■ Indonesia
Four bomb suspects nabbed
Four Islamic militants wanted for the Sept. 9 suicide bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta have been arrested, including the alleged planner and two bomb-makers, police chief General Dai Bachtiar said yesterday. The suspects were wearing explosives around their waists when they were captured on Nov. 5 in west Java Province. The arrests represent the first major breakthrough in the inves-tigation into the embassy attack, which killed 10 people, including at least one bomber. None of the four have been formally charged.
■ China
Flight recorders found
Chinese divers searching an icy lake have recovered the two flight recorders from a commuter jet that crashed seconds after takeoff killing 54 people, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. One of the "black boxes," the cabin voice recorder from the China Eastern Airlines Bombardier CRJ200, was damaged and would be sent to Beijing for examination, it quoted experts at the crash site as saying. The 50-seat, short-haul jet, carrying 47 passengers and six crew, crashed on Sunday after taking off from Baotou in Inner Mongolia for Shanghai. The search for the black boxes was suspended on Tuesday due to a sudden drop in the temperature of the lake water. China has said the crash did not appear to be the result of sabotage.
■ Indonesia
Teen clubs parents to death
A 19-year-old man who was fed up with his parents' nagging about his laziness yesterday bludgeoned them to death with a 4kg iron dumbbell as they were sleeping, police said. The young man killed his parents while his 16-year-old sister watched television in another room in Mito, 100km north of Tokyo. The suspect called police after the crime and said he was upset that his parents criticized his lifestyle. He had also wanted to kill his sister and 76-year-old grandfather, but told police he had given up after feeling exhausted by the killing of his parents.
■ India
Saint's body in rare display
Hundreds of thousands of devotees will flock to Goa over the next month to venerate the body of a 16th-century saint, Francis Xavier, in a ritual that only takes place once a decade. The Spanish missionary's body, placed in a glass-topped silver casket, will be on display for more than 40 days. Xavier founded Chris-tian communities throughout Asia and was later canon-ized. Two years after his death in 1552 near China, his body was brought back to Goa. It is believed that when his body was exhumed, it was remarkably intact. Priests say the body was never been embalmed.
■ Australia
Chemical castration touted
New South Wales was asked yesterday to consider chem-ical castration for child molesters amid a nationwide police crackdown on child pornography. The proposal came from conservative opposition justice spokes-man Andrew Humpherson, who said child molesters are almost impossible to rehabilitate and chemical castration was proving an effective remedy in some European countries. "The propensity, the desire to molest, the urge to molest children in particular, can be substantially diminished" by chemical castration, Hum-pherson told reporters. Teachers, clergymen, doctors and even a detective in a child-sex squad were among those arrested in the crackdown.
■ United States
Fake gynecologist jailed
A man who posed as a gynecologist after setting up an office in a self-storage complex was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to practicing medicine without a license. The charges stemmed from an undercover investigation that began after authorities saw an ad in a weekly newspaper offering free medical care. A prosecutor set up the undercover sting with an investigator posing as a patient and using a hidden camera. Thomas Remo, 50, of Ovilla, wore a scrub shirt and had some medical equipment in the makeshift exam room, a small kitchen in the storage facility office where he worked, authorities said.
■ United States
Boy abducts exotic dancer
A 13-year-old boy has been charged with abducting an exotic dancer in the US state of Virginia, a news report said on Tuesday. The dancer showed up for a prearranged meeting at a house in Virginia Beach, local television WAVY reported. The only person in the house was a juvenile who told her that she had been hired for his older brother. She tried to leave after a while when no one else showed up, but the boy pointed a shotgun at her and ordered her to dance, the report said. The dancer bit the boy's hand and managed to escape during the incident last week. The boy has been arrested on charges including abduction, conspiracy and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
■ Germany
Granny packs a punch
A 75-year-old woman attempted to smuggle brass knuckles through Dusseldorf airport security Tuesday -- inside a hidden compartment of her handbag. After first claiming she was carrying only "heavy jewellery", the retiree finally told security guards she needed the knuckle dusters for "self protection" during a holiday trip to Southeast Asia. She now faces a stiff fine and possible prosecution for carrying a concealed weapon.
