■ The Philippines
Arroyo gets tough
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo yesterday claimed the authorities were winning their battle against a wave of kidnappings, which had led her to lift a suspension on executions after a four-year lull. "Our strategy is winning and our patrols are yielding good results. We have stopped the rise of criminality and we shall sustain it to preserve peace and order," she said in a nationwide radio address. Arroyo, who faces a presidential election in five months' time, said the police campaign has led to the recovery of one kidnap victim and the arrest of the suspects. Several car thieves, kidnappers, and bank robbers have also been shot dead in clashes with the authorities, who have also seized 10 billion pesos (US$180.6 million) worth of narcotics, she added.
■ India
Baby-food ads banned
India will ban advertisements for baby formula in a bid to promote breast feeding, officials said yesterday. The ban starts Jan. 1 and will apply to all forms of media, the government said in a statement. India's Parliament had approved the action in May. The government will also officially recommend that babies be given only mother's milk for the first six months of a child's life. Previously, it had recommended exclusive breast feeding up to 4 months.
■ Singapore
Botox cures migrains
A trial in Singapore is finding botox effective in treating migraine and chronic tension headaches, doctors said yesterday. The botulinum toxin has been compared by scientists to penicillin for its versatility against a wide range of conditions. "There have been some good results so far, with a 25 to 75 per cent reduction in the severity or frequency of the headaches", said Dr Louis Tan, a consultant at the National Neuroscience Institute where the trial is being conducted.
■ Australia
Boozy lawmakers fight
Christmas spirit was in short supply at a late night drinks party in Canberra that ended with lawmakers battling over booze and chasing each other down the corridors of Parliament House hurling abuse, news reports yesterday said. The Democrats' Andrew Bartlett, leader of Australia's third-largest political party, arrived uninvited at the ruling Liberal Party barbecue and made off with five bottles of wine, the Herald Sun reported. Bartlett was tackled by upper house MP Jeannie Ferris, who received a badly bruised arm in the Thursday night incident.
■ New Zealand
Missile maker receives offer
A New Zealand engineer who made world headlines with his homebuilt cruise missile said yesterday he had received "very serious" offers from an Iranian company to invest in the project. Bruce Simpson said the firm was linked to the aerospace and missile industries, and was one of a number of enquiries from several countries including Pakistan, China and Lebanon. But after "worrying about the bigger picture" and turning down the offers, the cash-strapped engineer found himself bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department for non-payment of taxes. The Iranians made "very serious inquiries about investing in the development of the X-jet technology", Simpson said on his Web site aardvark.co.nz. "I have since had e-mails from Pakistan, Lebanon, China and other countries, all of which sought to obtain details of the X-jet project and some of which have involved seemingly genuine offers of not insignificant payment for such information."
■ Russia
Fair elections `critical'
The US said Friday it was "critical" for Russia's weekend parliamentary elections to be free and fair and said it would watch the vote closely for signs the country's commitment to democracy. "We are following the developments there closely," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "We believe that it is critical that the elections meet international standards for freedom and fairness. "How they are conducted will demonstrate the commitment of the Russian government and people to deepening democracy," he told reporters. The US will have about 70 officials from its embassy in Moscow and its three consulates in Russia observing tomorrow's polls as well as several from Washington who will be part of a monitoring team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Ereli said.
■ United States
W. to shoot for the moon
With an election season getting under way, George W. Bush's advisers are looking around for a grand scheme for the president to launch, to help reinforce his image as a decisive leader with big ideas. One option being seriously discussed, according to several US press reports, is a return to the moon three decades after the last human visit. It would recall an era of exploration that most Americans remember with affection, and it would associate Bush with an ambitious goal that does not require bombing. To that end, the White House is working on a plan to refocus NASA on "interplanetary human flight." If the lunar option is chosen, the president could make a declaration as early as December 17, when he is due to commemorate the centenary of the aeroplane. Such a speech would echo President Kennedy's resonant pledge in 1962 to put a man on the moon and Mr Bush is reported to be seeking his "Kennedy moment."
