■ Hong Kong
Croc hunter to use cages
An exasperated crocodile hunter said yesterday he would use large cages to try to catch an elusive reptile that has been loose on the Hong Kong-China border for more than a fortnight. John Lever, who has spent three nights trying to catch the 1.2m crocodile by hand without success, said the funnel-shaped cages loaded with bait may be the key to capturing the creature. The Australian TV celebrity -- who was flown to Hong Kong by the territory's English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post -- has so far failed to corner the crocodile using his famous methods.
■ Thailand
PM defends sinking of boat
Thailand's prime minister said yesterday that Indonesia was justified in sinking a Thai trawler caught fishing illegally in its waters, and appealed to his country's fishermen not to encroach on foreign territory. Indonesian navy patrol boats rounded up five Thai trawlers off the coast of Surabaya on Friday, and destroyed one with cannon fire after evacuating the crew. "It was to demonstrate that the Indonesians are serious and will not tolerate illegal fishing in their water any longer," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters. He said he is warning Thai fishermen against fishing illegally in the waters of neighboring nations.
■ Singapore
Human cloning to be banned
Scientists who try to clone humans in Singapore could be jailed for a decade and fined up to S$100,000 (US$58,000) under newly proposed legislation, the Health Ministry said. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law early next year, would also require researchers to get Health Ministry approval before beginning research on human stem cells, according to a statement seen yesterday on the ministry's Web site. The legislation aims to prevent scientists from abusing the open attitude toward human stem-cell research in Singapore.
■ China
Suspected killer arrested
An introverted drifter arrested for 65 murders in China cycled from town to town stabbing entire families to death during a two-year campaign of killing, according to Chinese media reports yesterday. The man suspected of being one of the world's worst serial killers was reportedly a convicted rapist and robber whose time in prison and labor camps had turned him against society. The man, named by his parents as Yang Xinhai, 35, was identified as the main suspect through DNA tests on hair and other evidence he left behind at the scenes of the killings, according to the Beijing News.
■ Australia
`Death machine' unveiled
Controversial Australian euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke unveiled his latest suicide device yesterday, highlighting the ease with which it can be assembled using household items such as a jam or Vegemite jar. Nitschke said the device, dubbed "death machines" by Australian media, would cost about A$52 (US$37) to build using bottles or jars and carbon monoxide. He said just two or three breaths from what he calls the "CO Genie" -- CO is the chemical formula for carbon monoxide -- would result in death. "It's a simple device and they are getting simpler," Nitschke told a press conference. "We've got 200 people booked in for workshops across Australia where people want to come along and build this device," added Nitschke, who has challenged police and lawmakers for more than a decade with his liberal stance on euthanasia.
■ United States
Schwarzenegger upbeat
Arnold Schwarzenegger was upbeat and in a joking mood as he met friends and supporters late on Sunday on the eve of becoming California governor after a remarkable career change. "I want to laugh it up and say thank you and I will see all of you tomorrow," the former bodybuilder and actor told his high-powered transition team at a night meeting in Sacramento. "The serious work will begin from tomorrow on." In a ceremony before about 7,500 invited guests, four past California governors and some Hollywood celebrities and foreign dignitaries, Schwarzenegger was to take the oath of office at 11am on yesterday.
■ Zimbabwe
Police embark on cash grab
Police have thrown up roadblocks across the country in a desperate bid to seize foreign currency, whether legally held or not. "It's terrible. Police stand by as youth militia give body searches to everybody," one Zimbabwean motorist said. "They take all the foreign currency they find, even through legally we are entitled to hold up to US$250." In the tourist center of Victoria Falls, police barged into the offices of big travel agencies and safari operators and confiscated all foreign currency. At the northern Chirundu border post, Zimbabwean police searched Zambian and South African travellers and seized all their currency.
■ France
Cabinet discusses attack
An emergency meeting of the French Cabinet was to be held yesterday after a devastating arson attack on a Jewish school in Paris on the weekend. President Jacques Chirac and the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, will meet leaders of the Jewish community to discuss a joint strategy in response to the latest incident. About 100 firefighters were called in to stop the blaze at the Merkaz Hatorah private school, in the Saint-Denis suburb to the north of the capital, early on Saturday morning. No one was injured, but 3,000m2 of the school were destroyed.
■ Burundi
Peace accord signed
Burundi President Domitien Ndayizeye and the leader of the main Hutu rebel movement, Pierre Nkurunziza, on Sunday signed a peace accord to end 10 years of civil war in the central African country. African leaders, after witnessing the signing in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, issued an ultimatum to the smaller National Liberation Forces rebel group, giving it three months to open negotiations to reach a comprehensive peace accord for Burundi or face consequences.
■ Spain
Independence party gains
A small party advocating independence for Spain's rich and powerful Catalonia region scored huge gains in local elections, emerging as kingmaker for two major parties that lost support. Negotiations to form a regional government among the region's two key parties and three smaller powers were expected yesterday after the pro-independence Republican Left nearly doubled its 12 seats to 23 in the 135-member regional assembly at the expense of the Socialist Party of Catalonia and the ruling Convergence and Union coalition. The results from Sunday's regional poll reflected growing nationalist sentiment in the northeast region that gained limited autonomy in 1978.
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
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