■ Bangladesh
Bombs strike movie theaters
Two near-simultaneous bomb explosions outside movie theaters killed a 13-year-old boy and injured seven other people in a northeastern Bangladeshi city, and police said yesterday they were questioning six men
about the attack. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts Thursday night in Sylhet city, 190km northeast of the capital Dhaka, and police gave no word on a possible motive. The unidentified boy was killed instantly by a bomb outside Rangmahal cinema, said Ali Imam Chowdhury, a senior police official in the area. A second bomb injured at least seven people outside Monika, another movie theater in the same city, Chowdhury said.
■ Japan
Possible West Nile case
A Japanese woman who recently returned from a trip to the US is suspected of having West Nile virus in what would be Japan's first case of the mosquito-borne illness, an official said yesterday. Pre-liminary results from blood tests and a spinal tap on the 42-year-old women, from Japan's southernmost island of Okinawa, were positive for the disease but more precise tests were being carried out at an institute in Tokyo, Health Ministry official Tatsuhiro Isogai said. Test results are expected as early as Monday, he said. Japanese media reported there was a possi-bility that the woman has Japanese encephalitis, which also is spread by mosquitos. Isogai said Japan has had no cases of West Nile, and that even if the woman had the virus, an outbreak here would be very unlikely because
the disease is normally transmitted to humans by mosquitos that have fed on infected birds. "It's very likely that she became infected in the US, not on the plane or in Japan," he said.
■ Vietnam
Fish bomber killed
A man was killed on Tuesday while using explosives to fish in northern Vietnam, a police officer said yesterday. Nguyen Ngoc Hien, 30, and two of his relatives were fishing by throwing homemade mines into a stream near their home, said Dinh Van Chuc, chief of Dan Ha commune police. The 300g mine exploded in Hien's hand when he was about to throw it into the water, the police official from Hoa Binh province, 80km west of Hanoi said. Hien lost his right arm and suffered severe head and chest injuries. He was rushed to hospital by his relatives but died 36 hours later.
■ New Zealand
Drugs in lava lamps
Customs officers discovered crystal methamphetamine with a street value of US$5.75 million in five lava lamps imported from China, the New Zealand Herald Web site reported yesterday. Police said it was thought to be the biggest seizure of illegal drugs ever made in New Zealand. About 9kg of illicit drugs were suspended in the liquid inside the lamps. Police arrested and jailed a 23-year-old Chinese student at the Auckland address the lamps were consigned to.
■ Indonesia
Model banned from prison
An Indonesian model has been banned from visiting the son of former president Suharto in a maximum-security prison after a recent visit turned into a three-day stay, news reports said yesterday. Officials ordered the prison to blacklist Sandy Harun from visiting former billionaire playboy Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, the Jakarta Post said. Tommy is serving a 15-year sentence in an island prison off Java for graft and arranging the killing of a Supreme Court judge who had convicted him of corruption in a land deal.
■ Canada
Skating thief on the loose
Police were on the lookout on Wednesday for a rollerblading criminal who robbed a woman while she waited in her car at a fast food restaurant's drive-through lane. The woman told investigators in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby that the man rolled up to her car window on in-line skates late on Tuesday, brandished a knife and demanded cash. She complied and the man skated away with the money. "The female victim clearly remembers that this male smelled strongly of liquor," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also noted in a press release.
■ United Kingdom
Murder sparks sales spree
Sales of a violent video game, linked to the brutal murder of a British teenager, were soaring on Thursday across the UK as buyers rushed to buy their copy before the game is banned. Publicity surrounding the Manhunt game has sparked a consumer frenzy in the UK, with copies flying off the shelves in stores where it is still available. Many multi-media retailers withdrew the game from their stores last week in the wake of media coverage about the murder of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, killed in February by his friend, Warren Leblanc, 17, who was said to be obsessed with the game.
■ United States
`Lez' in Scrabble shocker
It wasn't a four-letter word, but it was close enough to cause a stir at the National Scrabble Championship in New Orleans. In the final round on Thursday, eventual champion Trey Wright played the word "lez," which was on a list of offensive words not allowed during the tournament. Normally, no word is off-limits, but because the games were being taped for broadcast on cable sports channel ESPN, certain terms had been deemed inappropriate, including the three-letter slang for lesbian. "There are words you just can't show on television," Scrabble Association executive director John Williams said.
■ United States
Hiker drives off bear with ax
Officials closed a back-country area of Denali National Park in Alaska after a hiker told rangers he had driven off an attacking grizzly bear by burying his ice ax in the animal's back. Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister said Roberto Cataldo, 29, of Modena, Italy, reported the encounter on Monday. A 130km2 tract where Cataldo said he had hiked was closed indefinitely. Fister said much of what he told rangers has not been corroborated, but the park had to take protective measures. A wounded bear "poses a threat to anyone going into the area," she said on Thursday.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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