■ AUSTRALIA
Golden gun on display
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was truly the man with the golden gun. And to prove it, the Australian military handed over a golden Tabuk rifle to the Australian War Memorial yesterday. The military had received the rifle from US troops in thanks for taking part in the Iraq war. The rifle was found by US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division while clearing buildings around Kirkuk, Iraq. The museum put the rifle on display.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Tycoon testifies in court
One of the nation's richest businessmen told a court yesterday he beat karaoke bar workers in the head in retaliation for a suspected attack on his son, and his bodyguards continued the assault when he got tired of punching. Prosecutors have said Hanwha Group chairman Kim Seung-youn and several bodyguards stormed into an upscale Seoul karaoke bar seeking those who had supposedly beat up his son in an early March incident. He then seized several workers, shuttled them off to a remote mountain area and forced them to their knees while he beat them, they said.
■ JAPAN
Passenger shirks order
Police arrested a suspected gangster on Sunday after he ignored an aircraft captain's order to turn off his five mobile phones as the plane was taking off, police said. Naoyuki Shimoda, a 34-year-old DVD sales clerk, was arrested for violating the Aviation Law for ignoring the captain's order when he was on board an aircraft taking off from Tokyo's Haneda airport, a spokeswoman from the police said. Following the captain's order, Shimoda said "Shut up! Why don't you call police," while continuing to use his mobile phones.
■CHINA
Needles found in boy
Doctors in Guangzhou City were planning to perform surgery on a one-year-old boy whose parents took him to a hospital because he had been unusually fussy and learned he had six sewing needles in his body, newspapers reported yesterday. The child's parents, who are migrant workers, said they had no idea how the needles ended up in their son, nicknamed Xiao Yu. The parents said they took Xiao Yu to a hospital on June 2 after he cried for three or four nights in a row and ate less than usual. X-rays revealed two needles inside the boy's chest, two in his scrotum, one embedded in his head and another in his abdomen. The parents said no strangers have come into contact with the boy.
■ JAPAN
Manta ray makes history
An aquarium in Okinawa is celebrating a special new arrival this week -- a giant manta ray keepers say is the world's first ever born in captivity. Video footage shows the 1.9m baby being squeezed out of her mother's body rolled up like a carpet, before unfurling her fins and flitting gracefully across the tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. "My heart was heavy at first because I thought it had been still-born, but we were so relieved when she finally started swimming around," the aquarium's manta ray breeder, Minoru Toda said. The birth on Saturday followed a pregnancy of more than a year after the 4.2m mother ray mated with a male manta also kept at the aquarium. Aquarium workers will use their intuition when caring for the new baby, because scientific knowledge about their development is limited, Toda said.
■ ITALY
`Architect of fashion' dies
Designer Gianfranco Ferre, known as the "architect of fashion" for his structured, sculpted shapes and for his groundbreaking tenure at Christian Dior, died on Sunday, a hospital said. He was 62. Ferre was taken to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Friday after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. The hospital, in a statement authorized by Ferre's family, said he died at 9pm on Sunday. Ferre started his career as an accessories and jewelry designer and then moved on to clothes. His unofficial title as the country's architect of fashion came thanks to the degree in architecture he obtained in 1969 from Milan's Polytechnic Institute that inspired his designs.
■ ITALY
Bunnies threaten airport
Make like bunnies! The wild hares at Milan's Linate airport have taken that to heart -- so much so that officials on Sunday mounted an unusual operation to keep the furry creatures off the runways. Some 200 volunteers with reflective vests and whistles snared 57 hares and four wild rabbits, part of a twice-annual capture to keep the airport hare population under control. The animals were put in wooden crates and transferred to a nearby wildlife preserve, officials said. The province of Milan has to routinely catch the fertile hares because they interfere with takeoffs and landings. They can also cause false alarms with the airport's radar system.
■ UNITED STATES
Oral sex recruiter confesses
A 30-year-old military recruiter who pleaded guilty to offering to help a 16-year-old girl get into the Army in exchange for oral sex was sentenced to a year in jail. Army Sergeant Robert Scott was also ordered on Friday to register as a sex offender, serve five years of probation and pay fines totaling US$3,020. Scott pleaded guilty April 17 to a count of third-degree criminal sexual assault. The charge stems from a March 15 incident in which he made sexual advances toward the girl, a high-school student. Scott acknowledged that he offered to help her get enlisted more easily if she gave him oral sex.
■ UNITED STATES
Topless case settled
A New York artist arrested by police when she went on a topless stroll two years ago has accepted a US$29,000 settlement from the city, her lawyer says. Jill Coccaro, 27, was charged briefly with indecent exposure despite a 1992 state appeals court ruling that women had the right to be topless if men were allowed to take off their shirts. Coccaro, who now goes by the name Phoenix Feeley, bared her breasts on Aug. 4, 2005. Feeley remained in custody for 12 hours before she was told prosecutors were not going to pursue charges.
■ MEXICO
Cuban refugees intercepted
The navy has intercepted two boats carrying 58 Cuban refugees in the waters of the Caribbean near the Cancun tourist resort, officials said on Sunday. The government was investigating the incident as a possible human trafficking operation run by the ships' crews. Local media on Thursday gave unconfirmed reports of the arrests of the Cuban refugees, as well as four crew members from the two vessels identified by the Attorney General's office as two Mexicans and two Cubans. Authorities did not issue an official report about the arrests until Sunday.
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
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
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,
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
RSS