■ Brunei
Intelligence officers jailed
Oil-rich Brunei has jailed without trial two retired senior army and police intelligence officers and a businessman on subversion allegations for leaking government secrets, some of them posted on the Internet. The former policeman, Nordin bin Haji Mohamad Noor, also was accused of treason for spying after allegedly transferring classified documents to an unidentified foreign country, the government said in a statement.
■ Australia
`Oi' is for Aussies, legally
A patriotic Melbourne couple have bought the trademark rights to the sporting chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi" to protect it from overseas exploitation, they said yesterday. Greg Davies, a plumber, and his wife Diane said they spent about A$5,000 (US$3,740) to keep the slogan safe in Aussie hands. "Every time you hear it, I reckon it sounds great," said Greg. "But protecting it, that's the biggest thing. It's an Australian slogan and we just want to keep it for the Australian public, that's it." The chant can be heard at pretty much any sporting fixture where Australia is competing, where it is repeated endlessly over and over again, without variation.
■ Indonesia
Drug users turn to cocaine
More Indonesian drug users are turning to cocaine rather than heroin or crystal amphetamine. The assumption was based on a seven-fold increase in the amount of cocaine seized last year, Thursday's Jakarta Post quoted the head of Indonesia's narcotics agency, Brigadier General Djoko Satriyo, as saying. Satriyo said a total of 17,838 grams of cocaine was seized in last year compared with 2,314 grams the previous year. He said only 14,076 grams of heroin and 20,207 grams of crystal amphetamine (known as shabu) were confiscated last year, compared to 2002 figures of 20,003 grams and 46,579 grams respectively.
■ China
Desperately seeking panda
Wanted: single, full-figured black-and-white female for committed relationship. Must be willing to tolerate her man's heavy eating and deep sleeping. Call the Shanghai Wild Animal Park. Guo Qing, the park's only fertile giant panda, is on the prowl for a mate. Park officials announced Wednesday that 5-year-old Guo Qing, one of three giant pandas living at the zoo, is "looking for a lifelong partner," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said he is in his "reproductive prime." The other two pandas, Chuan Chuan and Jia Si, are more than 20 years old and probably past any chance of reproducing, Xinhua said. The giant panda is one of the most endangered species in the world. Only about 1,000 are estimated to live in the wild, all in China. More than 140 live in captivity around the world.
■ China
Hepatitis-B hiring ban lifted
A province has lifted a ban on hiring non-infectious hepatitis B carriers in a move seen as a milestone in the fight against discriminatory hiring practices, state media said yesterday. The Hunan provincial government lifted the ban on Tuesday and stipulated that hepatitis B carriers, for the first time, can be employed by government agencies, the China Daily said. With some exceptions, government agencies in China can legally reject job applicants based on the condition of their liver.
■ United States
Casino sued by winner
A Los Angeles lawyer who claims he was thrown out of Las Vegas last year because he was too lucky has sued MGM Mirage in a bid to force it to warn prospective gamblers that they can be barred for winning too much. Ernest Franseschi Jr, a frequent gambler, accused MGM officials of photographing him while he played blackjack at a high-stakes table last March. Franseschi claims MGM officials circulated the photo to other casinos after he left the blackjack table with thousands of dollars in winnings. When he returned about an hour later, casino officials escorted him to the door and told him he was barred for life from MGM casinos.
■ United States
Inmate voluntarily castrated
A former YMCA camp counselor who admitted molesting more than 40 boys underwent voluntary castration this week in Texas, the only US state where the prison system allows the surgery. David Wayne Jones was the second inmate to have the surgery since a 1997 law legalized the procedure. Jones is expected to complete his sentence this week before facing prosecution for another sex abuse charge, a corrections official said. The official told a Dallas newspaper that she believes castration will help Jones control his urges and allow him to benefit more from therapy. Jones pleaded guilty in 1991 to several felony charges of indecency with a child.
