■ Australia
Howard sworn in
Australian Prime Minister John Howard was sworn in for a fourth term on Tuesday as his conservative government vowed to maintain troops in Iraq after a car bomb in Baghdad injured three Australian soldiers. Howard, a staunch supporter of George W. Bush and one of the first to commit troops to the US-led war in Iraq, won a thumping victory at an Oct. 9 election fought on economic management and a commitment to leave Australia's troops in Iraq. Australian troops in Baghdad came under attack on Monday for the first time since the end of the Iraq war when a car bomb exploded injuring three soldiers and damaging their armored convoy near the Australian embassy.
■ Indonesia
Investors put off
Indonesia's new President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told prosecutors yesterday that rampant corruption and poor law-enforcement were scaring off foreign investors, and said he would monitor their performance. Yudhoyono, who took office last week, later addressed a closed-door gathering of police officers, telling them to focus efforts on battling graft and terrorism, according to national police spokesman Major General Paiman, who goes by a single name. Foreign investors have largely deserted the world's most populous Muslim nation in recent years because of corruption, security concerns and an unpredictable legal system.
■ Malaysia
Running backwards record
A 22-year-old Malaysian electronic engineer has claimed a national record for running backwards, saying he "wanted to do something meaningful in life". S. Moganasundar won a place in the popular "Malaysia Book of Records" after running backwards for 30km, the official Bernama news agency reported Monday. He took three hours, 30 minutes and 35 seconds to complete 75 laps of the 400m track at the Perak Stadium in the northeastern town of Ipoh. "I am happy I did this. I always wanted to do something meaningful in life," he told Bernama.
■ Japan
He only wants to commit
An unemployed ex-gangster in Japan in love with a 15-year-old girl chopped off his little finger and mailed it to her father twice in an unsuccessful bid to prove his commitment, police said yesterday. Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, 36, was arrested Monday after the teenager's father told police the finger had been sent to him again, after marking it return to sender the first time, a police spokesman said. When he first sent the finger, Yoshikawa allegedly enclosed a note: "Please let us go out in exchange for this finger. I will send it again and again until you accept my request." The father, 43, opposed the relationship -- and was unpersuaded by the finger.
■ Australia
Yacht hits Opera House
A former America's Cup yacht on a harbor jaunt slammed into the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday, tipping crew into the water, breaking off its keel and capsizing in front of a big lunchtime crowd at the much-loved Australian icon. The impact crippled the 22m multimillion-dollar FT Spirit, which had mostly experienced sailors aboard when the embarrassing accident happened. "We came in too close and hit the bottom and as we did the boat pivoted on the keel and it ripped the big 20-tonne of lead that keeps the boat upright right off," deckhand Benny Mawson said.
■ West Bank
Arafat receives treatment
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat underwent a minor diagnostic procedure on Monday and doctors found no major ailment after a week of concerns over his health, a Cabinet minister said. Another senior official said Arafat, 75, was "still in a weakened condition and under medication." But the official, who said he had spoken to Arafat, gave no indication the problem was life-threatening. Doctors carried out the endoscopy after Arafat complained of a stomach ailment and had been vomiting, officials said. Arafat's physicians had said he was suffering from an acute viral infection after he displayed flu-like symptoms.
■ United Kingdom
Don't drink and mow
A 50-year-old British man arrested while driving his lawnmower in a state of intoxication had his automobile license revoked for one year on Monday. A court in Cheltenham in south-central England suspended Michael Mennell's driving license and ordered him to pay a fine of £250 (US$465 dollars). Mennell, who admitted his guilt, seemed unperturbed. "I don't drive a car much so the ban won't bother me. If I need to go anywhere, my mates will give me a lift."
■ France
Gay TV station on air
"A giant leap for television, a small step in high heels," the presenter promised, unveiling France's first gay TV station which aims to make gay culture mainstream and marks a new climate of tolerance in Roman Catholic France. Pink TV, which launched Monday, promises viewers a mixture of Wonder Woman repeats, prime-time opera and gay and lesbian porn. A daily cultural review will look at issues like tourism, health, poetry and clubbing from a gay perspective, in a style which aims to be "more cosy than cheeky." Sports will be presented by a transgender newsreader in a mini-skirt, who admits to a fondness for obscure sports like underwater hockey.
