■ Japan
Military upgrade touted
The Defense Agency should be upgraded to a full ministry as soon as possible to meet the country's growing international military obligations, the defense chief told parliament yesterday. Fukushiro Nukaga said that the upgrade is necessary as Japan's troops are becoming more engaged in overseas dispatches. Tokyo has military personnel currently in Iraq, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. "There are growing global expectations and demands regarding overseas activities," Nukaga told lawmakers. "We think it is necessary to upgrade the agency to meet such expectations." Japan's current constitution, drafted by US occupation forces and unchanged since 1947, bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits maintaining a military for warfare.
■ Japan
Mystical harem investigated
Police are investigating a 57-year-old fortune teller who has effectively started a harem and is living with 10 women, media reports said yesterday. The man has repeatedly married and divorced the women, all in their 20s or 30s, but they all live together in a house in Tokyo along with at least one child, the reports said. "I had a dream in which I heard a voice. It said that as soon as I saw a magic word, I will attract women even if I'm not attractive now," the man told Nippon Television, which blurred his identity. "I stay at home and my women work for me," he said. He met the women through fortune-telling. Police are reportedly probing whether the man coerced the women or broke laws against polygamy, as some of the women keep his surname and nine of them jointly own the land of his house.
■ Thailand
This marriage has legs
The "Scorpion Queen" and "Centipede King" will tie the knot on Valentine's Day and then consummate their nuptials in a coffin, organizers of the wedding said yesterday. Kanjana Kaetkeow, 36, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 for spending 32 days in a glass cube with 3,400 scorpions, has agreed to marry Montri Siangwong, 29, a 2003 Guinness record holder for spending 28 days with 1,000 centipedes, said Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of Ripley's World of Entertainment in Pattaya. "The couple met and fell in love when they were touring together after winning their Guinness records," Somporn said.
■ Thailand
Fishermen appeal sentence
Two Thai fishermen have appealed their death sentences for murdering a British backpacker, arguing their punishment was too harsh and their conviction secured without eyewitnesses, a lawyer for the men said yesterday. At the end of a speedy trial, a Thai provincial court last week sentenced Boiloy Kothisit, 23, and Wichai Sonkhaoyai, 24, to death for raping and murdering Katherine Horton, 21, on New Year's Day on the resort island of Samui. "Both of them had little education; they didn't even know what the maximum sentence they could face," lawyer Amarin Nuimai told reporters. The British government has also said it opposes the execution of the fishermen.
■ Australia
Find worth a fortune
A couple could reap a fragrant fortune after what they thought was an odd-looking tree stump turned out to be a rare lump of ambergris, a whale excretion used in perfumes and known as "floating gold." Loralee and Leon Wright were walking along a remote beach near Streaky Bay on a fishing trip three weeks ago when they saw the strange object. Leon, thinking it could have been some kind of cyst from a large marine animal, suggested they take the 14.75kg lump home. The couple returned two weeks later and retrieved the lump. Jury said the Wrights' find is worth at least US$295,000.
■ Tonga
Noble guilty of bribery
The speaker of parliament was found guilty yesterday of day of bribery and trying to avoid paying duty on a container shipment of Fijian rum, a report said. Tongan noble Veikune and another man were found guilty and will be sentenced in the Supreme Court in the capital Nukualofa on Feb. 15, the Matangi Tonga Internet news site said. The two had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which involved trying to avoid duty worth 300,000 pa'anga (US$145,000).
■ Australia
Howard urges tolerance
Prime Minister John Howard called for racial tolerance yesterday as police prepared to deploy 1,200 officers to deter any repeat of violent race riots on Sydney beaches last month. Howard urged Australians to celebrate their diversity and national unity on the eve of Jan. 26 -- a public holiday marking the 217th anniversary of the first British colonists' arrival in Australia. "Racial intolerance is incompatible with the kind of society we are and want to be," Howard said a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. His remarks came as members of the nationalist Australia First Party planned a peaceful protest today at North Cronulla beach, where 5,000 mostly male, Caucasian youths launched a beer-fueled rampage on Dec. 11 against people who appeared Middle Eastern.
■ Colombia
Uncle shoots nephew
A man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday. After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said. The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors. Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who works as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off.
■ Colombia
Oil workers taken hostage
Unidentified kidnappers in the eastern part of the country took hostage three contract employees for Occidental Petroleum Corp, killing one and releasing the other two unharmed, police said on Tuesday. David Moreno was found dead on Saturday and the other oil workers were released on Monday, said Colonel Juan Carlos Martinez, acting police commander in the oil-rich state of Arauca, 460km northeast of the capital of Bogota. The trio, employed by a company hired by Occidental to help construct an oil pipeline in the area, were kidnapped on Thursday, Martinez said. All three were Colombian, he said. It was unclear whether the suspected kidnappers were linked to armed guerrilla groups that operate in the area or were common criminals, Martinez said.
■ United States
Chris Penn dies
Character actor Chris Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead on Tuesday at an apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, police sources said. No cause of death was immediately determined but there was no signs of foul play, the sources added. A family spokeswoman confirmed the death and said the Penn family "would appreciate the media's respect of their privacy during this difficult time." Penn, 43, was a character actor who appeared in dozens of films including Reservoir Dogs, Mullholland Falls and the 2004 film Starsky & Hutch.
■ United States
Boy shoots girl
An eight-year-old boy accidentally shot a seven-year-old girl in the arm on Tuesday with a handgun he pulled from his backpack at a day-care center, police in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, said. The wounded girl was flown to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, police spokesperson Lucille Baur said. There were six children at the For Kids We Care day-care center at the time the shooting and no one else was injured, she said. The shooting happened just before 7am as the boy was handling the gun, which he brought to the center in his backpack, Baur said.
■ United States
Paper empowers readers
Wisconsin's second-largest newspaper is letting readers help decide what to put on the front page. In an experiment designed to boost reader interest, the Wisconsin State Journal allows readers to go on its Web site every weekday from 11am to 4pm and vote for their favorite out of five story ideas. Barring late-breaking news, the winning story typically will appear on page one the next day. Tuesday's front page included the first "reader's choice," a look at Ford's plant closings and job cuts.
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs. Although the human dead usually get their favorite food or drink placed on altars, the nature of pet food can make things a little different. The holiday has roots in Mexican pre-Hispanic customs, as does the reverence for animals. The small, hairless dogs that Mexicans kept before the Spanish conquest were believed to help guide their owners to the afterlife, and were sometimes given