■ China
Mao now an MC
Mao Zedong (毛澤東) is experiencing a revival in northeast China, but in an unlikely role -- as a wedding MC. Li Shouxin, an actor in his 50s and a dead-ringer for Mao, was in great demand among soon-to-be-weds in Changchun, Jilin province, and played the part at an average five to six weddings a month, the China Daily said on Friday. "At weddings, Li begins with a typical Mao-style wave to guests before greeting people in the strong Hunan brogue of the leader's home province," the report said.
■ Myanmar
Blast near luxury hotel
Myanmar's military rulers said yesterday that they were hunting down the people behind a small bomb blast outside the luxury Traders Hotel, official media reported. "The authorities concerned are trying to expose the culprits of the explosion," the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said, in a three-sentence report on the blast. The small bomb went off on Friday evening near the sign for the Traders Hotel, on a busy street in downtown Yangon, but caused no injuries and little damage, according to security officers.
■ Singapore
More freedom needed
Singapore's education minister has defended the country's university system but conceded academic freedom needed to evolve after a British university scrapped plans to set up a campus in the conservative city-state. Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the pro-government Straits Times yesterday that Singapore recognizes academic freedom as critical for any world-class university and that it places no restrictions on what scholars can study here.
■ India
Endangered lions to move
At least nine rare lions have died in Asia's only lion sanctuary in India, forcing authorities to arrange a new home for the big cats. A lioness died from pneumonia in the Gir National Park on Thursday, taking the death toll in the last three months to nine. "Our volunteers told us that this is the second lion to die of pneumonia since September," Raj, secretary of Gujarat Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said. The Gir grassland has become a dense forest due to floods and rains, which have caused a rise in humidity and lead to the lion deaths.
■ Vietnam
WTO entry `unlikely'
The country's ambassador to the WTO, Ngo Quang Xuan, said his nation is unlikely to join the WTO when its ministers meet in Hong Kong in December, due to a "lack of goodwill'' from the US in concluding negotiations with the country. Xuan said Vietnam has done its best to meet WTO's accession requirements and has concluded negotiations with 21 WTO members -- including the EU, Japan and Canada -- but it still has to finish talks with other members, including the US. The ambassador blamed the US for making demands of Vietnam that cannot be met.
■ Pakistan
Mukhtar Mai to visit US
Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman whose gang rape in 2002 on the orders of a village council caused international outrage, said that she planned to visit the US next week to receive an award from Glamour magazine. The magazine is honoring women around the world who have struggled for women's rights in a ceremony on Nov. 2. Mukhtar was scheduled to come to the US in June to speak to a women's rights group, but Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf barred her from traveling, contending that the visit would tarnish Pakistan's image. His decision was met with protests by rights activists, and the restrictions were lifted after criticism from US officials.
■ Australia
Anti-terror bill `absurd'
Proposed legislation in Australia would make it a crime for one parent to tell the other that their child had been detained under anti-terror laws. If a youth aged between 16 and 18 was detained, one parent would be informed and allowed to visit for two hours daily during the detention, which could last for two weeks without charge. But if the chosen parent was the father, for example, and he told the mother where the child was, he could be jailed for up to five years. The opposition Labor Party's spokesman for homeland security, Arch Bevis, scorned the proposal: "The idea that one parent could see their child and then somehow be fined or imprisoned for telling the other parent is absurd." The tough new legislation includes giving police the right to "shoot to kill" and allow for terror suspects to have their movements and contacts restricted.
■ mongolia
Rumsfeld praises troops
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday praised the "political courage and personal courage" of Mongolia and its troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. On a brief stop in Ulan Bator, the third leg of a trip that also covered China and South Korea, Rumsfeld was feted by guards in ancient costume. "Your country has stepped up and joined a global coalition of countries in the war on terror," he told a gathering of 180 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in the Mongolian capital.
■ United States
Cop-killer `deserves' death
A Pensacola, Florida jury recommended the death sentence for a man who said he shot a retired policeman because he believed the University of Alabama ``A'' on the victim's baseball cap signified he was the Antichrist. Ryan Thomas Green, 22, was convicted on Thursday of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Green, who has a history of mental illness, pleaded insanity. Retired Pensacola Sgt. James Hallman, 59, was shot to death while taking a walk in 2003. Housepainter Christopher Phipps was wounded and is now in a wheelchair.
■ Canada
Former PM's wife in court
Margaret Trudeau, the ex-wife of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, appeared in court on Friday to face a drunken driving charge. Margaret Trudeau, whose 1970s escapades with the Rolling Stones and at New York's Studio 54 night club earned her notoriety in Canada and abroad, sat impassively through day-long legal arguments. Police say Trudeau's blood alcohol level was 107mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.
■ Iraq
Reporter had Irish luck
An Irish reporter who was abducted by Shiite extremists in Baghdad but freed after a 36-hour ordeal said on Friday that he had feared the prospect of several months in captivity -- or a beheading. Rory Carroll, a correspondent for the Guardian newspaper of Britain, told Ireland's RTE state broadcasters he owed his speedy salvation to Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, who brokered a deal for his release. Carroll, 33, said Chalabi informed him that his Irish nationality may have saved his life. He said the gang who took him had wanted a Briton, who would be used to barter for the release of Shiite extremists jailed by British forces in the southeast Iraqi city of Basra.
■ United States
Editor derides Miller
The New York Times' Judith Miller belatedly gave prosecutors her notes of a key meeting in the CIA leak probe only after being shown White House records of it, and her boss declared she appeared to have misled the newspaper about her role. In a dramatic e-mail, Executive Editor Bill Keller wrote Times' employees he wished he'd more carefully interviewed Miller and had "missed what should have been significant alarm bells" that she had been the recipient of leaked information about the CIA officer at the heart of the case. "Judy seems to have misled [Times Washington bureau chief] Phil Taubman about the extent of her involvement," Keller wrote in what he described as a lessons-learned e-mail.
■ Mexico
Biker flees corpse
A motorcyclist with a helmet-wearing corpse strapped to his back crashed on Friday and fled on foot, setting off a police murder hunt. The unidentified driver was trying to ride with the body through the center of Tijuana, south of San Diego, California., when he lost control rounding a curve. He fled the scene, leaving the dead passenger on the curb. Police said the corpse had died at least six hours earlier. "When the police arrived they took the helmet off the corpse, believing at first that he had died in the crash," said Francisco Castro, a spokesman for the Baja California state police's homicide division. "But he had adhesive tape stuck to his face, a knife wound to his forehead, and showed signs of strangulation," he added.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
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