■ NEW ZEALAND
Yachtmen rescued at sea
Ten Frenchmen from a racing yacht that capsized yesterday were winched to safety by helicopter and flown to dry land, rescue officials said. Three rescue helicopters winched the crew of the Groupama III to safety in mid-afternoon and flew them to Taieri Airfield near the southern city of Dunedin, Rescue Coordination Center spokesman Ross Henderson said. The sailors were uninjured and all 10 were in survival gear and sitting on the upturned hull of the catamaran when they were picked up about 145km off the coast, he said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Silent song tops charts
It's a doggone chartbuster -- a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand record charts and is looking to go global. A Very Silent Night recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit number one at Christmas, but has been receiving mixed responses from listeners. "The most violent one was a dog that physically attacked the radio when it was played and went quite berserk and totally destroyed it," said Bob Kerridge, chief executive of animal welfare group, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "On the other side of the scale, they just lie down and did nothing."
■ AUSTRALIA
Antarctic waters warming
The longest continuous record of temperature changes in the Southern Ocean has found that Antarctic waters are warming and sea levels are rising, an Australian scientist said yesterday. The data from a joint Australian, French and US program has been collected over 15 years by the French supply ship Astrolabe during its regular voyages to the Antarctic base Dumont D'Urville. Steve Rintoul, who leads the Australian side of the program, said the data had given scientists a foundation for studying the remote and inhospitable Antarctic waters and how changes there could impact on the global climate.
■ FIJI
British lawyer deported
A British lawyer representing the International Bar Association has been arrested and deported on her arrival on the orders of the post-coup interim government, officials said on Sunday. Felicia Johnston was detained by immigration officials when her flight arrived on Saturday morning and put on a Brisbane-bound flight seven hours later. She was part of a panel of jurists scheduled to visit the troubled nation to examine the state of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. However, her deportation has prompted the international law body to suspend the study visit which was scheduled to start yesterday.
■ JAPAN
Drunken Marine enters home
Tokyo voiced anger yesterday after a drunken US Marine was found passed out in a local home on the southern island of Okinawa, where just a week ago another US soldier was arrested on rape allegations. "I only have one thing to express and that is our true anger," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, the top government spokesman. Corporal Shawn Cody Jake, 21, was found at 4:25am yesterday morning on a sofa inside the house of a local family in Nago City who did not know the man, according to the Okinawa police. "He was arrested at the scene for trespassing," a police spokesman said.
■ GUYANA
Gunmen hit police station
Unidentified gunmen late on Sunday killed 12 people during an assault on a police station at a gold-mining township in the southwest, in the second massacre to have occurred in less than one month, authorities said. Regional Chairman Hilbert Knights said three police and nine civilians were killed and several others injured. He said that at least six men had arrived via the Essequibo River in a speedboat and invaded the Bartica police station. Divisional Police Commander Gavin Primo said the gunmen, who were dressed in military fatigues, took weapons stored at the station. A team of soldiers and police were deployed to the area to track down the gunmen, TV reports said.
■ FRANCE
Police nab suspected rioters
More than 1,000 police raided housing projects outside Paris in an early morning sweep yesterday, detaining at least 20 people in a bid to find rioters who led an outburst of violence last year, police said. Police were mobilized for raids in Villiers-le-Bel and in the neighboring towns of Sarcelles, Gonesse and Arnouville as part of the investigation into the November riots, a police official said. Violence erupted in late November in Villiers-le-Bel after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car. Police said it was an accident, but many residents were unconvinced.
■ SPAIN
Cuban dissidents take exile
Four dissidents released after spending years in a Cuban prison for their political beliefs flew into exile in Spain on Sunday. Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, Omar Pernet Hernandez, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo and Alejandro Gonzalez Raga landed in Madrid with 13 relatives and friends. Alvarez said Cuban authorities gave him a choice -- exile or jail. "It was a very difficult decision, to leave so many brothers and colleagues behind was a heartrending experience," Alvarez said. The Cubans were among 75 dissidents arrested in a crackdown in 2003. They were tried and convicted of being US mercenaries whose aim was to undermine Fidel Castro's government.
