■ Malaysia
Report slams police graft
The Malaysian police force was under fire yesterday after a special commission charged that it was riddled with corruption from top to bottom. A Royal Commission on police reform found that graft existed at every level and police lacked the resources to enforce law and order effectively, commiss-ion chairman Dzaiddin Abdull-ah was quoted as saying by local media. "Corrupt practices involve officers and personnel at all levels," Dzaiddin said after handing the commission's preliminary report to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Monday. The commission also discovered that there had been excessive force used against suspects under arrest, the official Bernama news agency reported. "The commission will look into cases of death while in police detention and compliance of lock-up procedures," Dzaiddin was quoted as saying.
■ China
Nudist colony shelved
Chinese eager to bare all in public will have to wait to disrobe after local outrage shelved the opening of the country's first nudist colony. Originally scheduled to open to the public at a woodland park in China's eastern Zhejiang province tomorrow, that plan was put on hold after it sparked a furore among prudish locals, Wang Xiaoting, a spokeswoman for the park, said on Monday. The move would have broken new ground in a country where sex is seldom discussed in public. "It's caused a lot of debate," said Wang by telephone from the park near the town of Lin'an on Monday. "Many of the local people say it's disgusting and don't want it."
■ Indonesia
Election challenge rejected
Indonesia's Supreme Court said yesterday it has rejected a claim of irregularities in the July 5 presidential polls by ex-armed forces chief Wiranto, ending his last hope of becom-ing the country's next leader. The ruling followed a separate decision Monday by Indones-ia's Constitutional Court, which threw out Wiranto's claim that malpractices had cost him some five million votes in first-round voting and denied him a place in the run-off. Supreme Court spokes-man Joko Upoyo confirmed the ruling on a complaint over mispunched ballot papers had been issued late Monday.
■ Australia
Cow tampering causes stir
The doping scandal at Brisbane's Royal Queensland Show widened yesterday with one farmer charged over artificially enhancing his dairy cow's udders and four others banned from placing entries in Australia's top agricultural competition. Officials confirm-ed yesterday that after years of turning a blind eye to "udder tampering" in the dairy cow contest a crackdown was underway. "We've kept a close eye on all competitors in the dairy section this year because there's been a suspicion for some years that tampering of udders in the evening before judging has been undertaken," organizer Vivian Edwards said.
■ Hong Kong
Prosecutor plastered
A visibly drunk prosecutor who was giggling uncontrollably prompted a halt in a sentence hearing and later posed for journalists outside the courthouse as Auguste Rodin's sculpture The Thinker, a newspaper reported yesterday. A judge was forced to call a two-minute recess after Roderick Murray, a government prosecutor, put on sunglasses, giggled, clapped his hands and drummed his fingers on the desk during the session at Hong Kong's District Court on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported. Murray later admitted that he had consumed two dry martinis and a number of beers before attending the hearing, the Post said.
■ United States
Beauty queen guilty of fraud
A former beauty queen who collected more than US$190,000 in government benefits by claiming she was disabled was convicted of fraud on Monday. A federal jury found Denise Henderson, 44, guilty of wire fraud and of making false statements and concealing information from the Social Security Administration. Henderson did not comment, but her lawyer said she plans to appeal. Henderson -- Mrs. Minnesota International in 1999 and Mrs. Iowa International in 2001 -- has claimed she suffers debilitating pain from a 1995 car accident. Prosecutors noted during the trial that she collected benefits while making more than 200 appearances as Mrs. Minnesota International in a single year.
■ United States
Fay Wray dies at 93
Fay Wray, the actress who starred in the 1933 original version of King Kong, has died, news reports said on Monday. She was 93. The Canadian-born actress died in her apartment in New York, the reports said. Wray played Ann Darrow, the woman who was held captive in the palm of King Kong. Wray has appeared in more than 90 movies throughout her career, but none of her roles was as prominent as the one when she played a scared young woman being stalked by King Kong.
