■ Cambodia
Old missiles to be destroyed
Cambodia is set to become the first Asian nation to destroy its cache of outdated anti-aircraft missiles after the US embassy announced yesterday it would pay for the weapons to be destroyed. The US has initiated a global drive to secure or eliminate Man Portable Air Defense Systems, or MANPADS, which it fears international terrorists could use to launch devastating attacks on civilian aircraft. "I am pleased to announce today that US government funding has been approved so that Cambodia can implement this initiative and that the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces ... will destroy the entire stock of Cambodian MANPADS," US ambassador to Phnom Penh Charles Ray told a press briefing.
■ Myanmar
UN envoy tries again
UN envoy Razali Ismail met Myanmar's Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt yesterday as he began a fresh mission to spur democratic reforms in the military-run state, witnesses said. Razali held the talks with Khin Nyunt at the junta's reception hall in Yangon after discussions with ethnic parties including their spokesman Khun Tun Oo of the Shan National League for Democracy (NLD). Khun Tun Oo said Razali told the political leaders that he hoped to see detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice during his 12th visit expected to run until tomorrow.
■ India
Marriage solves rape charge
An Indian court has acquitted a man charged with raping a mentally-challenged girl after he agreed to marry her, it was reported yesterday. Additional Sessions Judge Bimla Makin said accused Karan Singh had already spent three-and-a-half years in jail during the trial. While the offence could not be pardoned, the accused had repented and wished to rectify his mistake, the judge said. The judge also ordered Singh to pay a fine of 5,000 rupees (US$111), or he would have to stay in jail for another three months, the Times of India newspaper reported. Ramwati alleged that Singh raped her mentally-challenged daughter on July 14, 2000.
■ Bangladesh
Lion takes a stroll
A lioness that escaped from a Bangladeshi zoo took a swim in a lake, wandered through a village and then sat down beneath a tree to savour her new-found freedom, a report said yesterday. The lioness, named Monisha, forced open cage bars weakened by rust at Dhaka Zoo early Monday, creating panic among people living nearby. Zoo staff used tranquilizer darts to recapture her a few hours later after she was spotted sitting by the tree. The English language Daily Star said villagers near the zoo spotted the lioness wandering around and swimming in the lake behind the zoo. She then settled down beneath the tree in a garden.
■ Pakistan
Gunmen fire on pilgrims
At least 17 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded when a religious procession of Shiite Muslim mourners was attacked in the southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, officials said. Police officials said the shooting took place as a procession of hundreds of Shiite Muslims marking the Muharram holiday passed by. Interior Ministry chief secretary Tasneem Noorani said four or five people had died and that 20 to 25 people were wounded. Gunshots continued to ring out in the city nearly an hour after the killings, said a local police official. Security had been stepped up in anticipation of Muharram, a month of mourning when Shiite Muslims recall the seventh-century death of Hussein, grandson of Islam's prophet, Muhammad.
■ United Kingdom
It's not the real thing
Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is using ordinary tap water as the source for a fancy brand of bottled water being promoted in Britain. The company uses the mains supply to its factory in Sidcup, southeast England, as the source for its new "Dasani" bottled water, the Daily Telegraph said. Coca-Cola has set a designer price of 95 pence (US$1.7) for 500 milliliters of its bottled product, which comes in bright blue containers suggesting idyllic fresh water scenes, The Times reported. British water company Thames Water, meanwhile, charges its customers just 0.0316 pence for the same amount through the tap. Marketing for the Coca-Cola product says its water goes through a "highly sophisticated purification process."
■ Nigeria
Prostitution in banks
The Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) on Monday ordered bank workers to embark on a nationwide strike this week to protest forced prostitution of bank employees. According to the NLC, the strike was prompted by allegations that female employees were pressured into sleeping with potential customers as an inducement to open accounts. It is widely held in Nigeria that the majority of the new generation of banks have set very high targets for new business that employees must attract each month.
