■ AUSTRALIA
Head used as bowling ball
A teenager’s head was used as a puppet and bowling ball after a “thrill kill” carried out during a drinking binge, a court heard on Wednesday. The headless body of Morgan Jay Shepherd, 17, was found in March 2005 in a shallow grave near Dayboro, west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, prosecutors told the state Supreme Court. He had been stabbed more than 133 times and his head had been sawed off, the court heard. James Roughan, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Shepherd on March 29, 2005. Prosecutor David Meredith said Roughan and a friend, Christopher Jones, 24, killed Shepherd after an argument during a drinking binge at Roughan’s home north of Brisbane. Meredith said Jones told friends that Roughan used the head like a puppet and bowling ball — which Roughan denies.
■ BANGLADESH
Attorney general quits
The country’s attorney general stepped down, saying he was unable to work with “dignity and integrity” under the interim army-backed government. Fida M Kamal was appointed to his post soon after the caretaker government came to power and imposed a state of emergency in January last year. But the London-trained barrister walked away from the post late on Wednesday after a five-hour meeting with government officials, including the justice minister. Kamal has been absent during court proceedings against some of Bangladesh’s top politicians, including two former prime ministers who are being tried on graft charges. Local newspapers cited this as a key reason for the rift between Kamal and the government.
■ THAILAND
Muslims agree to ceasefire
A group claiming to be the leaders of a bloody four-year-old separatist insurgency in Thailand’s Muslim south said yesterday that they had agreed to an immediate ceasefire. If true, it would be the first group to claim responsibility for the near daily bomb and gun attacks that have killed more than 3,000 people in the predominantly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia. “We want all other groups to stop their activities immediately,” the spokesman, who was not identified, said in Thai. Chettha Thanajaro, a former army commander in chief and defense minister, told army TV that ceasefire talks had been underway for “some time now” before the group agreed to lay down its arms yesterday.
■ AUSTRALIA
Firm slammed over racism
A hire firm that painted “Save a Whale — Harpoon a Jap” on the side of one its camping vans was accused by a senior politician yesterday of racism and risking a tourist backlash. Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said she was concerned that Japanese tourists should feel welcome in the state. Money brought in by Japanese visitors is an important part of Australia’s tourism earnings, despite an ongoing dispute between the two countries over Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters.
■ AFGHANISTAN
US coalition kills civilians
At least eight civilians were killed and two others wounded in an airstrike by the US-led coalition forces in Farah Province in western Afghanistan, the coalition forces said yesterday. A coalition convoy on a routine patrol came under sustained attack from machine gun and indirect fire coming from a number of houses adjacent to a road in the province’s Bakwa District, a statement issued by the coalition forces in Kabul said. A local official from Bakwa said all those killed were women and children.
■ SWEDEN
Measures target trafficking
The government announced on Wednesday tougher measures to combat prostitution and human trafficking. The program includes tackling the “demand” that fuels the sex trade and human trafficking, Integration and Gender Equality Minister Nyamko Sabuni said. Sabuni said there was a need to cooperate with countries in the Baltic region where many victims of the sex trade come from and also to help former sex trade workers find other means of supporting themselves. In the coming two-year period the government is to allocate some US$33.5 million to the plan. Justice Minister Beatrice Ask said 200 police officers were to be recruited to focus on organized crime, including trafficking.
■ FRANCE
Hostess wins space trip
An air hostess will become one of Europe’s pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere. Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate bar, but initially threw the wrapper in the bin, telling herself that “it’s only others who win.” Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she decided to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin, only to find a code marked inside. “For someone who works in air travel it’s really a dream come true,” she told France Info radio. Nestle confirmed that Epron won the prize to take a flight on an aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft for cheap flights into space.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
London crime ring exposed
A BBC investigation has exposed a criminal network in London that exploits hundreds of illegal immigrants from India through cheap housing, faked documents and poorly paid, often dangerous work. The network operates in a west London neighborhood, acquiring forged passports, driver’s licences and social security papers, the BBC said on Wednesday. BBC journalists used hidden cameras to show two men claiming to be able to deliver a variety of documents. The team also discovered more than 40 houses with around eight or nine illegal immigrants each.
■ CYPRUS
Water delivery delayed
Authorities in the drought-stricken country said on Wednesday they could not distribute a shipment of water from Greece directly to households because it smells bad. A tanker of water has been anchored off the south coast for two weeks awaiting completion of the infrastructure needed to bring it onshore. The agriculture ministry said the water’s quality remains good but it has a bad odor, possibly because of its extended storage time. “It will be deposited in the acquifer, to replenish it and where it will undergo a natural filtering process,” water department official Kyriakos Kyrou said.
■ NETHERLANDS
Europe warming fastest
The global climate is changing fastest in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, a report on RTL News said yesterday. RTL News said it got its information from a climate study by the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute KNMI. KNMI researcher Cees Molenaars confirmed that the climate in Western Europe was changing twice as fast as elsewhere. But Molenaars said “there is no reason to panic.” The KNMI study expects winters to become warmer while rainfall increases. The KNMI is due to present the official results of the study on July 31.
■ UNITED STATES
NASA needs urine
The No. 1 need right now for some of the builders of the nation’s next spaceship: Lots of urine. Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as part of its work on the new Orion space capsule that eventually would take astronauts to the Moon, an internal memo posted on the Web site Nasawatch.com said. The need is voluminous: 30 liters a day, even on weekends. Designers of the Orion, which will park unoccupied in space for up to six months while astronauts work on the Moon, have to solve a pressing issue of getting rid of stored urine, said John Lewis, NASA’s head of life support systems for Orion. “Urine is a mess because urine is full of solids,” Lewis said. Those solids clog the venting system for dumping pee, so keeping the waste disposal system clear is “really a challenge,” he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Penis man must apologize
A judge has ordered a 19-year-old man to write an apology to the city of Saratoga Springs in New York for dressing in a penis costume at a high school graduation. Calvin Morett had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for dressing in the costume at the graduation at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. A video of his visit last month has appeared on YouTube. The judge has also ordered Morett to have the apology published in a local newspaper, pay court fees and perform 24 hours of community service.
■ UNITED STATES
Hispanic group files suit
A group of Hispanic activists in Arizona filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Wednesday, alleging he uses racial profiling in controversial sweeps to round up illegal immigrants. Arpaio began the patrols in mostly Hispanic communities in the Phoenix valley last year. His deputies stop people and arrest anyone who cannot prove legal US residency. The lawsuit brought by five individuals and Somos America, a Latino community-based coalition, alleges the people were “unlawfully stopped and mistreated by law enforcement because they are Latino.” A spokesman for the sheriff’s office dismissed the allegations.
■ VENEZUELA
Obama won't help: Chavez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says rocky relations with Washington are unlikely to improve if Democrat Barack Obama is elected the next US president. Chavez said Obama and Republican candidate John McCain both represent the interests of the US “empire.” He told a gathering of supporters on Wednesday that Obama should not expect that “carrot and stick” diplomacy will help the US exert its influence in Latin America. Addressing Obama, the Venezuelan leader said: “A revolution has been unleashed in this land.”
■ UNITED STATES
'Phantom' goes digital
The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest running show, will close down for four performances next month to install a US$750,000 digital sound system to improve the musical’s sound design technology, producer Cameron Mackintosh and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber announced on Wednesday. Installation will begin on Aug. 24 and will continue for four days with performances resuming at the Majestic Theater on Aug. 28. More than 12.5 million people have seen the show in over 8,500 performances since it opened at the Majestic in January 1988.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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