■ United States
License ban irks Latinos
Millions of Latinos in California are being asked not to work, shop or attend school next Friday in protest at the new governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's repeal this week of a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain driving licenses. Latino organizations are calling for support for the strike, and are warning of more to come. In September the former governor Gray Davis hurriedly signed a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to get driving licenses. Schwarzenegger campaigned strongly against the bill, which had angered conservative voters because it seemed to endorse illegal immigration.
■ Germany
Dissident had pants worries
Natan Sharansky said his main concern in 1986 when he made his famous crossing of the Cold War barrier at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge was how to stop his trousers from falling down. The former Soviet-era dissident who spent nine years in prison on charges of spying for Washington returned to the bridge linking West Berlin with the East German city of Potsdam for the first time since his release 17 years ago. In one of the last prisoner swaps of the Cold War, Sharansky went over the iron bridge to the West as a group of Soviet bloc spies crossed in the opposite direction. Sharansky, 55, said the Soviets had given him oversized trousers but no belt for the Cold War release.
■ Germany
Dog-man crucifies himself
A Swiss animal rights campaigner clad in a dog costume tied himself to a 4m-high crucifix at the Greek embassy in Berlin to protest the alleged killing of stray dogs in Athens before the Olympics. Draped in a banner bearing the slogan "No blood for the Olympics," 23-year-old Max Sartore -- a performance artist and stunt man -- said he would stay on the crucifix a meter above the ground for three days, taking five hours off each day to sleep. "Thousands of dogs are going to fall victim to this vision of a clean Olympics," Sartore, strapped to the crucifix, said. "I am not against the Games but this is no way to treat animals."
■ France
False win compensated
Games company Francaise des Jeux said it would compensate a handful of people who mistakenly thought they had won the jackpot because of printing errors on a batch of Black Jack scratch cards. Eight people in the Lorraine region of eastern France will be awarded between 2,000 and 40,000 euros (US$2,410 to US$48,240) for having had their dreams of wealth raised -- and dashed. The misunderstandings arose because one digit was missing on each defective scratch card, indicating in some cases that a key number was a winning "1" instead of, for example, "19" or "14."
■ United States
Farmers fume over tree
The speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is under fire and having his Lone Star State pride questioned, all because he decorated the House floor with a giant made-in-China plastic Christmas tree. The state's tree growers are up in arms over the 4.6m polyvinyl chloride tree that Speaker Tom Craddick had installed on the House floor. They have supplied the State House in Dallas with free trees and are ready to bring in a Texas-grown tree to replace the plastic model. "I think people can deduce for themselves about what it means to have a plastic Christmas tree from China in the Texas State House," said Lanny Dreesen, a spokesman for the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association.
■ Germany
Vicar red-faced over porn
A vicar inadvertently supplied his parish with dozens of hardcore porn films in an unsuccessful bid to teach people about the life of Christ. Lampoldshausen vicar Frithjof Schwesig, ordered 300 copies of a video film portraying the life of Christ as told by the gospel according to Luke. "In a first batch, 20 to 30 videos were distributed and we immediately got a reaction from five to seven people saying we must have given them the wrong film," he said. Schwesig said there had been a mistake at the Munich video copying plant and that 200 of the tapes handed out were pornographic.
■ Belgium
Row over Hitler wine
Belgium's official anti-racism center said it was preparing legal action to stop imports of an Italian wine with labels depicting Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazis. "A picture of Adolf Hitler is in itself too little [to trigger legal action], but he's also doing the Hitler salute and there is this message `One People, One Empire, One Leader,'" said Ingrid Aendenboom, spokeswoman for the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism. The wine "is apparently a huge success in Italy," but Belgians were "very sensitive to this kind of thing," she said. The wine was sold in flea markets.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
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