■ China
Miss Ugly under knife
The winner of a Miss Ugly contest in Shanghai staged a week before China hosts Miss World has begun an extensive course of plastic surgery, a news report said yesterday. Translator Zhang Di, 26, beat 50 competitors to the prize of 100,000 yuan (US$13,000) worth of treatment, after being named the woman who would most benefit from plastic surgery. She will spend the next three weeks undergoing operations to make her more beautiful, the South China Morning Post said. Plastic surgery has boomed in popularity in China in recent years.
■ Indonesia
Bali bomber threatens Bush
In a bizarre courtroom outburst, an Indonesian sentenced to death for masterminding last year's Bali nightclub bombings boasted yesterday that an army of holy warriors would soon destroy US President George W. Bush. Imam Samudra claimed to have sent "5,000 troops from the sky" to India, Iraq and Turkey to fight against the US president. "God willing, Allah's army will win," he yelled before being bustled from the court by police. It was unclear what he meant by his reference to the sky. Samudra had been summoned as a witness yesterday in the trial of Heri Hafidin, a minor suspect in the Oct. 12 bombings.
■ Cambodia
PM offers share of power
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined a power-sharing agenda aimed at ending Cambodia's political stalemate, saying he would remain at the helm for the next five years if his rivals refused to accept it. The formula would have Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party occupy 60 percent of the ministerial posts and split the rest evenly between the royalist Funcinpec party and the Sam Rainsy Party, he said, as party representatives prepared for a fresh round of talks. "Anything different from this means no deal -- take it," Hun Sen told a crowd of 5,000 in a speech during a school inauguration.
■ Japan
Diplomats' bodies returned
The bodies of two Japanese diplomats slain in Iraq last weekend arrived in Japan yesterday, accompanied by relatives and met by a guard of honor, as media said Tokyo would soon approve the dispatch of troops to help rebuild that troubled country. Katsuhiko Oku, 45, and Masamori Inoue, 30, were the first Japanese to be killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March when they were gunned down on Saturday in an ambush near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Oku, who had gone to Iraq in April and was Japan's representative at the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, had served as Tokyo's eyes and ears in Iraq.
■ Japan
Panda `upbeat' after trip
Giant panda Shuan Shuan, recovering from a 20-hour journey from Mexico, appeared "very upbeat" and was getting ready to meet her lovematch, a zoo official said yesterday. The 16-year-old female had dined on bamboo leaves, boiled carrots and a fruit-and-vegetable milkshake -- made from a Mexican recipe -- following her arrival at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo late Wednesday, zoo spokesman Masanori Ono said. "She appears very upbeat despite the long journey," Ono said. "She had a big appetite last night." Officials hope she will mate with 18-year-old Ling Ling during this stay -- a suitor she has met previously on Ling Ling's three past trips to Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo.
■ Saudi Arabia
Police find vast arsenal
A vast arsenal, including surface-to-air missiles, has been found in the hands of a suspect in the bombing of a residential compound in Riyadh on Nov. 8, which killed 17 people, the official Saudi News Agency reported on Wednesday, quoting an unidentified Interior Ministry official. The suspect, who was not named, was arrested on Nov. 27, but the announce-ment was withheld because of the search for other members of the cell, the ministry said. Armaments found included 100 SAM-7 missiles, 200 hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of pounds of explosives, 80 Kalashnikov assault rifles, and 168,000 rounds of ammunition, officials said.
■ Nigeria
Queen arrives in Nigeria
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Wednesday for the first time since the west African country won its independence from the British Empire. The Queen, accompanied by her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, is on the first stage of a state visit which will include the opening of the Commonwealth summit. The Queen was greeted at the airport by President Olusegun Obasanjo and by a 21-gun salute from Nigerian Army artillery.
■ United States
Detainee to get lawyer
An Australian being held without charge at a US camp at Guantanamo Bay has become the first foreign terrorist suspect to be given a US military lawyer, the Pentagon announced. David Hicks will be represented by Marine Corps Major Michael Mori, the Defense Depart-ment said in a statement on Wednesday. Hicks also will be given access to an Australian lawyer to act as a legal adviser, said Pentagon spokesman Major Michael Shavers. Hicks is one of six prisoners at the US Navy base whom President George W. Bush named as possible candidates for trial by a special military tribunal for terrorism suspects. The US and Australia announced last week they had reached an agreement on how Hicks would be tried before a US military tribunal.
■ United States
Custody death ruled murder
Nathaniel Jones, a black man whose death in police custody has incited new racial tensions in Cincinnati, Ohio, died primarily because of his violent struggle with the police, a coroner said on Wednesday. But he cautioned that his ruling did not imply wrong-doing or excessive use of force by the police. Dr. Carl Parrot, the Hamilton County coroner, also said that heart disease, illegal drugs and obesity were major contri-buting factors. Parrott ruled the death a homicide, mean-ing it was the direct conse-quence of Jones' struggle with the police on Sunday. In the confrontation, which was captured on a police videotape, Jones charged a police officer outside a restaurant, then was tackled and beaten by baton-wielding officers for several minutes.
■ Russia
Bear kills two workers
A performing bear mauled two Moscow theater workers to death and wounded another after he broke out of his cage on Wednesday, police said. The bear, a star attraction in the famed animal theatre "Ugolok Durova," became enraged and attacked 33-year-old Umar Zakirov, the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted officials as saying. He then set upon Shedov Timur, 32. A third worker was bitten on the wrist.
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
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