■ China
Boy takes mother to court
An 11-year-old boy in central China took his mother to court for breaking a promise to buy him a computer if he did well at school, a news report said yesterday. The woman told her son she would buy him a computer if he scored average marks of more than 94 percent for his school work, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported. However, she reneged on the deal when he achieved an average of 97 percent, telling him she could not afford to buy the computer, the newspaper said. The schoolboy from Xingzheng, Henan Province, then went to court asking a judge to make his mother honour the verbal agreement. At the hearing, the judge reconciled the mother and son.
■ Japan
People want troops home
More than half the respondents to a poll said Japan's government should withdraw its troops from Iraq next month when the mandate for their reconstruction and humanitarian mission expires, the daily Mainichi Shimbun said yesterday. Asked if the deployment should be extended beyond the Dec. 14 deadline, 51 percent said it should not while 27 percent said it should, the paper said. Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush, has emphasized his determination to keep the 550 troops in southern Iraq, despite the worsening security situation. The main opposition Democratic Party has called for the troops to come home next month and Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is sharply divided on the issue.
■ Vietnam
Huge bomb safely defused
Bomb disposal experts managed to defuse a 5.5 tonne bomb found by locals in central Vietnam, a military official said yesterday. The 2m-long, 1m wide device was discovered by scrap scavengers near Meo village in Gia Lai province, said Truong Van Hai, head of the provincial sapper unit. "People normally take this war stuff home for making money from recycling. But this time, they felt scared as it is so big so they informed the local military," Hai said.
■ Indonesia
Christian shot
Gunmen riding a motorcycle shot dead a Christian bus driver yesterday on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, heightening tensions in the region that saw a bloody outbreak of religious fighting three years ago. Tomi Sanjaya, 42, was killed as drove a minibus on the outskirts of Poso in Central Sulawesi province, police Lieutenant Colonel Abdi Dharma said. Dharma declined to speculate on the identities of the gunmen.
■ Hong Kong
British `spies' sentenced
Two former Chinese officials who worked in Hong Kong have received jail terms of at least 15 years for spying for Britain, a newspaper reported yesterday. Cai Xiaohong (蔡小洪) was given a 15-year term last week after a secret trial in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, while Wei Pingyuan received an unspecified heavier sentence, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified sources. Cai served as secretary-general of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and Wei was a senior official in a similar office during Hong Kong's colonial days, the report said. Cai processed confidential communications between the office and the central Chinese government, the Post said.
■ United Kingdom
Geldof OKs Live Aid DVD
After almost two decades of refusing to rebroadcast the Live Aid famine-relief con-cert, organizer Bob Geldof said Sunday he had changed his mind. Rocker-turned-activist Geldof said he had consented to a DVD release of the 1985 concert because of the large number of bootleg recordings avail-able. "I'm very excited that this has come out, but I couldn't believe the number of bootleg copies being sold -- they are quite literally taking food from the hungry. This has to be stopped," said Geldof, who attended a launch party for the 10-hour, four-disc set.
■ United States
Tired doctors error-prone
Doctors who sleep more make fewer medical mis-takes, a study has found, the first to directly link the relationship between sleep and performance of doctors. Student doctors who worked a shift of 16 hours or shorter -- considered to be a short shift -- made one-third fewer serious errors that could harm patients than their counter-parts, who worked longer shifts -- 24 hours or more, the study found. Results were published in the latest New England Journal of Medicine. During a total of 2,203 patient-days involving 634 admissions, student doctors made 35.9 percent more serious medical errors during the long schedule than they did during the shorter shifts.
■ Italy
Buttiglione starts campaign
Rocco Buttiglione, whose nomination as the EU's justice commissioner was forced to be withdrawn last month, began a public campaign on the weekend to form a European "theo-con" movement for those who believe traditional Christian values should be part of public life. Buttig-lione, a fervent Catholic and friend of Pope John Paul, was forced to stand down after the European parlia-ment balked at his conser-vative views on homo-sexuality and marriage. He now intends to lead a "battle for the freedom of Chris-tians" against what he calls the "creeping totalitarian-ism" in Europe that stifles anyone who does not share the beliefs of the majority.
