■ SOUTH KOREA
Park declares candidacy
Park Geun-hye, former head of the main opposition Grand National Party and daughter of Park Chung-hee, formally declared her presidential candidacy yesterday, apologizing for those who suffered under her late father's rule while promising to resolve the North Korea nuclear standoff. "I always feel sorry for those and their families who experienced suffering and hardship due to unfortunate events during my father's era," Park Geun-hye said in a speech at the party's headquarters in Seoul. Park also pledged to cut taxes and breathe life into the South Korean economy.
■ CHINA
Chili fails safety tests
Chinese chili products have failed safety tests in the latest scare for China's maligned food industry, Xinhua news agency reported. The quality control watchdog found excessive amounts of preservatives in 13 percent of 46 chili products tested across the country recently, it said in a report issued on Sunday. Chili-based products are widely used in China to spice up a broad range of dishes. The products came from 38 companies in 12 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, the report said without detailing if any of the chili was exported.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Rich dad wants son-in-law
A South Korean millionaire is seeking someone to marry his "too old and short" daughter, and a matchmaking agency tasked with the search says it has received 200 applications in four days. The Sunoo agency said yesterday that the unidentified man in his 60s wants a spouse for his daughter, a 38-year-old, US-educated Christian professional. The father wants "a man who can lead his family, which has no sons," the agency said in its Web site. "Despite the shortcomings of being a bit too old and short, she is top-notch in terms of other conditions," it said. "The man she wants should be tidy, healthy and smart and raised in the same religion in an upright family."
■ AUSTRALIA
Man missed missing finger
A man who lost part of his finger in a bar brawl walked out of the pub and down the street before he noticed it was gone, New South Wales state police said yesterday. "He didn't know it was missing until he left the [pub]," police Inspector Mark Kellert told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "He was out on the street and realized there was blood on his hand, noticed his finger was missing, and went to hospital." Security guards later found the severed finger "and a large amount of blood" in the pub's bathroom, police said in a statement. Police brought the severed finger to the hospital, but did not say whether it was being reattached.
■ MALAYSIA
Big Brother's watching
Government employees in Terengganu state are being monitored by security cameras to keep them from slacking off at work or vanishing for long tea breaks, the Star newspaper said yesterday. Sixteen closed-circuit TV cameras were installed recently to improve security in the state's main government administrative complex, but they serve an additional purpose of keeping tabs on some 1,000 workers there, Terengganu State Secretary Mokhtar Nong said. "We would know if they are adhering to office etiquette or playing truant, and we can also gauge if they are disciplined at work," Mokhtar said, adding that another 26 cameras will be set up soon.
■ ITALY
Senator in trouble
A senator's boast on TV that he cheated traffic jams in Rome during a visit by US President George W. Bush by calling an ambulance could cost him a court appearance, officials said on Sunday. Conservative opposition senator Gustavo Selva risked being late for a TV interview on Saturday because streets around the Senate were blocked for Bush's visit. So he dialed 118 for an ambulance asking to be rushed to his heart specialist -- giving the TV studio's address. "I used an old journalist's trick to get here," he boasted on live TV.
■ ISRAEL
New spy satellite launched
The country launched a new spy satellite yesterday in a move defense officials said would boost surveillance over states like Syria and Iran. Ofek 7, which was launched from an air base on the coast, will join its predecessor Ofek 5, in space since 2002. The new satellite will orbit 200km to 500km above the earth and is expected to begin relaying photographs by the end of this week. "The successful launch adds an important layer to Israel's defence capabilities and it is a testament to Israel's technological strength," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said in a statement.
■ KENYA
Road blast kills one
An explosion on a busy central Nairobi street yesterday killed at least one person and critically injured about six, police and witnesses said. A senior police officer on the scene said the explosion, at about 8am appeared to be a suicide bombing. The rush-hour blast sent passers-by flying and left a severed leg lodged in a shattered shop window at the scene, outside a row of shops near the Ambassadeur hotel. A mangled corpse lay on the street. "This sort of attack is very unusual for Nairobi," said the police officer, who asked not to be named.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Tutu's home robbed
The Soweto home of Nobel Peace Prize-winning archbishop Desmond Tutu was burgled at the weekend, Johannesburg police spokeswoman Superintendent Thembi Nkwashu said yesterday. Nkwashu said that five suspects were arrested following the burglary of Tutu's house in Orlando West early on Sunday. "Five suspects have been arrested. Several goods were stolen from the house. We have so far recovered two television sets, one DVD set, the Nobel peace prize [medal, worth US$13,800] won by Tutu, some jewelry and the vehicle used for the robbery," she said. Tutu was overseas when the burglary took place, she said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Toddler found dead
A two-year-old toddler who was found floating alone off the south coast has died, the coast guard said yesterday. The boy, who has not been named, was pulled out of the water by a passing boat at approxi-mately 6:50pm on Sunday. A search for a 50-year-old man is continuing. The boy was found about 400m from an empty Zodiac dinghy, 1km off Littlehampton, West Sussex, wearing a life jacket. There were some personal items in the dinghy which police are using in their investigation. A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the incident was a mystery. The waters were relatively calm and the weather good.
■ UNITED STATES
Six found shot to death
Twin infant boys were among six people found shot to death in a rental house in Delavan, Wisconsin, after a barrage of gunfire that some neighbors thought were firecrackers. A two-year-old girl was found in a nearby van seriously wounded with a gunshot in her chest. A male family member who escaped the shooting was helping investigators, who refused to release any details but said they do not believe anyone else was in danger. "What we have is a complicated death scene and we're investigating all the possibilities," said Kevin St. John, a spokesman with the state Justice Department, which is leading the investigation.
■ UNITED STATES
Musician named top thinker
The US' Greatest Thinker is not a famous philosopher, an award-winning mathematician or internationally known astrophysicist. He is a musician and arts administrator from Minneapolis, Minnesota, according to this year's Great American Think-Off, in which ordinary people debate perplexing questions. Joe Kaiser won the title and a gold medal on Saturday after the Think-Off audience decided he was most convincing when debating the question: "Which should you trust more -- your head or your heart?" Kaiser argued a person should trust the heart more than the head. His friend and debate opponent, Episcopal priest Paul Allick of Burnsville, took the silver medal by arguing that one's head should be used in making decisions.
■ GERMANY
Cash offered to move
In a desperate attempt to counter the exodus of young women from the former communist east, a small town is trying to lure them back with cash. Freital Mayor Klaus Mattig has promised a "relocation bonus" of 2,000 euros (US$2,670) to women between 18 and 39 who move to the small town, which is near Dresden. "We have fewer and fewer young women who can have babies -- that's a big problem for the future of our town," he told the Bild tabloid. He said the number of births in the town had halved. Mattig has also promised to help women arriving in Freital to find a job or training.
■ GERMANY
Gift gets grandson in trouble
A grandmother landed her 19-year-old grandson in trouble by sending him a fake 100 euro note, police in the northwestern town of Oberhausen said yesterday. Police descended on the student in a shop after a cashier spotted the counterfeit note, sent him by his grandmother to congratulate him on passing his school exams. "The young man was quite surprised and said he had received it by post from his granny. He couldn't believe she had been involved in counterfeiting money," the police said.
■ IRAN
MP receives death threats
One of the country's most outspoken MPs has received a death threat after suggesting that the country's supreme leader is a weaker figure than the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual head of the 1979 Islamic revolution. The threat appeared amid abusive text messages sent to Emad Afrough, a fundamentalist critic of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after he described Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "more expediency-seeking than the late imam."
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
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