■ AUSTRALIA
Man attacks PM's house
A man allegedly threw a burning bag at Prime Minister John Howard's official residence in Sydney yesterday before being taken into custody, police said. The man, believed to be in his 30s, approached the prime minister's harborside mansion Kirribilli House just before midday and threw a burning cotton shoulder bag over the gates, New South Wales police said. They said the man was apprehended and was being questioned by police. Media reports said the bag landed in the grounds of the historic residence but was immediately extinguished and no damage occurred.
■ AUSTRALIA
Mandarin may be required
Studying Mandarin could become compulsory in some public schools next year, as the language begins to elbow out the older favorites of Latin, French and Japanese. Sydney's Conservatorium High School may make Mandarin a mandatory subject next year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Mandarin is already compulsory at some private schools in New South Wales state, with some students taking lessons from the age of about 10. Last month China overtook Japan as Australia's No. 1 trading partner.
■ PAKISTAN
Bootleg liquor kills 27
Twenty-seven people have been killed in the Pakistani city of Karachi after drinking poisonous bootleg liquor, police said yesterday. "The poisonous liquor has so far claimed 27 lives and another 11 are being treated in different hospitals," said Javed Bukhari, a deputy inspector general of police. An inquiry has been ordered and three police officers have been suspended for failing to stop the sale of the homemade liquor, he said. "Apparently, the toxic liquor was supplied to all these people by the same source," he said. The dead included Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Liquor is heavily restricted in Muslim Pakistan.
■ JAPAN
Prostitute warning issued
Japan has warned its countrymen against visiting prostitutes in China because of the risk of getting detained and having to pay a fine. The Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong issued a circular reminding Japanese that prostitution is forbidden in China. "You could be detained for 10-15 days and have to pay a penalty of up to 5,000 yuan [US$660]. You may get evicted and get banned from entering the country for some time," says the note, also posted on the Japanese Embassy's Web site.
■ ROMANIA
Bear enters psychiatric unit
Patients at a psychiatric hospital were startled on Thursday when a bear and her two cubs smashed a window, pushed open a door and entered in search of food. The bear dug into some food in a metal canister, which she dragged outside. Staff at the hospital called hunters, who arrived at the hospital, which is in a forest near the mountain resort of Predeal, 120km north of Bucharest. "We shot her with a tranquilizer," said Aurel Iordache, one of the hunters. Television footage broadcast by Realitatea TV showed the bear with her head stuck in the canister. She was seen waddling into the forest, woozy from the effects of the tranquilizer.
■ NIGERIA
Legislators trade blows
Legislators traded punches and insults on Thursday over a suspected US$5 million spending spree by the speaker of the House of Representatives that has caused a national scandal and paralyzed the House. Patricia Etteh is under investigation by nine House members over allegations that she flouted House rules by approving contracts worth US$5 million to renovate her official residence and that of her deputy and to buy 12 cars. Nigeria consistently ranks as one of the world's most corrupt countries in an annual list drawn up by watchdog Transparency International.
■ ISRAEL
Birds cause warplane alert
Fighter pilots scrambled warplanes yesterday after radar spotted a potential airborne enemy flying from Syria -- only to discover the culprits were migratory birds, army radio reported. Israeli radar picked up the birds over the Syrian border but officers were unable to rule them out as enemy aircraft from the screen, the radio said. Tensions have soared on Israel's northern border with Syria since Damascus said its air defenses fired on Israeli warplanes that dropped munitions deep inside its territory in the early hours of Sept. 6.
■ FRANCE
Sarkozy says no to Turkey
French President Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed on Thursday he did not believe Turkey should be admitted to the EU, while calling for a "true partnership" with the mainly Muslim nation. "I do not believe that Turkey belongs in Europe, and for a simple reason, which is that it is in Asia minor," Sarkozy said in a prime-time interview on TF1 and France 2 television. "What I wish to offer Turkey is a true partnership with Europe, it is not integration with Europe," said the president, who recently appeared to have softened his opposition to Turkish membership of the European bloc. Public hostility to Ankara's entry to the EU was seen as one of the reasons for the French rejection of a draft EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.
■ FINLAND
US citizens claim asylum
Five US citizens have claimed political asylum in Finland, border police said on Thursday. The five US citizens -- two adults and three children thought to be from the same family -- arrived in the country on Tuesday. But authorities are refusing to reveal on what precise grounds the group are claiming asylum -- with local media speculating that it is opposition to the Iraq war. However, with Major Janne Piiroinen, the head of border control at Helsinki's airport, declaring that Finland regards the US as a "safe country," it appears unlikely their case will be successful.
■ UNITED STATES
Drug message sent to cop
A man who thought he was asking a friend about a drug deal instead sent a text message to the West Virginia state police and was arrested, authorities said. Joshua Wayne Cadle, 19, allegedly sent the message on Wednesday to a phone number that used to belong to an unidentified friend. The number is now held by the state police, Trooper B.H. Moore said on Thursday. "He text messaged that and asked his friend if he wanted to buy some reefer," Moore said. Another trooper who received the message responded and set up a meeting. Moore arrested Cadle on Wednesday night in South Charleston, West Virginia.
■ UNITED STATES
Nude robber was bored
A 24-year-old man arrested in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, for holding up a convenience store wearing nothing but a hat has told police he did it because he was bored, local reports said. Police were questioning Carl Wagner over a separate incident of indecent exposure when they recognized him from a surveillance video in which he can be seen entering the store naked, but apparently covering his manhood with a hand. "We actually had an incident where the gentleman lives where he was exposing himself to two females. He was initially brought in on that accusation," Carbondale police sergeant Thomas Heller said. "We put two and two together; it was definitely him," he added.
■ UNITED STATES
Man pulled from chimney
Firefighters had to tear though a wall to rescue a man who became stuck while trying to climb through a chimney into a home. Alejandro Valencio said that he was drunk when he climbed down the chimney about 3:30am on Tuesday to see a woman who lived in the home. "Everyone do stupid things sometimes when they're drunk," he said. The woman, Connie Deweese, said she had known Valencio for about seven or eight months but told him to stay away. She said she locked the door to her home, but "somehow he got to the roof." "I've dated a lot of psychos in my life, but nobody like that," Deweese said.
■ UNITED STATES
Anchor in breast brouhaha
A television station in Kentucky apologized to viewers after an Internet video showed a longtime weather anchor clowning around in front of a computer graphic of a woman's breast. WBKO-TV said on its Web site that it has reprimanded weather anchor Chris Allen for "acting in a juvenile and unprofessional manner." Rick McCue, station general manager, said Allen remains an employee. The tape was never aired and was stolen by a former employee, who posted it on the Internet, the station said. The video showed Allen next to a giant graphic of a woman's body in profile under the text "Breast Milk Donors." A grinning Allen appears to lick the nipple and squeeze the breast while making honking noises.
■ MEXICO
Bush `cockiest': Vicente Fox
US President George W. Bush "is the cockiest guy I have ever met," former Mexican president Vicente Fox says in an autobiography. Fox, who left office in December after a six-year term, worked closely with Bush on immigration and trade in the pair's first year in office in 2001. Fox, a conservative and a rancher like Bush, said in his book Revolution of Hope that their first meeting in 1996 left a mark. "My first impression of George W. Bush was one of total self-confidence. He is quite simply the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life," Fox wrote.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS