■ HONG KONG
Sleepwalker cleared
A sleepwalking woman who stabbed and strangled a friend was released from prison yesterday after being cleared of attempted murder. Zheng Wei-dong, 30, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of trying to kill her friend after a jury decided on Wednesday she had been in a state of "insane automatism" when she launched the attack. Three psychiatrists testified that Zheng had fallen asleep and acted out a violent dream when she wandered into the room of her friend and attacked her, saying: "I am the devil and I am killing you." She stabbed her friend's neck, almost severing the jugular vein, and then tried to smother her with a pillow in the incident last December, her trial was told. Zheng, who said she blacked out after offering her friend a slice of pear, denied attempted murder. The High Court must still decide whether Zheng should be sent to a psychiatric unit or placed under a supervision order.
■ INDONESIA
Protests over dance `theft'
Hundreds of people protested outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta yesterday over the use of a traditional Javanese dance in a tourism advertisement for Malaysia. The demonstrators traveled by bus from East Java and demanded that Kuala Lumpur offer an apology "to all the people of Indonesia," they said. "If the Indonesian government does not, we demand a severing of diplomatic ties," said Purnomo Sidi, the leader of the Association of Reog Ponorogo. Reog Ponorogo is a dance from East Java which features a dancer carrying a large headdress with the head of a tiger surrounded by peacock feathers.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Hospitals rescind offer
Hospitals yesterday scrapped an offer of a supermarket voucher for mothers who leave the maternity ward within six hours of giving birth, after critics slammed it as bribing impoverished women to forgo health care. The Capital and Coast District Health Board, which runs public hospitals in Wellington, initially said its offer of a NZ$100 (US$77) would apply next month and in January as a way to combat a shortage of midwives. But the board was forced to back down within hours of making the proposal public, following an outcry from midwives, interest groups and others.
■ NEPAL
Political leaders hold talks
Top political leaders held crisis talks yesterday to try to break the political deadlock that has gripped the country since former rebels quit the government, forcing the Nov. 22 elections to be postponed indefinitely. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala met with former rebel leader Prachanda and the heads of other main political parties in Kathmandu, said Arjun Narsingh, a spokesman for Koirala's Nepali Congress party. "The prime minister is trying to persuade the other political parties to first declare a new date for elections and then resolve other issues," he said. The elections for the Constituent Assembly, which would rewrite the Constitution, were postponed after the Maoists withdrew from the government in September.
■ INDONESIA
Anti-terror chief attacked
Police are investigating an attack on the Australian head of an anti-terrorism school in the central Java town of Semarang, officials said yesterday. Lester Cross, director of the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation, was unharmed when three men riding motorcycles fired at his car on Sunday after he refused to stop, a police officer said.
■ ITALY
Ryanair rejects crocodile
A passenger was forced off a Ryanair flight from Rome to Milan because she refused to move her meter-long plush crocodile, which was blocking an emergency exit, airport sources said on Wednesday. The flight, delayed by the squabble between the airline flight attendant and the passenger, finally took off after she got off the plane, along with her inanimate crocodile. Ryanair said in a statement the passenger was asked to leave for refusing repeated requests to handle her hand luggage as required under flight safety rules.
■ SUDAN
Teacher charged over doll
A British teacher has been charged with inciting religious hatred -- a crime punishable by 40 lashes -- because she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a class project. The country's top Muslim clerics pressed the government to ensure that Gillian Gibbons is punished. The charges against Gibbons angered the British government, which summoned the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the case. British and US Muslim groups also criticized the decision. Mohammed is a common name among Muslim men, but parents saw allowing it for a toy animal as an insult.
■ GERMANY
Georgian official arrested
Former Georgian defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, a one-time ally of his country's president but who became a prominent critic, has been arrested at Georgia's request, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Okruashvili was detained in Berlin on Tuesday after Georgian authorities issued a request for his arrest via Interpol, said Michael Grunwald, a spokesman for prosecutors in Berlin. Grunwald said prosecutors would now have to decide whether to request that he be held in custody pending extradition. He said Georgia would have 40 days to deliver full documentation on the case. He did not have details of Georgia's accusations against Okruashvili.
