■ Australia
Politicians too drunk: Greens
Instead of engaging in sober debate, politicians in Australia's oldest legislature have been accused of drinking too much and drafting laws with slurred speech and red noses. Lee Rhiannon of the minority Greens Party says some members of the New South Wales state parliament are obviously under the influence of alcohol when they return to its debating chamber after taking breaks. "After dinner ... things get a bit raucous," The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday quoted as Rhiannon saying. The august institution, set up in Sydney in 1822, has two restaurants and a bar as well as it own liquor store. "People have very poor views of politicians," said Rhiannon who wants authorities given the power to expel drunken legislators from the state parliament until they sober up.
■ Hong Kong
More beggars being arrested
Beggars are being arrested in record numbers in Hong Kong as more people from China are allowed into the territory, a news report said yesterday. Ninety beggars were arrested in the first two months of this year, a third of the total for all of last year, the South China Morning Post reported. The highest proportion of beggars are from China and police say the increase in begging coincides with the easing of travel restrictions on Chinese visitors. Only 1.5 million people from China visited Hong Kong in 1997 but the number shot up to 8.4 million last year. Most come from southern China, where average earnings are vastly lower than in Hong Kong.
■ China
Former editor jailed
A former editor in chief of one of China's biggest newspapers, the Guangzhou Daily, has been sentenced to four years in prison for taking bribes, the government said. A former president of Guangzhou Daily's parent company and other employees also have been punished in a sweeping corruption investigation in Guangzhou, China's southern business capital. Former editor in chief He Xiangqin was convicted Sunday of taking bribes totaling nearly US$90,000 in a series of schemes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. The ex-editor was accused of taking bribes and kickbacks from Hong Kong suppliers to her newspaper's printing operation from 1996 to 2000 and from two employees in exchange for promotions, Xinhua said.
■ Hong Kong
Chicken restrictions relaxed
Hong Kong will let poultry traders buy frozen chickens from China once again, but the dealers threatened yesterday to strike until officials lift a ban on live imports imposed during Asia's bird flu outbreak. Chicken stalls at markets were closed yesterday for mandatory cleaning, but the head of the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers Association, Steven Wong, said the entire industry would shut today to protest measures that are costing it millions of dollars.
■ Australia
Spell-casters booted
A Sydney bar owner has expelled a group of drinkers after accusing them of casting spells in his pub. "People found their behavior strange and threatening ... casting spells on bars in the hotel or clearing bars with certain spells," Tony Green, owner of the Greenwood Hotel, told The Sydney Morning Herald. "They talk about casting spells and they brought with them, I believe, a small cauldron. I think they behaved as though they are witches," Green added.
■ United States
Bush to answer questions
The White House said on Tuesday that US President George W. Bush would privately answer all questions raised by the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks and suggested that Bush might allow the interview to extend beyond the one-hour limit originally offered to the panel by the White House. "He's going to answer all the questions they want to raise," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, whose remarks suggested that the White House was softening its negotiating stance toward the bipartisan commission. "Nobody's watching the clock."
■ United Kingdom
Church `bribes' recruits
Four Church of England parishes are trying to boost their congregations by offering free cinema tickets to watch Mel Gibson's controversial movie The Passion of Christ. Four churches in the Archbishop of Canterbury's diocese in the southeastern county of Kent have block-booked US$37,020 of tickets to give away for the graphic film depicting the torture and death of Jesus Christ in an effort to drum up new recruits. Russ Hughes, director of worship and prophecy at St Luke's, told the Times on Tuesday, "This is the greatest opportunity for the Church in the last 30 years and if we did not use it we may not get such an opportunity again."
■ United Kingdom
Lady too fat to sing
A London opera house has given the lie to the adage "it ain't over till the fat lady sings." The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden dropped top US soprano Deborah Voigt, a spokesman said on Monday, from a production that would have called for her to wear a little black dress. Asked about newspaper claims that it was because of her weight, he said only: "She was not appropriate for the production." However, Voigt, one of the world's top sopranos, told the Telegraph newspaper: "I have big hips and Covent Garden has a problem with them."
