■ INDONESIA
Komodo dragon kills boy
A rare Komodo dragon has mauled a boy to death on an island that is part of the Komodo national park in eastern Indonesia, police said yesterday. Mansur, 9, was defecating in a bush area on Komodo island on Saturday when he was attacked by a Komodo dragon, Manggarai Barat District police chief Buce Hello said. "The Komodo attacked him, bit him and tossed him around, and only released him after villagers came and threw stones at it," Hello said. The island, one of the largest in the Komodo national park, has no medical clinic and the boy, a local villager, died shortly after the attack, he said.
■ AUSTRIA
Diplomat freed on bail
Austria freed the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president on 1 million euros (US$1.35 million) bail on Sunday but he must remain in the country to face extradition proceedings over kidnapping charges in his homeland, officials said. Austrian police arrested Rakhat Aliyev, the former Kazakh ambassador in Vienna, on Friday on an international warrant that also accuses him of running an organized crime network in the Central Asian country, a former Soviet republic. The powerful businessman has urged Austria not to extradite him to his homeland, saying in a media interview released over the weekend that he would fear for his life if sent back.
■ SINGAPORE
Bra contest leads to fine
A Singapore radio station will be fined S$15,000 (US$9,900) over a bra contest that was "exploitative and inappropriate," the city-state's media regulator said yesterday. MediaCorp Radio breached the broadcast code with a March competition in which women had to remove their bras as fast as possible without taking off their clothes, the Media Development Authority said. "The broadcasting of such a contest, requiring the removal of bras by young women, has a negative influence on young impressionable listeners," it said. It said the two DJs involved in the program had also "made sexually suggestive comments on how fast the bras were removed, as well as the color, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls' breasts."
■ INDONESIA
Hardliners attack church
Muslim hardliners stormed a church during a service, smashing images of Jesus Christ and demanding that it be closed down, the pastor said yesterday. Dozens of churches have had to be closed in Indonesia in recent years, and Sunday's attack was the second on the small Protestant church in the West Java town of Soreang since 2005. Reverend Robby Elisa, who heads the church, said around 100 hardliners attacked while Sunday school was in session. He said his wife was beaten and that at least four stained glass depictions of Jesus were smashed.
■ MALAYSIA
Language's name changes
Malaysia's government has changed the national language's name back to "Bahasa Malaysia," or the "Malaysian Language," to promote a sense of belonging among multiethnic communities, the national news agency reported yesterday. Bahasa Malaysia had been the name for the national language since the country achieved independence in 1957, but the government renamed it Bahasa Melayu, or the "Malay Language" in 1986 to better reflect the cultural heritage of ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly 60 percent of the population.
■ TOGO
Sports minister dies in crash
Togo's sports minister and 20 other people were killed on Sunday when a privately owned shuttle helicopter they were flying in crashed at Sierra Leone's Lungi international airport, sporting and airport officials said on Sunday. The helicopter caught fire while descending in preparation for landing at Lungi and crashed on the tarmac at around 8:30pm. One of three Russian crew members survived the crash and was said to be in critical condition. "It was shocking to see the helicopter disintegrating," senior airport maintenance officer Alfred Yelinkeh said. Sierra Leone Football Association public relations officer Chernor Ojuku Sesay said 18 Togolese officials and supporters died in the crash.
■ GAZA STRIP
Anchors rally against threat
A group of female TV anchors marched through Gaza City on Sunday to protest a fundamentalist group's threat to behead them if they did not don modest Islamic dress. About 50 anchors and staffers from the state-run Palestine TV marched from the station's offices in Gaza City toward the office of President Mahmoud Abbas to protest the threat from a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, known for firebombing Internet cafes and record stores. Most of the 15 female anchors wear headscarves, but they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which extremists consider immodest.
■ UNITED STATES
Guitarists aim for record
More than 1,680 guitar players turned out, tuned up and took part in what organizers say was a world record rendition of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water -- a song that was the first many of them ever learned. Some came from as far away as California and Germany on Sunday to take part in a Kansas City radio station's effort to break a Guinness world record for the most people playing the same song simultaneously. The record had been 1,323 people playing the same song in Vancouver, Canada, in 1994. Preliminary numbers show 1,683 people played the popular early 1970s guitar riff at CommunityAmerica Ballpark on Sunday.
■ UNITED STATES
Wild turkeys moving to city
Wild turkeys have been showing up on the streets of a Detroit suburb, pecking at windows and eating from bird feeders. The skittish birds are generally found in rural areas or large parks, but naturalists and wildlife experts say the turkeys could get used to life in this city of more than 78,000 people. "Wherever you have a suburb that still has large stands of big trees left, where they think they are comfortable, you may be prone to having wild turkeys," said Joe Derek, city naturalist for Farmington Hills.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
`Collins' adds new words
Hoodies, wags, carbon footprints and muffin tops have entered the English language, the ninth edition of the Collins English Dictionary launched yesterday. A hoodie is "a young person who wears a hooded sweatshirt, regarded by some as a potential hooligan," the new dictionary said. And wags, the pampered wives and girlfriends spending their partners' cash, take their place after a sterling performance accompanying the England soccer team at last year's World Cup. From fashion circles, muffin tops, the flabby bulge over the top of a tight pair of jeans, squeezes in. A Collins spokesperson said that many of the words "will undoubtedly sink back into obscurity being bound up with today's ephemera, but others will take root."
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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