■ Indonesia
Another Bali bomber jailed
An Indonesian Muslim militant was jailed for life yesterday for his key role in last year's deadly bombings on the holiday island of Bali, which killed 202 people. Mubarok's sentence was the latest in a string of verdicts against Muslim radicals who blew up two nightclubs in Bali in October last year, killing mostly foreign tourists. Judges at the Denpasar district court said they had found Mubarok guilty of taking part in plotting an attack that put Indonesia and its minority of radical Muslims under the global microscope.
■ China
Dissident awaits verdict
The subversion trial of cyber-dissident Ouyang Yi ended yesterday without a verdict in Chengdu, apparently due to a lack of sufficient evidence, the dissident's lawyer said. "The prosecutor could not explain the evidence and did not produce evidence that Ouyang Yi intended to overthrow the government or instigate the overthrow of the government," lawyer Qiu Shiming said. "A verdict is expected but I don't know when," Qiu said. Ouyang, 35, allegedly gathered signatures for open letters to the Communist Party ahead of a crucial party meeting last year that called for greater democracy in China and the release of dissidents rounded up for publishing their views on the Internet.
■ Australia
Sydney's beaches cleaner
Visitors to Sydney's seaside no longer risk what one official called "swimming in sewage grease," according to an official report that says the city's famous beaches are getting cleaner. New figures released yesterday showed that beach water in Australia's most populous city is the cleanest it's been since pollution tests were started in the 1980s. The New South Wales state government's "State of the Beaches" report found 22 of the city's 35 ocean beaches complied with criteria for safe bacteria levels over the last year. Nine more were clean eight out of 10 days, while the remaining four had an average of 68 percent compliance with clean water standards.
■ Australia
Sheep ship to set sail
More than 50,000 Australian sheep stranded at sea in the Gulf for seven weeks were to begin their voyage back to Australia for slaughter last night, the Australian government said. The ship carrying the unwanted sheep, Dutch-owned MV Cormo Express, had been scheduled to leave Kuwait on Wednesday night but missed the tide, a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said yesterday. The Australian government is still trying to convince countries in the Middle East to accept the sheep as a A$4.5 million (US$3.1 million) gift, but without success.
■ India
New kind of frog found
A new species of frog, whose ancestors hopped around at the feet of the dinosaurs, has been discovered in the mountains of southern India, scientists said on Wednesday. The purple, small-headed creature with tiny eyes, protruding snout and a bloated appearance belongs to a new family of frogs that scientists thought had either never existed or had disappeared without trace millions of years ago. "It is not just a new species. It represents a deep branch in the evolutionary tree of frogs, and as such merits the establishment of a new family," said Franky Bossuyt, an evolutionary biologist at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.
■ United Kingdom
Brits fail breath test
More than half of Britons could have breath that smells worse that their pet's, according to a survey released on Thursday. And women are the worst offenders, with three out of five failing a sulphur emissions test, according to research by toothpaste manufacturer Aquafresh. "Some mouths may be dirtier than cat litter," dentist Brian Grieveson said in a statement. "Most people in the UK do not realize that cleaning your tongue is as important as cleaning your teeth," he added. Scots had the best oral hygiene, with only 10 percent suffering bad breath, compared to 27 percent in London. Throughout the nation, 52 percent were rated at a level that could be worse than that of a pet animal.
■ United states
Accused pilot faces hearing
A preliminary hearing was scheduled yesterday in the court-martial of an F-16 pilot who accidentally dropped a bomb on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last year, killing four. Major Harry Schmidt is charged with dereliction of duty and could face up to six months in prison if convicted. His defense lawyer, Charles Gittins, has said the pilot will plead innocent at a future hearing. Schmidt's trial is not expected to begin until next year. Schmidt, 38, and fellow Illinois Air National Guard F-16 pilot Major William Umbach, the mission commander, attacked the Canadians' position on April 17 last year.
■ United states
Silicone implants OK'd
In a 9-6 vote, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration has recommended that silicone breast implants be allowed back on the market after an 11-year hiatus. But concerned about the dearth of data on the safety of the silicone implants and their durability over a decade or more, the panel said its approval was contingent on a list of conditions, like education of surgeons and patients and continued monitoring of women who receive implants. The implant maker, Inamed, had volunteered to meet most of those conditions in seeking the agency's approval.
■ United states
Twins making progress
Doctors have started to decrease the drugs keeping formerly conjoined two-year-old Egyptian twins in comas since they were surgically separated over the weekend. It could take days for the drugs to wear off, but doctors have not detected anything amiss so far, said Dr. James Thomas, chief of critical care at Children's Medical Center Dallas. When the boys come out of their comas, doctors will watch for spontaneous motor functions seen even in sedated children: reaching to pull out tubes, looking around the room, grimacing.
■ United states
Oil firm accused of gouging
Two senior Democratic congressmen are questioning whether Halliburton is overcharging the US government in the procurement of gasoline and other fuel for Iraq, which is now importing fuel to stave off shortages. In a letter sent on Wednesday to the White House, Henry Waxman and John Dingell contended that "Halliburton seems to be inflating gasoline prices at a great cost to American taxpayers. According to the letter, Halliburton has charged the government US$1.62 to US$1.70 a gallon for gasoline that could be bought wholesale in the Persian Gulf region for about US$0.71 and transported to Iraq for no more than US$0.25.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
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