■ Belgium
Flemish Bloc to reformat
The Flemish Bloc political party plans to disband and reform under a new name with a manifesto that abandons the fascist tenor that got the party into legal trouble. The new party "will clearly express itself as the successor to the Vlaams Blok," the party's Web site declared on Sunday. An appeals court is to rule today on a lower court ver-dict in a suit brought in 2000 by two rights groups which condemned the Flemish Bloc for using racist tactics to target immigrants and ordered three associations that raised money for the party to pay a US$57,975 fine. If the ruling is upheld, the party will lose all gover-nment subsidies it would normally be entitled to.
■ United States
Evolution warning defended
School officials in Cobb County, Georgia, were due in court yesterday to defend themselves against a lawsuit accusing the district of pro-moting religion by requiring that science textbooks warn students evolution is "a theory, not a fact." The law-suit argues that the dis-claimer restricts the teach-ing of evolution, promotes the teaching of creationism and discriminates against particular religions. County school officials, however, said their warning, in the form of stickers, simply encourages students to keep an open mind.
■ United Nations
France seeks arms embargo
France circulated Sunday a UN draft resolution calling for an arms embargo against Ivory Coast, as well as financial sanctions and a travel ban against individuals accused of threatening the peace process in the conflict-wracked west African nation. France introduced the measure after nine French soldiers were killed when two Ivorian warplanes raided a French encampment in the rebel-held town of Bouake, prompting Paris to order the destruction of the warplanes and three attack helicopters, effectively destroying Ivory Coast's small air force. France's retaliation led to anti-French violence in the main city Abidjan.
■ Brazil
Athlete's mother kidnapped
The mother of Santos forward Robinho, one of Brazil's most exciting football players, has been kidnapped, police said on Sunday. Marina de Souza, 43, was abducted by two armed men who invaded a barbecue in Praia Grande, near Santos, on Saturday night, detective Alberto Torrassa told reporters. The pair locked the other guests in the bathroom before driving off. Torrassa said that so far the kidnappers had not been in contact with the family. "Our target at the moment is to bring back the victim in safety, that's our only worry," said Torrassa. Santos were away to Criciuma in a Brazilian championship match on Sunday afternoon but club president Marcelo Teixeira told reporters the player would return home and would not play.
■ Macedonia
Boycott kills referendum
A referendum to end the autonomy granted to Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority appeared to be defeated on Sunday because of insufficient voter turnout. The apparent defeat of the referendum was a victory for Macedonia's multiethnic coalition government, which had urged voters to boycott it. Not showing up to vote was in effect the same as a no vote for the measure, which had been supported by Macedonian nationalists. The US and European nations had also urged defeat of the referendum, contending it would have weakened Macedonia's political stability and diminished the prospects for the country's entry to NATO and the EU.
■ United States
Women prisoners increasing
The number of women in US state and federal prisons is at an all-time high and growing fast, with the incarceration rate for females increasing at nearly twice that of men, the government reported Sunday. There were 101,179 women in prisons last year, 3.6 percent more than in 2002, the Justice Department said. That marks the first time the women's prison population has topped 100,000, and continues a trend of rapid growth. Overall, men are still far more likely than women to be in jail or prison, and black men are more likely than any other group to be locked up.
■ France
Legal action rejected
The government on Sunday rejected a US-based Jewish group's call for legal action against one of the country's largest Muslim organizations that it said was anti-Semitic and linked to the militant Islamist group Hamas. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris had proved it was tough on Islamic radicals by questioning about 100 so far this year and expelling 17 of them. But he declined to follow up a call by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to probe links between the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) and pro-Palestinian groups it says collect money for Hamas. The UOIF denied it was anti-Jewish.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
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