■ UNITED STATES
"Murder case to be retried
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A man who admitted to dismembering his girlfriend and cooking her head in a pot had his murder conviction overturned on Monday by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Jenewicz testified at his 2002 trial that he shot Eunice Gillens in self-defense and dismembered her in a panic, putting her head in a pot to try to make it unrecognizable. Jenewicz asserted on appeal that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from two proposed witnesses. He wanted Gillens' mother to testify that her daughter had chased Jenewicz with a shotgun and kicked him down a staircase because he had tied her up. The case will be retried.
■ BRAZIL
Military may develop sub
Brazil is seeking to buy military technology from France that could help it become the first country in Latin America to have a nuclear submarine, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. Defense Minister Nelson Jobim traveled to France last week to discuss the possible purchase of a diesel-powered Scorpene class submarine that would "serve as a model for the development of a nuclear submarine, which is the main objective of his visit," Defense Ministry spokesman Jose Ramos said.
■ VENEZUELA
Thirty taken hostage in bank
Armed robbers held more than 30 hostages at a bank in Altagracia de Orituco in a standoff with hundreds of police that stretched into a second day yesterday with little sign of a breakthrough, officials said. The handful of hostage-takers seized employees and customers, including a pregnant woman and several young children, early on Monday after a botched robbery, regional officials and local media said. Hundreds of heavily armed troops were deployed across the road facing the bank. "They appear to be new at this," Manuel Granadillo, a regional security official told Union Radio.
■ UNITED STATES
Lawyer sentenced over maid
A former top Hollywood studio lawyer and his wife were sentenced on Monday by a Los Angeles judge after admitting to mistreating their Filipino maid in a case of "modern-day slavery," a court heard. US District Judge Dale Fischer ordered James Jackson, 53, a former vice-president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures to perform 200 hours of community service for admitting a charge of alien harboring. Jackson's wife Elizabeth, 54, was given a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to a charge of forced labor. Ruiz was forced to eat three-day-old food and to sleep on a dog basket after working 18 hours a day. Over the course of several months' employment between 2001 and 2002 she was paid only US$300.
■ CANADA
PM asks for NATO help
Ottawa will extend its military mission in Afghanistan only if another NATO country puts more soldiers in the dangerous south, the prime minister said on Monday, echoing the recommendation of an independent panel to withdraw unless the mission is reinforced. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government is under pressure to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar Province, the former Taliban stronghold, after the deaths of 78 soldiers and a diplomat. The mission is set to expire next year without an extension by lawmakers. The panel recommended last week that Canada continue its mission only if another NATO country musters 1,000 troops for Kandahar.
■ MYANMAR
"Activists face prison term
The military junta has charged 10 activists detained during last year's fuel protests, including top dissident Min Ko Naing, and they could face up to seven years in prison, legal sources said yesterday. The 10, most of whom were leaders of a 1988 student-led uprising suppressed bloodily by the army, are accused of violating the Printing and Publishing Act. It was not clear why they were not facing more serious charges of sedition for organizing small protests in Yangon last August against a sudden spike in fuel prices and deteriorating living standards.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Cannabis a cancer risk
Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer risk, scientists in New Zealand have found, as they warned of an "epidemic" of lung cancers linked to cannabis. Studies in the past have demonstrated that cannabis can cause cancer, but few have established a strong link between cannabis use and the actual incidence of lung cancer. In an article published in the European Respiratory Journal, the scientists said cannabis could be expected to harm the airways more than tobacco as its smoke contained twice the level of carcinogens, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, compared with tobacco cigarettes.
■ JAPAN
Firm offers `heartache leave'
Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more "heartache leave" on offer as they get older. Tokyo-based Hime & Co, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed. "Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick," chief executive Miki Hiradate, whose company of six women markets cosmetics and other goods targeted for women, said by telephone.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Four arrested for fake chips
Police said yesterday they had uncovered a suspected international crime ring which planned to cash in millions of dollars of fake casino chips smuggled from China. Police arrested four South Koreans who tried to convert some of the chips into cash at Kangwon Land in the eastern province of Gangwon, the only casino in the country that is legally accessible. "The fake chips are believed to have been made in China. We have requested Interpol to help investigate this case," detective Won Moon-hee said. "The chips are hard to tell from authentic ones, although they are slightly lighter than real ones."
■ PHILIPPINES
Former mayor killed
A gunman disguised as a policeman fatally shot a former mayor outside a courtroom in the Philippine capital yesterday, sending panicked employees fleeing from the building, officials said. The attacker escaped after killing Reynaldo Yap, former mayor of Sapang Dalaga Township in Misamis Occidental Province, as he was waiting in a corridor for a hearing in a murder case against him, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim said. One of Yap's bodyguards and a female bystander were wounded, Lim said. Police officers interviewed on radio said they could not immediately respond because they were unarmed, having deposited their weapons with court officers as part of a security procedure.
■ BELGIUM
"EU hopes to tempt Serbia
The EU sent a clear signal to Serbia on Monday that its path to membership would be opened if it rejected a nationalist pro-Russian candidate in the presidential runoff next Sunday and apprehended war criminal suspects from the Balkan conflicts. The signal emerged here from a meeting of EU foreign ministers looking for ways to give a political lift to the pro-Western liberal incumbent in Serbia, President Boris Tadic, who faces a close race with nationalist challenger Tomislav Nikolic. The group had hoped to offer a package of far-reaching economic and political ties and expedited membership, but they scaled it back to an offer of expanded cooperation in trade and visas.
■ GERMANY
Nudist flights to be offered
Holidaymakers will be able to indulge their love of naturism by taking to the skies nude on special flights being launched this year, a travel company said on Monday. "All the passengers will fly naked, but they are only allowed to undress once they are in the plane. But then they will be able to enjoy the hour-long flight in the way God intended," OssiUrlaub.de founder Enrico Hess said. The pilot and the flight attendants, however, will keep their clothes on. The flights are aimed specifically at former East Germans who feel nostalgic for the naturism that was authorized and extremely popular under communist rule.
■ ALGERIA
Car bomb explodes
A car bomb exploded yesterday outside a police station, killing at least three people and wounding several others, security officials said. The blast, which hit the city of Thenia, some 60km east of Algiers, seriously damaged several nearby houses, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The explosion was the latest in a wave of attacks signaling that Islamic fighters are regrouping in the country, where military crackdowns and amnesty offers had thinned the insurgents' ranks.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Military morale grim: report
An influential British parliamentary committee warned on Monday that the British military is so tightly stretched by extended warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan that its performance and morale are deteriorating. The House of Commons Defence Committee report said the military has been operating ``at or above'' its planned capacity in seven of the last eight years and for every year since 2002. The report paints a grim portrait of a military in crisis while trying to fight two difficult wars and says the armed forces are failing to meet their own goals for recruiting and retaining personnel and also for obtaining equipment.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Art scammer sentenced
An elderly art scammer who fooled museums, auction houses and galleries on both sides of the Atlantic avoided jail on Monday after a judge in the north England city of Bolton handed him a two-year suspended sentence. Police say George Greenhalgh, 84, his 83-year-old wife, Olive, and his 46-year-old son Shaun spent the better part of two decades cranking out statues, paintings and other objects and passing the sophisticated fakes off as priceless pieces of art. All three pleaded guilty in 2002 to charges of laundering money from the sale of forged artworks.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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