■ Malaysia
Mahathir attacks US, UK
US and British pilots whose bombs killed Iraqi civilians were murderers, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq by those two countries amounted to terrorism, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday. Several British and European diplomats walked out in protest against Mahathir's broadside in a speech at a national conference on human rights. The US Embassy has decided earlier not to send officers to the event. Mahathir, who ruled majority Muslim Malaysia for 22 years before retiring in 2003, also defended his human rights record in government. He was often criticized for detaining suspects without trial under a security law and for the imprisonment of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
■ New Zealand
Cheeky billboards removed
Three billboards in Auckland advertising an automobile trade magazine's Web site with the words "We've got rides for dirty bitches" will be taken down following several complaints from women, it was reported yesterday. The billboards included a picture of two fluffy dogs looking out the window of a mud-spattered sports utility vehicle. Tina Clyma, of ACP Media, publisher of Auto Trader, said the billboards would be taken down before the Advertising Standards Authority ruled on the complaints made to it. "It was a cheeky reference to New Zealanders love affair with vehicles," she said. "It was not meant to cause offense to anybody, but it looks like we are really in the dog-house over this one."
■ China
Cheaters could face charges
Students who cheat at exams are usually given a zero grade or sometimes expelled from school, but in China they could soon face criminal charges. A newly-published draft version of the country's first educational exam law has triggered widespread controversy by suggesting that cheating should be viewed as a criminal offense, Shenzhen Daily reported yesterday. It states that cheating, especially organized, large-scale cheating, is against the law.
■ Australia
Granny killer found dead
A notorious Australian serial killer known as the "granny killer" was found dead in his cell yesterday after apparently hanging himself, prison authorities said. A New South Wales state corrective services spokesman said John Wayne Glover's body was found in his cell at Lithgow jail, west of Sydney, early yesterday afternoon and he was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Glover, who was in his early 70s, was serving life without parole for the murders of six women in Sydney's exclusive North Shore area between 1989 and 1990. All but one of his victims were aged over 80.
■ Iraq
Airport closed in money row
The British company that polices Baghdad's airport closed it to passengers yesterday for the second time in three months, in another attempt to force the Iraqi government to pay what it says are months of unpaid bills. A senior spokesman for Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airport was closed over the money issue but said: "Within hours we will solve the problem ... We will pay them." "We haven't been paid for seven months," Giles Morgan, a spokesman for Global Strategies Group, which has guarded the airport with about 550 staff since the middle of last year, said.
■ Canada
Hu begins visit
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) started a landmark tour of North America on Thursday and said he wanted to expand relations with Canada ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin. The Canadian leader was expected to press Hu over China's human-rights record and huge pollution emissions at a meeting yesterday but his government is also anxious to build up trade. Hu said the Canadian and Chinese economies were "highly complimentary" and stressed the "vast potential" for further cooperation.
■ United States
Thompson left a note
Counterculture author Hunter S. Thompson wrote a suicide note to his wife four days before he killed himself, according to an article published on Thursday by his friend, biographer and executor Douglas Brinkley in Rolling Stone magazine. The brief message was titled "Football Season Is Over," Brinkley said, and it was scrawled in black marker. "No More Games. No More bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax This won't hurt."
■ United Kingdom
Old age begins at 80
Old age has been postponed, biologically and psychologically, and it now begins at 80, according to Ian Robertson, dean of research at Dublin's Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. The degree to which people retained their faculties after 50 was influenced by what they did, he said, and summarized with seven points. Aerobic fitness is probably most important, he said, as the function and structure of the brain are influenced by activity. Also important factors are mental stimulation, new learning, high and prolonged stress levels, a rich social life, and healthy eating -- such as a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and fish -- had profound effects on cognitive decline. Finally, think young.
■ United States
Haunted building in lawsuit
The landlords of an Orlando entertainment complex are suing two restaurateurs for refusing to move into a building because they claim it is haunted. Subcontractors who worked there and other people have reported seeing ghosts or other apparitions, said the attorney for the restaurant owners. The US$2.6 million lawsuit says an offer to hold an exorcism was refused. Christopher and Yoko Chung, the owners of a Japanese restaurant, objected to the exorcism offer because it is a Roman Catholic rite. The lawsuit asks a judge to decide whether the building is haunted and, if so, whether the ghosts would interfere with the restaurant's business.
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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