■ Malaysia
Abdullah rebukes official
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has publicly rebuked a deputy minister for being rude to foreigners in a spiraling scandal over a nude video of a Chinese-looking woman forced to strip in police custody. Abdullah, who rarely singles out senior government officials for criticism, reprimanded Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar on Wednesday for apparently defending the police in the stripping of the unidentified woman. A secretly shot video on a camera phone showed the naked woman, who appears to be Chinese, being made to perform squats in the presence of a policewoman.
■ China
Alarm over beatings
The Vatican expressed alarm on Wednesday over reports of arrests and beatings of Roman Catholic priests in China. The reports by a Vatican-affiliated news agency cause "pain" and if verified must be condemned, said a statement released by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. The AsiaNews agency said this week that Chinese police arrested six priests in Zhengding county on Nov. 18, and beat two of them. Police in Zhengding and Gaocheng denied the report, saying that no such arrests were carried out. Navarro-Valls also mentioned reports of violence against Franciscan sisters in Xian.
■ Australia
AIDS infector sentenced
A Sydney man was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday for knowingly infecting two women tourists from Ireland and Germany with HIV. Stanislas Kanengele-Yondjo, 42, pleaded guilty to two counts of maliciously causing grievous bodily harm after infecting two women with HIV two years ago. Both women have since been diagnosed as HIV positive. The Sydney District Court heard that Kanengele-Yondjo told both women he had no sexually transmitted diseases, despite having being diagnosed as HIV positive in February 1999. Judge Warwick Andrews sentenced Kanengele-Yondjo to consecutive six-year prison terms for each of the counts against him, with a non-parole period of nine years.
■ Japan
Tamiflu not linked to deaths
No clear link has been found between the antiviral drug Tamiflu, used to treat victims of bird flu, and the deaths of 12 children in Japan, the Japan Pediatric Society said in a statement on Wednesday. The symptoms observed in the 12 cases could also be seen in other patients who were not given the drug, which is used to treat other forms of influenza, it said. The group added it was possible that the children's influenza had worsened a separate underlying medical condition, leading to the deaths. The society's findings come weeks after the US Food and Drug Administration also concluded that Tamiflu was not connected to the deaths.
■ Japan
Iraqi head to visit Tokyo
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari will visit Tokyo on Monday for talks on Japanese support for his country's reconstruction, Japan's Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Jafari, making his first visit to Japan, will meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to discuss the role of Japanese non-combat military personnel in Iraq and bilateral relations, the ministry said. Japan is expected to decide soon the details of its military deployment in Iraq, which will expire on Dec. 14. Japan's Kyodo News service reported on Wednesday that the Cabinet would decide on Dec. 8 to allow the troops to stay for another year, but that it may decide later to withdraw the troops around May.
■ South Africa
Gay marriages legalized
The country's highest court yesterday ruled in favor of same-sex marriages, striking down a law that banned gay unions and ordering parliament to draft new legislation within a year. "The common law definition of marriage is declared to be inconsistent with the constitution and invalid to the extent that it does not permit same-sex couples to enjoy the status and benefits it accords heterosexual couples," said Justice Albie Sachs in a ruling delivered by the constitutional court. The decision followed a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling in November last year that said same-sex couples could get married following an application by a lesbian couple.
■ South Africa
Hostage taker receives ID
A man held a home affairs department employee hostage at gunpoint for hours on Wednesday while officials scrambled to prepare an identity document for him, news reports said. The 31-year-old from the township of Soweto reportedly became angry and locked the official in a room at the department's offices in downtown Johannesburg when told the document for which he had applied months earlier had not arrived. The hostage drama drew the attention of police and onlookers and an unusual show of empathy from a spokesman for home affairs, a department with a reputation for inefficiency.
■ Italy
`Love molecule' identified
Your heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly. It's all part of falling passionately in love -- and scientists now tell us the feeling won't last more than a year. The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers. The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen madly in love than in that of a group of singles and people in long-term relationships. But after a year with the same lover, the quantity of the `love molecule' in their blood had fallen to the same level as that of the other groups.
■ United Kingdom
Prostitution on the rise
One man in 11 has paid for sex, according to a study that appeared yesterday in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The findings are based on two national surveys on sexual habits, conducted among 6,000 men aged 16-44 in 1990 and among 4,700 in 2000. In 1990, 5.6 percent of the men said they had paid for sex at some point during their lives, with two percent saying they had done this within the previous five years, and 0.5 percent within the previous year. A decade later, the comparable figures were nearly double. In 2000, almost nine percent of men said they had ever paid for sex, while 4.2 percent said they had done so in the past five years, and 1.3 percent in the previous year.
■ Germany
Ancient artefacts seized
Police have seized dozens of artefacts from ancient Egypt at a freight depot in Berlin after a tip-off from Egyptian diplomats in the city, prosecutions spokesman Michael Grunwald confirmed on Wednesday. The treasures were being consigned from Switzerland to the US after being sold for US$2 million. They were seized at the end of October, but this was not made public at the time. Prosecutors have since established that the artefacts left Egypt in the 1970s.
■ Canada
Astronaut to run in election
Political parties are reaching for some stars -- even an astronaut -- to boost their chances in next month's election. Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals said on Wednesday that Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut, will run for them in a rural Quebec district near Montreal. Garneau, 56, became a Canadian hero in 1984 when he flew on a NASA space shuttle mission. He also participated in missions in 1996 and 2000. The former Liberal member of Parliament for the district, Nick Discepola, said he was happy to step aside so that Garneau can run, saying Garneau's candidacy will help the Liberals pick up four or five seats in Quebec. "Garneau will bring added name recognition," he said.
■ United States
Students target professor
Members of the College Republicans held a banner listing the names of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks outside University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill's classroom. They wanted Churchill, who has said some of the victims were not innocent, to mark the names of each person he believes deserved to die in the attacks. Jeff O'Holleran of the College Republicans said students would stage the protest each Wednesday until the end of the semester. "We're just basically trying to call him out on what he said," said O'Holleran, who filmed the protest. Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, ignited a firestorm earlier this year when an essay he wrote following the terrorist attacks hailed the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.
■ United States
Detainees' names published
A leading human-rights monitor published on Wednesday the names of 26 "ghost detainees" that it accused the US of holding and possibly torturing in secret overseas locations. The prisoners, suspected of involvement in such acts as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, are being held indefinitely and incommunicado, with no access to counsel, Human Rights Watch alleged.
■ United States
Stay of execution refused
The California Supreme Court refused to halt the scheduled execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who became an anti-gang activist while in prison and whose supporters claim has redeemed himself. In a last-ditch legal move, defense attorneys petitioned the high court earlier this month, alleging shoddy forensic testing and other errors may have wrongly sent Williams to San Quentin State Prison, where he is scheduled to die by injection on Dec. 13.
■ United States
Actor eats dog food
For actor Dick Van Patten, who played the patriarch on the 1980s television show Eight is Enough, some dog food is good enough to eat. Van Patten is lending his name and likeness to a new dog food formula that claims to be indistinguishable from a home-cooked meal for humans. To prove his point, Van Patten recently sampled the "Irish stew" recipe at a media luncheon. "Not too bad," the actor said before offering a bite to his canine dining companion. "Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs" comes in other people-friendly flavors such as spaghetti and meatballs, hobo chili and Chinese takeout. The food will sell for US$2.49 a can beginning on Dec. 15.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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