■ United States
Fat, smart women earn less
Being fat may hurt your income -- if you're a highly educated woman. So says research from Finland that suggests weight is a pay barrier for certain women, but not for men. Obese women who are highly educated earn about 30 percent less -- a difference of at least US$5,000 a year -- than normal-weight or even plump women, the study found. When analyzed by occupation, women with white-collar jobs earned less if they were obese. Obesity had little or no effect on pay if women were poorly educated, manual workers or self-employed -- and no statistically significant effect on men's pay, the study found. "This suggests that, socio-economically, obesity is not as stigmatizing for men as it is for women," concluded researchers.
■ United States
Student taped to desk
A teacher resigned last month after duct-taping a misbehaving 14-year-old to his desk and covering his mouth with tape, the school superintendent said Wednesday. The parents of Tommy Brindley said the boy nearly suffocated on Feb. 19 before freeing himself about 15 minutes later at the elementary-middle school in Oran, a town of about 1,000 residents 190km south of St. Louis. Tommy was in detention for being late to school three times, said his father, Larry Brindley. He began acting up during detention.
■ Germany
Koehler to be next president
Germany's center-right parties will nominate International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler to become the country's next president, a party source said yesterday. Since the parties hold a majority in the assembly that chooses the next president in May, nomination would virtually assure Koehler, 61, of winning the largely ceremonial post. Word that the IMF managing director would be tapped trickled out after leaders of the Christian Democratic Union party met in Berlin yesterday morning.
■ United States
Official may visit Libya
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns is considering traveling to Libya this month in what would be the highest-level US visit in more than three decades, officials said on Wednesday. As part of a rapprochement after Tripoli's Dec. 19 decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs, Burns told lawmakers on Tuesday he planned to meet Libyan officials this month but did not say when or where. US officials said Burns was weighing the visit to Libya as part of a broader Middle East trip later this month. The visit could also signal further progress in dismantling US economic sanctions imposed on Libya.
■ Italy
Mercy dash ends in charges
An impatient Sicilian farmer leapt behind the wheel of an ambulance on Tuesday to get his sick mother to hospital faster but was charged with theft and kidnapping for his pains. The farmer had taken his mother to a small medical center in Sicily but, after talking to doctors, decided he could not wait for an ambulance driver to take her to hospital in a bigger town, 20km away. "I was just worried about my mother," Italian news agency Agi quoted the 43-year-old man as saying. His mother was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in the capital Palermo.
■ Germany
Pants trip up flasher
German police said on Wednesday that they arrested a flasher in the western university town of Bielefeld who stumbled over his dropped trousers during an aborted attempt to flee. A 42-year-old woman called police after spotting the half-naked man on her terrace. When police arrived, the man, 34, tried to escape but tripped over his trousers around his ankles and fell to the ground. "We have quite a few exhibitionists because of the university," said a police spokesman. "But not many at this time of year because it's still far too cold for them to come out."
■ Saudi Arabia
Error-filled textbooks pulled
The Education Ministry has recalled 1 million notebooks from schools around the kingdom because they contain mistakes including references to the "Persian Gulf," al-Watan newspaper said on Wednesday. Arab states call it the "Arabian Gulf." A map in the notebooks also inaccurately represented Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen, a source of decades of dispute between the two countries which signed a border treaty in 2000, the paper said. It said a senior ministry official had told the agency which produced the books to halt distribution, withdraw those already handed out and explain how it would rectify the errors.
■ United States
Manholes shocked dogs
Some 30,000 manholes in Boston will be inspected after three dogs suffered electric shocks walking over the covers, a utility company said. The most serious incident was a dog's electrocution last month. NStar spokeswoman Christina McKenna on Wednesday blamed contractors who dug into streets without knowing the location of power lines and then failed to report the damage they did. The inspections were sparked by a case Tuesday evening in which a dog was shocked when it walked over an electrified manhole cover in Chinatown. Utility workers found that a damaged power line had also electrified a parking meter, McKenna said. She said it could take several weeks to check all the manholes.
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
ANTI-SEMITISM: Some newsletters promote hateful ideas such as white supremacy and Holocaust denial, with one describing Adolf Hitler as ‘one of the greatest men of all time’ The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, a Guardian investigation has found. The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10 percent of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform. Among them are newsletters that openly promote racist ideology. One, called NatSocToday, which has 2,800 subscribers, charges US$80 for an annual subscription, although most of its posts are available
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
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