■ NEW ZEALAND
Officer admits to lying
A former undercover police officer has confessed to lying in court testimony that sent at least 150 people to jail, a newspaper reported yesterday. Patrick O’Brien, nearly 60, wrote to Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, admitting perjury and saying that he was racked with guilt after carrying a “dreadful secret” for more than 30 years, the Herald on yesterday reported. O’Brien was an undercover agent in covert drug operations for three years in the 1970s and the star prosecution witness in the resulting court trials but said he lied under oath every time, the paper said. It cited his confession letter, which the Herald obtained under freedom of information legislation. All but one of the juries he gave false evidence to returned guilty verdicts, the report said. Police have appointed a senior lawyer to investigate O’Brien’s claims that he often presented exhibits to the juries that were not the drugs he claimed he had bought from defendants accused of drug dealing.
■ MALAYSIA
Peeping Tom slips, dies
A suspected “peeping Tom” slipped and fell to his death from the eighth floor of a condominium on Friday in the northern state of Penang, a news report said yesterday. The 20-year-old laborer was believed to be alone when he allegedly spied on a woman in a nearby high-rise through his binoculars from the balcony of his rented apartment and lost his balance, the Star daily said. Police recovered a pair of binoculars at the scene and ruled out foul play as investigations revealed that neighbors had seen the man peeping before the incident. Classifying the case as sudden death, state police chief Azam Abdul Hamid said that the deceased could have been too preoccupied with his peeping when he lost his balance and fell.
■ CHINA
Agency says milk not toxic
The quality control agency said the latest tests found that dairy products met the new temporary limits on melamine. The tests covered 532 batches of liquid milk, including yogurt, from 69 brands in 23 cities, the General Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine said on its Web site. The government last week imposed limits for melamine in milk. China has conducted investigations into the industrial chemical following the tainted baby formula scandal that killed four infants and sickened more than 54,000.
■ THAILAND
‘Grandpa Yen’ passes on
“Grandpa Yen,” a 108-year-old man who lived alone on a small boat on the Phetchaburi River for years, died yesterday from natural causes. Yen Kaewmanee was found unconscious in his boat by neighbors and rushed to Prachao Khlao Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Nation reported. To save on rent, Yen had been living on small houseboats in the Phetchaburi River since his wife died when he was in his mid-90s. Fondly known in the local media as “Grandpa Yen,” he shot to fame in 2004 when his austere lifestyle was captured in a TV documentary. After the documentary was aired, Yen was flooded with services and gifts including a new fiberglass houseboat donated by Thai Queen Sirikit. The fame was not without its down side. Yen had to open a bank account for the first time in his life after thieves took 70,000 baht (US$2,060) from his small boat.
■ CHINA
Reptiles still missing
Authorities are on the watch for a group of escaped crocodiles and alligators that broke out of a theme park during a typhoon, a news report said. Up to 200 reptiles ranging from 2m alligators to saltwater crocodiles that can grow up to 6m reportedly escaped when Typhoon Hagiput lashed the theme park near Hong Kong a fortnight ago. Crocodile Island administrators in Zhuhai later claimed they had captured the animals but Hong Kong officials remain on alert, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
■ PHILIPPINES
Student kills principal
A student expelled from his school for misbehavior killed the school principal, police said yesterday. The suspect, who is a minor, allegedly waited for the victim outside the school in Surralah in South Cotabato Province and shot him on Friday. Despite suffering from a gunshot wound, Ricardo De La Cruz, 45, ran away, but the suspect fired more shots. De La Cruz expired while being treated at a hospital. The suspect was a third year high school student.
■ NEW ZEALAND
TV debate heats up
Producers stopped a TV pre-election debate when a pundit swore at a leading politician, a report said yesterday. Television New Zealand called time on its Eye to Eye show as panelist Matthew Hooton hurled abuse at New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters, a New Zealand First spokesman told the Herald on Sunday newspaper. Hooton, a former press secretary with the opposition National Party, admitted swearing at Peters, but only after filming had stopped because of a heated exchange in which the pair called each other liars. The report did not make it clear whether filming resumed. Hooton admitted his behavior had been appropriate. Peters recently stood down as foreign minister while investigations were launched into donations to his party.
