■HONG KONG
Insurers turn to pets
Wealthy pet lovers are being offered insurance packages of US$50,000 for their dogs and cats if they outlive their owners, a news report said yesterday. Insurance company Sun Life Financial is advertising policies costing US$1,300 a year to cover the cost of pet care if owners are struck down by illnesses such as cancer or heart attacks. The policies are to pay for the pampered pet’s care in a “pet hotel” or with nominated relatives and will pay out up to around US$50,000, the South China Morning Post reported.
■JAPAN
Drunk, naked star arrested
A pop star was arrested yesterday for public indecency after being found drunk and naked in a Tokyo park, police said. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, a member of hugely popular group SMAP, was arrested on the spot after neighbors complained a drunk man was making a fuss in the park, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules. The 34-year-old pop star, sitting on the grass, resisted arrest, saying “What’s wrong with being naked?” NHK reported. His clothes were bundled nearby.
■INDIA
‘Slumdog’ dad investigated
Police said yesterday they had not found any evidence so far to substantiate claims that the father of Slumdog Millionaire child actress Rubina Qureshi tried to sell her for adoption. “We have not registered a case against Rubina Qureshi’s father and are still continuing with investigations,” senior police officer Nisar Tamboli was quoted as saying by the domestic Press Trust of India news agency. Police opened an investigation into whether Rafiq Qureshi tried to sell his nine-year-old daughter after a report this weekend in a British tabloid newspaper.
■GAMBIA
Fourth potion victim dies
A fourth person died on Wednesday from the effects of a hallucinogenic potion he was forced to drink by witch hunters who roam the country and abduct their victims, hospital sources said. “Modou Kumba Bah reported to the Brikama Health Centre on 13th April from where he was referred to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he died on Wednesday after suffering from stomach ache due to concoctions he used during his abduction period,” said a senior doctor at the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bah, a herdsman from the western village of Jambur, was buried the same day in his village. Amnesty International and anonymous police sources have said that as many as 1,000 people were snatched by “witch-hunters” assisted by security forces, who were allegedly carrying out orders from authorities.
■NIGERIA
Thirty die in robbery
Robbers killed at least 30 people as they attacked a van carrying cash in the southeastern state of Anambra, police said on Wednesday. About a dozen armed robbers in three vehicles opened fire on the van, which was traveling late on Monday from the town of Onitsha, and made away with a large amount of money, police said. “They also attacked three passenger buses at the same point killing about 30 people ... including three policemen, a soldier and three pregnant women,” Anambra state police spokesman Felix Agbo told reporters in the capital Akwa. The gang also wounded about 15 other people, shooting sporadically as they tried to escape, police said. Three of the robbers were killed in the incident. The nation is essentially a cash economy and organized heists are common in the commercial capital Lagos and other major cities.
■RUSSIA
Putin ice cream stirs anger
There is outrage in the ruling United Russia party over a new brand of ice cream bearing the name of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The local branch of the party in Lipezk is angry about what it called the lack of political good taste and the profanation of his name, the Wednesday edition of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta said. The paper reported that all the managers of the ice cream company in Lipezk were loyal members of United Russia and that the Putin ice cream was not intended as a reference to the head of government. This year alone, 60 tonnes of creme brulee-flavored Putin ice cream with the Russian flag on the packaging have been sold. The arrival of the ice cream now means there is an almost complete Putin meal available in Russia. A tinned food company produces “Pu(t)in” oven-ready meals and Putinka vodka is also selling well.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Alleged ETA man arrested
Police arrested a Spanish man in Belfast on Wednesday on a European arrest warrant for terrorist offenses in Spain. The 32-year-old man was expected to appear in court later on Wednesday to face extradition proceedings, police said. Police did not say if the man was linked to the Basque separatist group ETA, which earlier this month said that the new regional government in Spain’s Basque country was a priority target for attack. In a separate case, ETA member Inaki de Juana Chaos is currently fighting another extradition case from Northern Ireland. The former leader of ETA’s Madrid commando spent 21 years in Spanish jails for crimes including 25 killings, among them the assassination of an admiral and the killing of 12 police officers with a car bomb. He was arrested in Northern Ireland in November.
■ARGENTINA
Nazi skinheads arrested
Police arrested 36 skinheads at an event celebrating the 120th anniversary of the birth of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, officials said on Wednesday. The Sunday arrests came after a “prolonged and meticulous investigation,” said Daniel Perez, second in command of the Federal Police unit in charge of investigating hate crimes. Police broke into the Central Argentine Club, in the town of San Martin, a Buenos Aires province, while a recital was being held by the local chapter of the neo-Nazi group “Blood and Honor,” Perez said. Police found Nazi-related material, including flags with swastikas, films and CDs of music with racist and anti-Semitic lyrics, Perez said. “Blood and Honor,” which is based in Britain, has chapters across Europe and the Americas and is aimed at promoting Nazi ideology. The arrests were “an important success in the struggle to eradicate these groups of Nazi ideology that are a threat to Argentine society,” the Delegation of Israeli Associations in Argentina said in a statement.
■MEXICO
Child porn ring smashed
Police arrested seven people, including a Roman Catholic priest, allegedly involved in a child porn ring that distributed 100,000 pictures and videos of children from around the world, the Attorney General’s office said on Wednesday. “A priest from Xalapa, Veracruz [eastern Mexico], was among those detained, as well as an IT worker from the foreign ministry,” a statement said. Mexican authorities found files containing a large number of explicit sex scenes between adults and children up to 10 years of age at the ministry worker’s house, the statement said. An inquiry which began last month led to the discovery of suspected members of the network throughout Mexico, it added. Authorities said that the children appeared to be of different nationalities. The priest, Rafael Muniz, and his brother were accused of owning an email address which provided most of the pornographic pictures and videos. “I’ve never been involved in the things they’re accusing me of, nor has my brother,” the priest later told local media. Another unidentified suspect earlier confessed to acts of “rape and sexual abuse.” The images had been viewed in Brazil, Spain, Bulgaria, Russia, the US and Argentina, said Gustavo Caballero from the police department’s cyber crime unit.
■UNITED STATES
Bra deflects robber’s bullet
The metal underwire in a Detroit woman’s bra is being credited with deflecting a bullet fired at her during a break-in at a neighbor’s home. Detroit police officer Leon Rahmaan says the 57-year-old woman apparently looked out of her window on Tuesday when one of three men fired the shot. He says the slug smashed through her window pane before hitting the bra’s underwire. It did not penetrate her skin. Police say she may have gone to the window after a burglar alarm at the house next door sounded. Her neighbor was not at home at the time. The suspects drove away after the shooting.
■UNITED STATES
Arnie may be back after all
Arnold Schwarzenegger might be back as the Terminator after all, despite his day job as California governor. Schwarzenegger confirmed in a Webcast interview that his image might appear in next month’s Terminator: Salvation, the fourth movie in the franchise about a showdown between humanity and machines. The governor says he made it clear he had no time to shoot new footage, but that the filmmakers are playing with technology to insert his image from the earlier Terminator movies.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
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