■ Afghanistan
Roadside bomb kills two
A US soldier and an Afghan interpreter were killed when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle in the latest spate of violence involving Taliban guerrillas. The two were in a convoy re-supplying US-led forces during an operation against militants in the central province of Uruzgan when the incident happened on Tuesday, the US military said in a statement. The death of the soldier brings the number of US casualties this year as a result of hostile action to nearly 60, the bloodiest period since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001. Taliban guerrillas have launched a string of attacks, including suicide blasts, in southern and eastern areas in recent weeks after failing to disrupt legislative elections in September.
■ Nepal
Officials review pact
Nepal's monarchist government is reviewing an agreement between Maoist rebels and seven major political parties intended to force King Gyanendra to restore democracy, the home minister said yesterday. The rebels and the political alliance issued a statement announcing they have reached a crucial understanding to intensify movement against the king, who seized absolute power in February. The 12-point agreement did not explain how the rebels and parties planned to step up their campaign against the government. But the political parties made it clear they do not support the communist rebels' violent campaign and that the agreement does not constitute an alliance. Top political leaders flew to New Delhi last week, apparently to meet rebel leaders, but announced the agreement only on Tuesday.
■ China
eBay baby-sale ad `a joke'
Police have detained a man on charges of posting an advertisement offering babies for sale on the Chinese arm of auction Web site eBay in what he says was a joke, a news report said yesterday. The company said it deleted the ad shortly after it appeared on Oct. 16. It offered a baby boy for 28,000 yuan (US$3,500) and a baby girl for 13,000 yuan. Police "investigated the scheme and found out it's an evil joke," the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. The report said the man detained, identified only by the sur-name Wu, was arrested on Oct. 28.
■ The Philippines
David does Davao?
A replica of Michaelangelo's naked statue, "David," is stirring controversy in the southern Philippine city of Davao with local officials seeing it as a veiled advertise-ment for a local love-nest. Davao city councillors are objecting to a replica of David that was put up in a beach-front park by the owners of Queensland Lodge, a local motel known as a hideaway for lovers, saying that the statue was clearly intended to raise thoughts of sex. Coun-cilor Mabel Acosta stressed that what is questionable is not the "work of the master" but why it was placed near a motel. Some other city councillors are proposing a compromise: that a pair of pants be put on the statue.
■ Sri Lanka
Floods affect thousands
Floods triggered by heavy rains in Sri Lanka have affected some 40,000 people, the government said yesterday, including many living in makeshift shelters since last year's tsunami. Water levels had begun to fall in most parts of the country after the rains eased, but officials were still assessing the damage in the north and east. Officials said there was no figure yet on deaths caused by the floods but newspapers said that at least two people were killed in central Colombo when a wall, weakened by the rain, collapsed.
■ Australia
`Frequent flyer' grounded
Austin Perrott racked up 17.6 million frequent-flyer points with airlines around the world without ever setting foot on a plane. Yesterday, an Australian judge clipped his wings -- jailing him for six months for fraud. Perrott, 45, from the southern city of Melbourne pleaded guilty in the Victorian State County Court to nine counts of obtaining financial advan-tage by deception after prosecutors said he awarded himself the points between February 1996 and October 2002, while working as a Singapore Airlines customer-services supervisor. Perrott took advantage of a computer loophole to steal points from frequent-flyer programs at various airlines.
■ Singapore
Free-sex scammer arrested
A 64-year-old cobbler who devised a scam to have free sex with young foreign women from matchmaking agencies has been arrested. A dud cheque paid to an agency led to his arrest as he was about to leave for the Indonesian island of Batam, the Straits Times reported yesterday. Although his 56-year-old wife is alive, the man claimed to be a widower looking for a new spouse in approaching three agencies. His interest was in Vietnam-ese and Chinese women. He would then hand over a cheque for S$10,000 (US$5,917), but deliberately used a full stop instead of a comma. The figure showed up as 1.0000 or 10.000, which banks would not honor. "The match-makers, in their hurry to clinch a deal, failed to notice the discrepancy and let their women leave with him," the report said.
United States
Youngest mayor starts work
Michael Sessions, 18, was sworn in on Monday as mayor of the small Michigan town of Hillsdale, where he has said he would fulfill his duties after school and on weekends. The council room at city hall was overfilled with well wishers, media reports said. "I will fight for more jobs," Sessions said in his inaugural speech. The young man won the elections by a margin of two votes over the incumbent Doug Ingles, 51. Sessions financed his campaign in the small town elections with the US$700 he earned from his summer job.
