■ Thailand
Snake cuts off gas supply
A snake crawled into a gas pipeline linking Thailand and Malaysia, causing a short-circuit that triggered a fire and leak at the US$1 billion-facility, an official said yesterday. The fire was extinguished after 10 minutes and there was no major damage, said Somchai Kooyai, executive vice president of gas operator Trans Thai Malaysia. Newspaper reports said the gas leak occurred at a station on the pipeline, causing a brief scare among nearby motorists.
■ Indonesia
Former minister jailed
Judges sentenced a former religious affairs minister to five years in jail yesterday for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar corruption scandal linked to the hajj pilgrimage. Said Agil Husin al-Munawar was found guilty of illegally spending funds entrusted to the ministry by Muslims wanting to perform the hajj, said presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso. The crimes caused losses of 709 billion rupiah (US$76 million), he said.
■ India
Tribesmen kill fishermen
Members of one of the world's most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen, a young boy and an older man who strayed on to their island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, a senior government official said on Monday. Coast guards spotted two bodies buried in sand last month on North Sentinel Island, 40km west of the capital, Port Blair, said chief administrator D.S. Negi. About 20 Sentinelese tribes people were surrounding them, Negi said. The government has banned anyone from going near Sentinel, where about 250 tribesmen live a hunter-gathering lifestyle little changed since the Stone Age.
■ Japan
Princess is pregnant
Japan's Princess Kiko, wife of the emperor's younger son, is pregnant, media said yesterday as the nation debates whether women should be allowed to inherit the imperial throne. Public broadcaster NHK said the Imperial Household Agency was set to announce the pregnancy, but agency officials said there were no such plans and they could not confirm it. The princess' husband is Prince Akishino, the second son of Emperor Akihito. Her pregnancy, if confirmed, is likely to affect a debate on changing the succession law, because opponents of any change will want to wait and see if the baby is a boy. No boys have been born into the imperial family since 1965.
■ India
`Lordships' prevail in court
The Supreme Court on Monday kicked out a petition seeking an end to the colonial practice of addressing judges as "My Lordships." Lawyer Sanjeev Bhatnagar said he had brought the petition as court rules were "silent" on the issue. "It is not desirable or essential to continue with the obsolete customary practice, which smacks of slavery in independent India," Bhatnagar told the two-judge bench. However, the court threw out the appeal filed on behalf of the Progressive and Vigilant Lawyers' Forum, saying it was not their job to decide how lawyers address the dispensers of justice.
■ Malaysia
Police shaved 103 heads
Police shaved the heads of 103 men detained for alleged gambling and other offenses last month, a news report said yesterday, the latest in a spate of incidents that have outraged human rights activists. Noor Hakim Kassim, the chief of Kajang police district in Kuala Lumpur, told local media that the men were detained in his precinct on Jan. 30 and claimed that shaving them bald was part of regular lockup rules, the New Straits Times reported. Noor Hakim's statement was not an admission of wrongdoing, but an attempt to show that the police were not selective after it was earlier revealed that they wielded the electric razor on 11 ethnic Chinese men, who have sued the government and the police for 1 million ringgit (US$266,666).
■ Philippines
Talks with separatists on
The Philippine government and Muslim separatists yesterday launched a new round of talks in Malaysia aimed at cementing a peace deal, officials said. The two sides started formal negotiations yesterday after wrapping up a technical meeting the previous day at a secret location in Malaysia, a Malaysian government official familiar with the discussions said on condition of anonymity. Philippine government negotiators and representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were not immediately available to comment on the talks, which were expected to end later yesterday.
■ China
Tibetan monks, nuns jailed
A Chinese court has jailed five Tibetan monks and nuns for protesting against Chinese control of Tibet and demanding the 2008 Beijing Olympics be called off, a rights group reported. The Tibetans, from Gansu Province, were arrested in May last year, for passing out letters calling for Tibet's independence, the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said in a statement seen by Reuters yesterday. "Three Buddhist nuns and two monks [were] sentenced following calls for no Beijing Olympic Games until the Tibet issue is peacefully resolved," it said. The five were sentenced to 18 months to three years in jail.
■ Germany
Supermarket roof collapses
The roof of a supermarket in Toeging am Inn, east of Munich, collapsed yesterday, and there were conflicting reports on whether any shoppers or employees were injured. The collapse at a Netto supermarket occurred at around 11am, police said. A police spokesman said the Netto employees had advance warning that the roof was coming down and were able to escape. However, initial reports quoted police as saying that several people had been buried under the rubble. Heavy snow had been falling in the region all night, officials said, adding that rescue services were at the scene.
