■ Malaysia
No beach sex, police warn
Police threatened to arrest New Year's Eve revelers indulging in indecent acts following reports that a beach sex party was being planned on a Malaysian island, an official said yesterday. Malay-language newspapers recently claimed a sex party was being planned on the island, which allegedly advertised that patrons could "have up to 10 partners in one night." The Malay Mail tabloid quoted an unidentified organizer of the bash as saying the controversy has forced them to cancel the party, but said the advertisements were made "in jest."
■ Singapore
Toilet garners high praise
A restroom in a hawker center emerged as the winner of Singapore's Clean, Dry and Sparkling Toilet Award, the judges said yesterday. "If we want to be seen as a world-class city, our public toilets must be clean," Singapore Mayor Amy Khor said. The restroom at the Taman Jurong Market and Food Center was praised for its spaciousness, ventilation, spotless floors and abundance of toilet paper. The design made it the winner among eight nominees, said Colin See, executive director of the Restroom Association of Singapore, and one of the judges. Singapore conducts annual competitions in toilet cleanliness and subjects the worst to public exposure in the media. Users face fines for failure to flush.
■ Pakistan
Avalanche kills at least 24
At least 24 people were killed in an avalanche earlier this week while hunting precious stones in a remote mountain range, police said yesterday. The incident occurred on Tuesday in the Karakoram range in Kohistan district, police officer Ashfaq Ahmed said. He said a helicopter was being despatched to the hard-to-reach area to retrieve bodies that locals so far had dug out of the snow. Police only learned of the avalanche late Thursday, when residents of the far-flung village of Sputmali in the highlands arrived at their police post. Kohistan is located in the region of Pakistan that was devastated by a massive quake in October which killed more than 73,000 people.
■ Malaysia
US embassy shut after threat
The US embassy in Malaysia shut down yesterday following an unspecified security threat against the embassy, but there had yet to be any specific reports of danger, the mission said. The embassy, located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, posted a statement on its Web site saying that it would be closed "until further notice in response to a security threat against the embassy." The statement said the embassy would likely re-open on Tuesday. "At this time the embassy has no information of specific, credible threats against private American interests in Malaysia," it said.
■ Austria
Offensive art pulled
The sponsors of spoof posters depicting Britain's Queen Elizabeth having sex with the US and French presidents have decided to remove them from Vienna's streets to quiet an outcry ahead of Austria's EU presidency, APA news agency said on Thursday. APA news agency said the project's organizers together with the artists opted to pull the images after a public furore. APA quoted the artists who created an image of a woman sprawled in knickers emblazoned with the EU circle of stars emblem as saying they felt it was better that their works should not divert attention from all the others. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel had appealed to the artists to withdraw the posters after opposition leaders and the media protested that they damaged the reputation of Austria.
■ Yemen
Rescuers hear signs of life
Rescue workers heard moans and cries for help from under the rubble on Thursday as they searched for dozens of Yemeni villagers believed buried by an avalanche that killed at least 30 people. The avalanche hit late on Wednesday sending boulders the size of trucks crashing down, destroying about 30 homes. Police said 30 bodies have been found so far. The remoteness of the village -- in the rugged mountains 100km north of the capital, Sanaa -- and the inexperience of rescue workers was complicating the search operation, he said.
■ United States
Police look for pricey violin
Police on Thursday investigated the disappearance of a US$175,000 violin from a car that was towed after a music student left it in an unauthorized parking spot. The violin was made by 18th-century Italian craftsman Nicolo Gagliano and Sabina Nakajima, 24, had borrowed the instrument from a dealer while considering whether to buy it. She left the violin in the trunk of her car, which she parked in a supermarket lot while she went to work elsewhere. "I thought it was pretty safe in my car," a crestfallen Nakajima told KTVU television. Police inspector Vince Repetto said authorities are interviewing officials at the towing company. "There's been expensive musical instruments that have been stolen from cars as long as there have been cars," he said.
■ Belgium
Top lawyer leads UN probe
Top lawyer Serge Brammertz, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, has been appointed by the UN to probe the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Before his appointment to the ICC in September 2003, Brammertz, 43, was the Federal Prosecutor of the Kingdom of Belgium. He also assisted the Council of Europe as an expert mandated with "setting up a mechanism for evaluating and applying nationally international undertakings concerning the fight against organized crime." His current position with the ICC gives him a leading role in pursuing those charged with serious crimes against humanity throughout the world, such as the violations of human rights perpetrated in the Congo, Sudan and Uganda in recent years.
■ United States
Hunger strike numbers rise
The number of detainees on hunger strike at the US military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled in the last week to 84, an official said on Thursday. Forty-six detainees joined 38 already on strike on Dec. 25, said Guantanamo spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin. Thirty-two fasting detainees were being fed through tubes, either through their noses or intravenously.
■ El Salvador
Workers protest murder
Following the murder of a bus driver on Thursday, public transportation workers in El Salvador blocked several main streets in the capital city of San Salvador. It was the 110th killing of a bus driver this year. In El Salvador, one of the most violent countries in the world, gangs of adolescent criminals, the so-called "Maras", extort money from bus and cab drivers. Police said the latest victim, as many others before, refused to pay the money.
■ Israel
Woman `marries' dolphin
British tourist Sharon Tendler has finally made her dream match -- by "marrying" a dolphin she has been visiting for 15 years in the Israeli resort of Eilat. Tendler, 41, has been visiting the city regularly to spend time with her underwater sweetheart. She finally plucked up the courage to ask the dolphin's trainer for the mammal's fin in marriage and the wedding took place on Wednesday with the bride walking down the dock to where the groom was waiting in the water. She kissed him and then, after the ceremony was sealed with some mackerels, was tossed into the water so she could swim away with her new husband. "I'm the happiest girl on earth," the bride was quoted as saying. "I made a dream come true. And I am not a pervert."
■ United States
Porn star arrested
A porn actress has been arrested for drugging and raping a 15-year-old boy that she met in California and brought to Roosevelt, Oklahoma, authorities said. Genevieve Elise Silva, 20, started dating the boy earlier this year and the Roosevelt sheriff's department first encountered the boy in September. Within a few weeks they had determined he was a runaway and sent him back to his family in California. A warrant was soon issued for the arrest of Silva after police learned she had plied the boy with marijuana and methamphetamines. She was arrested without incident on Wednesday and charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, rape by use of a controlled substance and transporting with the intent to engage in criminal activity.
■ United States
`Model citizen' jailed
A man who robbed banks after leading a life as a model citizen was sentenced to 40 years and one month in federal prison for his crimes on Thursday. William Ginglen, 64, was sentenced after pleading guilty in July to robbing five central Illinois banks in 2003 and 2004. The crimes netted him US$56,000. Ginglen was turned in by sons after they recognized him in media surveillance videos of the string of robberies and found clothes worn by the bank robber in the surveillance tapes at his house. Ginglen kept meticulous notes about his crimes, a marked change from the upright life he lead in Lewistown, 320km southwest of Chicago, where he was at one time an engineer, a supervisor, a volunteer rescue worker, a church goer and a member of various civic panels.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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