■THAILAND
PM in court over TV show
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej defended himself yesterday against accusations that he broke the law by hosting a TV cooking show while in office, an offense that could force him to resign. The Constitutional Court is scheduled to give its verdict today on whether Samak’s appearance on the Tasting and Complaining show violated a prohibition on Cabinet ministers working for private firms. Samak also faces a defamation suit and three corruption charges, but the cooking show case is the most immediate threat to his power. Samak hosted the show for several months before becoming prime minister and made a few appearances afterwards. Samak, who testified for about an hour yesterday, told the court that he only received an honorarium for the show. “I was hired to appear on the program and got paid from time to time. I was not an employee of the company so I did not violate the law,” he said.
■PHILIPPINES
Bomb alert given in south
A crude bomb went off at a public market, while another was defused near a hospital in two cities on Mindanao yesterday, as General Alexander Yano warned of more bombings in the wake of collapsed peace talks with Muslim rebels. No one was hurt when an improvised explosive went off in a public market in Isulan. The second bomb was discovered inside a shopping bag in Tacurong City before it could explode. “Our investigators believed it was supposed to go off at the same time as the second bomb because the two explosive devices were almost identical,” Major Armand Rico told reporters. “They were made from 81mm mortar rounds and remotely detonated by a cellphone.”
■AUSTRALIA
Shark takes surfer for a ride
A surfer said a large shark towed him out to sea like a “powerful jet-ski” after it became entangled in the leg rope of his surfboard, the Northern Star newspaper reported yesterday. John Morgan, 51, said the thrashing animal dragged him more than 50m after it became ensnared in the rope linking his ankle to the board during his daily noontime surf on Clarks Beach on Sunday. “I had just come off a wave when I saw a large swirl of water,” he said. “I was then suddenly hauled backwards … It felt like I was riding behind a powerful jet ski.” Morgan, a surf shop manager in Byron Bay, said the encounter happened as he was about 200m to 300m from shore. “I think the shark was as scared as I was,” he said. “It totally freaked me out; I’m just glad it didn’t turn around and bite me.”
■AUSTRALIA
Stripper faces rape charge
A female stripper hired to entertain the guests at a bachelor party raped the best man with a sex toy, a Melbourne court was told yesterday. Linda Naggs, 39, is accused of penetrating the man at the party in September. A witness said the man was partly naked and on the ground when Naggs allegedly assaulted him. The witness said the man got up, called Naggs an idiot and asked her to leave. A fight then broke out between the pair.
■NEW ZEALAND
Sign error angers residents
A new city council footpath sign in the Wellington suburb of Highbury has misspelled Old Bullock Rd as Old Bollock Rd, upsetting residents, the New Zealand Press Association reported yesterday. “I’m all for better signage for footpaths, but at least they should get the name right,” said one angry resident was quoted as saying. “This is a real balls up.”
■SPAIN
Immigrants arrested in riot
A tense calm reigned yesterday in the southern town of Roquetas de Mar after immigrants rioted for the second consecutive night. A total of eight Africans have been detained and at least four police officers slightly injured. Riots initially broke out early on Sunday after a Romani Spaniard allegedly stabbed a 28-year-old Senegalese man to death in a low-income neighborhood. Officials linked the killing to a dispute between drug traffickers, but residents said the victim was trying to mediate in a dispute.
■SWITZERLAND
Swiss imitates Bollywood
A Swiss director has made his own Bollywood film called Tandoori Love, replete with songs and melodrama, the Indian Express daily reported yesterday. Tandoori Love, made in the Swiss-German dialect as well as English, premiered at the weekend before a packed audience at an open-air theatre in Zurich, the New Delhi paper reported. The film takes a comic look at the clash of two contrasting cultures and tells the story of how a cook in a Bollywood film crew woos a waitress in a scenic Swiss village. “I love Indian culture and its chaos,” Oliver Paulus, the writer-director of the film, told the newspaper. “Tandoori Love is presenting Bollywood to a Swiss audience in a way that is more palatable to them.”
