Rescue mission grounded
Snow and winds gusting to more than 72kph grounded two planes, delaying the rescue of a seriously ill man working at the US' South Pole research station. The Twin Otters, built to fly in rough weather, were flown over the weekend from the southern tip of Chile to the Rothera Air Station on Antarctica, where they were forced to wait because of bad weather, said Valerie Carroll, spokeswoman for Raytheon Polar Services of Centennial, Colorado. The pilots might try to take off during a predicted break in the storm today in the morning, said Steve Penikett, general manager of the Kenn Borek Air charter company of Calgary, Alberta.
■ Nairobi
Smugglers get murderous
At least 21 refugees drowned in the Gulf of Aden after they and dozens of others were forced off a boat at gunpoint by smugglers on a voyage from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, a UN official said on Monday. Eighty people, all Ethiopians, who had been among the more than 150 on board were still missing, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Rupert Colville said, adding only 55 survivors of last week's incident had been found so far. "The majority of the people [on the boat] were Ethiopians -- all except 14. Yemeni authorities have now picked up 21 bodies, 19 are Ethiopians and two are Somalis," Colville said.
■ United States
Freedom to order `French'
To get international help to rebuild Iraq, Congress may have to eat some French fries and French toast, according to Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. Saying it is time to put aside differences with France, the Texas Democrat circulated a letter on Monday urging the US House of Representatives to put back the word "French" in fries and toast on House cafeteria and dining hall menus. Lawmakers ordered them renamed "Freedom" fries and "Freedom" toast last spring, reflecting anger at France for its opposition to the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein as Iraq's president. But times have changed, Jackson Lee said, and now the Washington is trying to get France and other members of the UN to contribute money.
■ United States
Crowd fights for free money
Twelve people were injured at a shopping mall as hundreds jostled and fought over almost US$10,000 thrown into the air by a real-estate investor known as the "Money Man." Kevin Shelton says he began doling out cash two years ago as a way of brightening people's day and sparking generosity. He insists it's not a gimmick. But his latest attempt ended in a stampede when he fired his cash cannon, a small silver tube, and US$2 bills rained down on a crowd of 500 people in the courtyard of Florida's Bay Walk shopping and entertainment center on Saturday evening. Six people were taken to hospitals and six more were treated for cuts and bruises at the scene.
■ Sweden
Killer's DNA found in cap
Investigators collected DNA from a baseball cap apparently left behind by the man who killed Sweden's foreign minister but found no match in a national criminal database, police said on Monday. The investigators also evaluated tips after releasing photos of a man who they said matched witness descriptions of the person who attacked Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in an upscale department store last Thursday. Swedish authorities were unable to collect any of the killer's DNA from a knife used in the attack and have sent the weapon to an overseas laboratory for further analysis.
■ United states
Playboy eyes Wal-Mart
Here's one thing you won't find at Wal-Mart. Adult entertainment company Playboy Enterprises on Monday invited Wal-Mart employees to pose nude for a photo series on its Internet site, no small irony since the world's largest retailer won't sell Playboy magazines on its shelves. "Wal-Mart employees have a reputation for being cheerful and now Playboy.com is giving them a chance to smile for the camera," a statement from Playboy said. In recent years, Playboy has made a splash with other corporate-themed pictorials such as "Women of Starbucks" and "Women of Enron." Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said the solicitation "is something that we have never even considered. If there happens to be any interest from an associate [to pose], we will look into it at that time."
■ Russia
Suicide bomber kills two
A suicide bomber blew up a truck outside security offices near rebel Chechnya on Monday, officials said, killing two people in a fresh setback for Moscow's peace plan for the region. The truck, with its cargo of explosives covered in hay, drove unchecked past roadblocks and exploded at the headquarters of Russia's FSB security service in Magas, capital of Ingushetia -- a tiny Russian province bordering Chechnya. The attack distracted attention from campaigning for an Oct. 5 Chechen presidential election -- the centre-piece of Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to bring peace to the region. About 30 people were wounded, four seriously.
■ United States
Hurricane churns towards US
Hurricane Isabel churned across the Atlantic on its way to the US East Coast yesterday, its 200kph winds bringing dangerous surf to parts of the coastline as the storm headed toward North Carolina. Isabel's path could bring it ashore as early as tomorrow near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and north along the Chesapeake Bay near Washington, through Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, the US National Hurricane Center said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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