■ Malaysia
Police in hot water again
The nation's police, already mired in scandal after a female detainee was forced to strip naked and squat, faced new charges yesterday that they had shaved the heads of 11 elderly men for playing mahjong. The ethnic Chinese men were hauled into custody and shaven bald for playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holidays, reports said. "What was done by the police to the men was degrading, demeaning and an affront to human dignity," commissioner for the government-backed Malaysian Human Rights Commission Hamdan Adnan said. Gambling is a crime in conservative mainly Muslim Malaysia, but the men said they were using plastic chips instead of money and have pleaded not guilty.
■ China
Village feud injures 20
At least 20 people were injured in a gunbattle between two feuding villages in Guangdong Province that was brought under control by thousands of police, news reports said yesterday. Hundreds of residents from one village used shotguns and homemade bombs on Friday to attack another village near Huangpo in Wuchuan County over a land ownership dispute, Hong Kong network Cable TV quoted a witness as saying."Whey they threw hand grenades at us, there were explosions and we ran. Then some people at the back rushed to the front and shot at us," the villager, identified by his surname, Liu, said on the network.
■ Hong Kong
New Year dish fells 441
A total of 441 Hong Kong diners suffered food poisoning after eating a traditional New Year dish contaminated with bacteria, authorities said yesterday. All 240 women and 201 men, aged one to 86, fell ill after eating Poon Choi bought from the same restaurant. Poon Choi, a traditional Lunar New Year dish, is difficult to cook properly because of its mixed ingredients which include seafood, meat and vegetables. The cases came to light just days after health officials issued a warning to the public on incorrectly storing and undercooking the dish.
■ Phlippines
Show stampede probed
Executives of the country's leading TV network and a popular game show host were yesterday summoned for questioning over a weekend stampede that killed 73 and injured nearly 400. An Interior Department fact-finding body ordered by President Gloria Arroyo began interviewing security staff at the site of the tragedy. Later in the day, ABS-CBN executive vice president Charo Santos and Wowowee host Willie Revillame were also expected to appear before the panel. It was not clear whether the body would recommend criminal liabilities, but Telecommunications Minister Leandro Mendoza said the probe would determine "possible culpability" of the show's executives.
■ Indonesia
Ferry deaths rise to 35
Rescuers searching for survivors of a ferry that capsized in Indonesia have found another five bodies, officials said yesterday, taking the confirmed death toll to 35 with 61 others listed as missing. Agus Susilo at the rescue post in the eastern town of Kupang said that the search was concentrated on waters around Semau island, where many of the victims had been found. Some 124 people had been rescued alive, he added. The last survivor was recovered on Friday. The Jembatan Madura ferry sank in heavy seas in the strait separating Timor island and Rote island late on Tuesday.
■ United Kingdom
Britain had bomb warning
Senior White House officials confirmed on the weekend that Britain received a warning about a potential attack on London involving a cell of four bombers just a few months before the July atrocities last year in which 52 people were killed. In the wake of the revelation, bomb victims' families have renewed calls for the government to hold a public inquiry to find out whether vital intelligence was missed that could have prevented the attack. Last August the London-based Observer newspaper revealed that Saudi intelligence had passed warnings to British and US intelligence in Riyadh in December 2004 about a terror plot aimed at London.
■ United States
Gay bar attacker captured
The 18-year-old suspect in a bloody attack on three men in a Massachusetts gay bar was captured in Arkansas on Saturday after killing a police officer and a woman, police said. Jacob Robida was shot in the head and was in critical condition in a Springfield, Missouri, hospital after an exchange of gunfire with police, Massachusetts police said at a news conference. "He's in critical condition," said Paul Walsh, district attorney in Bristol County, Massachusetts. The teenager is accused of wounding three people with a gun and a hatchet in a New Bedford gay bar late on Wednesday. Robida faces about a dozen charges, including three counts of attempted murder and civil rights violations.
■ Zimbabwe
Power cuts set to worsen
An official newspaper claimed yesterday that South Africa's main power company had temporarily switched off power to Zimbabwe in a move likely to worsen power outages across the country. There has been no confirmation of the report from the company, South Africa's Eskom. Almost 40 percent of Zimbabwe's electricity supply is imported. from regional suppliers in South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo The problem has been worsened by the Zimbabwe electricity authority's inability to settle its debts with its major coal supplier and with the National Railways of Zimbabwe which transports the coal.
■ Sudan
UN rebukes Sudan fighters
The UN on Saturday urged the warring parties from Sudan's Darfur region to stop the conflict spreading into neighboring Chad, which has 200,000 Darfur refugees on its territory. The top UN envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, also rebuked the parties for escalating fighting in Darfur, to the detriment of peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja between the Sudanese government and two rebel movements. "You say there is some progress here, but there is regression on the ground. You must close the credibility gap between Abuja and Darfur," Pronk told the negotiators during a visit to Abuja, where the talks are in their seventh round.
■ Iraq
More detainees released
US forces released about 50 Iraqi detainees yesterday but no women are among them, the military said. The freeing of women is a demand by kidnappers of US journalist Jill Carroll. US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said the Iraqis are being released as part of a routine review of their cases. The detention of Iraqi women has become a contentious issue, particularly since the Jan. 7 kidnapping of Carroll in Baghdad.
■ United States
Psychologist on rape charge
A psychologist for a Long Island middle school in East Hampton, New York, was charged on Saturday with having sex with a 16-year-old boy who once dated her daughter. The psychologist, Diane DeMartini-Scully, 45, of Mattituck, was to be arraigned yesterday on felony charges of third-degree rape and performing a criminal sexual act. She is not accused of forcible rape, but of having sex with a minor, the Southold Town police said. The age of consent in New York is 17. DeMartini-Scully met the boy two years ago when he lived in Mattituck. It was there, last May, that she first had sex with him, said Detective Steven Harned. That led to the charges lodged on Saturday.
■ United States
Chicken thighs cause chaos
A trucker hauling 17,100kg of chicken thighs collided with an oncoming train in central Arkansas. The truck driver wasn't hurt in Friday's accident, but the train engineer was taken to a hospital for minor injuries. Frozen chicken thighs were scattered all over the tracks and it took about 12 hours to clean up the mess. Traffic was backed up on US 64 for about an hour. Police said Kennard Taylor was hauling the chicken to Atkins Prepared Foods when he turned down the wrong street. He was trying to turn around when he backed up into the path of the train. The impact cut the truck trailer in half.
■ United States
`Munsters' Grandpa dies
Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of The Munsters whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died on Friday night. Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades."Why would I mind?'' he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
■ United States
`God' may lose license
A man who signs his name as ``God'' may have to surrender his driver's license. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation told Paul Sewell in a letter on Tuesday that he would have to turn over the license if he didn't provide his birth certificate and Social Security card to the agency by Feb. 14. Sewell on Friday asked a Berks County court to intervene in the PennDOT matter. The department does not cite a reason in the letter and a spokeswoman declined comment. Sewell, a self-employed bond enforcement agent, has said he signs official documents as ``God'' because fugitives always preface their comments with ``Oh, God,'' when he captures them.
■ Brazil
Three die in crowd surge
At least three people died and 38 others were injured on Saturday after a surge by thousands of fans toppled security barriers at an event featuring RBD, a Mexican band starring in a popular soap opera. Between 10,000 and 15,000 fans gathered outside a shopping center in Sao Paulo for an autograph session by the group, Adriano Moneta, a spokesman with Sao Paulo state's public safety secretariat said. A 47-year-old woman and two girls aged 15 and 16 died in the Saturday morning incident Moneta said.
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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