■ China
Drug addiction declines
PHOTO: AP
The number of drug addicts in the country has dropped 8 percent so far this year due to a mixture of rehabilitation and strict controls, state media said yesterday. The number of officially registered drug addicts is now 720,400, down from 785,000 late last year, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Ministry of Public Security. The drop is mainly due to compulsory rehabilitation measures and strict checks on chemicals and narcotics, the ministry said, according to Xinhua. The National Narcotics Control Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs have set up a network that tightens controls on chemicals that can be easily made into drugs.
■ India
Rape punishment: 51 slaps
A village council has ordered that a man be slapped 51 times in public for allegedly raping a woman after police refused to register the victim's complaint, the body's head said yesterday. Relatives and residents would publicly shame the man, village head Badr-ul Hasan said. Hasan said the governing council of the village of Rampur stepped in after police refused to record the statement of the deaf and mute victim, saying she could not communicate properly. Elected village councils do not have judicial powers, but people often settle disputes through them to save the time and money of lengthy court proceedings.
■ Nepal
Bomb kills three children
A bomb apparently left by communist rebels exploded in a remote mountain village in eastern Nepal, killing three children, officials said yesterday. The children were believed to be playing with the bomb when it accidentally exploded on Thursday at Aathrai village, about 500km west of the capital, Kathmandu. Durga Bhandari, the chief administrative official in the area, said a police team left for the village yesterday to investigate the explosion in the area which is under Maoist rebel control. The village is about a one-day trek from the district capital where the officials are based.
■ South Korea
Choi nailed for harassment
A legislator was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail, which was suspended for one year, for sexually harassing a female reporter. Choi Yeon-hee, former secretary-general of the main opposition Grand National Party, was accused of grabbing the breasts of a local newspaper reporter during a drinking party in February. He quit the party after coming in for strong public criticism. Parliament in April passed a resolution calling for his resignation, the first time it had ever taken such action. "Compared to normal harassment cases, this incident caused bigger damage to its victim and thus required a sincere effort by the accused to console the victim," said Judge Whang Hyun-zoo at Seoul Central District Court.
■ Australia
Cricket umpire sentenced
A former international cricket umpire faced charges of sexually abusing deaf teenage children in his care in an Australian court yesterday. Anthony McQuillan appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on 12 child sex charges, including five counts of sodomy, five of indecent assault against boys and two of indecent assault against girls. The offenses allegedly occurred between 1974 and 1998, when McQuillan taught deaf children in the Queensland state education system. Prosecutors said his victims were aged 14 to 16. Lawyers for McQuillan said he denied the charges and successfully applied for bail.
■ United Kingdom
Burglary shocks islanders
A tiny Scottish island where residents routinely leave their houses and cars unlocked has suffered its first burglary in living memory after a visiting workman stole ?60 (US$115). Yesterday's Daily Telegraph reported that the island's part-time policeman Don McLeod swooped on thief James Harvey, 38, from Glasgow, who was stranded on Colonsay for several days while he waited for a ferry back to the mainland. Harvey's victim, "Wee" Davie Sutherland, 75, was quoted as saying: "I suppose it was only ?60 but it just doesn't happen here."
■ South Africa
Ex-Zuma aide behind bars
Schabir Shaik, an ex-aide convicted in a corruption case implicating former deputy president Jacob Zuma, reported for a 15-year jail term on Thursday, his family said. The Supreme Court of Appeals on Monday turned down Shaik's bid to have the charges against him declared invalid, making it harder for Zuma to launch a political comeback. Analysts say the Supreme Court's ruling gives authorities grounds to file fresh charges against Zuma. Shaik was last year convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud by the Durban court. He was found guilty of seeking bribes from a French arms firm on Zuma's behalf in order to secure protection from a probe into a multimillion dollar arms deal and bankrolling Zuma in return for his backing in winning business deals.
■ South Africa
Cup post for ex-prisons chief
National prisons chief Linda Mti has resigned to become head of security for the 2010 World Cup, the government announced on Thursday. "His resignation has been accepted and he will be leaving the public service at the end of November 2006," a government statement said after a Cabinet meeting. The correctional services department announced separately that the national commissioner had been approached by the local organizing committee of the World Cup over six months ago to fill the "critical" position. News of Mti's switch comes shortly after he was detained at the weekend for drunk-driving after an accident in Johannesburg.
■ Poland
Artist's killer gets 25 years
A 20-year-old man on Thursday received a 25-year prison sentence for murdering painter and photographer Zdzislaw Beksinski, considered one of Poland's most important 20th century artists. The killer, identified according to court rules only as Robert K., had pleaded guilty to the stabbing of Beksinski in the artist's Warsaw apartment in February last year. Robert K., the son of a handyman who worked for Beksinski, said that the victim had refused to lend him money. His cousin, 17-year-old Lukasz K., received a five-year sentence for helping him try to cover up the crime by stealing two cameras and around a hundred CDs from Beksinski's home. They left his paintings untouched.
■ Czech Republic
Trafficking ring busted
Police said on Thursday they had arrested 17 people when they broke up a people-smuggling ring that brought at least 135 illegal immigrants to Europe from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Police were still holding the two alleged heads of the trafficking network, both Indians living in the Czech Republic, said Blanka Kosinova, a spokeswoman for the country's department fighting organized crime in Prague.
■ United States
Journalist Ed Bradley dies
Veteran journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at the age of 65, the CBS TV network announced on Thursday. Bradley, who worked on the hard-hitting investigative news program for 25 seasons, joined the show in 1981. "Bradley's consummate skills as a broadcast journalist and his distinctive body of work have been recognized with numerous awards," the network said in a statement. Bradley joined CBS as a stringer in its Paris bureau in 1971 before working in Saigon toward the end of the Vietnam War. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.
■ United Kingdom
Charges filed over files
London police on Thursday charged a 22-year-old woman with a series of offenses after they said they found terrorist handbooks and weapons manuals on a computer hard drive. Police said The Terrorists Handbook, The al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, as well as manuals for rifles, pistols and rocket-propelled grenades were found on the computer, which was seized late last month. They said other files included an operator's manual for pistols and a document on mines. Samina Malik, who police said is unemployed and lives in south London, was charged with four offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000.
■ United States
LA police probe beating
Los Angeles' police chief on Thursday said he had launched an investigation after an Internet video emerged of officers beating a man during an arrest earlier this year. Chief William Bratton announced the probe after the video showing two officers repeatedly punching the man was posted on video Web site YouTube. The film shows officers punching 23-year-old William Cardenas in the face six times while placing a knee on his neck during an arrest in Hollywood in August. "There's no denying that the video is disturbing," Bratton said. Both officers have been removed from their beats and are performing administrative roles.
■ United States
Four plead guilty to arson
Four environmental activists pleaded guilty in Eugene, Oregon, to arson and conspiracy for taking part in a wave of firebombings that caused US$30 million in damage over five years. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors said on Thursday they would ask for five years in prison for one of the defendants, and eight years for the others. Authorities said ecoterrorists committed firebombings around the Northwest between 1996 and 2001 to stop logging, wild horse roundups, genetic engineering of plants and the expansion of a Colorado ski resort. The defendants are expected to be sentenced in the spring.
■ Mexico
Another head found
A human head stuffed inside a plastic bag was found on Thursday near Acapulco. The head was found off the Sol Highway that links Acapulco and Mexico City. "We still do not know where the body is and the person's identity," Guerrero state prosecutor Eduardo Murueta said. Two heads were found last month in the mountains of Guerrero state, while in September, an unknown group tossed five heads on the dance floor of a bar in Michoacan state.
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