■ AUSTRALIA
Aussies spied on US
The nation spied on its ally the US in the 1980s and stole top-secret radar codes for its fighter jets, former defense minister Kim Beazley said in parliament yesterday. Beazley said Australia felt compelled to spy when he was defense minister because Washington refused to share the codes its F/A-18 fighters needed to identify potentially hostile aircraft. In his farewell speech to parliament before retiring, Beazley said he went "up hill and down dale" in Washington trying without success to persuade top US defense officials to hand over the codes. "In the end we spied on them and we extracted the codes ourselves and we got another radar that could identify them [enemy planes]," Beazley said.
■ THAILAND
Man shoots noisy neighbors
A man angry at his noisy neighbors shot three of them dead before gunning down his former mother-in-law, police said yesterday. They said Chakrit Siwapornrangsan, a 40-year-old motorcycle repairman, took out the gun because of the noise and drinking of neighbors in Chantaburi Province, 245km from Bangkok. He then went looking for his former wife and when her parents tried to stop him, gunned down his former mother-in-law, local television reported. Police said the suspect took another man hostage but surrendered after his sister and a police friend negotiated with him. "He is under serious stress that triggered the quarrel with his neighbours," deputy provincial police commander Colonel Aungkool Poolcharoen said.
■ INDIA
Crowd greets astronaut
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who made it to the record books in June for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman, arrived to a hero's welcome yesterday, witnesses said. Williams, 42, from the western state of Gujarat, was whisked away by relatives and security personnel from the airport in Ahmedabad soon after her arrival. The astronaut, on her first visit to India in about a decade, looked slightly bemused as a large crowd of cheering fans, well-wishers and photographers blocked the main exit of the airport.
■ AUSTRALIA
Lesbians sue over twins
A lesbian couple are suing their doctor after they had twin girls from an in vitro fertilization procedure when they only wanted one child. The two women are seeking more than A$400,000 (US$340,000) in damages to help pay for the cost of raising the second child, including private school fees, saying they had made it clear to their doctor that they only wanted one baby. The twins are now three years old and the civil case has prompted debate about the value of children and the role of parents. The court has ordered a gag on the identity of the women.
■ MYANMAR
Monks march again
Almost 1,000 Buddhist monks wound up a march yesterday through the streets of the nation's biggest city, protected by a human chain of onlookers as they kept alive the most sustained and defiant protests against the military government in at least a decade. The monks, who attracted several thousand followers as they marched through some of Yangon's main thoroughfares, said they would protest again on the next Buddhist holy day. Having gathered at the golden hilltop Shwedagon pagoda, the country's most revered shrine, the monks marched to Sule pagoda in downtown Yangon and rallied briefly outside the US embassy. It was the third straight day the monks have marched in Yangon.
■ GERMANY
Marriage renewal proposed
A conservative politician on Wednesday proposed making marriage contracts expire after seven years, with the option to renew for those not feeling the proverbial itch. "I propose that marriages lapse after seven years," Gabriele Pauli told reporters in Munich, the capital of the largely Catholic southern state of Bavaria. "This would mean that one will only commit for a fixed period and will actively have to renew your vows if you still want to continue." Pauli, 50, has been divorced twice. The proposal is part of her manifesto as she prepares to contest the leadership of Bavaria's governing party.
■ GERMANY
Sex toys found in sausages
Staff at a butcher's shop were shocked to discover a customer had hidden two sex toys in their sausages for transport to Dubai, police said on Wednesday. "It was two latex dildos with a natural look," said a spokesman for police in the southwestern city of Mannheim. After shopping there earlier in the day, the man, who spoke broken English, returned to the butcher's with two large "Schwartenmagen" sausages. He asked a shop assistant to wrap and cool them until he departed for Dubai the next day. But the assistant noticed the goods had got heavier and alerted police. Officers discovered the man, who was about 50, had removed some of the meat and packed the dildos inside.
