■ Japan
Russian crab boat rescued
A Russian crab boat ran aground off a small island in northern Japan yesterday but there were no injuries among its 14-member crew, the coast guard said. The incident comes just weeks after a Russian coast guard boat fired on a Japanese fishing vessel that was allegedly trespassing in Russian waters off Hokkaido, killing a fisherman, then seizing the boat and detaining its remaining three crew members. Japan's coast guard dispatched a patrol vessel and airplanes after the Cambodian-registered Pacific No. 3 crab carrier was found aground about 7km off Rebun island near Hokkaido early yesterday morning, a coast guard statement said.
■ Japan
House torched over shrine
A member of a right-wing group arrested on suspicion of burning down the house of a lawmaker has told police that the parliamentarian's remarks about a Tokyo war shrine were unacceptable, Kyodo News agency said on Wednesday. Masahiro Horigome, 65, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of setting fire earlier this month to the house and office of lawmaker Koichi Kato. The fire took place on Aug. 15 after Kato made numerous TV appearances criticizing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine that day. Horigome was found collapsed on the grounds of the house with apparently self-inflicted wounds to his abdomen. Police later identified him as a member of the Dai-Nippon Dohosha, or Great Japanese Brotherhood.
■ South Korea
No visas for lingerie models
A South Korean sex trade show promised foreign women in provocative underwear, striptease acts and sex seminars, but had to cancel the performances after losing its lingerie models to immigration laws, organizers said yesterday. The Seoul Sex Education Expo, dubbed SEXPO, opened yesterday, however, with plenty of sex toys, lotions and audiovisual material. "Immigration officials warned us if the models performed without having obtained the appropriate visa, they could be subject to deportation," a SEXPO official said. An immigration official said models were planning to enter the country on tourist visas, but they needed performance visas.
■ Thailand
English-language paper folds
The English-language newspaper of media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul -- a fierce critic of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- folded yesterday, claiming that its finances had been undermined by the government. ThaiDay, which is inserted into the Thailand edition of the International Herald Tribune, was one of the country's four English-language dailies. A front-page letter to readers in the last issue said Sondhi's crusade to oust Thaksin had "resulted in credit lines for the Group being cut, bank overdraft facilities being withdrawn and advertisements for Group publications being pulled."
■ China
Rapist farmer executed
A farmer who raped 15 women and girls and killed seven of them has been executed, concluding a case that spread terror across Shaanxi Province, state media said yesterday. Li Fengpo, 28, was executed on Tuesday with a bullet to the back of the head in Weinan City, Shaanxi, China News Service said on its Web site. It said Li's rampage lasted from 2000 to 2004, with rapes committed in Weinan's Hua and Huayin counties, as well as Qinhuangdao City in northern Hebei Province.
■ United Kindom
Detention extension OK
Five suspects who have not been charged in an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners with liquid explosives can be held for another week. The decision by a judge on Wednesday means that investigators can continue questioning the five men until next Wednesday, when they either will have to be charged or released. Police can hold suspected terrorists for a maximum of 28 days without charge, subject to court approval. Of the 25 people originally arrested in raids early last month, eleven have been charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing to commit terrorist acts. Four others are accused of lesser offenses and the other five have been released.
■ Russia
Three killed in blasts
A suspected militant was killed and two Russian servicemen were wounded in separate explosions of roadside bombs or mines in Chechnya, the regional Interior Ministry said yesterday. The suspected militant was trying to escape custody when he stepped on an explosive device on the edge of a wooded area in the Kurchaloi district southeast of Grozny, the ministry said. He died at the scene. The two servicemen were wounded when a roadside bomb fashioned from an army anti-personnel mine exploded near the town of Vedeno, the ministry said.