■ ITALY
Taxis drive home point
A wildcat protest by cab drivers caused gridlock in downtown Rome on Wednesday, while locals and tourists were left stranded at airports and train stations across the capital. Hundreds of Rome's white cabs converged in the central Piazza Venezia, completely blocking traffic in the square and surrounding streets while drivers protested in front of the nearby City Hall. Unions had been negotiating with Mayor Walter Veltroni over planned fare increases, but they walked away from the talks and called the sudden protest after authorities said they wanted to issue 500 new taxi licenses.
■ FRANCE
Man arrested for murders
Police have detained a 68-year-old retired "drag queen" performer after the murders of 18 people, mainly men, over three decades, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Detained on Tuesday at his home in Mulhouse, the man was being held along with a former lover who is a suspected accomplice. The suspect worked as a female impersonator in a string of cabarets until he retired in 1992, according to sources close to the investigation. The investigation concerns only six of the 18 killings at this point. Of those six victims, one was a female prostitute and five were men. The prosecution said it had "no formal proof" of their guilt at this stage.
■ CHILE
Charity to get sex donation
A high-class prostitute touched by a charity telethon's bid to raise money for handicapped children has stepped forward with her own contribution: 27 hours of sex. That's how much paid sex work the escort, Maria Carolina, has said she wants to contribute to the Teleton association. The US$5,400 she earns from the marathon session, scheduled for today through tomorrow will go to the charity, Carolina said, explaining she earns US$300 per 90-minute session. She said she would post a picture of the bank deposit slip on her Web site afterwards to dispel any doubts.
■ GUYANA
Bizarre appeal for a car
The former first lady appealed to her fellow citizens to lend her a car to carry out charitable work on Wednesday, complaining she currently has to walk or take a bus. In a bizarre news conference, Varshnie Jagdeo said state cars are no longer available to take her to her job at a children's charity. Her nearly nine-year marriage to President Bharrat Jagdeo ended with their separation in April. "If there is anyone with a spare vehicle who can lend it to me for a while, I will be very grateful," the British-trained economist said in the capital, Georgetown. "I'm amazed that I needed to be married for the nation's children to get assistance."
■ UNITED STATES
Mother, son jailed for life
A judge on Wednesday sentenced a man and his mother to life in prison for the murder of the man's wife, allegedly because she failed to follow Indian customs. Minaxiben Patel, 50, hung her head and stared at the courtroom floor throughout most of the sentencing hearing. She and her son, Chetankumar Patel, 33, were convicted on Nov. 20 on charges of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse, the Akron Beakon Journal reported. The body of Sejal Patel, 28, was found in the rear cargo compartment of a sport utility vehicle. She had been strangled, beaten and left wrapped in a blanket a short distance from her home.
■ BRAZIL
Bishop ready to die for river
A Roman Catholic bishop who is on the second day of a hunger strike said on Wednesday he was prepared to die unless the government stops work on a controversial river diversion project. The project would divert the Sao Francisco river, the nation's fourth largest, as part of a plan to irrigate the nation's arid northeast. The government estimates the plan will benefit about 12 million people in the desperately poor region. Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio and other opponents of the project say it will cause irreversible environmental damage and principally benefit large agribusiness interests and builders. Cappio said in telephone interview that he would not call off his hunger strike unless the government agreed to shelve the project.
■ UNITED STATES
Phone rage judge sacked
A judge in New York state lost his job after taking 46 people into custody after they all refused to admit whose mobile phone rang while court was in session, court sources said on Wednesday. Judge Robert Restaino was presiding over family court in Niagara Falls, New York, on March 11, 2005, when a mobile phone rang in the public seating area. The judge demanded that the owner of the phone make himself known, and when no one did he ordered 46 people present taken into custody. Most got out on bond but 14 who were unable wound up in jail.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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