Wed, Sep 14, 2005 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Indonesia
  Corruption sentence upheld

  The country's highest court yesterday upheld a 10-year-jail term handed down to the governor of tsunami-devastated Aceh Province for skimming off state funds. Abdullah Puteh was found guilty by a special anti-corruption court in April of stealing state money by padding the purchase price of a Russian-made Mi-2 helicopter for personal gain. The verdict was hailed as a key victory in Indonesia's war on corruption.

  ■ Nepal

  Encephalitis kills over 200

  The government said that Japanese encephalitis has killed more than 200 people in the country, but health workers fear the actual toll could be much higher, with many cases unreported. The mosquito-borne virus can be checked by vaccinations, but Assistant Health Minister Nikshya Sumshere Rana said they are short of vaccine and are trying to import it from China.

  ■ China

  Police arrest 48 villagers

  Guangdong police have arrested 48 mostly elderly villagers and seized important evidence in an ongoing dispute over corruption and land requisition. In Taishi village, police stormed the village on Monday and turned on high-pressure water hoses from fire trucks to flush out people inside a government building. Several elderly women were inside guarding around the clock the documents which would prove the village chief had illegally sold their land and pocketed the money, they said. "Several of them fainted at the scene. There were 1,000 police officers," a villager said. The villagers had been protesting for weeks and had gone on hunger strike to pressure the local government to dismiss the village chief.

  ■ China
  Tibetan watchdog closes

  The London-based Tibetan Information Network (TIN) said yesterday it was closing because of a lack of funds, silencing an independent monitor of Beijing's policies in the Himalayan region. Since its founding in the late 1980s, TIN produced hundreds of detailed reports examining China's often heavy-handed efforts to bring the deeply Buddhist territory under its control.

  ■ Pakistan

  Madrassas vow to defy law

  A coalition of Islamic schools vowed to defy a registration requirement unless Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf withdraws amendments that toughened an existing law. The warning came from an umbrella organization representing some 13,000 seminaries from five different Islamic schools of thought. Islamic schools, known as madrassas, face a deadline to register with the religion ministry by year's end or face being closed down. Musharraf has also demanded that the schools modernize and begin teaching subjects such as English, Urdu, mathematics and computer science. He also ordered Islamic schools to expel their 1,400 foreign students.

  ■ Japan

  Record number of old folks

  The number of Japanese aged 100 or older at the end of this month is projected to reach a record 25,606, with women comprising 85 percent of the total. The figure is up from the previous record of 23,038 set last year, the Health Ministry said. Japan's population of centenarians has doubled in just five years, lending urgency to government efforts to shore up its overburdened public pension system as the country's population rapidly grays. Japan is expected to have nearly 1 million people aged 100 and over by 2050 -- the highest number in the world, according to the UN.

  ■ Japan

  Doctor jailed for photos

  A physician was sentenced to nearly four years in prison yesterday for photographing naked female patients after telling them the pictures were for medical records. Sadao Tanabe, 52, who was the head of chest and cardiac surgery at a public hospital in Tokyo, was given a 46-month term for telling five women to undress for ultrasound checkups and then taking photos. He told them the pictures were needed "for the record" and stored them on his computer, according to court documents. "The crime was vicious and mean as he used his position as a physician to take advantage of his patients and their trust," said presiding judge Yasushi Watanabe. Tanabe, who was dismissed from his job over the incidents which took place from 2000 to last year, immediately appealed.

  ■ China

  War on drugs to be waged

  Authorities have begun a crackdown on illicit drug use in places of entertainment, part of a campaign to combat the rising use of illegal substances around the country. The Beijing Youth Daily said six agencies would use a mixture of education and stepped up law enforcement to reduce the use of drugs like Ecstasy, methamphetamines and ketamine in hotels, bars and other venues, from now until November. The number of drug cases handled by police rose by 4.4 percent last year from the previous year to over 98,000, the anti-narcotics agency said. In April, communist leaders announced a "People's War on Drugs," appealing for public help to rehabilitate addicts and offering rewards for help in catching traffickers.

  ■ Congo
  Missionary hacked to death

  An Italian missionary was hacked to death by villagers in the Congo Republic on Monday after a car accident in which a three-year-old girl was killed, Rome-based Catholic news agency Misna reported. Angelo Redaelli was driving with eight missionary priests and nuns through a village 800km north of the capital, Brazzaville, when his off-road vehicle hit the child, who died immediately. Angry locals, including the girls' relatives, attacked the 40-year-old cleric with machetes while his passengers fled into the bush to take refuge in the house of a nearby Catholic bishop in Owando, Misna said.

