■ Vietnam
Three people electrocuted
A man and his two son's were electrocuted while installing a television antenna in southern Vietnam, a local official said yesterday. Nguyen Van Le, 51, and his sons, aged 30 and 18, were killed trying to install the antenna on the roof of their home in Soc Son commune in the Mekong Delta region, said Diep Quoc Phong, an officer with the commune people's committee. "The electrocution occurred when the antenna suddenly fell onto an electric cable running across the roof," Phong said. The three were killed instantly while a third son, 28-year-old Nguyen Van Diep, was seriously injured, Phong said.
■ Singapore
Maids a `murderous team'
Two Indonesian maids formed a "murderous tag team" to suffocate a Singaporean woman, news reports yesterday quoted the prosecution as saying at the start of the defendants' murder trial. Deputy Public Prosecutor Amarjit Singh said Monday that evidence would show the two maids allegedly planned a week ahead to kill Esther Ang Imm Suan, a 47-year-old oil-rig company purchasing officer, steal her cash and valuables and fake a robbery. Ang's maid, Juminem, 19, and her former husband's domestic helper, Siti Aminah, 16, have been accused of strangling the woman and using a wine bottle to hit her abdomen and head several times at her condominium on March 2 last year. They each took turns suffocating Ang with a pillow and jumping on her abdomen, The Straits Times reported.
■ New Zealand
Airplane's wheel falls off
A wheel fell off a Mount Cook Airlines plane with 60 people aboard as it was taxiing down the runway for takeoff at Christchurch Airport, it was reported yesterday. The 66-seater ATR aircraft's nose landing gear axle broke, but it was safely brought to a halt and nobody was hurt in Monday's mishap, Radio New Zealand reported. The airline initiated an inquiry, and general manager Peter O'Regan said the plane was only six years old, was checked regularly and had been reliable to date.
■ China
Greenpeace fights for trees
The environmental group Greenpeace and Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper Co (APP) are again clashing over a large Chinese project, this time a paper plant in southern Hainan Province, state media said yesterday. Hainan Jinhai Pulp and Paper Co, a subsidiary of the paper making giant which also has extensive operations in Indonesia, officially started production Monday amid protests from environmental campaigners. the China Daily reported. With a capacity to produce a million tonnes of pulp every year, it is the largest project of its kind in China, according to the newspaper. "APP is promoting a manufacturing method that combines tree planting, pulp and paper-making together in the industry," said Yao Xusheng, chief executive for APP in China.
■ Japan
PM takes advice from Gere
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose tension with political foes often spills over, got some advice yesterday from American actor Richard Gere -- follow the Dalai Lama and listen to your rivals. Gere was in Japan to promote his film Shall We Dance? and Koizumi took him up on the offer, taking his hands for a few steps with the actor in front of the cameras at the prime minister's residence. Gere told reporters later that Koizumi promised to see the film, a remake of the 1996 Japanese original by the same name, "at least 10 times."
■ United States
Ex-envoys oppose Bolton
Fifty-nine former US envoys oppose the nomination of John Bolton to be the US ambassador to the UN, according to a letter that was to be delivered to Senator Richard Lugar, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. "We urge you to reject that nomination," the former diplomats said in the letter. They took issue with what they said was Bolton's view that the UN is valuable only when it directly serves the interest of the US. They also said Bolton has an exceptional record of opposing efforts to enhance US security through arms control and has worked for Taiwan as a paid researcher and has said Taiwan should be treated as a sovereign state.
■ Czech Republic
Load of manure kills driver
A tractor driver died under 8 tonnes of manure in a bizarre accident that has baffled his employers, local media reported. The 34-year old man suffocated after the load fell on him while he was dumping it in a field near the western city of Karlovy Vary, according to the news Web Site www.novinky.cz on Sunday. "It absolutely beats me how this could happen," said Vladimir Erps, chief of the company employing the victim. "The truck is operated from the tractor cabin, using hydraulics. There was nothing for him to do under the truck, but it's tough to blame him now that he is dead," he said.
■ South Africa
Surfer survives shark bite
A British surfer who was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Cape Town on Monday escaped with just bites to his legs. Chris Sullivan, 32, paddled 500m to the shore after being bitten and was given first aid by a South African doctor who happened to be on the beach. Sullivan was then flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he received 200 stitches for deep multiple bite wounds to his lower right leg and foot. A nurse said Sullivan had spoken of his terror as he turned around to see the 4m-long shark heading towards him. "He was shocked but when it took hold of him he managed to kick it with his other leg and then punch it," she said. "Then he hauled his right leg free and got away."
■ Belarus
Protesters jailed for demo
A court on Monday sentenced all 24 people arrested last Friday for demanding President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation to jail terms of up to 15 days for violating regulations on holding demonstrations, a human-rights organization said. One of the leaders of the protest was fined 1.2 million rubles (US$560). Police and special forces police using dogs broke up the protest by 300 people outside the presidential building on Friday. Opposition politicians and human rights activists said those arrested had been beaten and that many needed to be hospitalized.
■ United States
Bible study leads to change
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses during deliberations. On a 3-2 vote, justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for kidnapping 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney in 1994 and raping her at gunpoint for two hours. The jurors in Harlan's 1995 trial sentenced him to die, but defense lawyers discovered five of them had looked up Bible verses, copied them down and talked about them while deliberating a sentence behind closed doors.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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