Wed, Apr 27, 2005 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ South Korea
  GNP backs tracking devices

  The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) yesterday said it would back legislation to have convicted sex offenders wear electronic tracking devices. It said strong measures were required to stop a rapid increase in sexual crimes. According to GNP figures, the number of sexual offenses in South Korea rose from 10,600 in 2000 to 14,154 last year. Electronic surveillance devices would help authorities keep track of sexual offenders, he said, adding 83.4 percent of convicted sex offenders reoffend. The electronic tracking system was first suggested by GNP leader Park Geun-hye earlier this month, sparking criticism from human-rights groups.

  ■ Nepal

  Police detain activists

  Police raided a hide-out and arrested a democracy activist on their most-wanted list and two other student leaders who had eluded capture since the king's crackdown on dissidents in February, officials said yesterday. An estimated 3,000 politicians, human-rights campaigners, trade unionists and journalists have been arrested since King Gyanendra's takeover on Feb. 1, but the three student leaders eluded authorities by frequently changing hide-outs. The three, including most-wanted leader Gagan Thapa, were arrested on Monday. They are all members of the Nepal Student's Union, the student wing of Nepali Congress, the largest party in Nepal.

  ■ Indonesia

  Crimes suspect promoted

  The military named as its spokesman a general indicted by UN prosecutors for alleged war crimes during East Timor's break from Indonesia in 1999 -- a posting likely to anger rights groups calling for those involved in the violence to be punished. Suhartono Suratman was named chief spokesman in a ceremony at military headquarters yesterday, said Sri, a member of his staff who gave only one name. His appointment to the high-profile job follows similar promotions for other generals accused in the rampage by Indonesian troops and their militias following a UN referendum. Up to 2,000 people were killed and most of the territory destroyed during the violence.

  ■ Malaysia

  Millionaire feared dead

  A 52-year-old Malaysian millionaire disappeared while snorkeling off northern Borneo, after a 10-year-old boy tried to save him but nearly drowned himself, a newspaper reported yesterday. Police and family members have launched a massive air-and-sea search operation for businessman Lam Nyet Khiong, who went missing on Sunday in the Sulawesi Sea off Lahad Datu in Borneo's Sabah state, the Star newspaper said. It said Lam had taken a boat trip with four friends, and the 10-year-old boy, Liew Yee Fei, who put on a life jacket and swam toward Lam when he appeared to be under attack by something in the water. Yee Fei, apparently tired by the effort, lost consciousness and drifted for two hours until a marine police boat patrolling the area chanced upon him.

  ■ Australia

  Wild camels to be culled

  Thousands of wild camels in the Outback will be shot from helicopters as part of an attempt to control the animals' burgeoning numbers, a state official and local media said yesterday. With no natural predators and ample grazing land, the wild camel population has exploded in parts of central, northern and western Australia. Scientists estimate there are as many as 500,000 camels roaming the country's vast deserts.

  ■ Ethiopia
  Massive flood kills dozens

  At least 72 people have been killed and thousands more made homeless in devastating floods that have submerged more than 30 villages in southeast Ethiopia, an official said yesterday. People, housing, other property and livestock have been washed away by raging waters from Wabe Shebell river which burst its banks at the weekend after days of heavy rains, the official said. "The death toll right now stands at 72," said Ahmed Abdi Mouhamoud, a World Food Program official in Gondie 1,200km southeast of Addis Ababa. "At least 16 villages are surrounded by water and we are unable to figure out the death toll in those areas," he said, adding that another 15 villages in Musahin area 120km from Gondie were also reported to be under water.

  ■ United States

  Skier survives ordeal

  A cross-country skier stranded in the backcountry with little food or water for eight days -- at one time crawling on his elbows because of a broken leg -- was rescued on Monday after searchers heard his emergency whistle. Charles Horton, 55, was hospitalized in fair condition with minor frostbite, mild hypothermia and dehydration in addition to a broken leg, authorities said. "His skills and knowledge, his gear and his will to live are what kept him alive," Rio Blanco County sheriff's Sergeant Anthony Mazzola said.

  ■ United Kingdom

  Cancer scam woman jailed

  When Karen Hanson told neighbors she only had three months to live, the response was immediate and generous. Villagers raised thousands of dollars to send her on one last trip of a lifetime to Eurodisney. The outpouring of sympathy was only matched by Hanson's own mendacity -- she had never had cancer. On Monday, Hanson, 39, was jailed for 12 months. She pleaded guilty to five charges of obtaining property by deception. The court was told at an earlier hearing how villagers in Wibsey, West Yorkshire, had clubbed together to raise more than £5,000 (US$9,530) to send her on a final family holiday. She admitted her fraud after being spotted working in a bar by one of the fundraisers.

  ■ Ethiopia

  Ancient burial site found

  A vast pre-Christian royal necropolis has been discovered under a 42-year-old parking lot near where the country's famed Axum obelisk once stood, UN researchers said yesterday. "Underground chambers and arcades have been found in the vicinity of the original location of the obelisk," the UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) said in a statement. It said a team of experts using advanced, non-intrusive geo-radar and electrotomographic equipment found "several vast funerary chambers under the sites parking ground which was built in 1963.

  ■ France

  Chirac, Schroeder in talks

  President Jacques Chirac and Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met in Paris yesterday for talks on economic cooperation and the EU constitution as polls overwhelmingly show the French could reject the treaty. Chirac and Schroeder were to lead a joint French-German Cabinet meeting likely to be dominated with talk of the French referendum campaign. Schroeder was expected to cast his voice behind Chirac, who has been struggling to reduce momentum in the French "no" camp in the run-up to the May 29 vote.

  ■ France
  Bus crash kills two tourists

  A bus traveling on a highway west of Paris plowed through a safety barrier and landed in a ditch Monday, killing two Japanese tourists and injuring 13 others, two of them seriously, police and the Japanese Embassy said. The driver, a Frenchman, was also injured, officials said. The accident occurred on the A13 highway near Bouafle, 34km northwest of central Paris in the Yvelines region. The bus had been carrying 15 Japanese passengers. Police said it was traveling to Mont Saint Michel, an island off the Normandy coast famed for its cathedral that draws hordes of tourists each year.

  ■ United States

  Gun-nut-backed law vetoed

  Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has vetoed a bill that would have let people bring their guns into bars and restaurants as long as they weren't drinking alcohol, and the businesses didn't prohibit firearms. Arizona law bans firearms in bars and restaurants that sell alcohol. Bill supporters said current law deprives citizens of protection -- and subjects their guns to the risk of theft if they're left in vehicles parked outside bars or restaurants. The new bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Critics said the measure would lead to confrontations in bars and hikes in insurance premiums for the businesses.

  ■ Chile

  Pinochet must pay taxes

  A Chilean judge partially lifted a freeze on assets of former dictator Augusto Pinochet on Monday so he can pay five years of back taxes. A court clerk said that Judge Sergio Munoz ruled in favor of a defense request to free US$2.7 million, so Pinochet can pay back taxes from 1999 to last year, but kept frozen another US$3 million in assets. Pinochet is being investigated on accusations of tax fraud and corruption related to millions he stashed in secret bank accounts. Munoz said in a recent court filing that he has found US$17 million that Pinochet and his family stashed in more than 100 accounts in foreign banks and never reported to Chilean tax authorities.

  ■ Russia

  Putin visits Middle East

  Vladimir Putin set off yesterday on his first visit to the Middle East as Russia's president, becoming the first Russian or Soviet leader in 40 years to make an official state visit to Egypt, a one-time close ally of the former Soviet Union. Topping the agenda for talks with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak are efforts to revive the tenuous peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Putin will later head to Israel amid hopes that Moscow can play a larger role in the search for a solution to the stalled peace process.

  ■ United States

  Real `Norman Bates' caught

  A man told police he kept his mother's corpse in a basement freezer for more than four years while he collected her pension benefits, authorities said Monday. A body was found encased in ice, in a sitting position. Philip Schuth, 52, told police his elderly mother, Edith, died of natural causes in August 2000, but that he didn't tell anyone because he was afraid police would blame him, according to documents filed in court Monday. He said his mother years beforehand was attacked by a cat and her blood was on the walls in the house they shared, and he feared police would think he killed her, according to the documents. Police recovered a chest-type freezer in Schuth's basement, and after chipping away at a block of ice, discovered a human knee.
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