■ French Guiana
Comet probe launched
A European rocket blasted off yesterday to launch a pioneering 10-year journey to land a probe on a comet and search for clues to the solar system's origins. The Rosetta lander soared into the skies above South America aboard an Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, the third attempt after two launches last week were scrubbed. Rosetta is expected to reach an ice-caked comet called 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko in May 2014 and go into orbit around it, then release the lander that will try to touch down on the surface.
■ Germany
Doctor did not `want to kill'
A lawyer for a hospital pain specialist linked to possibly hundreds of morphine deaths on Monday said her client only wanted to ease the suffering of her patients. Dr Mechthild Bach, head of a pain clinic at Hanover's Paracelsus Hospital, was concerned with easing the dying process for her terminally ill patients -- not in actually killing them, her lawyer said. "She never wanted to kill her patients, but rather only wanted to ease their pain and suffering," said Bach's attorney, Klaus Ulsenheimer. "This could be construed as assisting in the dying process, or assisting dying people, which is not punishable," he said.
■ Denmark
Semen title under threat
Denmark's position as the world's leading semen donor for purposes of artificial insemination may be threatened, reports said on Monday. A reputation for sexual openness, genes that are in high demand and donor anonymity are factors that have contributed to Denmark's top spot, the Politiken newspaper said. That may change if current legislation on artificial insemination that allows anonymity for donors is repealed. "In many countries it is a cultural taboo to donate semen," said Ole Schou, head of Danish company Cryos that exports semen worldwide. "We have difficulty in getting donors of other ethnic backgrounds, for instance Africans."
■ United Kingdom
Spook work is the hot ticket
Some 3,000 would-be secret agents have responded to an official drive to boost the size of Britain's domestic intelligence service, the Times reported yesterday. The government announced last month it would increase its home security service, MI5, by 50 percent, hiring 1,000 new staff to counter the threat of terrorism. The Times quoted government sources as saying that "a wave of patriotism" had inspired 3,000 people to respond to the recruitment campaign in the week after it was launched. "They seem genuinely to want to do something to help this country, instead of going for a job with a much higher salary," one official said.
■ United States
Court deals church a blow
In a precedent-setting decision, the California Supreme Court ruled that a Roman Catholic charity must offer birth-control coverage to its employees even though it considers contraception a sin. The 6-1 decision on Monday marked the first such ruling by a state's highest court. Experts said the ruling could affect thousands of workers at Catholic hospitals and other church-backed institutions in California and prompt other states to fashion similar laws. California is one of 20 states to require that all company-provided health plans must include contraception coverage if the plans have prescription drug benefits.
■ United States
Airline settles bias claim
The government announced a settlement with American Airlines over complaints that the carrier discriminated against passengers it thought were of Arab, Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian descent after Sept. 11, 2001. The airline agreed to spend about US$1.5 million over three years on civil rights training for employees who deal with the public. American did not admit that it broke federal anti-discrimination laws. The government said its investigations revealed that the airline had unlawfully removed passengers because of their perceived ethnic or religious background after the Sept. 11 attacks carried out by Arab hijackers.
■ United States
Obesity slims tax load
Obese Americans who take drastic, expensive action to lose weight under a doctor's orders will at least be able to lighten their tax load. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows taxpayers who are forced to spend thousands of dollars because of obesity to deduct expenses for stomach-stapling surgery, approved weight-loss drugs and nutritional counseling. "The IRS ruling took a lot of people by surprise," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association. "This takes a different approach from the normal kind of urging everyone to diet and exercise as a lifestyle recommendation because it recognizes obesity as a major medical problem."
■ Brazil
Protest over bingo ban
Thirty-thousand people took part in a march in Sao Paulo on Monday to protest a decision by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to close down bingo halls and ban slot machines. The march was led by the Fuerza Sindical leader Paulo Pereira da Silva, who said the ban would bump 100,000 people out of work in Sao Paulo alone and possibly more than three times that number in all of Brazil. Lula ordered the closing down of bingo halls after corruption allegations surfaced last month concerning a former adviser to the government.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
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