■ Hong Kong
Activists ready for protest
South Korean activists with a reputation for violent protests warned yesterday that they will be "escalating the level of struggle" toward the end of the weeklong WTO summit in Hong Kong. The Korean protesters said they would demonstrate legally and peacefully, according to a statement by the Korean Struggle Mission, which represents several activist groups. But the statement warned that the activists, representing farmers and workers, were ready for "strong struggles" against police repression. Further details were not provided about what the groups planned to do. The Koreans oppose the WTO's aim to lower trade barriers for agricultural imports, saying such moves will flood the Korean market with cheap rice and bankrupt Korean farmers.
■ Malaysia
Video woman identified
Malaysian authorities said yesterday they have identified a Chinese woman who was forced to strip and perform squats in police custody, but sought to keep her name a secret. Government lawyer Suhaimi Ibrahim said a ``prime witness'' would testify today at an inquiry into the scandal, but he stopped short of confirming whether the witness was the Chinese woman. "When the prime witness gives evidence, we would like a gag order to prevent the press from publishing the name, photographs or details of the identity" of the woman, Suhaimi said. Suhaimi refused to explain the move or clarify whether the Chinese woman is among 21 witnesses summoned to appear in front of a commission of legal experts and politicians to investigate whether police violated her rights. Video footage of the woman was disclosed last month.
■ Australia
Lion eats woman's finger
A young male lion bit off the tip of a woman's finger and ate it at Melbourne Zoo after she climbed over a barrier next to the animal's cage to pick flowers, the zoo's director said yesterday. "We do ask all our patrons to stay behind the safety barriers here at the zoo, and she explained at the time that she was picking some flowers," John Gibbons told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. The incident happened last Thursday. "It's not a wise thing to do to climb over a safety barrier and collect a flower here at the zoo," he said. The lion apparently bit the woman from inside its cage, even though she was outside.
■ Japan
Dad killed over bus fare
A drunken 39-year-old Japanese man strangled his father to death after he refused to lend him ¥100 (US$0.80) for his bus fare, police said yesterday. Police arrested construction worker Hirokazu Tashiro on murder charges on?Sunday in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, as he allegedly confessed to attacking his 67-year-old father Hiroshi, a police spokesman said. The son, who had been drinking, grew infuriated after realizing he was ¥100 short of pocket change to take a bus downtown, the police official said. "I asked Dad to lend it to me," the son was quoted as telling police. "I was mad when he refused to I strangled him with my necktie."
■ Japan
Four more `Internet suicides'
Three men and a woman were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a car in the latest suspected Internet suicide pact, police said yesterday. The four -- a 39-year-old businessman, a 27-year-old unemployed man, a 25-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman -- were found in the car in Yabu in western Hyogo prefecture on Sunday, a police spokesman said. "Their parents and relatives told investigators that the four people didn't know one another before," he said. "We're looking into the case to see if they got to know one another through the Internet and decided to commit suicide," he said.
■ Vietnam
Animal smuggling stopped
Police in central Vietnam intercepted two separate shipments of wild animals being illegally transported on passenger buses, officials said yesterday. Forest rangers in Quang Tri province pulled over a bus on Saturday that they suspected was carrying contraband. On board, they found monkeys, snakes and hedgehogs; all are considered delicacies in Southeast Asia. "We arrested the bus driver," said Le Thanh Binh, deputy head of the forest ranger force in Quang Tri. "But the person who organized the smuggling has not been caught." The previous day, police in the same central province stopped a bus carrying snakes and pangolins. The pangolin's scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
■ Indonesia
Pilot denies killing Munir
An Indonesian pilot charged with murdering top human rights activist Munir Thalib last year insisted yesterday he did not kill the pro-democracy hero and said he was a victim of a shadowy conspiracy. "I am not a killer," Garuda Indonesian Airways pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto shouted in his final defense appearance in the trial for the murder of Munir, who died on a flight to Amsterdam in September last year. "What makes Munir so significant for me that I had to kill him on a Garuda plane ... my workplace?" said Priyanto. Prosecutors are demanding Priyanto be jailed for life for putting arsenic in a drink which killed Munir.
■ United States
Sanction Sudan, group says
Sudan's top political leaders and military officers should be investigated and put under UN sanctions as a result of the killing of civilians in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. The group asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes in Darfur. The UN Security Council in March threatened to enforce an arms embargo and sanctions against some individuals in Sudan for committing atrocities in Darfur. But the council has not acted, with member countries including China, Russia and Algeria opposed to sanctions against Sudanese leaders.
