■ Indonesia
Dengue toll mounts
President Megawati Sukar-noputri yesterday visited an overcrowded Jakarta hos-pital as the death toll from a widespread dengue fever outbreak rose to 336. "We were able to see for our-selves that the Persahabatan hospital is already too crowded, and there are even people being treated in the corridors," said Health Minister Ahmad Suyudi. Jakarta and other parts of Java have been among the hardest hit by the outbreak, which has spread to 24 of the country's 32 provinces. Suyudi said all state hos-pitals are now providing free health care for dengue patients in third-class wards. But press reports have said many poor people had difficulty taking up the offer because of the extensive paperwork needed to prove they are eligible.
■ The Philippines
Poe tops new poll
Movie star Fernando Poe Jr has a commanding lead over his rivals in the latest poll of voters, adding to evidence that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is struggling to catch up. The results released yesterday are in line with other polls showing Poe leading. Poe's eligibility to run remains uncertain as the Supreme Court weighs petitions questioning his citizenship. A survey of 1,315 voters conducted last month by the IBON social research group showed his rating had risen to 30 per-cent from January's 26 percent. Arroyo was in third with 16 per-cent, up from 10.5 percent. Former education secretary Raul Roco was losing ground in second place with a rating of 19.4 percent from 22.5 percent.
■ The Philippines
Strike strands thousands
Jeepney drivers went on strike yesterday, stranding thousands of commuters in parts of Manila and other major Philippine cities who rely on the open minibuses, officials said. Two associa-tions of drivers and opera-tors of jeepneys want a fare increase and the scrapping of legislation that gives oil companies leeway to increase fuel prices. Strikers claimed to have paralyzed at least 90 percent of trans-portation services in parts of metropolitan Manila as well as key areas in 17 out of 79 provinces. But the head of Manila's traffic division said about 30 percent of services were effected.
■ New Zealand
Hugging cows for health
Cuddling cows may help children ward off asthma, according to a researcher who is surveying 3,000 farming families to see if their environment gives better protection against the illness than their city cousins. Dr Jeroen Douwes, of the Center for Public Research at Massey Univer-, said some studies in Europe have indicated that exposure to farm animals may play a key role in protecting youngsters against allergic asthma. He says the protective effect appears to come from an immune-like response to micro-organisms picked up during contact with livestock.
■ Hong Kong
Couple robbed, tied to tree
Four thieves robbed a couple and tied them to a tree in a park, but they were rescued more than 10 hours later after their family rang their mobile phone and a thief answered and explained where they were, police said yesterday. A man explained that a gang had robbed the couple on Saturday after-noon and left them ``tied to a tree in Repulse Bay Country Park,'' according to police. The couple lost HK$280 (US$36) as well as their bank cards and suffered rope burns.
■ Italy
Minister attacks Church
Italy's fractious coalition government was plunged into a new row on Sunday after Reform Minister Umberto Bossi launched an outspoken attack on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope John Paul II. Bossi said on Saturday that the state should abolish its traditional funding for the Catholic Church, which is levied in the form of a tax known as the "eight per thousand". "Giving too much money to the Church is a huge problem," the minister told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of his right-wing Northern League party in Padua, adding it was scandalous that there were cardinals in the Roman Curia who worshipped "the money God."
■ Peru
Fujimori plans comeback
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, exiled in Japan, has reaffirmed his intention to return to power and said he sought to replace the government of Alejandro Toledo, which he dubbed a "disaster," in a Chilean newspaper interview. In the interview with La Tercera, published on Sunday, Fujimori vowed to return to Peru and said he would mount a presidential campaign in the 2006 elections. Fujimori fled to Tokyo in 2000 amid corruption accusations. The exiled politician -- who has dual Peruvian-Japanese citizenship -- governed Peru between 1990 and 2000.
■ Great Britain
Military objects to windmills
Fears that giant wind turbines could be confused with incoming enemy aircraft by military radar systems are threatening the government's targets for developing renewable energy. The Ministry of Defence objected to 413 of the 861 pre-applications to build onshore wind farms last year, according to new figures from the British Wind Energy Association. Experts say such wind farms will be needed to reach the government's target of generating 10% of Britain's electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
■ Belgium
Man sets up gallows
Belgian police arrested a man yesterday who was trying to set up a gallows outside the court where alleged Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux was standing trial, police said. No further details were given of the man who was subject to an "administrative arrest" outside the Palace of Justice in Arlon, said the federal police shortly before the start of the long-awaited Dutroux trial. Dutroux is standing trial for a spate of kidnappings, rapes and killings in 1996 -- in which six girls were held captive including four who died -- which shocked his country and the world. Some critics have called for the restoration of capital punishment for Dutroux, whose arrest ironically came a few months after the death penalty was outlawed in Belgium.
■ Saudi Arabia
`Gay wedding' busted
Saudi investigators are grilling some 50 people, mostly expatriates, for allegedly attending a gay wedding in the city of Medina, a newspaper reported yesterday. The suspects deny they were attending a gay marriage, which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, saying they took part in a ceremony to mark the wedding of a Chadian friend, Arab News said. But investigators say that invitations to last Wednesday's ceremony indicated it was a gay function and point to the suspicious behavior of guests, who fled the venue at the sight of police cars, some leaving their vehicles behind.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
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
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