■ Australia
Government hands over land
An Australian court Friday ended a 10-year legal battle over 67,000km2 of traditional Aboriginal land by handing ownership to the Wanjina-Wungurr tribes in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. The claim takes in farms, rivers and national parks but allows commercial activity to continue. The Wanjina-Wungurr were granted rights to hunt, fish and gather on the land. "Through this court decision and a number of others in the Kimberley in recent times, we have learned much about people's history and deep connection to this country," National Native Title Tribunal deputy president Fred Chaney said.
■ Philippines
Rebels agree to peace talks
Muslim separatists are ready to begin peace talks with the Philippine govern-ment after President Gloria Arroyo dropped criminal charges against insurgent leaders accused of terrorist bombings, both sides said Friday. "This is a welcome development. This has been the thing that is slowing the movement of the peace talks," Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokes-man Eid Kabalu told reporters in a conference call from his hideout.
■ Australia
Ancient cemetery found
Archeologists have discovered a 3,000-year-old cemetery in Vanuatu holding secrets about the first humans to colonize the South Pacific, Australian researchers said yesterday. A team from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra said 13 headless skeletons of the Lapita people had been unearthed in what was described as the oldest cemetery ever found in the region. Traces of the Lapita, considered the ancestors of all Pacific Islanders beyond the Solo-mons, have been found in more than 100 other archeo-logical digs across the region.
■ Singapore
`Medical tourism' promoted
A private hospital in Singapore slashed prices for a slew of common operations yesterday as part of city-state's drive to lure tourists and expatriates seeking inexpensive health care. So-called medical tourism has boomed in recent years, especially in neighboring Malaysia and Thailand, with foreign patients traveling both for those nations' famed beaches and routine medical procedures that are often cheaper than in their home countries. Singapore is seeking to step up its challenge for the increasingly lucrative market, and the government has set itself the target of attracting up to 1 million overseas patients by 2012.
■ United Kingdom
Thames study begins
Safety watchdogs have launched a year-long study into whether pollution in Britain's river Thames is putting public health at risk. The investigation follows mounting concern over discharges into the river of untreated sewage and is another blow to the public perception that the Thames is cleaner than it has been for centuries. Agencies have warned people not to row, canoe or sail after heavy rainfall downstream of Teddington Lock, where the tidal river starts, because of health hazards. One said the risks had not fallen since 600,000 tonnes of sewage poured into the river three weeks ago.
■ France
`Right to die' law enacted
The French government will enact a law enabling the incurably ill to choose to die, French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in an interview published yesterday in the daily Le Figaro. "The law will establish the right to die with dignity," Douste-Blazy said. "Respecting life means accepting death. With this law, the incurably ill will be able to choose their death." Specifically, he said, the law will give those who know they cannot be cured "the choice between more chemotherapy or palliative treatments and the morphine pump."
■ United Kingdom
Cleaner throws out trash art
A cleaner at London's prestigious Tate Britain art gallery has thrown out a work by a German artist, believing it to be a bag of rubbish, the Times reported Friday. Organizers of the Art and the 1960s exhibition told the daily that the work by German-born artist Gustav Metzger comprised a bin-liner filled with newspaper, cardboard and other bits of discarded paper. A source at the gallery said: "A cleaner doing her rounds saw the bag of rubbish on the floor and threw it out with the rest of the trash. It wasn't roped off. How was she to know what it was supposed to be?" The bag was retrieved from the bin, but the 78-year-old artist is believed to have declared that it was too badly damaged to be returned to the gallery.
■ Poland
Restitution bill delayed
Polish lawmakers yesterday stalled a motion urging the government to seek compensation from Germany for the Nazi occupation of Poland, aimed at countering restitution claims by Germans expelled from eastern Europe after World War II. Parliament's lower house sent the nonbinding resolution back to the foreign affairs committee for further work by a vote of 268-133. The Polish government had urged lawmakers to reject it, suggesting it could harm relations with Germany. A small group of conservative nationalist lawmakers initiated the motion, which argues that damages should be sought "in the name of historical justice."
■ United Kingdom
Impeachment kept in family
Cherie Blair's legal chambers, Matrix, are to draw up the document to impeach her husband, British prime minister Tony Blair, for "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the run up to the war against Iraq, it was disclosed Thursday. The 12 members of parliament planning to revive the ancient parliamentary procedure -- last used 156 years ago against Lord Palmerston -- have engaged his wife's chambers to frame the motion because of their record in taking up human rights issues.
■ United States
36 million in poverty
The number of Americans living in poverty grew for a third successive year during 2003, swelling to almost 36 million people. The figures will be unwelcome news for President George W. Bush, who has struggled with similarly negative reports on unemployment. According to the annual Census Bureau report, another 1.3 million Americans descended into poverty during the year, taking the total to 35.9 million, or around 12.5 percent of the population. That was up from 34.5 million (12.1 percent) in 2002. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry called the numbers evidence that Bush's economic policies had failed, as during his term 4.3 million people have joined the ranks of the poor and 5.2 million have lost their health insurance. The growth in poverty was most marked among children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, some 17.6 percent of the under-18 population.
■ Chile
Pinochet to stand trial
The former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Thursday lost what could be the final round in his tortuous struggle to avoid prosecution for human rights abuses. In a surprise ruling, the country's supreme court ruled by nine votes to eight to uphold the decision of a lower court in May that stripped Mr Pinochet, 88, of immunity from prosecution. There can be no appeal against the ruling. "The previous sentence ... of the appeals court ... is upheld," the court reporter, Juan Cristobal Mera, told journalists at Santiago's main court.
■ United States
Judge junks abortion ban
A second judge on Thursday ruled that a federal law banning so-called "partial birth" abortion was unconstitutional because it failed to protect the health of the mother. Judge Richard Conway Casey in New York said that the bill passed recently by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush violated the Supreme Court ruling that protected late term abortions. Congress passed the law without making any provision for the procedure if it were medically necessary to save the life and health of the mother. "A division of medical opinion exists," Casey wrote. "Such a division means that the constitution requires a health exception."
■ United States
Man stabs gator, saves dog
A man jumped in a pond and stabbed a 1.8m alligator with a pocketknife to force the reptile to release his dog from its jaws. Matthew Goff, 29, said he was walking Sugar, a bloodhound/Sharpei mix, in a park when the attack occurred Wednesday evening. The unleashed dog wandered to the edge of the pond and the gator grabbed its head. "I couldn't stand by and watch it happen and I had the pocketknife so I decided to try and save her," Goff said. The gator released Sugar when Goff stabbed the reptile in the eye.
■ Cuba
Panama links broken off
Cuba broke off relations with Panama on Thursday, hours after President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four Cubans convicted in a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro at a 2000 summit here. Panama is "a state that has demonstrated its inability of avoiding the monstrous action it has committed against the Cuban people," a Cuban statement said, calling Moscoso an "accomplice and protector of terrorists." Relations had soured between the two countries in anticipation of the move.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
‘SHARP COMPETITION’: Australia is to partner with US-based Lockheed Martin to make guided multiple launch rocket systems, an Australian defense official said Australia is to ramp up missile manufacturing under a plan unveiled yesterday by a top defense official, who said bolstering weapons stockpiles would help keep would-be foes at bay. Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the nation would establish a homegrown industry to produce long-range guided missiles and other much-needed munitions. “Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment,” Conroy said in a speech. “That competition is at its sharpest in our region, the Indo-Pacific.” Australia is to partner with US-based weapons giant Lockheed Martin to make
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters