■ China
Lions kill teen reveler
An 18-year old student celebrating the end of his school exams was attacked and killed by three lions in a zoological park in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, state press said yesterday. The student was one of 10 young men who climbed over the 2m fence surrounding the lion compound at the Northern Forestry Zoological Park near the provincial capital of Harbin on Tuesday, the Beijing News said. The students, who had been drinking following their exams, illegally entered the zoo and climbed over the fence despite signs warning of the danger, the report said.
■ Malaysia
Man crashes into school
A man suffering from a mental illness rammed his car into a school, injuring 17 children, including three who were dragged under the vehicle, reports said yesterday. Pupils at the primary school in northern Penang state had assembled for a prize-giving rehearsal on Tuesday when the 32-year-old driver sped through the gates into the compound. Three nine-year-olds became trapped under the car and were dragged for a few meters before it became wedged in a drain. The driver, who was handed over to police, last week tried to ram pupils outside another primary school with a motorcycle, the New Straits Times said.
■ China
Air force to buy new plane
China's air force is preparing to introduce a new domestically made jet trainer to teach pilots to fly state-of-the-art warplanes, state media reported yesterday, underscoring the Chinese military's rapid modernization. The People's Liberation Army Air Force plans to buy the JL-9 "Mountain Eagle" in 2006-2010, the Web site of the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily reported. The announcement comes amid growing US alarm at China's heavy spending on modernizing its arsenal.
■ Malaysia
Pirates face whipping
Ten Indonesian pirates, caught after a botched attempt to hijack an oil tanker off northern Malaysia, have pleaded guilty to armed robbery and face up to 20 years in jail and whipping, officials said yesterday. The men, ages 23-57, were charged with hijacking the Malaysian-registered Neptune Delima in the Straits of Malacca on June 14. Police and naval forces laid siege to the ship and the pirates, armed with machetes, surrendered after 12 hours.
■ China
Uighur author arrested
A Chinese Muslim author has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after authorities deemed one of his stories subversive, a US-based broadcaster reported yesterday. Nurmuhemmet Yasin, a member of the Uighur ethnic group, was arrested last November and sentenced after a closed trial in February, Radio Free Asia reported. It said he was sent May 19 to the No. 1 Prison in Urumqi, capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region. A man who answered the telephone at the prison's general office said it was "impossible to confirm the names of prisoners." The man then hung up when asked for his name. Yasin's arrest followed the publication last year of his Uighur-language short story Wild Pigeon in a literary journal, Radio Free Asia said. It said the story is about a bird trapped by humans that commits suicide in captivity -- apparently seen by authorities as an allegory for Uighurs under Chinese rule.
■ United States
Zsa Zsa Gabor sues child
Colorful Hollywood personality Zsa Zsa Gabor has sued her daughter for allegedly stealing US$2 million and using it to buy a mansion, a court heard on Tuesday. Gabor, 87, and her ninth husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, are suing Francesca Hilton, Gabor's daughter by hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton. Gabor accused Hilton of conspiring with others to fraudulently take out a US$3.75 million loan on her home and of then taking US$2 million from it to buy herself a house. But Judge Jacqueline Connor, sitting in the Los Angeles area of Santa Monica, refused to freeze Hilton's new property, saying there was no evidence to suggest Hilton planned to sell or encumber it.
■ United States
Addict feared `hemadromes'
A known drug addict accused of causing a deadly car crash claims he was driving like a maniac because he was being pursued by man-eating subterranean beings, a California prosecutor said on Tuesday. Scott Krause, whose trial got underway on Monday in Nevada City, California, is accused of vehicular murder after slamming an allegedly carjacked vehicle into a parcel delivery van, killing its driver. Krause has a long history of drug abuse and was under the influence of the delusion-inducing drug crystal meth at the time. "He claims he was driving fast because he was being chased by entities called `hemadromes,' subterranean beings that he thought had killed his girlfriend and were out to eat him and his children," district attorney Mike Ferguson said.
■ Russia
Arms boss beaten up
Armed men beat up and threatened to kill the head of Russian aerospace giant Sukhoi yesterday after breaking into his house and stripping it of money and jewelry, police said. The four unidentified men broke into Mikhail Pogosyan's villa in a heavily guarded compound near Moscow through an open window just after midnight, tied up his wife and 19-year-old son with electric cables, and beat him up. "They stole money, gold jewelry and a collection of coins," a Moscow police spokesman said. State-owned Sukhoi -- Russia's biggest warplane manufacturer and the country's No.1 arms exporter -- declined to comment. A source close to Pogosyan said that "Mikhail Aslanovich is alive and well."
■ Russia
Ex-detainee sues US
A Russian national released last year from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has sued the US government in a civil court over the humiliations he claims he suffered, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported, citing the ex-detainee. "It's not a question of compensation. I want the United States to publicly recognize my innocence," Airat Vakhitov, formerly an imam in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, said. Vakhitov, one of seven Russian nationals released from Guantanamo in February last year, said he had already given testimony to a US civil court examining his complaint. He said that US soldiers at Guantanamo had tried to provoke detainees by insulting the Koran.
■ South Africa
Zuma faces court
Sacked former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma, facing two charges of corruption, appeared in court yesterday in a case that has hobbled his chances of becoming president in 2009. Prosecutors informed Zuma of the charges he would face and the Durban Magistrate's Court released him on 1,000 rand (US$150) bail.
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
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
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,
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