■ Japan
Parental leave revamped
The government plans to subsidize small and mid-sized companies to provide parental leave in an effort to slow the decline in the national birthrate. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is considering subsidies to companies with less than 100 people and that have never offered parental leave before. The ministry will give about ?1 million (US$9,090) to a company that allows an employee to return to work from parental leave. The ministry will offer another ?500,000 for a second employee. Companies could use the money to hire part-time workers, pay overtime to other workers or otherwise compensate for the loss of the worker on leave.
■ Indonesia
Al-Qaeda detention denied
Officials denied yesterday a report that an al-Qaeda operative responsible for training camps for European militants had been detained in the country. The Asian Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Indonesian authorities had detained Parlindungan Siregar, an al-Qaeda operative Spain wants for his alleged role in the training. Ansyaad Mbai, head of the anti-terror coordinating board at the office of Indonesia's chief security minister, said there was information recently that Siregar was in the country but police had not made any arrest. Asked where in Indonesia, Siregar might be, he said: "That is what we don't know."
■ Philippines
Four wounded in clash
Four people were wounded in a mistaken encounter between pro-government militiamen and soldiers in the southern Philippines. The mistaken clash erupted when troops who were to replace soldiers in an army detachment in Buenvavista town in Agusan del Norte Province were fired upon by pro-government militiamen. Among the wounded were an army officer, an enlisted soldier, a pro-government militiaman and a villager. All the wounded were were in stable condition, and a probe is being conducted.
■ Singapore
Charges of maid abuse made
A housewife has been accused of 80 counts of abusing her Indonesian maid in what could be a record number of such offenses. It took a court official about 30 minutes to read the charges against Sazarina Madzin, 28, which included punching, slapping, pinching and kicking her employee. The 80 charges were believed to be the highest number of alleged offenses against a maid ever filed against one person in the city-state. Sazarina also allegedly poked Wiwik Setyowati in the eye and hit her with a tomato sauce bottle, a plastic chopping board and a shoe. She is alleged to have threatened to kill the woman in June. Sazarina, who was freed on bail, faces up to one-and-a-half years in jail and a fine of up to S$1,000 (US$600).
■ Mexico
Pro-environment erotica
Sex sells everything from diet products to car tires, but Mexican authorities have found a new use for posters of scantily dressed young women: protecting endangered sea turtles. An advertisement campaign featuring an Argentine model casting a sexy gaze is to be launched next month in the southern state of Guerrero to dispel myths that sea turtle eggs are an aphrodisiac, environmentalists said on Thursday. "My man doesn't need turtle eggs. Because he knows they don't make him more potent," reads the poster, aimed at stopping poachers from stealing eggs. But the posters have outraged a government body defending women's rights, which says using such images of women is degrading, even if it is for a good cause.
■ United States
Harry-gator on the loose
An alligator discovered in a Los Angeles park lake has managed to evade capture by a team of professional gator hunters in a battle of wits that has captivated residents of the city, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. The reptile, which measures more than 2m in length, has been nicknamed "Harbor Park Harry" after it was first spotted last Friday in the park surrounded by oil refineries and office buildings. Officials assume that it was dumped in the lake by somebody who kept it as a pet until it became too big to handle.
■ United States
TB may be much older
Tuberculosis (TB) may have been around for millions of years -- much longer than had been thought. Previous studies of the TB bacteria's DNA had led to estimates that the lung disease that claims 3 million lives a year worldwide originated about 35,000 years ago. But Veronique Vincent and colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in Paris now estimate that it could have been present in early hominids 3 million years ago.
■ Canada
Navy re-enters far north
Canada has boosted its presence in the Arctic, sending its navy back to the far north port of Churchill after a 30-year absence to bolster its territorial claims, officials said on Thursday. The visit by warships HMCS Shawinigan and HMCS Glace Bay to the former fur trading post set up in 1685 on the shores of the Hudson Bay is the latest move to challenge rival claims in the Arctic by Russia, the US, Norway and Denmark. Warmer weather has triggered a melting of polar ice that is expected to reveal new shipping routes, including the famed Northwest Passage, oil and gas resources, and allow fishing.
■ United Kingdom
Mo Mowlam dies
British politician Mo Mowlam -- whose no-nonsense negotiating as Northern Ireland secretary helped forge the province's landmark peace accord -- died yesterday, a family spokesman said. She was 55. British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid tribute to his former Cabinet minister, saying she had transformed the politics of Northern Ireland and played a key role in the revival of his Labour Party. Mowlam, who had recently suffered balance problems after receiving radiotherapy for a brain tumor, hit her head in a fall last month, a family friend said. She was admitted to hospital in London, but failed to regain consciousness and was transferred last week to a hospice in Canterbury to die, the friend said.
■ United Kingdom
Arsonist's Asbo denied
A compulsive arsonist escaped a ban on carrying a lighter or matches on Thursday after her lawyer argued that she had a human right to smoke. Prosecution staff left Ormskirk magistrates court, Lancashire, disappointed that their highly-targeted Asbo -- a court order that can limit a person's behavior or movements -- had been blocked as a curb too far on 23-year-old Marie Dalziel. Lawyers had drawn up restrictions which, her solicitor Mike Heggerty said, would have reduced her to options such as rubbing two sticks together to make a flame."There are human-rights issues. This lady is a smoker. Is she not to be allowed to smoke in a public place?" Dalziel, who admitted two counts of criminal damage, had a habit of trying to set random cars alight.
■ Brazil
Police stumble upon arsenal
Police investigating drug trafficking came across a large arsenal of heavy caliber weapons in a house near the town of Atibaia, 50km north of Sao Paulo that they think were being used by one of Brazil's most notorious organized crime groups. "More than 500 heavy caliber firearms and knives of all kinds were confiscated in the largest seizure of weapons ever made in Brazil," said Ivaney Cayres de Souza, head of the Sao Paulo Police Department's narcotics division. The house and weapons belonged to Paulo Roberto Monteiro, a 49-year-old businessman "who is a gun smuggler with a criminal record."
■ United States
Anti-war mom leaves camp
The grieving woman who started an anti-war demonstration near President George W. Bush's ranch nearly two weeks ago left the camp after learning her mother had had a stroke, but she told supporters the protest would go on. Cindy Sheehan said on Thursday she was leaving immediately to be with her 74-year-old mother at a Los Angeles hospital. "I'll be back as soon as possible if it's possible," she said. Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq, said the makeshift campsite off the road leading to Bush's ranch would continue. The camp has grown to more than 100 people.
■ United Kingdom
UK refuses Iraq timetable
The UK has ruled out setting a timetable for the withdrawal of its soldiers from Iraq, saying they will stay "until the job is done." Writing in Britain's Times newspaper yesterday, Defense Secretary John Reid said a pull-out would come only after Iraqis were capable of taking the lead in tackling the insurgency. "Any withdrawal of forces will be based on local conditions, not some immutable timetable," Reid wrote. Leaked British government documents published in a London newspaper last month suggested the UK is planning to cut its Iraq forces to 3,000 from 8,500 by the middle of next year.
■ United States
Rank reduced for assault
A military jury spared a US Army reservist jail time but reduced his rank for assaulting a prisoner who later died at a detention center in Afghanistan. Prosecutors in Fort Bliss, Texas had asked that private first class Willie Brand, 27, be sent to a military prison for 10 years with a dishonorable discharge for the 2002 beating. Instead, the panel on Thursday reduced his rank to private. Brand was convicted on Wednesday of assault, maltreatment, maiming and making a false official statement in connection with an attack on a detainee known as Dilawar.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
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