  ■ United States

  Killers of teen convicted

  Two men who had sex with a transgender teen and then discovered she was biologically male were convicted of her murder, but cleared of hate crime charges. Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, both 25, face mandatory sentences of 15 years-to-life in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Gwen Araujo, who was beaten, tied up and strangled. Araujo, 17, was born a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was female. The defendants, who knew her as Lida, met her in the summer of 2002. Magidson and Merel had sexual encounters with her, which fueled suspicions about Araujo's gender.

  ■ United States

  Arms dealer jailed

  A Federal Court judge on Monday sentenced British businessman Hemant Lakhani to 47 years in prison for providing financial support for terrorist activities against the US. Prosecutors say Lakhani, 70, tried to sell a shoulder-fired missile to a man posing as a terrorist-group member. He was found guilty in April of attempting to support terrorism, illegal arms brokering, money laundering and other charges. Lakhani, who had faced a maximum sentence of 67 years, has maintained he was set up in a sting operation. "It's a total lie," he said, holding his head in his hands, at the defense table in US District Court in Newark, New Jersey.

  ■ United Kingdom

  Noah's ark for amphibians

  Conservation experts are planning an audacious Noah's Ark-style rescue mission to save hundreds of amphibian species threatened by a mysterious killer fungus. Campaigners say a huge airlift of tens of thousands of the animals into captive breeding programs may be the only way to save frogs, toads, newts and salamanders from extinction in the path of the rapidly spreading disease. The chytridiomycosis fungus is concentrated in Australia, the Caribbean and North and Central America. It has been found infesting the common midwife toad in mainland Europe and biologists say it is only a matter of time until it reaches Britain. It can spread up to 32km a year.

  ■ Norway

  New leader ready to rule

  The leader of Norway's left-leaning opposition said he would meet with his coalition partners yesterday for talks on forming a new government after winning national elections in the oil-rich country. With more than 98 percent of the votes from Monday's election counted, official results showed Jens Stoltenberg's three-party Red-Green alliance had enough seats to oust the center-right government. "I am happy to become prime minister, mostly because it is a meaningful and important job and because it is important for me to bring Norway in the right direction," Stoltenberg said.

  ■ United States
  Tax breaks boost recovery

  People who provide housing to Hurricane Katrina victims will get a US$500 per person tax deduction under a package of short-term tax breaks unveiled in the US Senate on Monday to help the recovery effort. Senators said the tax package was the first of a series of measures being considered to help hurricane victims. Other tax breaks will help employers in the disaster zone keep workers on their payrolls and encourage businesses to hire victims of the catastrophic storm. Katrina victims will also be able to claim losses incurred by the storm against last year's tax payments and limits on loss claims will be lifted.

  ■ United Kingdom

  MPH may not advertise

  Make Poverty History (MPH), hailed as one of the most effective lobbying campaigns ever with its simple message and signature white wrist band, was banned on Monday from television and radio advertising in the UK. Advertising watchdog Ofcom said on its Web site that the goals of its campaign, including an array of stars clicking their fingers to ram home the message that a child dies of preventable poverty every three seconds, were political and therefore against the law.

  ■ Cyprus

  Turkey warned over EU bid

  Cyprus warned yesterday that it could prevent the EU from starting entry talks with Turkey on Oct. 3 because of a dispute with its EU partners over how to handle Ankara's refusal to recognize the island. "If there is no agreement it means there is no agreement on [Turkey's] EU negotiation mandate and that naturally means that accession negotiations will not start on Oct. 3," a government spokesman said. Cyprus is represented in the EU only by the Greek Cypriots in the south of the divided island, who have deep historical grievances against their old Turkish foes.

  ■ United States

  Blackout hits Los Angeles

  A utility worker overloaded an electrical circuit and caused a massive power blackout across much of Los Angeles on Monday, snarling traffic, stranding office workers in elevators and sending fire trucks with blaring sirens racing around the city. Some 2 million people were hit by the outage, which plunged busy intersections into chaos, jammed cars on the freeways and sent office workers streaming out of downtown buildings to mill about on sidewalks. The utility worker "directed too much amperage into a circuit that did not have the capacity to handle it," a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said. Power was largely restored within 90 minutes.

  ■ Poland

  DIY gets new meaning

  A Polish do-it-yourself and hardware shop has offered an hour in a brothel to customers who spend more than 10,000 zlotys (about US$3,000) on construction material, the company said yesterday. "It's a case, if you like, of different strokes for different folks, in terms of doing business," said Roman Myszko, boss of the Bepol shop in Elblag, northern Poland. "Nearby, there is a house of leisure, which is where the idea for this special offer came from," he said. The owner of the brothel "came to our shop to buy some paintbrushes and paint. I knew immediately what her line of business was, and I talked with her [about proposing the special offer] and she agreed," Myszko told the Zycie Warszawy daily.
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