■ JAPAN
Police find Web threat girl
Japanese police said yesterday they had tracked down a 10-year-old girl who put a notice on an Internet message board warning that she was going to kill another girl. Believed to be the youngest person accused in a spate of similar Internet threat cases in Japan, the girl posted a message last month that said: "I'm going to kill an elementary school girl on Feb. 29 at 1pm" in the Tokyo suburb of Saitama, police said. Because of her age she was referred to counseling and was not arrested. The girl said she wrote the words to play a prank. She didn't know it would cause such trouble. "She is reflecting on her act," said Tadayoshi Sakuma, juvenile investigator with Saitama police.
■ AUSTRALIA
Irwin suffers legal setback
The widow of television's Crocodile Hunter yesterday lost the first round in a legal battle over more than A$2.5 million (US$2.3 million) that the conservationist's zoo allegedly owes creditors. Alyssa Treasury Services, a debt recovery agency, is suing Australia Zoo, the wildlife park that was operated by Steve Irwin and his widow, Terri, for money allegedly owed to trustee partners. Documents presented to the court indicate Singapore-based investment bank HQZ Argentum helped set up the trust, which then ran into trouble with the Australian Tax Office. Yesterday, Judge Maree Kennedy of the County Court in Victoria State, where the suit was filed last month, ruled against Terri Irwin's application that the case be heard in Queensland where the zoo is located.
■ JAPAN
Obama writes to Obama
US Senator Barack Obama has sent a letter saluting his supporters in a Japanese town that shares his name, delighting residents who are rooting for him to win his party's presidential nomination. The mayor of the western town of Obama last year sent a package to the presidential hopeful that included a set of local lacquer chopsticks, voicing hope he would take an interest in the region. After a long wait but a growing amount of media coverage, the town's mayor on Monday received a letter from Obama expressing his appreciation for the town's "support and encouragement" and the "thoughtful gifts."
■ CHINA
Beijing top for toilets
Beijing has the most public toilets of any city in the world, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The city's 5,174 public toilets give it the No. 1 ranking in the world as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August, Xinhua said, citing Lu Haijun (陸海軍), director of the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission. This is a higher number than in New York, London or Tokyo, Lu said. It was not possible to immediately verify Lu's claims. But Beijing also produces as much rubbish per person as is produced in developed countries, he said, meaning the city was using landfills planned for 2020 already.
■ JAPAN
Firm to pay for boozing
Boozing into the night might inhibit coherent speech, but a Japanese company bets it will make workers communicate better. And it's even willing to pay for it. Japan General Estate Co said on Tuesday it is planning to dole out thousands of dollars a month for its employees to go out on the town in a bid to help communication. Japanese companies routinely offer generous expense accounts to entertain clients, but the real estate company is going a step further by subsidizing workers' drinking sessions with one another.
■ RUSSIA
Jailed activist starts strike
An opposition activist jailed for two months for taking part in anti-Kremlin protests has gone on a hunger strike, his liberal Yabloko party said yesterday. Maxim Reznik, head of the Yabloko branch in St Petersburg, was detained on Sunday shortly after polls closed in a presidential election which Dmitry Medvedev won by a landslide. On Tuesday, a court extended his detention in jail by two months for an alleged attack on a policeman during the protests. "He refused to take food once he was detained," senior Yabloko activist Alexander Shurshev said. "On Tuesday he filed an official statement on starting a hunger strike."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Standing by their hams
Hundreds of pig farmers picketed Downing Street on Tuesday supported by a real pig named Winnie, a doll of muppet Miss Piggy and a rousing rugby-style chorus of their anthem Stand by Your Ham. They say that unless supermarkets raise the price they pay farmers, producers will be forced out of business. "I am losing nearly ?20 [US$40] on every pig I sell," farmer Cameron Naughton said. "We can only last like this a very short period of time, to be honest. Unless things change we will completely disappear." Several members of parliament joined Winnie while the farmers delivered a petition. The farmers changed the lyrics to Tammy Wynette's Stand by Your Man to make the tune their theme song. The lyrics can be found on www.pigsareworthit.com.
■ ITALY
Five die in work accident
Five people were killed by sulfur poisoning after breathing fumes from the tank of a truck they were cleaning in southern Italy, ANSA news agency reported on Tuesday. The first victim was overcome and blacked out inside the tank on Monday, investigators said. The other four, including the owner of the Truck Center, an industrial truck cleaning firm near Bari, entered the tank one by one to rescue the others, each in turn succumbing to the fumes. Unions scheduled a two-hour work stoppage in Bari's Apulia region yesterday to protest Italy's record for work-related fatalities, which is one of the worst in Europe.
■ ISRAEL
Moses got high: study
High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, a researcher said in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy. Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," Shanon said, adding that concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree could produce visions with spiritual connotations.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Soldiers home after prank
Eight soldiers were sent home after they reportedly stripped naked and urinated on each other in a bar in Norway during an Arctic training exercise last month, the defense ministry said on Tuesday. "We can confirm that eight soldiers from 59 Commando Regiment Royal Engineers were arrested by the Norwegian police following inappropriate behavior," a ministry spokesman said. "The unit will consider internal disciplinary action against the soldiers regarding this incident.
■ UNITED STATES
Towns approve indictment
Voters in two Vermont towns approved measures on Tuesday calling for the indictment of US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what they consider violations of the Constitution. More symbolic than anything, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they visit Brattleboro or Marlboro, or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere -- if they are not impeached first. In Brattleboro, the vote was 2,012 to 1,795. In Marlboro, which held a town meeting on the issue, it was 43 to 25 with three abstentions.
■ UNITED STATES
D&D creator dies
Gary Gygax, co-creator of the iconic Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and considered the father of modern role-playing gaming, died in his home on Tuesday, his wife said. Gygax had been suffering from a number of health problems including an incurable heart aneurism, Gail Gygax said. He was 69. First published in 1974, the D&D game, in which players create magical and heroic characters and guide them through a series of adventures, soon turned into a cultural phenomenon. There was no game board in this interactive, imaginative adventure: just paper, pen, the dungeon master's rule book and a set of multisided dice.
■ UNITED STATES
Gunman caught on tape
Recordings of 911 calls made as a gunman rampaged through a fast-food restaurant capture the screams, moans and banging that ensued after he killed a paramedic and fired at panicked customers. A video shows Alburn Edward Blake entering the West Palm Beach, Florida, Wendy's restaurant on Monday and going straight to the bathroom, authorities said on Tuesday. He emerged to fatally shoot Lieutenant Rafael Vazquez, who had gone back into the restaurant to exchange a kid's meal toy his child had received. Blake then fired about 20 more shots, wounding four others. "Then you can see him return to the center of the restaurant where he shoots himself in the head and takes his own life," police said. "He stood silent the whole time."
■ UNITED STATES
Identical triplets born
When they get older, Logan, Eli and Collin Penn may blanch at the notion that they wore nail polish at a news conference. But it is the only way their parents know how to tell the boys apart. The identical triplets were born yesterday on Long Island, New York. Allison Penn, the mother, was impregnated through in-vitro fertilization, said Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births who delivered the boys. Identical triplets are born at a rate between one in 60,000 and one in 200 million, Klein said.
■ UNITED STATES
New York building collapses
A vacant five-story apartment building scheduled for rehabilitation partially collapsed on Tuesday, leading to the suspension of dozens of rush-hour suburban trains amid fears the vibrations could cause more bricks to fall. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Two of the upper Manhattan building's walls and several interior floors partially collapsed, Department of Buildings spokeswoman Kate Lindquist said. Two days ago, bricks began falling from the building. Engineers for the owner's company visited the site and deemed it unsafe. They contacted city officials to get permission to demolish them. The partial collapse occurred while inspectors from the buildings and fire departments were at the site, he said.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
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