■ Hong Kong
Disney battles hotel bugs
Walt Disney Co is busy replacing furniture at its hotel at the brand new Hong Kong Disneyland after many rooms became infested with beetles, the Oriental Daily reported yesterday. The daily quoted unidentified sources as saying that the pests had gobbled their way into brand new beds and coffee tables in about 100 rooms at the hotel. "We can't confirm the report. But we constantly keep up with our quality standards," a Disney spokeswoman said.
■ New Zealand
Politician jailed for abuse
A court yesterday sentenced the former head of the country's main Christian political party to nine years in prison for raping an eight-year-old girl and sexually abusing two others, as he tearfully apologized for what he called his utter hypocrisy. Former Christian Heritage Party leader Graham Capill, also an ex-police prosecutor, was sentenced in Christchurch for raping a girl under 12, indecent assaults and unlawful sexual connection. In a statement afterward he said, "I am ashamed and greatly regret my past actions. The 46-year-old Capill is the father of nine children.
■ Thailand
Police have last laugh
A comedian was arrested and fined 1,000 baht (US$24) for a mock jailbreak in which he and another actor dashed onto a Bangkok bus handcuffed and wearing prison uniforms. Police stopped the bus and arrested Santi Meesaengchan, 37, for "causing panic in public places" while pretending to be a prisoner on the run in Wednesday's made-for-TV prank. The bus, carrying a mixture of actors and ordinary passengers, was equipped with a hidden camera.
■ Macau
Gambling fraudsters busted
A gang of fraudsters has been arrested after setting up bogus casino VIP rooms to fleece wealthy gamblers in Macau. The gang hired a hotel's presidential suite and converted it into a casino VIP room and targeted first-time visitors to Macau. Five men from China were arrested after a victim called police saying he had been detained in a hotel room after failing to pay gambling debts of more than US$500,000. Police seized around US$4 million in fake casino chips, bogus security guard outfits and a mobile baccarat table in the suite of a Macau hotel on Tuesday. The fraud syndicate had been operating for two months and preyed on wealthy gamblers from China.
■ China
Ex-bank executives on trial
Three former Bank of China executives based in Hong Kong have gone on trial in China to face corruption charges. Liu Jinbao, who served as chief executive of BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd, used his official positions in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China to obtain financial rewards in collusion with others totaling more than 14.48 million yuan (US$1.75 million), Chinese prosecutors argued in a Changchun court. Liu was dismissed after approving a 1.77 billion Hong Kong dollar (US$227 million) loan for jailed Chinese tycoon Zhou Zhengyi, also known as Chau Ching-ngai.
■ Thailand
Cheap AIDS drugs offered
Anti-retroviral drugs will be offered at almost no cost to the nation's 500,000 people with the AIDS virus. "We will be the first country in the world to give every person living with AIDS access to anti-retroviral drugs," the Ministry of Public Health said. The Thai-produced drugs -- which slow the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS -- will be added to a government health care initiative that provides basic care to all Thais for only 30 baht (US$0.72) per hospital visit, including services, tests and medications.
■ Singapore
Kidney foundation draws ire
Public outrage mounted yesterday against Singapore's largest charity, as protesters painted graffiti on the National Kidney Foundation's (NKF's) walls as thousands of donors halted contributions after the salary and perks of its chief executive officer were revealed. Calls for NKF chief T.T. Durai's resignation on an online petition soared to more than 18,000 after the High Court heard he earned salaries and bonuses totalling 600,000 Singapore dollars (US$363,000) a year and occasionally flew first-class on business trips. The NKF admitted this week to having 260 million Singapore dollars (US$157 million) in reserves, enough to subsidize dialysis treatment for 30 years, not the three years it has consistently maintained.
■ Australia
Motorists high on drugs
Police said yesterday that a world-first trial of random saliva-testing was catching five times as many drug-drivers as breath tests were catching drink-drivers. In the first six months of the year-long trial in and around Melbourne, one in 50 drivers stopped and tested was under the influence of cannabis, methamphetamines or both. Drivers who return a positive "gob swab" are fined 300 Australian dollars (US$225) for a first offense and have three demerit points entered on their licenses. The trial was ordered after a national survey in which a quarter of men under the age of 25 admitted to driving after taking an illicit drug. Methamphetamines, usually Ecstasy, was the drug of choice, followed by cannabis.
■ United States
Rapist agrees to castration
A man who admitted raping two young girls has agreed to be castrated to avoid serving a life prison sentence. Keith Raymond Fremin, 42, accepted a 25-year sentence without parole for molesting the two sisters, who were 11 and 13 at the time of the attacks in 1999. Judge Donald Fendlason said he would revoke the lighter sentence if Fremin does not undergo the surgery by Aug. 18. The victims, now 17 and 19, were in court Tuesday and agreed to the plea deal.