■ South Africa
Mbeki lashes out again
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has caused a race row by making a scathing attack on whites who link HIV/AIDS to the alleged promiscuous and predatory behavior of black Africans. Mbeki turned a parliamentary debate on HIV and rape into a broadside against "bigots" who he said regarded blacks as "sub-human disease-carriers." The president was asked about his silence on a pandemic which infects 5.6 million South Africans, more than in any other country, and replied that the real issue was prejudice, which endured a decade after apartheid. Mbeki said some whites regarded blacks as "rampant sexual beasts, unable to control our urges, unable to keep our legs crossed, unable to keep it in our pants."
■ South africa
Thatcher case on TV
South Africa is to allow TV cameras into the high court to record proceedings for the first time -- and yesterday Mark Thatcher was to be the high-profile guinea pig. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) won a bid to record proceedings when lawyers for the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher sought to overturn a subpoena requiring him to answer questions about a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. Officials say Monday's court ruling sets a precedent for future high-profile cases. "In a high court it is the first time that cameras will be allowed to record," said SABC spokesman Paul Setsetse.
■ France
Paris denies Duelfer claim
Allegations that French companies illicitly reaped financial benefits from the UN oil-for-food program are "inaccurate" and unsubstantiated, France said in a sharp response to a US arms inspector's report. The report by Charles Duelfer, which alleged that French companies and individuals participated in a secret oil voucher program that helped Saddam Hussein circumvent UN sanctions, lacks proof to back up the charges, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. The Foreign Ministry's response was an attempt to cast doubt on Duelfer's report, published earlier this month, listing foreign entities that received vouchers for oil contracts under the UN oil-for-food program.
■ United States
New gum for hunters
A deer hunter in Wisconsin is marketing a new type of chewing gum he claims can mask human-smelling breath and help hunters move closer to their prey. Neil Bretl says his Gum-o-Flage helps fool the animals' hypersensitive noses to human scent. Hunters already can use special soap, shampoo and clothing detergent to eliminate human smell. Some even pay US$300 for scent-control coveralls or rub themselves with horse manure. Now, for US$4.99, hunters can get 12 olive green, Chiclet-style tablets in a blister pack. "Its sugar-free, by the way," said Bretl, 35, whose license plate reads "GUM GUY."
■ Croatia
POWs talk about massacre
Two former Croat prisoners of war who narrowly escaped a 1991 massacre of more than 200 fellow POWs at a pig farm in eastern Croatia testified Monday at a landmark trial of 17 Serb paramilitaries charged in the slaughter. The appearance of Emil Cakalic and Dragutin Berghofer before Serbia's special war crimes court is the first time that any of the survivors of the Ovcara massacre -- which took place in November 1991 -- were called in to testify since the proceedings opened in March. The trial is considered a key test of whether Serbia is able to prosecute Serb war crimes suspects.
■ United States
Judge gives fugitive a party
A Dallas judge welcomed a fugitive back to her court, throwing him a party that included balloons and a cake. Then, she sent him to prison for life. "You just made my day when I heard you had finally come home," Criminal Courts Judge Faith Johnson told Billy Wayne Williams, who was captured Thursday by a fugitive task force after nearly a year on the run. Williams, who was accused of choking his girlfriend until she was unconscious, failed to appear for his November trial and was convicted and sentenced in absentia. Johnson sentenced Williams to life in prison for aggravated assault. "It seems like everyone wants to have a party, and it's fun for you people, but not for me," Williams said.
■ United States
Acclaimed baritone dies
Acclaimed singer Robert Merrill, the opera baritone who felt equally comfortable on opening night at the Metropolitan Opera House or opening day at Yankee Stadium, has died. Merrill died Saturday at his home in suburban New York City, family friend Barry Tucker said Monday. Reference books gave conflicting ages for Merrill, 87 or 85. Merrill, once described in Time magazine as "one of the Met's best baritones," became as well-known to New York Yankees fans for his season-opening rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
STOPOVERS: As organized crime groups in Asia and the Americas move drugs via places such as Tonga, methamphetamine use has reached levels called ‘epidemic’ A surge of drugs is engulfing the South Pacific as cartels and triads use far-flung island nations to channel narcotics across the globe, top police and UN officials told reporters. Pacific island nations such as Fiji and Tonga sit at the crossroads of largely unpatrolled ocean trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America, and methamphetamine and opioids from Asia. This illicit cargo is increasingly spilling over into local hands, feeding drug addiction in communities where serious crime had been rare. “We’re a victim of our geographical location. An ideal transit point for vessels crossing the Pacific,” Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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