■ Pakistan
Scottish mom wins appeal
A Scottish schoolgirl who sparked an international custody fight by running away to Pakistan must return to her mother in Britain, a court in Pakistan ruled yesterday. Lahore High Court ordered that Molly Campbell, 12, should be handed over to officials at the British High Commission in Islamabad within a week by her Pakistani father. Police launched a hunt for the girl after she fled her mother's home in Scotland to be with her Pakistani father. Witnesses said the girl burst into tears when they heard that the court had upheld an appeal by her mother.
■ Indonesia
Quake flattens buildings
A strong earthquake in the north of the country destroyed houses and flattened buildings in several villages yesterday, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The 6.1-magnitude tremor struck at 10:32am north of the Maluku islands, the US Geological Survey said. It was centered 70km beneath the sea and 216km northeast of Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province. Houses, a mosque, a school and government buildings were destroyed in the villages on Morotai island. "So far, reports received from Hapo village said the houses were ruined," said Helmy Agus Riadi of the regional Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
■ Malaysia
Tigers dislike music
Forget the hoes and wheelbarrows -- lug around a radio instead. A Malaysian wildlife official is advising farmers to carry radios with loud volume as this may scare off tigers, a news report said yesterday. The advice from Wan Azali Wan Ali, the Wildlife Department director in northern Kelantan state, came after a tiger attempted to maul a woman who was returning home from her rubber plantation on Sunday. The tiger fled after Mek Jah picked up a stick and banged it on the ground while reciting prayers.
■ Japan
Bono meets Abe
Rock star and anti-poverty activist Bono urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday to keep his nation's pledge to boost aid to Africa and other parts of the developing world. Bono met with Abe while on a U2 tour. Tokyo vowed before and during last year's G-8 summit in Scotland to spend billions of dollars more on aid development assistance. Bono praised government aid for lifting many Asian countries from poverty and said "there is a lot we can learn from Japan in applying to the rest of the developing world." The rock star said he won a pledge from Abe to continue the country's efforts to help the developing world, despite budgetary constraints in Tokyo.
■ Singapore
Maid falls from apartment
An Indonesian maid has died after falling from her Singapore employer's apartment, police said yesterday. They declined to identify the victim, who was in her twenties. The Straits Times newspaper identified the maid as Ira Tritanti, 23, who had been on the job just two weeks. It said she fell from her employer's sixth-floor apartment. A few T-shirts and a pole used for hanging clothes were found near her body. New York-based Human Rights Watch said at least 147 maids had died from workplace accidents or suicides between 1999 and last year, mostly by jumping or falling from high-rise residential buildings.
■ Norway
Policeman grabs reindeer
It took the long arm of the law to restore order when a renegade reindeer sprinted along a highway outside the town of Kautokeino, nearly causing a series of traffic accidents. The long arm belonged to Acting Sheriff Klemet Klemetsen, who reached through the window of his police cruiser and grabbed the fleeing animal by the skin of the neck while driving alongside it. "That was a new experience for me," the 50-year-old officer told reporters on Tuesday. "It isn't normal procedure for a police officer to grab a reindeer through his car window. I've never heard of it before," he said. "Maybe this is something for the Guinness record book?" he asked.
■ Germany
Wild boars on a rampage
A pack of wild boars fleeing hunters went on a two-hour rampage through the small southern German village of Veitshoechheim, biting people and damaging cars and shops. Three boars were shot by police, a number of others were killed in traffic accidents and several bit pedestrians. "One wild boar entered a boutique, scaring the daylights out of a saleswoman," local police said in a statement. "She tried to hide behind the cash register. When the animal ran out of her shop it smashed the store's inventory, causing 1,000 euros [US$1,314] damage."
■ Portugal
Elderly driver on the rails
A pensioner caused mild commuter chaos in the city of Oporto this week when he unwittingly drove his car into the underground train network, Portuguese newspapers reported on Tuesday. Trains were suspended after security cameras clocked the disoriented driver sailing past a station through the railway tunnels meant for underground trains. "I didn't even know there was an underground in Oporto," the unnamed driver was quoted as saying. He was in the city to visit friends when he took the wrong turn and entered the underground by an access road marked with no entry signs and reached the rails along a tunnel used for emergencies.