■ Greece
Olive leaf row settled
Two villages on the Greek island of Crete which have been duelling for years over whose olive tree is older and, therefore, qualified to supply the leaves of Olympics victors' wreaths, have finally settled their row. The argument was laid to rest by the Games' organizers, who agreed to take leaves from both trees for the wreaths, the head of the Athens Olympics organizing committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki told journalists on Monday. Kavoursio, which lies in southeastern Crete, will provide leaves for the winner of the women's marathon on Aug. 22, and Kolybari, on the opposite, northwestern side, for the men's marathon a week later on the last day of the Games.
■ Canada
`Abducted' councilor quits
A city councilor from western Canada who claimed last year she had been abducted and sexually assaulted on a trip to the US resigned on Monday. Dar Heatherington, a 41-year-old councilor in the southern Alberta city of Lethbridge, disappeared in May last year in Great Falls, Montana, while on city business. She turned up three days later in Las Vegas saying she'd been abducted and sexually assaulted. No one was ever charged and she recanted her account to Montana police. Heatherington was convicted in July in Lethbridge of mischief after police accused her of writing lurid letters to herself but claiming they were the work of a stalker.
■ United Kingdom
Travellers left without bags
British Airways and London's main Heathrow airport apologized on Monday to holidaymakers stranded without their luggage after summer storms and technical faults caused a backlog of 7,000 bags. Bad weather caused British Airways to cancel 100 flights last week, triggering the backlog that was then aggravated by the breakdown of two baggage conveyor belts at Heathrow, a spokeswoman for the airline said. Some 100 volunteers were at Heathrow on Monday helping baggage handlers sort the luggage.
■ United States
Lawyers criticize detentions
The largest lawyer association in the US has condemned the government's handling of foreign detainees over the objections of members who called it a cheap shot at the White House. The American Bar Association (ABA) on Monday criticized what it called "a widespread pattern of abusive detention methods." Those abuses, it said, "feed terrorism by painting the United States as an arrogant nation above the law." The ABA was responding to abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and concerns about the treatment of about 600 terrorism suspects being held in Cuba. Some lawyers complained that the nonpartisan group, with more than 400,000 members, was getting too political, especially as the presidential election nears.
■ United states
Iraq abuse hearings to begin
Pretrial hearings for four of the seven Army reservists charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners will be held later this month in Mannheim, Germany, the Army said Monday. Defense attorneys will argue at those hearings that their trials also should be held outside Iraq, said Guy Womack, the civilian attorney for Specialist Charles Graner Jr. Defense lawyers maintain it would be difficult for witnesses and families to attend trials in Baghdad, where most of the prison-abuse proceedings have been held. Womack said hearings for Graner and Specialist Megan Ambuhl will be held in a military courtroom in Mannheim Aug. 23.
■ United States
Rights violations ignored
Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the UN Security Council of disregarding human right violations committed by countries combating "terrorism." "Governments around the world are using the global campaign against terrorism to crack down on human rights," said Joanna Weschler, Human Rights Watch's UN advocacy director. "The UN Security Council has been conspicuously silent about this dangerous trend," Weschler added in a statement.
■ Germany
City protests continue
Thousands took to the streets of eastern German cities on Monday in a second week of protests against unpopular labor market reforms that are set to escalate ahead of regional elections next month. The rallies have drawn parallels with the "Monday demonstrations" that helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989 and test the government's resolve to implement its reforms as planned at the start of next year. In the city of Magdeburg, police said more than 10,000 protesters gathered, chanting, blowing whistles and waving banners reading "Schroeder must go!" and "Eichel laughs while children cry" -- referring to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Finance Minister Hans Eichel.
■ Zimbabwe
UK group blasts government
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government was accused on Monday of a "widespread, systematic and planned campaign of organized violence and torture to suppress normal democratic activities." The British charity Redress, which helps torture survivors, gave documented examples of 8,871 human-rights violations from 2001 to last year to show that the incidents were concentrated in election periods, especially the March 2002 presidential elections. Its report quoted estimates that more than 200,000 Zimbabweans have been tortured in recent years.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
DEFIANT: Ukraine and the EU voiced concern that ICC member Mongolia might not execute an international warrant for Putin’s arrest over war crimes in Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin was yesterday visiting Mongolia with no sign that the host country would bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The trip is Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it issued the warrant about 18 months ago. Ahead of his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the EU expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant. A spokesperson for Putin last week said that the Kremlin
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