■ ITALY
Nazi wine labels seized
A prosecutor in Bolzano seized wine bottle labels on Wednesday bearing a portrait of Hitler and other Nazis from a winery near the Austrian border, the company said. The 20 labels from the "Der Fuehrer" line show Hitler raising the Nazi salute and his generals, including Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess. The black and white labels are imprinted with the mottoes "Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer" (one people, one empire, one Fuehrer) and "Sieg heil," a slogan proclaimed by Hitler as a greeting or in front of the masses. The labels constitute a glorification of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, state prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser said.
■ FRANCE
Buses to run on garbage
The city of Lille is to power a 100-strong bus fleet using biogas fuel made from organic household waste, thanks to a pioneering recycling plant unveiled on Wednesday. In a project unique in Europe, the plant will supply the northern city with four million cubic meters of eco-friendly biogas per year -- enough to power 100 buses -- produced from food scraps, weeds, flowers and grass clippings. It is to start supplying the city's existing fleet of natural gas-powered buses later this year.
■ ISRAEL
Army to set up dance troupe
Faced with a worrying rise in the number of draft dodgers, the army is mulling the idea of forming a dance group to attract young talent who would otherwise refuse compulsory service. In a country fraught with security threats and where all 18-year-old men and women are required to serve three or two years. And after recent official figures showed that nearly one quarter of Israeli teenagers do not enroll, the army has set the fight against service dodging as a top priority. The army is considering "opening a military service track for exceptional and talented dancers who would serve in a `modern dance' troupe," it said in a statement.
■ UNITED STATES
Rappers face rap
A home-made rap video landed two 20-year-olds in jail on terrorism charges because of lyrics describing how they were going to destroy their small town in Missouri and kill the bulk of the police force. The local prosecutor said the video, which had been posted on the file-sharing Web site YouTube, was more than just a couple of bored kids with "poor taste" trying to show off. "It just went too far," said prosecutor Steven Stevenson of Andrew County, Missouri. "Certainly there was probably cause to file the charges and that's the way you want to proceed," he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
■ UNITED STATEDS
Dry cleaners close shop
The owners of a dry cleaner who were sued for US$54 million over a missing pair of pants have closed and sold the shop involved in the dispute, their attorney said. The South Korean immigrants are citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit. They will focus their energy on another dry-cleaning shop they still own, said their attorney, Chris Manning. Soo Chung and her husband, Jin Nam-chung, faced more than two years of litigation after a former customer at Custom Cleaners alleged they had lost a pair of his pants, then sued for US$67 million under the city's strict consumer protection act.
■ CANADA
Moosehead beer stolen
Two tractor-trailers carrying 70,000 cans and 44,000 bottles of Moosehead Lager were stolen early on Wednesday at a transport company's facility in Mississauga, Ontario. "Moosehead drinkers in Ontario would be wise to stock up today," company spokesman Joel Levesque said in a statement. "We expect it may take until early next week to replenish the stolen beer." The beer company said the retail value of the load is US$197,000. This is the second time in three years that Moosehead has been hit with a major beer heist. In August 2004, a truck containing 50,000 cans of Moosehead Lager bound for Mexico was stolen. Only 14,000 of the cans were recovered.
■ UNITED STATES
Teacher sues school
A Portland, Oregon, high school teacher on Tuesday sued for her right to bring a gun into the classroom for personal protection, clashing with anti-gun advocates fighting for years to rid schools of weapons. The teacher, who has a legal permit to carry a concealed handgun, filed a lawsuit against the Medford school district in southwestern Oregon to overturn the district's rule that prohibits teachers from bringing a weapon onto school grounds. The standoff between the teacher and the school district has grabbed the attention of both sides of the national gun debate.
■ UNITED STATES
Lizard swallows lizard
Seven-year-old Finley Collins thought her pet 30cm bearded dragon might be giving birth when she noticed an unusual protrusion near the lizard's tail. But Finley's father, Jeff Collins, feared it might be something more ominous and rushed Mushu to an animal hospital, where a veterinarian pulled out a 17.75cm toy rubber lizard. "I've never extracted a lizard from another lizard before," veterinarian John Rossi said. Rossi had sedated Mushu and pulled on the protrusion. "The next thing I knew, I was seeing legs and a body and a head. It was very strange to be tugging on this thing," he said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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