■ INDONESIA
President creates pop CD
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has composed an album of 10 heartfelt songs for release across the nation this week. My Longing for You, a 50-minute album released on compact disc, features pop songs written by the president and performed by prominent Indonesian singers. The cover shows Yudhoyono clutching an acoustic guitar, his solemn face looming over a line-up of musicians who perform songs such as The Sun is Shining, A Song Under the Moonlight, The Power of God and Good Luck in Your Struggle. The president said he composed all 10 songs after becoming president in 2004.
■ INDONESIA
Anthrax poisoning spreads
Three villages in the east have been closed off to outsiders after more than 750 people fell ill from eating anthrax-infected buffalo meat, an official said yesterday. "We've now recorded 761 people from three villages falling ill after eating buffalo meat infected with anthrax," local official Cornelis Wara said. Veterinary official Maria Geong said more teams had been sent to Ende District to locate and vaccinate livestock, reinforcing several sent at the weekend after 20 villagers were initially reported ill. "We have sent 20,000 doses of vaccine to the three villages and several areas in Ende District," she said.
■ CAMBODIA
First adulterer convicted
The courts have handed down the first adultery conviction under a controversial monogamy law that was passed to curb the practice of keeping mistresses, court officials said yesterday. Football federation vice president Kek Ravy, a nephew of disgraced royalist Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was fined US$250 after being found guilty of cheating on his wife, prosecutor Sok Kalyan said. "The court has fined him," Sok Kalyan said. The law was implemented last year after Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at men for bringing mistresses rather than wives to events.
■ CHINA
Jade mining out of hand
Authorities have ordered a crackdown on private mining of a precious jade whose soaring value in local markets has lured thousands of people to a remote river to extract it. The value of Hotan jade, a rare nephrite found in alluvial deposits along the Yurungkax River in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and prized for centuries, has exploded in recent years, fueled by speculators and its increasing scarcity. The jade had drawn about 100,000 people and thousands of earth-moving vehicles to the area, the Beijing News reported yesterday. Many villagers had formed collectives and spent vast sums in unsuccessful attempts to find the jade.
■ CHINA
Arrests in quality crackdown
Authorities have arrested 774 people in a nationwide crackdown on the manufacturing and sale of substandard food, drugs and other products, the country's quality inspector said. The arrests stemmed from 626 cases since August, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site on Monday. "All local authorities and all departments have maintained high pressure on those illegally manufacturing and selling such products," the notice said. "Authorities have cracked one large case after another and investigated and banned a large number of perpetrators, striking vigorously against them."
■ CHAD
Zoe's Ark members charged
A judge charged 16 Europeans late on Monday with kidnapping or complicity after a charity attempted to fly more than 100 children to France, the prosecutor's office said. Nine French nationals, including members of the charity Zoe's Ark and journalists, were formally charged with "kidnapping of minors with the aim of compromising their civil status" and "swindling," an official said. Seven Spanish members of the plane's flight crew, who were to have flown the 103 children out of the country, were charged with complicity. A Belgian pilot who was also arrested is being held in N'Djamena and could be charged separately.
■ GERMANY
Heartbreak exhibit opens
The Museum of Broken Relationships -- a temporary space in an East Berlin 1930s department store -- has become a donor center for mementos of break-ups. The public has been invited to drop off objects left over after flings, partnerships and marriages. The response has been overwhelming. Objects include an axe used by one woman to break up her ex-girlfriend's furniture, plus the broken furniture. Alongside the engagement rings and love letters there is a wedding dress, gall stones, a Vespa, a cuddly tiger, a fax and a pair of inline skates. There is even a wooden leg from a Balkan war veteran who fell in love with a nurse in a field hospital.