■ Switzerland
Mooove slowly, hikers told
Keep your distance. Avoid eye contact. And even if it looks cute, never hug a Swiss cow. Responding to numerous "reports of unpleasant meetings between hikers and cattle" along Alpine trails this summer, the Swiss Hiking Federation has laid down a few ground rules. "Leave the animals in peace and do not touch them. Never caress a calf," reads the group's guidance, posted on the Web site. "Do not scare the animals or look them directly in the eye. Do not wave sticks. Give a precise blow to the muzzle of the cow in the event of absolute need," it says. A federation officials said that while there were no precise statistics on incidents involving cows, walkers are reporting more run-ins than a few years ago.
■ Italy
Women want naming right
Women members of parliament have tabled 13 bills to try to change the law on surnames, which even the judiciary has criticized for being outdated. Nine of the proposed laws have the backing of legislators of the left and right. Currently a child must take the family name of his or her father, unless the identity of the father is unknown. Italians cannot create double-barrelled surnames to keep alive a maternal family name, nor can single mothers give their last names to their children.
■ Italy
Couple smooch to rob
A couple dubbed "Bonnie and Clyde" by police robbed at least three people by kissing wildly in a parked car, then jumping out to attack unsuspecting passersby, news agency Ansa said on Tuesday. Police arrested the pair in Milan on Monday. The 27-year-old man and his 26-year-old girlfriend would sit in their car, passionately hugging and kissing to lull passersby who may otherwise have suspected them of loitering, Ansa said. Three women passing the car on different days last month were then suddenly assaulted by the man, who beat them and threatened them with a knife before taking all their belongings.
■ United States
Rosales denies he's a lackey
Opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales denies charges by President Hugo Chavez that he's a US government pawn, but says he will meet with US officials while campaigning because the two nations share a key relationship based on oil. "We are going to meet with representatives of various governments in the coming weeks," Rosales said on Tuesday. "We are going to meet with representatives of the United States because the United States is an important country for Venezuela ... It's where we sell the oil." Chavez has called all opposing candidates "lackeys" of the US government, and the Dec. 3 election a race between his socialist government and Washington.
■ United States
Anti-Bush T-shirt allowed
A schoolboy was within his rights to wear a T-shirt depicting President George W. Bush as a chicken and accusing him of being a former alcohol and cocaine abuser, an appeals court ruled. Zachary Guiles' school violated his constitutional right to free speech when it ordered him to cover parts of the shirt, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said on Wednesday. Guiles was a 13-year-old student at Williamstown Middle High School in Williamstown, Vermont, in May 2004 when he wore the shirt to classes every week for two months. School administrators said images of drugs violated the school's dress code.
■ United States
More Indian slots permitted
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once opposed unlimited expansion of gambling on Indian lands, has signed deals with several tribes allowing them to install tens of thousands of new slot machines. The latest of the amended state gambling compacts were announced on Wednesday -- two agreements that would allow the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay nation to install up to 3,000 new slot machines at its El Cajon casino and resort, and the Yurok tribe to install the first 99 slots on its reservation in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Earlier in the week, the administration announced deals allowing three other tribes to increase the number of slots they operate from 2,000 to 7,500.
■ Mexico
Fox to give final speech
President Vicente Fox's spokesman said on Wednesday that he trusts opposition legislators will act with "civility" when Fox gives his final state of the nation address to the Mexican Congress this week. Fox will deliver the speech to a divided Mexico, with the nation's top electoral court appearing likely to resolve the July 2 election in favor of the ruling party candidate, Felipe Calderon, and his leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, threatening to set up a parallel government. Supporters of Lopez Obrador have vowed to protest Fox's address in the Congress building.
■ Peru
Ice Maiden at risk
The famed "Ice Maiden," the frozen mummy of an Inca girl sacrificed to the gods 500 years ago, might be at risk from humidity, the daily newspaper El Comercio reported on Wednesday. Dampness was detected inside the mummy's glass-enclosed refrigeration compartment by an expert from the US Smithsonian Institution who was vacationing in Arequipa, where the mummy is kept, it said. The unnamed expert notified Peruvian authorities that the mummy could deteriorate beyond repair within five years if the problem is not corrected.
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
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