■ AUSTRALIA
Man dies in lawn altercation
A 66-year-old man was beaten to death while watering his lawn in an argument over Sydney's water restrictions, reports said yesterday. A 36-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was to appear in court yesterday charged with murder following the fatal altercation on Wednesday, police said. The alleged killer approached the older man as he watered his lawn in southern Sydney with a hose and an argument ensued. The alleged victim reportedly sprayed the younger man with the hose. Police said the younger man responded by punching and pushing the older man to the ground and kicking him. He died soon after being taken to hospital. The alleged victim was complying with Sydney's water restrictions when he was killed.
PHOTO: REUTERS
■ SINGAPORE
Airline bans sex on A380
Singapore Airlines, the first operator of the new Airbus A380, has dashed the hopes of sexual thrill-seekers planning to engage in amorous activity aboard the world's biggest jumbo jet. The carrier said it would ask passengers on the A380 to refrain from sex while ensconced in one of its 12 first class suites, which boast the world's first airborne double beds. "All we ask of customers, wherever they are on our aircraft, is to observe standards that don't cause offence to other customers and crew," the company said in a statement. While private, the double cabins are neither sound proofed nor completely sealed.
■ AUSTRALIA
Rape blamed on spider bite
A man who kidnapped and raped a woman blamed his actions on a spider, local media reported yesterday. Philip Spiers pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape, but told a court that the poison from a funnel-web spider bite had left him with a viral illness which led to his actions. But a toxicologist told the New South Wales State District Court there was no medical evidence to suggest a spider bite could be responsible for anger and hatred. Spiers, who kidnapped and raped the woman in 1997, was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in jail.
■ FRANCE
Arrests made in crackdown
Police have arrested 20 people this month as part of a European-wide crackdown on people who shared child pornography over the Internet, police said on Wednesday. Three of those rounded up were suspected of having abused children during trips abroad, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media. Police said the operation concerned countries throughout Europe, including Germany, Italy, Belgium and Britain, though they did not say how many people have been arrested in total across the continent.
■ GERMANY
Funeral TV to launch
A businessman plans to launch the country's first television channel dedicated to funerals and mourning, complete with death announcements and documentaries about cemeteries. The channel, which will be called Etos TV, is meant to inform people about funeral practices and act as a counter to a growing trend in the country to be buried anonymously, said Kerstin Gernig from the German undertakers' association. "Every person has left his mark, raised children, paid taxes, done something. We would like them to be shown respect. This channel will inform people in a discreet, serious way how to bury their loved ones," she said.
■ IRELAND
Metric switch going slowly
When police caught driver David Clarke driving 180kph in a 100kph zone, he looked likely to lose his license. But a judge reduced the charge and let the 31-year-old stay on the road after concluding the speed did not look as bad when converted into miles, or 112 miles per hour. District Court Judge Denis McLoughlin lowered the charge to driving carelessly, and fined him 1,000 euros (US$1,450); if convicted of the tougher charge of driving dangerously, Clarke would have lost his license. The episode underscored the country's slow mental conversion to metric. The country switched its speed limits from miles to kilometers in January 2005.
■ IRELAND
Bulb furor hits hospitals
The major labor union for electricians has ordered members to lay down their tools in several hospitals because the government's Health Service Executive has authorized maintenance workers to change light bulbs. Hospital-contracted electricians began refusing to do work in July, arguing that the hospital needed to negotiate new terms and conditions for their light bulb-changing expertise following the installation of new lighting fixtures. The dispute worsened this week when electricians withdrew backup for potential losses of power at two hospitals needed to keep patients' dialysis and life-support machines running.
■ RWANDA
ITU to invest in Africa
Africa is set to receive investment worth US$55 billion to boost its goal of securing universal Internet access for the continent by 2012, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said on Wednesday. The commitments were made at the two-day Connect Africa summit that ended in Kigali on Tuesday, with a pledge to speed up the availability of technology, the ITU said in a statement. The ITU along with the African Development Bank jointly vowed to connect all African capitals and major cities with a broadband infrastructure.
■ UNITED STATES
Chinese national charged
A Chinese man has been charged with attempting to export night-vision technology in violation of the arms embargo, federal prosecutors said. The effort was thwarted by an undercover agent working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said a criminal complaint filed on Wednesday by the agency. Xu Bing, 37, who prosecutors said works for Everbright Science & Technology of Nanjing, China, was ordered held without bail by Magistrate Esther Salas on Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine if convicted. Xu was arrested on Monday, accused of making false statements on his entry visa application.
■ UNITED STATES
Church fined millions
A jury ordered an evangelical church on Wednesday to pay nearly US$11 million in damages for picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq and claiming the war was punishment for tolerating gays. The nine-member federal jury ruled that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church caused mental suffering to Albert Snyder, who says he became depressed after they paraded outside the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew last year. They waved signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Fag troops." A video of the protests was played in court during the week-long trial of Fred Phelps, who founded the church in 1955, and two of his daughters.
■ UNITED STATES
Scout leader pleads guilty
A former Girl Scout leader has pleaded guilty to stealing her scouts' identities in order to obtain US$87,000 in illegal tax refunds. Holly Barnes, 33, entered pleas to 19 counts of making false tax refund claims to the Internal Revenue Service and 15 counts of identity theft before US District Judge Casey Rodgers on Wednesday. Barnes, who is being held in jail, could face a maximum of 230 years in prison on those charges and an unrelated shoplifting count when sentenced. Her lawyer did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Barnes admitted asking parents of the girls in her troop to provide their children's social security government identification numbers for a fake medical release she claimed was required to take trips. She then electronically filed false tax returns that included Social Security numbers of 15 Scouts and her own four children to obtain refunds.
■ CANADA
Dalai Lama issues plea
The Dalai Lama asked Canada to take in thousands of Tibetan refugees living in exile in Nepal and India, he said in an interview with the daily Globe and Mail, published on Wednesday. The Tibetan spiritual leader told the newspaper he had made the request during formal talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday. During the meeting, the Dalai Lama said he thanked Harper for Canada having previously accepted 4,000 Tibetan refugees and asked: "Please take a few thousand more." Immigration officials, however, were cool to the proposal, saying the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) does not view Tibetans as a population in need of resettlement because they are not facing persecution in India. "According to the UNHCR, they're not facing persecution in India. But having said that, we are prepared to review applications on a case-by-case basis if they're referred to us by the UNHCR," said Mike Fraser, spokesman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley.
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‘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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