■ Italy
Traffic police out of control
Driving in the bus lane -- without a driver -- is perhaps the most bizarre charge leveled at bemused motorists by Rome's over-zealous traffic police. But according to a public prosecutor the police have also issued tickets to people who had never been in the city and fined the same motorist for the same offense at the same time in different parts of town. "It seems like the set of an Italian Comedy: the craziest city in the world," said Vincenzo Piso, local leader of the right-wing National Alliance party. Prosecutor Giuseppe Corasaniti opened investigations against 12 traffic police in response to hundreds of protests from outraged motorists.
■ Colombia
Unborn infant kidnapped
The unborn child of a woman who was eight months' pregnant was snatched from her womb after kidnappers sedated her and performed a rudimentary Caesarean section, the woman told Colombian television Tuesday. The mother, Sol Angela Cartagena, told RCN television that the incident occurred in Girardot in Cundinamarca province. Apparently, Cartagena was drugged at a hospital in Girardot and carried out by a woman to a remote place on a hillside where the Caesarean was performed and her infant abducted. Physicians at the hospital confirmed Cartagena's story.
■ Canada
Government to cut trans fats
Canadian lawmakers backed an opposition call on Tuesday to set limits on the use artery-clogging trans fats in food products. The motion from the minority New Democratic Party passed the House of Commons by 193 to 73. It calls for a task force to work on how best to cut trans fats, followed by regulations or a law to limit trans-fat content in all food products. Trans fats are created when vegetable oil is hydrogenated to extend shelf life, and are found in many products including cookies, crackers and deep-fried foods. Medical experts believe they are more harmful to the heart than animal fats and other forms of fat that have been linked to heart disease.
■ United States
Dan Rather to step down
Dan Rather, whose nearly 24-year tenure as anchor of the CBS Evening News was clouded by a recent questionable report on US President George W. Bush's National Guard service, said Tuesday he will step down in March. Rather said his last broadcast as anchor would be March 9, the 24th anniversary of when he assumed the position from Walter Cronkite. The 73-year-old newsman said he will continue to work for CBS, as a correspondent for both editions of 60 Minutes. "I have always been and remain a `hard news' investigative reporter at heart," he said in a statement. "I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time." He made no mention of the National Guard story in announcing the change.
■ United States
School raffle features gun
A local group is holding a school benefit raffle featuring a deer rifle, in hopes of raising enough money to fence in a portion of a school in this central Texas town. "We're moms using guns as tools to protect our kids," said Marta Ellison, a member of the Hanna Springs Intermediate School Parent-Teacher-Student Organization and part of the trio of mothers that put the raffle together. "Bake sales are a thing of the past," she said.
■ United States
Hunter says victims shot first
The Laotian-born truck driver accused of massacring six members of a deer hunting party in a remote wooded part of Wisconsin, claims he was fired on first, according to court papers released Tuesday. Chai Vang told investigators that a member of the party opened fire on him, as he was preparing to leave a private estate that he had strayed onto while out hunting in a public forest in northwest Wisconsin. Vang said he turned in time to see the man shoot, and crouched down as the bullet whipped past, landing behind him. The 36-year-old said he then fired two shots, felling the man, according to papers filed Tuesday. The Hmong immigrant also claimed that members of the party surrounded him and called him "chink," and "gook." According to investigators, Vang then detailed the rampage in chilling detail.
■ United Kingdom
Diesel military bike made
US and British technicians have announced producing the world's first production diesel military motorcycle, capable of speeds of 130km an hour. The US Marines have already placed an order for more than 500 of the machines, which were designed by a partnership between California-based Hayes Diversified Technologies (HDT) and Cranfield University in Oxfordshire in England. Previous attempts have been frustrated by the weight and bulk of traditional diesel engines and their inflexibility with regard to engine speed
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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