■ Chile
Chile to change constitution
Chile's Senate voted to change the constitution written during the former dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet to effectively restore full authority by the civilian government over the nation's military. The package of constitutional amendments restored the president's power to fire the top military commanders and also eliminated nine appointive senate seats -- four of which were allotted to retired commanders of the three branches of the military and the national police.
■ Netherlands
Islamists arrested
Dutch police announced Wednesday that they had arrested a teenager in Amsterdam as part of an investigation into a group of armed Islamist radicals. The 17-year-old, who was described in the country's press as being of Dutch-British origin, is to go before a juvenile court today after explosives and bomb-making equipment were found in his bedroom at his parents' home in Amsterdam. One suspect, Muhammad Bouyeri, an Amsterdam-born Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent linked to the Hofstad ring of terrorist suspects, confessed in court on Tuesday to the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Bouyeri will be sentenced in two weeks.
■ South Africa
Snipes dubbed `undesirable'
South Africa has declared actor Wesley Snipes an "undesirable person" after the Hollywood star was found traveling on a forged South African passport. Snipes was stopped at Johannesburg airport on June 1 after immigration officials noted a problem with his passport number. "During the interview it was established that Mr. Snipes did in fact have fraudulent South African documentation in his possession," the Department of Home Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. Snipes, who also had a valid US passport, was allowed to depart. The Department of Home Affairs said Snipes, who said he had applied for the South African documents through his US attorneys, had agreed to participate in an investigation of the incident.
■ Mexico
Man tied to train tracks
A train severed both legs of a 21-year-old Guatemalan man outside of Mexico City after robbers tied him to railroad tracks because he could not provide them with money, Mexican media reported Wednesday. The man wanted to hop onto the train to reach the US but was blocked by two assailants who demanded he pay a "toll" for passing through. The incident took place in Nezahualcoyoti, which lies east the country's capital and is a common route for illegal immigrants heading to the US. Many immigrants from Central America are targeted by Mexican criminals during their journey. The Mexican government reports that last year 211,218 illegal immigrants were taken into custody and returned to the native countries.
■ United States
Rehnquist hospitalized
William Rehnquist, chief justice of the US Supreme Court, is hospitalized with a fever, a setback that fueled more retirement speculation about the 33-year veteran of the court. The 80-year-old Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday night and was admitted for observation and tests, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Despite having thyroid cancer, Rehnquist has maintained a regular work routine, defying expectations that bad health would force him to leave the court.
■ United States
FDA pulls asthma drug
The US Food and Drug Administration withdrew the controversial painkiller Palladone from the market on Wednesday based on evidence it could cause serious side effects. The agency asked Purdue Pharma to stop selling the drug based on the results of a company study that revealed it could cause serious side effects, even death, when mixed with alcoholic beverages.
■ United States
Muslim scholar jailed for life
Influential Iraqi-American Muslim scholar Ali al-Timimi, whom prosecutors called a "purveyor of hate and war," was ordered on Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison for inciting his young followers in Northern Virginia to wage war against the US in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Before sentencing, al-Timimi told Judge Leonie Brinkema that he considered himself a "prisoner of conscience" who was being persecuted for his strong Muslim beliefs. "I will not admit guilt nor seek the court's mercy ... because I am innocent," he said. Brinkema ordered the life sentence grudgingly, saying she was bound by federal guidelines but considered the mandated terms to be "very draconian."
■ United Kingdom
Planet with three suns found
An astronomer at the California Institute of Technology has identified a planet with three suns far away in the galaxy -- the first of a class dubbed "Tatooine planets" after the home of Luke Skywalker, the hero of the Star Wars films. Maciej Konacki yesterday described in the magazine Nature how he trained a 10m telescope on three stars 149 light years from Earth, and found they shared a planet slightly larger than Jupiter. In this region of the galaxy binary stars and multiple star systems are more frequent than single stars, but no one expected that a planet could either form or survive for long in a group of triple suns.
■ United States
Corpse causes traffic jam
A corpse caused a traffic jam on a Dallas, Texas, highway after it fell off a pickup truck late Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News reported on Wednesday. The body, strapped to a gurney, was being transported to a Louisiana funeral home when it fell off the truck and landed in the fast lane, the newspaper said. It took a while for the driver to notice the body was missing, police said. Drivers had managed to swerve to avoid the body and it was later retrieved intact.
■ Romania
Flood clean-up help needed
The government may ask for international help to clean up damage caused by recent floods which have killed five people and left thousands homeless, Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said on Wednesday. Torrential rains have hit more than half of the country over the past few weeks.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
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