■ SUDAN
‘Hotpants’ official sacked
A senior official in South Sudan who ordered a crackdown on young women wearing tight trousers has been sacked, officials said on Saturday. Police arrested scores of women — many on their way home from church — in the capital Juba last week on charges of disturbing the peace. Officers said their choice of clothing proved they belonged to youth gangs. Police acted after Juba county commissioner Albert Pitia Redentore banned any public display of gang behavior that, he said, threatened traditional values. A government statement said Redentore was removed form office by President Salva Kiir on Friday. Gender minister Mary Kiden said the crackdown was unconstitutional and reminded her of the restrictions on women’s dress enforced in the Muslim north of the country. South Sudan fought the north in a two-decade war that was partly fuelled by resistance to the north’s Islamic Sharia law.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Alton Ellis dies at age 70
Jamaican reggae star Alton Ellis, known as the “Godfather of Rocksteady,” died overnight of cancer in London, a hospital spokeswoman said on Saturday. He was 70 years old. Ellis passed away peacefully at Hammersmith Hospital, the spokeswoman said. The singer-songwriter was diagnosed with multiple myeloma last year. He underwent chemotherapy and returned to the stage before he collapsed during his final performance in central London in August. Ellis, who moved to Britain in the 1970s, had a string of hits in a career spanning more than 50 years, including I’m Still In Love, Dance Crasher and I’m Just A Guy. Ellis, who lived in the northwest London suburb of Northolt, is survived by his wife and more than 20 children.
■ YEMEN
Three on trial for spying
Three Yemeni Shiites went on trial on Saturday on charges of spying for Iran, a judicial source said. The accused, who were arrested a couple of months ago, denied the charges, the source said. The trial will resume next week and will be closed to the public, the source added. Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Yemen’s 19 million population. Unlike some other Arab countries, Yemen, located at the southern west tip of the Arabian peninsula, has diplomatic relations with non-Arab Iran, where Shiites are the majority.
■ EGYPT
Journalists fined for slander
The state-owned news agency says a court has imposed a US$15,000 fine each on two journalists for slandering one of the country’s most important clerics. MENA says the court found Adel Hamdouda and Mohammed el-Baz of the independent Al-Fagr weekly guilty on Saturday of libel against Grand Sheik Mohammed Seyed Tantawi of Al-Azhar, one of Sunni Islam’s most important religious centers. Tantawi sued the journalists after they published an article criticizing him for accepting an invitation by Pope Benedict to visit the Vatican.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Release angers Iran
Iran condemned a decision by British authorities on Saturday to release from prison the only surviving member of a group of gunmen who seized the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. Several British newspapers reported on Friday that Fowzi Nejad, 50, would be freed within days after serving 27 years in jail. Six gunmen seized the Iranian embassy in London in April 1980, demanding the release of political prisoners in Iran and taking 21 hostages, two of whom they killed.
■ UNITED STATES
Santa’s grandsons arrive
The grandsons of Santa Claus are coming to town. The descendants of two of the more famous men to don Santa Claus suits planned to meet yesterday in Santa Claus, Indiana, to sign a new oath for other jolly Santas. Charles Bergeman is the grandson of Charles Howard, a famous Santa from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Will Koch is the grandson of Jim Yellig, who is considered the “Santa Claus” of the Indiana town bearing the same name. The Evansville Courier & Press says the oath includes a promise to create happiness, spread love and make dreams come to life in the tradition of St Nick. It will be administered to every Kris Kringle attending the Celebrate Santa Convention in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in March.
■ VIRGIN ISLANDS
Quake hits islands
A strong earthquake jolted people awake on Saturday in the US and British Virgin Islands and nearby Puerto Rico. There were no immediate reports of damage. The magnitude 6.1 quake was the strongest to hit Puerto Rico in 20 years, said Christa von Hillebrandt, director of the seismic network on the Mayaguez campus of the University of Puerto Rico. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 6:40am local time at a depth of 29km. The quake was centered about 70km northwest of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. Disaster officials in the British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico said there were no reports of significant damage or injuries.” At first I thought it was a big truck rolling by but then I realized the windows were closed,” said government spokeswoman Sandra Ward.
■ ECUADOR
Correa asks for reversal
President Rafael Correa asked Brazil on Saturday to reverse its decision to cancel a trade mission over a clash with a Brazilian construction firm that has raised tensions between the allies. Earlier this week, Correa turned down an offer by the Odebrecht company to settle a contractual dispute and retain US$800 million worth of contracts with the government. Last month the leftist leader seized the firm’s installations in the Andean country over a damaged dam that the government says was badly built. “I hope the Brazilian government revises its decision,” Correa said during his weekly radio address. “We respect their [Brazil] decision, but we can’t understand it as this is a problem between Ecuador, a sovereign country, and a company.”
■ PUERTO RICO
State power chief sacked
The governor called for the resignation of the director of the state power company on Saturday after the executive blamed high electricity bills in part on insects that short-circuit home electricity meters. Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila said Jorge Rodriguez should step down immediately because he used the same theory to request and receive an adjustment to his own electricity bill. The request raises questions about preferential treatment, the governor said. Rodriguez had no immediate comment, said Maria Quintero, a company spokeswoman who said the board of directors has called him to a meeting on Tuesday. As director of the electricity authority, he made front-page headlines in the US Caribbean territory by saying high energy bills were owed in part to bugs that electrocute themselves in home meters. Rodriguez later said that example was unfairly ridiculed and he did not mean to trivialize the high cost of energy, which depends on oil-fired power plants for 70 percent of its electricity.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
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