■ ITALY
Body identified as tourist
A body found on Sunday in Venice's lagoon is that of a British man missing since Valentine's Day, reports said. Richard John Raynor, a 23-year-old from Doncaster, England who had been on a vacation with his girlfriend, was found under a bridge connecting the lagoon city to the mainland, media said. Raynor went missing early on Thursday as he and his girlfriend were making their way back to their hotel after a night out, a police statement said. Raynor disappeared in a Venice square while his girlfriend was looking for a taxi. She tried calling his cell phone but found it switched off and contacted police after Raynor didn't turn up at their hotel, the statement said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Plan for metal detectors
Police are to be given money to erect hundreds of metal-detecting "knife arches" and search wands to help tackle violent crime, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on Sunday. She told BBC television the move was part of a strategic plan to tackle violence. Police across the country have already been using the metal detectors in trials at the entrance to pubs and clubs, with some forces also planning to use them at schools. Public concern remains high over levels of knife crime, particularly among inner-city youths.
■ UNITED NATIONS
UN staffer jumps to death
A woman who worked for the UN died on Sunday after falling from the 19th floor of the UN Secretariat Building, authorities said. Police and UN security officers at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the woman was in her 40s and had jumped from a window after showing up to work early in the morning. "At this time there is no suspicion of foul play," UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. UN officials would not confirm her identity even after her next of kin were notified, Okabe said.
■ UNITED STATES
Kitty lost in subway found
A skittish kitten that scampered out of its carrier on a subway platform has been found after 25 days in the underground tunnels. Transit workers tracked down six-month-old Georgia under midtown Manhattan on Saturday. Police reunited her with owner Ashley Phillips, a 24-year-old Bronx librarian. After hearing that the black cat might have been spotted below Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street, track workers Mark Dalessio and Efrain LaPorte went through the area making "meow" sounds. Georgia responded, and they found her cowering in a drain between two tracks.
■ UNITED STATES
Suspect to be tested
A man accused of hacking a Manhattan therapist to death rambled and appeared agitated during his arraignment on Sunday before the judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. David Tarloff, 39, was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. Acting Supreme Court Justice Ruth Pickholz ordered that Tarloff have a psychiatric evaluation before being brought back to court on Saturday. Tarloff was arrested on Saturday after investigators matched his palm prints with those at the bloody scene where therapist Kathryn Faughey was killed last Tuesday evening.
■ BRAZIL
Silva visits Antarctica
Brazil intends to increase its operations in Antarctica, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday after visiting the region with his wife, son and several government officials. "We are going to have to expand our presence here with more investments and laboratory ships," Silva told reporters covering his trip, which was postponed 24 hours by bad weather. "We will also have to improve the base and bring in more researchers." Silva visited Brazil's Commandante Ferraz Antarctic base, which is marking its 25th year. Brazilian scientists conduct meteorological, biological and oceanographic studies, as well as research involving nuclear geophysics and geomagnetism.
■ UNITED STATES
Games a big hit at libraries
Video game events at public libraries are drawing crowds of teens, including about 100 competing monthly at Guitar Hero at the Rochester Hills Public Library, near Detroit, Michigan. "Getting teens to come to the library is right up there with getting them to go to church: It's not exactly the first place they want to go," Christine Lind Hage, library director, told the Detroit Free Press on Sunday. Hage stocked the shelves with 1,823 games. And the games are hot items, with an average of 1,300 checked out daily. A contest in Rochester Hills was held on Feb. 9, and similar events are being held at other libraries. "It's a big social event," said Stephanie Jaczkowski, 17. ""I've met a lot of friends there and they're really good friends.
NEW STORM: investigators dubbed the attacks on US telecoms ‘Salt Typhoon,’ after authorities earlier this year disrupted China’s ‘Flax Typhoon’ hacking group Chinese hackers accessed the networks of US broadband providers and obtained information from systems that the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Saturday. The networks of Verizon Communications, AT&T and Lumen Technologies, along with other telecoms, were breached by the recently discovered intrusion, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. The hackers might have held access for months to network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with court-authorized US requests for communications data, the report said. The hackers had also accessed other tranches of Internet traffic, it said. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
STICKING TO DEFENSE: Despite the screening of videos in which they appeared, one of the defendants said they had no memory of the event A court trying a Frenchman charged with drugging his wife and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her screened videos of the abuse to the public on Friday, to challenge several codefendants who denied knowing she was unconscious during their actions. The judge in the southern city of Avignon had nine videos and several photographs of the abuse of Gisele Pelicot shown in the courtroom and an adjoining public chamber, involving seven of the 50 men accused alongside her husband. Present in the courtroom herself, Gisele Pelicot looked at her telephone during the hour and a half of screenings, while her ex-husband
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
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
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