■ Italy
Bush crash kills 12 Turks
Twelve Turkish tourists died and 20 others were injured when their bus plunged into a ravine in Rome shortly before midnight on Monday, rescue workers said. Six of the injured were in serious condition, including the bus driver, the authorities said. The bus was carrying 31 Turkish nationals in Rome for a conference organized by US auto group Ford for its dealers. The bus was on the road leading down from Monte Mario when for an unknown reason its driver failed to negotiate a turn and it plunged into the ravine. The bus did not brake and hit a barrier before plunging into a garden. It came to rest practically vertical.
■ Turkey
Priest murder arrest made
Police in eastern Turkey arrested a 16-year-old boy yesterday who they suspect murdered an Italian Catholic priest at the weekend, Turkish media reported. The suspect, identified only by his initials O.H., is to appear before a court in the Black Sea town of Trabzon, the semi-official Anatolia news agency said. It said police seized a gun from him during the arrest. Andrea Santoro, 61, was shot and killed at the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon on Sunday. The attack coincided with tense relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
■ Spain
`Cupid' saving villages
A self-appointed cupid has launched a matchmaking scheme to save Spain's dying rural hamlets. Manuel Gozalo spends his spare time organizing romantic soirees for the aging farmers left behind by Spain's rapid urbanization since the 1960s and metropolitan women who are bussed into the villages by the dozen. His hope is that some of the lonely hearts will hit it off and boost dwindling populations. Since 1995, Gozalo has thrown 23 bashes in 18 villages around Segovia, Valladolid and other central provinces. He claims responsibility for 50 romances and 10 permanent couples who have settled in the villages.
■ France
Ancient art discovered
An amateur potholer in western France has discovered prehistoric cave art dating from 25,000BC, several thousand years before the world-famous site at Lascaux, the French culture ministry said on Monday. In addition to wall markings, Gerard Jourdy, 63, said he found a sculpture of a face made from a stalactite though experts were dubious about this claim. Jourdy made his discovery in November at the village of Vilhonneur, 20km east of Angouleme. The news was kept under wraps while initial examinations were carried out and the site sealed off. Officials described the find as exceptional because of the age of the paintings.
■ Brazil
Free condoms for Carnival
The government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country's Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said on Monday. The condoms, provided under the government's acclaimed anti-AIDS program, will be given out at health clinics and in sites like public squares and dances. "It's that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand," an official from the Health Ministry's anti-AIDS program said. Carnival kicks off across the nation on Feb. 25, heralding several days of parades, parties, revelry and, for some people, sexual abandon. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is the best known worldwide but every big city has its own celebrations. The Health Ministry said the purpose of the handout was to prevent the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
■ Germany
Alleged serial killer on trial
A male nurse went on trial in Kempten yesterday, accused of killing 29 hospital patients in the nation's worst case ever of serial killing. He has admitted to police that he injected lethal mixtures of drugs into the mostly elderly patients at a hospital in Sonthofen, in the foothills of the Alps. A prosecutors told the packed court that the defendant, 27, had taken advantage of patients who had no idea they were being lethal injections, choosing his victims at will. The man told police after his arrest that he wanted to "release" the sick from their suffering.
■ United States
King appeals for lost dog
B.B. King's dog, Lucille, has disappeared, and the legendary blues man is offering an autographed copy of one of his signature "Lucille" guitars in an effort to get her back. The two-year-old white female Maltese, named after King's signature guitar, went missing about 10 days ago in West Hollywood while she was under the care of his co-manager, Matthew Lieberman. "We're not sure how she got out of the yard, perhaps a gate was ajar," Lieberman said in a statement on Monday.
■ Canada
Infected blood trial begins
A criminal trial opened on Monday for Roger Perrault, the physician at the center of a tainted blood scandal that led to the worst public health disaster in Canadian history. Testimony is due to begin today. Perrault, the former national medical director with the Canadian Red Cross, faces four counts of criminal negligence and one count of endangering the public for his alleged role in the scandal. More than 1,000 Canadians became infected with blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others contracted hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s. It's not clear how many people have died as a result., but the death toll was 3,000 in 1997.
■ United Kingdom
One of Britain's fattest dies
The body of one of Britain's biggest celebrities was lifted out of his house in Bradford yesterday. Weighing 317.5kg, Jack Taylor developed his enormous size -- just under the British record -- through a combination of health problems and a reckless diet. For the best part of 30 years his horizons were bounded by the four walls of his terrace house in northern England. The genial bachelor became a voluntary recluse when his weight ballooned on a diet of up to 15 tandoori curries a day and cars crashed as their drivers gaped at the sight of such an enormous person. Taylor, who was 60 and suffered a variety of weight-related conditions, died of a heart attack last weekend.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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