■ Austria
Nazi apologist charged
Prosecutors filed charges on Tuesday against David Irving, the Nazi apologist historian branded a racist and anti-Semite by a high court judge five years ago, for allegedly denying the existence of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Irving was arrested by police in the south while en route to deliver a speech to a right wing student fraternity in Vienna. "A charge was filed in relation to two speeches in 1989 in which he denied the existence of gas chambers," said Otto Schneider of the Vienna prosecutor's office. The charge sheet alleges that Irving stated that Hitler "held his protective hands over the Jews". He has been barred twice and deported once from Austria.
■ Sweden
Anti-rape belt on sale soon
A group of girls has designed a belt that they hope will deter would-be rapists. "It's like a reverse chastity belt," 19-year-old Nadja Bjoerk, said. The military-style buckle has a latch that the wearer has to move through a labyrinth into the correct position in order to unlock the belt. "You need two hands to open it, so the rapist can't hold you down and open it at the same time," she said. The product was designed as part of a high school project and the girls have already sold 300 of the belts, priced at 150 kronor (US$18). Bjoerk and one of her partners now plan to mass produce the belts.
■ Nigeria
Top cop convicted of graft
A former police chief was convicted in a US$150 million money-laundering case on Tuesday, but anti-corruption campaigners said the jail term was so short it undermined the war on graft. Tafa Balogun will spend six months in jail as his eight sentences of six months each are to run concurrently. He was fined US$30,000, while about US$150 million in cash and property will be confiscated by government. Balogun is the highest-ranking official to be convicted in a campaign against graft launched by President Olusegun Obasanjo. But anti-corruption activists say the campaign lacks credibility because it tends to only target his opponents.
■ United States
Randy teacher found guilty
A female teacher pleaded guilty in Florida on Tuesday to having sex with a 14-year-old student, avoiding prison as part of a plea agreement. Debra Lafave, 25, will serve three years of house arrest and seven years' probation. She pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. The former Greco Middle School reading teacher apologized during the hearing, saying "I accept full responsibility for my actions." The boy told investigators the two had sex in a classroom at the school, in her house and once in a vehicle while being driven around Marion County, Tampa. The victim's mother said afterward that the public scrutiny had taken its toll on the family, and they just wanted to see it all end.
■ France
Merkel visits France first
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was to arrive in Paris early yesterday at the start of her first foreign trip as leader of Europe's biggest economy, before heading on to Brussels then London. By choosing France to make her first steps on the international stage, Merkel has given a clear sign that she intends to reaffirm the strength of the Franco-German motor traditionally at the heart of the EU. President Jacques Chirac congratulated the German leader on her new role in a message in which he said he hoped France and Germany would give "new impetus" to the EU, thrown into disarray by the rejection of the European constitution by French and Dutch voters earlier this year.
■ United States
Student assassin convicted
A Muslim student was convicted of joining al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate US President George W. Bush, after jurors rejected his claim that Saudi security officers had tortured him into making a false confession. The jury in US District Court convicted Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church, Virginia, on all nine counts after 2 1/2 days of deliberation. The charges include conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to hijack aircraft and providing material support to al-Qaeda. The charges carry a possibility of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years, prosecutors said. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 17. Abu Ali's lawyer, Khurrum Wahid, said he will appeal.
■ United States
Toll collectors armor up
Toll collectors at San Francisco's landmark Golden Gate Bridge have been issued body armor to guard against armed bandits. "We did a review of safety procedures and added this tool to the toll box for collectors," bridge authority spokeswoman Mary Currie said on Tuesday. "This is really the right thing to do." The "bullet resistant" protective vests have been bought for all 42 toll collectors at a total cost of US$21,000, Currie said. Wearing vests is optional, but about half of the collectors have chosen to be protected while on duty. The vests are reportedly most popular with those working evenings or nights. "The folks that are wearing them are pleased to have that added psychological edge," said Curry.
■ United States
Ted Koppel says farewell
In an understated farewell to the ABC News broadcast he has anchored for more than 25 years, Ted Koppel asked Nightline viewers to give his successors a fair break. "If you don't," he said, "I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you'll be sorry." It was one last dig in retaliation for his show's most harrowing episode, when ABC executives in 2002 secretly courted David Letterman to replace Nightline. Letterman decided to stay at CBS and the attempt blew up in management's face.
■ United Kingdom
Anger at nuclear plans
Environmentalists expressed anger yesterday at growing signs the government was moving towards approving the building of a new generation of nuclear power stations. The government's chief scientist has said the need for massive investment to replace the country's ageing nuclear plants was self-evident and Prime Minister Tony Blair has signalled he is moving in the same direction. "Blair seems to have fallen for the nuclear industry's propaganda campaign," Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said. "But it is the wrong decision," he added.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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