■ Greece
Blast hits Athens square
An explosion damaged buildings in Athens' central square early yesterday, slightly injuring two people, police said. The blast at Syntagma Square damaged a central post office building -- before opening hours -- as well several nearby businesses, and parked cars. The square is one of Athens' busiest areas and the center of the city's Christmas and New Year celebrations. Police said the explosion was apparently caused by bomb hidden in a container on the back of a motorcycle, and occurred following two warning telephone calls made to an Athens newspaper. Authorities had earlier said they believed the blast had been caused by igniting gas canisters.
■ Netherlands
Gotovina to plead not guilty
Former Croatian general Ante Gotovina was to plead not guilty to war crimes charges when he appeared for the first time before the UN court in The Hague yesterday, according to his lawyer. Gotovina, 50, Croatia's most high-profile war crimes suspect, was arrested in Spain last week after four years on the run. He is charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia with committing atrocities against ethnic Serbs in 1995 and faces life imprisonment if found guilty.
■ United Kingdom
Killer whales most toxic
Killer whales are the most toxic mammals in the Arctic, riddled with household chemicals from around the world, the environmental pressure group WWF said yesterday. Scientists found that the blubber of killer whales, or Orcas, taken from a fjord in Arctic Norway was full of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and even a flame retardant often used on carpets. The finding gives the whales the dubious distinction of ousting polar bears as most polluted Arctic mammal.
■ Italy
Madrid suspect faces trial
Italian police were listening as the man identified as an Egyptian radical shouted with joy while watching a video of the beheading of American Nicholas Berg by his al-Qaeda captors in Iraq. "Come nearer, watch closely, this is the politics you have to follow, the politics of the sword," he advised another man as Berg's screams rang out. Authorities say the statements recorded from phone taps and microphones show that Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, a 34-year-old Egyptian facing trial in Milan next month on terrorism charges, preached a radical form of Islam and the need to carry out holy war against Western interests. Ahmed is also is considered one of the masterminds of last year's March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,600.
■ United States
Cop uses Taser in soda spat
A police officer has been charged with using a Taser on his partner during an argument over whether they should stop for a soft drink. Ronald Dupuis, 32, was charged with assault and could face up to three months in jail if convicted. The six-year member of the force was fired after the Nov. 3 incident. Dupuis and partner Prema Graham began arguing after Dupuis demanded she stop their car at a store in Hamtramck, Michigan, so he could buy a soft drink, according to a police report. The two then struggled over the steering wheel, and Dupuis hit her leg with his department-issued Taser, the report said. She was not seriously hurt.
■ United States
Teen's mother opposes trial
The case of a former teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student should not go to trial after a judge rejected a plea agreement, the teenager's mother said, according to a media report in Ocala, Florida. Circuit Judge Hale Stancil on Thursday turned down a plea agreement that would allow Debra Lafave, 25, to avoid a prison sentence. In comments published in the Ocala Star-Banner on Sunday, the student's mother said she disagreed with Stancil's decision to reject the agreement and that a trial would create a "media circus," that would further humiliate her son.
■ United States
Dogs' laughter scrutinized
An animal behaviorist from Spokane, Washington, says she's figured out what dogs are doing when they make that excited panting noise while playing or anticipating a much desired walk. They're laughing. Patricia Simonet, development and program coordinator for Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, also found that the sound of dog laughter comforts other dogs. When she played a recording of "play panting" through the speaker system at a shelter in Spokane Valley, all the barking dogs quieted within a minute.
■ Brazil
US nun's killers go to prison
Two Brazilian ranch hands began long prison sentences on Sunday after they were convicted of murdering US nun and rainforest activist Dorothy Stang in a trial seen as a test of Brazil's will to combat land-battle killings on its Amazon frontier. But Stang's supporters said they were now ready to go after ranchers accused of offering the two men 50,000 reais (US$22,000) to kill the activist, who blocked their advance on valuable, hardwood-rich rain forest. "This is just the beginning, we'll be back" said Stang's sister Margaret, as land activists wept and hugged one another after the two-day trial in the Amazon city of Belem, the capital of Para state.
■ Mexico
Official's mob links denied
The attorney-general's office on Sunday announced that Mexico's top former law-enforcement official was not under investigation in Mexico or the US for protecting drug trafficking suspects. There is "absolutely no evidence" linking former attorney-general Rafael Macedo de la Concha to a group of army deserters turned drug hit men known as the Zetas, the attorney-general's office said in a written statement. The statement came in response to a story published on Sunday in Mexico City's respected Reforma newspaper, which stated that a July 15 FBI report said Macedo de la Concha had given his "blessing" to Zeta assassins, allowing them to operate freely in Piedras Negras, across the US border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
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