■ SRI LANKA
Navy says 12 rebels killed
The navy said yesterday that at least 12 rebels were killed when it sank a suspected Tamil Tiger arms smuggling ship in international waters. "At least 12 to 15 Tiger cadres should have been on board," navy spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake said. "There were no known survivors after we attacked and sank their ship." Three naval craft were involved in the attack, he said, adding that there were no casualties among government troops.
■ INDIA
Judge sent to law school
New Delhi's High Court justices, annoyed with lower court judges who issue problematic rulings, have decided to send one of them back to law school. In an order issued late on Friday, Judge R.K. Tiwari was told to return for a three-month refresher course after issuing an arrest warrant in defiance of a previous High Court ruling. "Since Tiwari does not have even elementary knowledge of the criminal law and procedure it would be appropriate that he undergoes a refresher course," Justice V.B. Gupta wrote.
■ PAKISTAN
Twenty-six killed in clashes
At least 26 people, including four civilians, were killed yesterday in clashes between militants and soldiers in a restive area, the military and residents said. Security forces launched an attack against militant bases and hide-outs in North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said. At least 20 militants and two security officials were killed in the fighting south of the town of Mir Ali, Arshad said. "We got this information by intercepting the militants' own communications," the general said. Local residents said four civilians also died, including three women.
■ EGYPT
Bedouins raid rival clan
Bedouins in trucks raided a rival clan on Saturday, wounding three people and sparking protests by residents in the northeastern Sinai city of Al Arish that police used tear gas to break up. Members of the Tarabin tribe arrived in six trucks shortly after the breaking of the Ramadan fast in the evening and shot at members of the Fawhakariya tribe for 15 minutes, lightly wounding three people, police said. Ten thousand members of the Fawhakariya then marched on the center of the city and threw stones at city hall, the police station and a university, accusing the police of having let the Tarabins escape and shouting anti-government slogans, a local politician said.
■ ISRAEL
Olmert investigated for graft
Police will question Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tomorrow in connection with the privatization of the nation's second-largest bank -- one of two cases in which the leader is being investigated on suspicion of corruption. Police said yesterday that Olmert would be questioned in his office. Olmert has been dogged by corruption allegations throughout his three-decade political career but never has been convicted. He consistently has denied any wrongdoing. Authorities suspect that when Olmert was finance minister in 2005, he tried to influence the sale of the government's controlling interest in Bank Leumi to favor two associates.
■ ITALY
`Big babies' get tax break
Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa has sparked uproar by offering "big babies" a tax break if they let go of their mother's apron strings and leave home. More than a third of men over the age of 30 live at home with their parents, a phenomenon blamed on sky-high apartment rents and bleak job prospects as much as a liking for mamma's cooking. Padoa-Schioppa offered to come to the rescue with a 1,000 euro (US$1,411) tax break for 20 and 30-somethings who rent. He said the move was aimed at bamboccioni, which evokes images of clumsy, overgrown male babies.
■ NETHERLANDS
Orangutan has tattoo fetish
Sibu the orangutan has miffed his keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes. Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived in Amsterdam two years ago, but orangutans aren't his type. "He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said a spokeswoman for the park. Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes. That, the spokeswoman said, was common for orangutans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a tattooed keeper who reared him.
■ RUSSIA
Activists detained at event
Officials briefly detained five foreign activists on Saturday, as international pressure mounted on Moscow to find the killers of journalist Anna Politkovskaya almost a year on from her murder. The activists -- a Briton, three Spaniards and a German -- were arrested along with a local colleague in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, in the western Volga region. They were there to join events marking the anniversary of the murder of Politkovskaya, who was one of few local journalists to investigate war crimes in Chechnya and openly criticize President Vladimir Putin.
■ UNITED STATES
Nude sandwich offer offends
"Naked Lunch" just doesn't sound appetizing to some people. A sandwich called the Skinny Dip, featuring sliced prime rib in a baguette roll, has been offered free of charge to anyone willing to plunge naked from The Black Frog Restaurant's dock into a lake in Greenville, Maine. Since the free sandwich offer was introduced three years ago, owner Leigh Turner has found plenty of takers. ``We've had two or three a week,'' he said. But now the promotion is running into trouble: A patron apparently suggested to town officials that the activity be banned. Turner did not attend the selectmen's meeting, but said he would remove the free lunch offer if asked to do so. The skinny dip was typically done at night, no frontal nudity was exposed to customers and a towel was readily available, Turner said.
■ CUBA
Train hits bus, 28 dead
At least 28 people were killed and 73 injured after a train slammed into a bus on Saturday, state television reported. The train had left the nation's second city, Santiago, headed for Manzanillo, in Granma Province. It slammed into the bus at a crossing in Yara, the report said. Officials rushed to the scene and other people came to help the injured and give blood, the report added. Police are investigating the cause of the crash.
■ UNITED STATES
Ostrich killer sentenced
A California man was sentenced to five months in jail after he and a friend gunned down an ostrich that had kicked them as their female companions laughed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Saturday. "This whole thing is about male pride," prosecutor Steve Wagstaffe said. The bird, named Gaylord, kicked Timothy McKevitt, 19, and Jonathon Porter, 21, last October when they trespassed on an ostrich ranch south of San Francisco after a night of drinking. McKevitt was kicked in the ribs and knocked over, while Porter suffered scrapes and bruises. The two men returned with a rifle and shotgun seeking revenge, the Chronicle said. They fired at least seven shots at Gaylord, according to a police report. McKevitt, free on bail, was ordered to turn himself in on Nov. 3. Porter was sentenced in March to seven months in jail.
■ UNITED STATES
Virginia lawmaker dies
Representative Jo Ann Davis, who represented Virginia in the House of Representatives, died Saturday after losing a battle with breast cancer, her office announced. She was 57. Davis was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and had a re-occurrence earlier this year, officials said. President George W. Bush said in a statement he was "deeply saddened" by Davis' passing. "She was a fine example of a public servant who worked hard to cut government waste to ensure the people's money was used wisely," Bush said.
■ UNITED STATES
Bus fits big family's needs
A 15-bed bus once used to transport the now-defunct Port Huron Flags, Michigan, minor league ice hockey team has been sold to an Arkansas couple with 17 children. When the team folded in May, Fred Minnie posted an ad trying to sell the bus in an auto magazine. He was contacted by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, whose 17th child Jennifer Danielle was born on Aug. 2. "There's not too many of those buses with 15 beds in it," Minnie said. Jim Bob Duggar said the family hopes to travel to visit relatives in Ohio. "We've done a limited amount of travel in it so far," he said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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