■BULGARIA
Five injured in blasts
Explosions overnight on Sunday at two night clubs in the capital Sofia injured five people, three of them seriously, the interior ministry reported. A blast at the Casablanca club left two men, aged 30 and 53, in critical condition, the statement said. Two women were also injured in the explosion. A blast at a strip club, Pantera, seriously injured a 36-year-old man. The nation’s criminal underworld regularly uses bomb attacks as a means of settling scores with their rivals. An explosion on Tuesday evening near the capital’s law courts injured two people, who were reportedly trying to set the bomb in front of lawyers’ offices.
■FRANCE
Reality show alarms Paris
The imminent arrival of one of the nation’s most popular reality TV shows in the tranquil environs of the Marais in Paris has prompted thousands of residents to declare war on TV production company Endemol. Star Academy, a singing contest that pitches 18 young hopefuls against each other in the confines of one luxurious residence, usually houses contestants in a sprawling chateau on the outskirts of the city. But next week, as producers attempt to shake up the format and give a boost to flagging ratings, the show is setting up in a 17th-century townhouse in the center of bourgeois-bohemian Paris. Local residents have mobilized to voice their disapproval. So far, 2,400 have signed a petition started by a disgruntled shoe-shop owner, while thousands more have added their names to Internet campaigns.
■SYRIA
Refugees head to Iceland
About 25 Palestinians who have been stranded in a desert camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border have left for Iceland. The members of the group are among about 1,000 Palestinians who fled the violence in Iraq more than two years ago and set up two camps along the border. The UN refugee agency says Iceland has agreed to host 55 refugees and Sweden will take 155.
■MEXICO
Gangsters kill officers
A gang of 20 armed gangsters killed seven police officers in the state of Michoacan over the weekend, media reported on Sunday. The attack occurred in Tancitero in central Mexico. The gangsters first attacked a police car with four police officers, killing three of them. As four colleagues raced to their aid in a second car, they were also killed. The killings were the latest of thousands of murders of civilians and police officers in ongoing wars among the country’s drug cartels who are fighting over the billion-dollar illicit business.
■UNITED STATES
O.J. Simpson faces trial
Thirteen years after his acquittal in one of the most publicized murder cases in US history, former football great O.J. Simpson was due to return to court yesterday for jury selection in a robbery and kidnapping case. Legal experts say the outcome of the case is far from clear as Simpson, 61, faces a dozen felonies that stem from a confrontation in a hotel room last September in which he and a gang of gun-toting cohorts departed the scene with pillow cases stuffed full of sports memorabilia. The charges against Simpson and one of those men, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, includes kidnapping and armed robbery, both of which carry potential life sentences in the state of Nevada. Simpson and his group allegedly stormed the room at the Palace Station Hotel-Casino to retrieve memorabilia largely related to the football star’s career that he has insisted was stolen from him. It was in the possession of two collectibles dealers, Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. Simpson later insisted he did not know that two of the men with him would be carrying guns and did not see them brandish their weapons. Four of the gang, including the two who carried weapons, have struck plea agreements for reduced sentences in exchange for testifying against Simpson.
■UNITED STATES
Sausage used in burglary
Authorities say they’ve arrested a man who broke into the home of two California farmworkers, stole money, rubbed one of the men with spices and whacked the other with a sausage before fleeing. Fresno County sheriff’s Lieutenant Ian Burrimond says 22-year-old Antonio Vasquez was found hiding in a field wearing only a T-shirt, boxers and socks after the Saturday morning attack. He says deputies arrested Vasquez after finding a wallet containing his ID in the ransacked house. The farmworkers told deputies the suspect woke them on Saturday morning by rubbing spices on one of them and smacking the other with a 20cm-long sausage.
■VENEZUELA
Alleged drug lord seized
A suspected Colombian drug lord wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration has been captured in the west of the country, the state news service reported on Sunday. Marcos Jose Orozco Wilches was detained on Saturday in Zulia state, near the border with Colombia, the Bolivarian News Agency said. Cooperation between Interpol and the National Anti-Drug Agency, coupled with intelligence gathered by security forces, reportedly led to the arrest. Orozco Wilches is the second major Colombian drug suspect arrested in Venezuela this year. Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco — one of the US government’s most-wanted drug trafficking suspects — was captured in Zulia in March. US officials have accused President Hugo Chavez’s government of lax anti-drug efforts. Chavez accuses Washington of unfairly labeling his country a drug haven for political reasons.
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
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘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
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
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