■ China
Legislature meets in March
China's nominal legislature will convene on March 5 for a session expected to enshrine the notion of private property in the communist nation's Constitution. The government announced the March 5 session of the National People's Congress via the official Xinhua News Agency in a report yesterday that also said the legislature's companion body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, would convene two days earlier. The legislature has little real power and largely carries out the directives of the Communist Party, but is an opportunity for delegates from different regions to exchange views -- and be feted in the hulking Great Hall of the People, Chinese communism's flagship building.
■ South Korea
Mayor commits suicide
The mayor of South Korea's second city, Busan, hanged himself yesterday in jail while awaiting the verdict of his trial on corruption charges, officials said. The Justice Ministry said Ahn Sang-young, 64, of the main opposition Grand National Party, was found dead early yesterday in the Busan Detention House in the southern port city. The mayor was detained in October last year on charges of taking US$85,600 in bribes from a construction company. Prison guards said Ahn had torn his undershirt into strips to make a cord which he used as a noose.
■ Australia
Budget for robot aircraft
Australia announced yesterday it will spend up to US$760 million on robot surveillance aircraft as part of a ten-year military upgrade to meet the threat of global terrorism and its responsibility to allies. The government has made a six-fold increase in funding for a squadron of US-made Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which would patrol Australia's borders and territorial waters and could be used further afield.
■ Australia
Contract `hits' in spotlight
Want someone killed in Australia? The average price for a "hit" is A$16,500 (US$12,692), but you can get it as cheap as A$500. A study of contract killings in Australia has found most are not ordered by criminals, but by angry spouses and jilted lovers. But professional criminals order the most successful "hits." The Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australia's major crime investigation branch studied 163 attempted and actual killings between 1989 and 2002. "The most common motive or reason for hiring the services of a hit man was in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship," Toni Makkai, acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said in a statement received on Wednesday.
■ Malaysia
Thieves donate to charity
Twin brothers who lead a gang of luxury-car thieves in Malaysia have been making generous donations to orphanages and other charities. The 25-year-old modern-day Robin Hoods who rob the rich and give at least part of the proceeds to the poor are believed to have donated thousands of dollars worth of food to several orphanages, The Star daily reported. Police uncovered the gang's generosity after the recent arrest of four young members in the capital Kuala Lumpur, when they discovered receipts for the donations to charitable organizations, the paper said. The thieves are said to have stolen at least 20 cars valued at US$1.2 million in the past year.
■ United States
`Nipplegate' rattles CBS
Following Janet Jackson's surprise breast-baring on the Super Bowl halftime show, TV network CBS said it would institute a video-
delay system to avoid any "recurrence" at Sunday's Grammy Awards. CBS technicians were scrambling to invent the software -- something more than the five-second audio delay the network has used to bleep out swear words, used when Eminem performed on the Grammys two years ago. CBS have also asked
that Jackson and Justin Timberlake be banned from the Grammys if the network concludes the musicians fully intended to provide Jackson with the extra exposure on Sunday, in the incident variously called "Nipplegate" and the "bra-ha-ha."
■ United States
Reuters slams US probe
The Reuters news agency sent a letter to the US Defense Department on Tuesday, demanding a new investigation into alleged mistreatment of its staff by US soldiers in Iraq. On Jan. 2, two Reuters journalists and their driver were detained for 72 hours by US troops after being apparently mistaken for enemy combatants. A military
probe concluded the staff had undergone some stressful treatment, but denied other claims they made, Reuters said. Reuters' global managing editor, David Schlesinger, wrote: ``The government's investigation of the allegations ... was woefully inadequate. It appears that the investigation consisted of simply interviewing the accused soldiers."
■ United States
Security firm in hot water
A security company with contracts to protect New York-area airports, bridges and tunnels has been charged with paying bribes to get work and hiring dozens of employees with criminal records. Haynes Security Inc. and its president, John D'Agostino, were charged with theft, bribery and conspiracy in
an indictment announced on Tuesday. Haynes allegedly paid more than US$1,000 in August 2001 for repairs at the home of a Continental Airlines manager in return for consideration for a contract at the Newark airport. The security company was also accused of failing to submit employee fingerprints to police as required by law.
■ Brazil
84 die in mudslides
Mudslides and floods have forced more than 40,000 Brazilians to leave their homes and killed 84 since heavy rains began in late December, civil defense authorities said on Tuesday. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was to visit areas of Brazil's usually parched northeast yesterday where entire communities have been submerged by rains which have caused 18 deaths nationwide. Wealthy Sao Paulo state has also been hit hard, with 29 people killed by the weather and 16 bridges destroyed. Motorists have been swept away in their vehicles after highways turned into rivers.
■ Turkey
PM pledges tougher codes
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for tougher laws on building codes as rescuers scrambled to free dozens of people trapped inside a collapsed apartment building. Seventeen bodies have been found so far. Between 40 and 100 people were believed trapped, officials said Tuesday. Rescue teams were working around the clock in an operation that could take days, they said. Authorities blamed the collapse on shoddy construction.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
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