■ India
Nude dancers spark row
India's northwestern state of Rajasthan has punished local officials after residents complained a group of Israeli women motorists had danced in the nude near a town revered by Hindus, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Indian Express said the incident took place during a party organized just outside the temple-studded town of Pushkar last month to celebrate the end of the Desert Queen rally in which 45 women rallyists from Israel took part. Local lawmakers and residents said the Israeli women "got drunk, threw their clothes on the stage and danced naked under the moonlight," the paper reported.
■ Australia
Man dies in Indian ritual
An Australian man died after taking part in an American Indian-style sauna-like purification ceremony in the Outback desert, another man who was hospitalized after the ritual said yesterday. The 37-year-old man died after the ceremony lasting several hours on Wednesday inside a small teepee, where hot rocks and water raised the temperature inside to 60?C, Adrian Asfar said. Asfar was in stable condition and being treated for dehydration at Port Augusta Hospital, 275km north of Adelaide. He said he couldn't recall details of the ceremony, involving 11 people from Melbourne.
■ Singapore
Woman in court over maid
A 43-year-old Canadian woman has been charged in a Singapore court with abusing her Indian maid by slashing and scalding her, as well as stuffing a vacuum cleaner in her mouth and turning it on, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Seven charges of abuse were levied against Alka Mandloi on Tuesday, the Straits Times said. Mandloi is alleged to have abused Drona Rai, 25, over a three-month period from September 2001. Mandloi allegedly cut Drona's fingers with scissors and then slashed her hands and legs a kitchen knife, the paper said. The following day, she took a vacuum cleaner, allegedly stuffed it in Drona's mouth and switched it on. Mandloi also took an iron and allegedly scalded her maid's arm, the paper reported.
■ Hong Kong
Molesting priest loses case
A Catholic priest jailed for molesting an altar boy in the first case of its kind in Hong Kong lost his appeal yesterday to the territory's highest court. Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal threw out an attempt by Michael Lau, 43, to have his convictions for gross indecency and attempted buggery overturned. Lau was convicted in February last year of molesting a 15-year-old altar boy in 1991 and 1992. His offence came to light two years ago when the Catholic Church admitted it had dealt with three cases of child abuse by priests internally without referring them to police.
■ New Zealand
Four Japanese plead guilty
Four young Japanese men have pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the beating death of a fellow student at an academy for Japanese youths with behavior and learning problems, local media reported yesterday. Ryu Fukushima, 24, Ryuji Hiraki, 28, Nobu Oshima, 20, and Masato Fujita, 21, on Wednesday admitted to the manslaughter of Nozomu Shinozaki, 22, at the Columbus Academy in Auckland on Feb. 26 last year. The guilty pleas came after prosecutors reduced the charges from murder. The four will be sentenced on Dec. 3.
■ Honduras
Gangs threaten president
Authorities increased security around President Ricardo Maduro on Wednesday after learning of a plot by street gang members to kill him and key officials in his govern-ment, the government said. "Available sources of information indicate the gangs will try to kill the president," Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez told a television station in Tegucigalpa, the capital. Alvarez, one of Honduras' most-popular figures because of his championing of a law that made membership in street gangs punishable by up to 12 years in prison, said he himself was also among those targeted by gang members. He said large numbers of leaders of the "Maras," Spanish slang for gangs, had gathered in the capital to plot a series of assassination attempts.
■ Iran
Americans to be tracked
Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has prepared a bill to make it compulsory for US citizens to be fingerprinted on arrival in the Islamic state, newspapers said on Wednesday. The reports said parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission approved the bill on Tuesday, in retaliation for a similar measure imposed on Iranian visitors to the US. "The purpose of the finger-printing is to make sure undesirable American elements will not enter Iran," commission member Kazem Jalali was quoted by Qods newspaper as saying. The bill will be put to a parliamentary vote in coming weeks.
■ France
Hunters kill last female bear
Hunters have shot dead the last female brown bear native to the Pyrenees, condemning the species to extinction and causing an "environmental catastrophe" for France, the government said. Animal protection groups on Wednesday concerned for the survival of the bear's 10-month-old orphaned cub which escaped unharmed, but which was barely weaned. Environ-ment Minister Serge Lepeltier was to visit the site of the killing to launch an investigation into how six experienced hunters had been allowed to organize a wild boar shoot in the area where the bear was living.
■ Belgium
EU seeks greater role in Iraq
EU leaders yesterday launched a two-day summit with hopes that they'll be able to forge a joint role for the 25-nation bloc in Iraq -- and by doing so bring a fresh start to strained relations with the re-elected US President George W. Bush. EU leaders are likely to push the second-term Bush administration to find a way out of the violence in Iraq and adopt a more multilateral approach that would involve Europe in consultations over the Iraq crisis. But in seeking to heal ties with Washington, the EU could also deepen its role in Iraq's reconstruction efforts despite reluctance -- particularly from France and Germany -- to get involved on the ground.
■ Canada
Nickname not racist: court
"Kemosabe," the name given to the Lone Ranger by his friend Tonto in the 1950s TV western, is not a racist term, a Canadian court has found. The ruling was delivered by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal last week in a case involving a native Canadian woman who complained that the manager of the store where she worked had created a poisoned environ-ment by calling her kemosabe. The court ruling confirmed a earlier decision by a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission board of inquiry. That decision was made after the board spent a full shift watching "Lone Ranger" reruns.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
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