■ Turkey
Gunman asks to meet pope
The man who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 wants a day's leave from jail to discuss theology with Pope Benedict when he visits Turkey this week, his lawyer said on Monday. "I [Mehmet Ali Agca] asked the Turkish government to release me for one day so that I can discuss theological issues with [Pope] Ratzinger," Agca said in comments passed on by his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag. "I want to discuss with him religious and mystic issues," Demirbag quoted Agca as saying.
■ Nigeria
Qaddafi in weapons row
Authorities on Tuesday prevented dozens of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's heavily armed bodyguards from entering Abuja with weapons in a dispute that lasted hours and saw Qaddafi storm away from the airport on foot. Qaddafi arrived for Wednesday's African Union summit with an entourage of more than 200 bodyguards who insisted on taking their weapons into the city, Femi Fani-Kayode, the aviation minister, said. The impasse was only resolved with the chance arrival of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was traveling to Lagos. Witnesses at the airport said while the dispute lasted, Qaddafi threatened to trek the 50km into Abuja and had already walked out of the airport building before Obasanjo's arrival.
■ United States
Word of year up for vote
Will "landslide" win by a landslide? Will "sectarian," "vendetta" or "decider" be named word of the year this year? Merriam-Webster is asking visitors to its Web site (www.merriam-webster.com/info/06words.htm) to pick the "one single word that sums up 2006." The voting began Nov. 20 and concludes on Monday, company spokesman Arthur Bicknell said. "We've been getting literally thousands of submissions."
■ United States
Eight nabbed in drug bust
Sixty-thousand bags of heroin worth a total of US$1 million have been seized and eight people have been arrested after they left a New York City house that was dedicated to drug packaging, police said. The bust in the Bronx borough was a result of an investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Police Department, state police and Westchester County law enforcers. Officers followed a driver on Monday night from a Hartsdale, New York, home to the Bronx, where he retrieved a plastic bag from the trunk of his car, the DEA said. The officers found two boxes containing about 60,000 individually packaged transparent baggies of heroin, weighing more than 18.14kg and arrested him, the agency said. About 45 minutes later, seven more people left the Hartsdale home in a minivan but were stopped two blocks away.
■ Argentina
Okay for Bush twins to stay
The US embassy rejected reports that it had told President George W. Bush's twin daughters to leave the country after a widely publicized purse-snatching incident. ABC News reported on its Web site on Monday that embassy officials had "strongly suggested" that Jenna and Barbara Bush cut short their visit to Buenos Aires due to security concerns. One of twins had her purse stolen in San Telmo last week despite the presence of Secret Service bodyguards. "We have seen a report from news sources stating that embassy officials strongly suggested that President Bush's daughters curtail their visit in Argentina," the US embassy said in a written statement. "This is false ... The embassy welcomes the visit and has provided close support and cooperation."
■ United States
Police find boxed caiman
New York City police found a 0.6m long caiman in a cardboard box on Tuesday, a shoelace firmly tied around its jaw. "It was pretty feisty," said Richard Gentles,director of administration for Animal Care & Control, a privately funded organization that took control of the animal. The reptile was found on Tuesday on a street in Brooklyn, and police did not know how it got there. "The caiman was cold, and we had to warm it up," Gentles said. Whoever left it in the box was concerned that nobody got hurt, he said. "The shoestring was double-knotted for safety, like a running shoe."
■ United States
Fish bites owner
A man has been taken to a hospital after tangling with a venomous fish in his home aquarium, police said. A one spot foxface rabbitfish bit the 19-year-old man on Tuesday night while he was working on his fish tank, a Nassau County Police officer said. The species has venomous spines on its back, according to fishbase.org, and is found in the western Pacific Ocean. Firefighters took the young man to a local hospital with a bite to his left index finger around 9:25pm. No information on his condition was available.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
RSS