■ The Netherlands
Bicycles get GPS tracking
Amsterdam police will use bicycles equipped with hidden GPS transmitters to bait thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp out rampant bike theft, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. In Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000 to 150,000 bicycles are stolen every year. "It would be great to get hold of the organized bicycle thieves, to track the whereabouts of stolen bikes and see if any end up in bicycle shops," Amsterdam police spokesman Rob van der Veen said.
■ United States
Abusive husband shot
An Oklahoma woman shot her husband to death during a fight after the couple watched a daytime TV talk show on how to survive domestic violence, officials say. Teri Lynn Carver, 35, is not facing charges for gunning down her husband Cecil, 38, at their home in the northeastern Oklahoma town of Rose because evidence at the scene suggested the death was an accident, District Attorney Gene Haynes said on Monday. Police and prosecutors said the couple was in bed on Feb. 24 smoking marijuana and watching a Montel Williams TV talk show on surviving a lover's attack. Teri told her husband that his actions resembled those of abusive husbands featured on the show, which caused Cecil to turn violent. Teri shot her husband in the arm and the bullet entered his chest, killing him, police said.
■ Senegal
Rights group seeks Taylor
A leading international rights group urged the UN and the US on Tuesday to step up pressure on Nigeria to hand over ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor to a UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. The tribunal, which was due to open its newly constructed courthouse in Freetown yesterday, has indicted Taylor on 17 counts of supporting, directing and running guns and gems with Sierra Leone's vicious Revolutionary United Front rebels. "By creating the Special Court, the international community has made an important commitment to bringing justice for the horrific crimes committed in Sierra Leone. But justice will be undercut if Taylor is shielded from the court," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice program at Human Rights Watch, said.
■ Cuba
Castro and Vietnam pledge
The leaders of Vietnam and Cuba, two of the world's last five communist-run societies, pledged on Tuesday to stick together in their march to build socialism. The secretary-general of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh, ended a four-day visit to Cuba. "We are two small countries, fighters with experience, and we march forward together as an example," Cuban President Fidel Castro said as he bid Manh farewell at Havana airport. "We will continue together, Vietnamese and Cubans," Manh said. Vietnam and Cuba have been solid allies since Havana backed Hanoi in the Vietnam War.
■ Italy
Berlusconi no `hawker'
He's happy to be a called a man of the people and name his party after a soccer chant but woe betide the person who tries to pull Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi down to street level. Italy's billionaire premier, who markets himself as a self-made man, on Tuesday cut short a stall holder from the Sicilian city of Palermo who called him a "colleague." "We don't do the same job, we are not colleagues. You do a job that is useful to the economy, but I'm no street hawker, my job is to govern the country," Berlusconi said during a live radio chat show, refusing to answer the caller's question.
■ Great Britain
Girl named `Diot Coke'
Naming your child after a popular soft drink could be seen as a little bit faddish but the parents of young Diot Coke might be forgiven -- they gave their baby daughter the name way back in 1379. Researchers at Britain's National Archives believe that the girl, born in West Riding in Yorkshire, was the victim of the corruption of the name Dionisia. One of the diminutives derived from that name on its path to the modern day Denise was Diot. The girl's surname is believed to be a variation on the name Cook.
■ Canada
Used subs a headache
Canada said on Tuesday it was looking at ways to cool down four trouble-plagued submarines it bought from Britain after a report revealed temperatures in one craft hit 65 degrees Celsius on a patrol. The problem in the engine room of the Victoria -- revealed by opposition legislator Bill Casey -- is the latest in a long line of hassles with the second-hand submarines that Canada agreed to buy in 1998 for C$750 million (US$570 million). Casey said temperatures elsewhere in the Victoria were also high, 43 degrees Celsius in the electronic store, and a sweaty 34 degrees Celsius in the commanding officer's cabin.
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
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