■SERBIA
Union leader eats finger
A union official who chopped off his finger and ate it in a protest over wages that in some cases have not been paid in years, said on Monday he did it to show how desperate he and other workers were. “We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example,” Zoran Bulatovic said. “It hurt like hell.” Bulatovic, a union leader at the Raska Holding textile factory in Novi Pazar, used a hacksaw to cut off most of his left-hand little finger on Friday. Bulatovic said he decided to act after his deputy, “a single mother of three, was the first to say she would cut off her finger. I could not allow her to do that,” he said.
■ISRAEL
Six questioned on draft tips
Police questioned six people on Monday who allegedly gave tips over the Internet on how to avoid the draft. The six are members of New Profile and Objective 21, which advocates refusal to serve in the Israeli military. They were released after questioning. Documents were also seized from their homes. Military service is compulsory for Israelis over 18, with most Arabs exempted. Anyone found guilty of instigating refusal to serve in the army can be jailed for up to 15 years.
■SENEGAL
Amnesty urges protection
Amnesty International on Monday urged the government to ensure the safety of nine men freed last week after a court overturned jail convictions for homosexuality, saying they were at risk of homophobic attacks. “The decision of the court of appeal in Dakar to release them after they initially received an eight-year sentence is welcome. But it needs to be followed by concrete action from the authorities to ensure the men are safe from possible homophobic attacks,” Veronique Aubert, deputy director of Amnesty’s Africa Progam said in a press release.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Lockerbie appeal set
The Libyan jailed for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was to begin appealing his conviction yesterday. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, has spent 10 years behind bars for the 1988 terrorist attack that killed 270 people. Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were prosecuted in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2001 for the bombing. Fhimah was acquitted. Al-Megraphi has always said he had nothing to do with the attack, and while he lost an appeal in 2002 he was granted another two years ago following a major legal review.
■EUROPEAN UNION
Cyber security touted
The European Commission urged member governments on Monday to jointly beef up defenses against cyber attacks to protect large computer networks that run energy and water distribution, air and road traffic control systems, banking and other critical services. “Cyber attacks have become a tool in the hands of organized crime, a means of blackmailing companies and organizations [and] an instrument of foreign and military policy” that can threaten democracy and economies, Commissioner for Information Society Viviane Reding said. Reding called for the appointment of an EU “Cyber Cop” in a video message marking Monday’s opening of a two-day meeting in Talinn, Estonia, on cyberspace security cooperation.
■VENEZUELA
Formal ties with Palestine
Palestinian officials established formal ties on Monday with Caracas and opened a diplomatic mission in the South American country. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki thanked President Hugo Chavez’s government for its support during the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which prompted the Chavez administration to break off relations with Israel. The country’s relations with Palestinians have warmed as tensions have grown between Chavez’s government and Israel. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the Palestinian cause was “like our own,” while al-Malki praised Chavez as “the most popular leader in the Arab world,” in part for his staunch support of Palestinians.
■ISRAEL
Not swine, but Mexican flu
The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, a health official said on Monday. Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and “we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu,” he told a news conference at a hospital. Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products. Scientists are unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though it was identified first in the US. They say there is nothing about the virus that makes it “Mexican” and worry such a label would be stigmatizing.
■UNITED STATES
Chihuahua takes flight
Tinker Bell has been reunited with her owners after a 113kph gust of wind picked up the 2.7kg Chihuahua and tossed her out of sight. Dorothy and Lavern Utley credit a pet psychic for guiding them on Monday to a wooded area nearly 1.6km from where eight-month-old Tinker Bell had been last seen. The brown long-haired dog was dirty and hungry but otherwise OK. The Utleys, of Rochester, Michigan, had set up an outdoor display on Saturday at a flea market in Waterford Township, 40km northwest of Detroit. Tinker Bell was standing on their platform trailer when she was swept away. Dorothy Utley told the Detroit News that her cherished pet “just went wild” upon seeing her.
■UNITED STATES
Stripper stands in at reunion
Comedy writer Andrea Wachner hated the idea of going to her 10-year high school reunion so much that she hired a stripper to go instead and what followed, she says, was a comical study in human nature. Her story is detailed in a nearly 40-minute documentary directed by Wachner that, because of issues surrounding its length and getting approval to show it from former classmates, may never be seen — not even by her parents.
■UNITED STATES
Hijacking trio sentenced
Life stopped smelling rosy for a New York gang sentenced on Monday to lengthy prison sentences for hijacking trucks loaded with perfumes and cosmetics. A court in White Plains, New York, sentenced the three men to 55, 37 and 26 years for a series of armed hijackings in the New York region between September 2006 and January 2007, prosecutors said. In one hit the gang stormed a truck carrying more than US$500,000 worth of perfume, pistol-whipped the drivers, then drove the truck to New Jersey for unloading. In another attack, two of the convicted men took part in the hijacking of a tractor-trailer containing more than US$150,000 worth of Elizabeth Arden cosmetics in Pennsylvania, prosecutors said.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
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
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