■ GERMANY
Drunken man causes fuss
Passengers on a train mistook a Halloween reveler dressed up as a gore-covered zombie for a murder victim and called the police. The 24-year-old man fell into a drunken slumber on his way home from a Halloween party in Hamburg, police in the northern town of Bad Segeberg said on Monday. Believing his hands and face were smeared with blood, passengers alerted police after getting no response from him. A first aid team called to the scene soon cleared up the confusion. Police told the man to remove his make-up before continuing his journey.
■ ISRAEL
Olmert gains in popularity
Approval ratings for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have climbed since he announced he is suffering from prostate cancer and vowed to remain in office, opinion polls revealed yesterday. Sixty-one percent of voters said his public announcement on Monday was courageous, while 36 percent disagreed, according to a survey published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. An overwhelming majority -- 87 percent -- said he should continue on the job. Another 61 percent said they were moved by Olmert's plight and 41 percent described his performance as prime minister as good, up from 35 percent a month ago.
■ SOMALIA
Pirates capture ship
Pirates have captured a South Korean cargo vessel off Mogadishu in the latest seizure in one of the world's most dangerous waterways, an official said yesterday. Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said shipping sources confirmed the vessel was taken on Monday or early yesterday. There were 22 crew on board. "We have no more details yet," he said. On Sunday, pirates hijacked a Japanese-owned chemical tanker with 23 people on board. Four other boats -- a Comoros-registered cargo ship, two Tanzanian fishing vessels, and a ship from Taiwan -- are also being held by armed groups.
■ UNITED STATES
Flag stirs up VP controversy
Vice President Dick Cheney went hunting on Monday at a secluded New York state gun club where well-heeled enthusiasts shoot ducks and pheasants. Cheney's visit to Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club stirred up controversy when a photographer took a picture of a small Confederate flag hanging inside a garage. The photo was shown to civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who issued a statement demanding that Cheney "leave immediately." In a statement issued on Monday, Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said neither Cheney nor anyone on his staff saw such a flag at the hunt club.
■ UNITED STATES
Mass murder case solved
A convicted burglar pleaded guilty to the deaths of five people who were abducted from a fast-food restaurant in one of Texas' most notorious mass murder cases. Romeo Pinkerton, 49, admitted to the deaths on Monday as part of a plea bargain offered by the Texas Attorney General's Office. In exchange for the plea, Pinkerton received a life sentence for each of the five deaths. Pinkerton and his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, were accused of abducting the victims during a holdup of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983. The victims were found dead the next morning along a remote road about in nearby Rusk County.
■ UNITED STATES
Activists protest float
Human rights activists packed a Pasadena, California, city council meeting on Monday to object to the Rose Parade's decision to include a float honoring the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Some of them included Chinese-Americans who claimed they were victims of persecution in China. They said that Beijing should not be represented in the New Year's Day parade because of its human rights record. One man testified that he had been tortured in a Chinese prison, showing his bruised arm to council members. The US$400,000 float is being paid for by wealthy Chinese-American donors and a Pasadena-based label maker with business ties to China.
■ UNITED STATES
Oprah begs forgiveness
A tearful Oprah Winfrey has begged forgiveness from parents of girls at her school in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, following allegations of sexual and physical abuse by staff members. In a meeting Winfrey told families: "I've disappointed you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy is intended for children from poor families. According to reports, a matron had grabbed one student by the throat and thrown her against a wall. Other students have said they were sworn at and assaulted. The allegations were said to be especially painful for Winfrey, who has said she suffered abuse as a child.
■ VENEZUELA
US envoy meets Chavez
The new US ambassador to Venezuela met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday, calling it a positive start toward improving tense relations. US Ambassador Patrick Duddy said they discussed expanding cooperation in areas such as counter-drug operations. In a photograph released by the government the two appeared smiling as they chatted. Duddy, a former senior official in the state department's Latin America bureau, replaced William Brownfield, who left in July to become the top US diplomat in neighboring Colombia. Despite growing hostility between Chavez and the Bush administration in recent years, the US remains the top buyer of Venezuelan oil.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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