■INDONESIA
Watchdog head suspected
The head of an anti-corruption watchdog was named a suspect on Friday in a murder case, dealing a blow to the agency and posing a potential disruption in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s bid for re-election. Antasari Azhar, the head of the Corruption Eradication Commission, is one of the suspects in the March 14 murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, the attorney general’s office said. Local media reported earlier that two gunmen fatally shot Zulkarnaen, a director of the state-owned pharmaceutical firm Putra Rajawali Banjaran, inside his car after he had finished playing golf in Tangerang. Azhar late on Thursday denied involvement in the case, media reports said.
■HONG KONG
Psychiatrist banned over sex
A psychiatrist has been struck off the medical register for having sex with a patient he first seduced by giving her drugs to make her powerless, a news report said yesterday. Law Man Yau (羅文友), 59, began having sex with the woman when she was 27 and came to him for treatment after attempting suicide following a failed marriage. The Hong Kong Medical Council was told he had sex with her first in 1997, breaking down her initial resistance by giving her drugs that “rendered her weak and powerless,” the South China Morning Post reported. Win continued having sex with the woman over the next nine years but was discovered when the woman complained to his hospital about his behavior and claimed he had accessed her medical records.
■JAPAN
‘Naked’ T-shirts sell briskly
“What’s wrong with being naked?” That’s what a Japanese TV star asked police who arrested him for public indecency when he was found drunk, naked and screaming in a Tokyo park in the early hours of the morning last week. His words struck a chord with the public and have now become the slogan on a new range of T-shirts sold by online retailer ClubT. “They are definitely selling,” said company spokeswoman Nanako Shibuya, who said she could not give precise figures. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, 34, who shot to fame 20 years ago as a member of boy band SMAP, resisted arrest and was bundled into a police vehicle wrapped in a blanket, media reports said. Prosecutors decided on Friday not to charge Kusanagi, media reports said. But the incident has sparked sympathy for Kusanagi. Many Japanese complained the slight, serious-looking actor was treated too harshly, especially after he appeared close to tears during a news conference he called to apologize for his behavior.
■JAPAN
US poet missing
An acclaimed US poet who had been working on a book about volcanoes disappeared five days ago during a scouting expedition on a tropical island in the south. Craig Arnold, 41, is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wyoming. He went missing on Monday during a visit to a volcano on the island of Kuchinoerabu-jima in the northern Ryukyu Islands. Arnold went for a hike up the volcano around mid-afternoon on Monday, shortly after arriving at the island by ferry and checking in at an inn, said his brother, Chris Arnold, of Brooklyn, New York. When Arnold hadn’t returned by 8pm, the inn staff went looking for him. They reported him missing at 9pm, and a formal search began that night. Police reported finding Arnold’s tracks on a trail up the volcano, but they couldn’t find any tracks coming down.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Baby delivered via YouTube
A man successfully brought his son into the world by following instructions for child delivery on a YouTube video, the BBC reported on Friday. Marc Stephens, a Royal Navy engineer from Redruth, in Cornwall, said he watched the video as a precaution when his wife Jo started to feel some discomfort. He jumped into action several hours later as an ambulance failed to arrive at the house on time and the regular midwife was busy on another birth. “I googled how to deliver a baby, watched a few videos and basically swotted up,” Stephens told the BBC. “The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Couple make royal fuss
Queen Elizabeth II was at home at Windsor Castle, the sentries who guard her were on duty and the large park surrounding the magnificent building was full of tourists on a Sunday afternoon. So it didn’t take long for people to realize that something was out of order when an inebriated couple arrived from a nearby restaurant and began having sex on a grass bank outside the castle, witnesses said. “One window from the guardroom opened up and when a soldier saw what was going on he told his mates — and lots of windows opened up,” witness Mark Robinson told the Sun newspaper. “The couple did not care who was looking and just kept going as if they were in their own bedroom.” Thames Valley Police said the man and woman were arrested and given a written warning about outraging public decency.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Kidnap suspects arrested
Birmingham police have arrested four people accused of kidnapping a man who was tied up in a car loaded with gas canisters and told he was attached to a bomb. The three men — aged 23, 24 and 54 — and a 27-year-old woman are suspected of kidnapping the Asian man last Sunday morning. West Midlands police said the victim, believed to be in his 30s, was threatened and assaulted before being bundled into a white Nissan Micra in Saltley, an industrial part of Birmingham. The four have been bailed until next month pending further inquiries.
■LIBERIA
Ex-president acquitted
Former president Gyude Bryant was acquitted of pilfering about US$1 million from the state-run oil refinery during his time in office. A jury on Thursday evening found Bryant and four others not guilty of economic sabotage. However, Bryant still faces criminal charges in connection with allegations that he stole US$1.3 million from state coffers in a separate case. Bryant headed an interim government between 2003 and 2005 after the war and before the election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
■SAUDI ARABIA
Fire hits Mecca project
A fire started by workers welding on scaffolding damaged several floors of the largest development project in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, reports said on Friday. Six floors of the Sarah tower in the more than US$2 billion, seven-tower King Abdul Aziz Endowment project adjacent to Mecca’s grand mosque caught fire on Thursday, they said. The fire was mostly extinguished by firemen late on Thursday, but only after sweeping through the 14th to 20th floors of the Sarah tower, Arab News daily said. There were no reports of any casualties. Sparks from the blaze set fire to scrap wood left on the roof of a nearby hospital, but it was extinguished, Madina newspaper said.
■UNITED STATES
Man jailed seeking jail
An Alaska man shoved a police officer just so he could join his brother in jail. Thirty-five-year-old David Jacob Ginnis pleaded guilty on Wednesday to assault on a police officer and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the full sentence suspended. Ginnis’ brother was accused of getting into a fight on Monday night in Fairbanks and was arrested on a criminal trespass charge. Police said Ginnis, who appeared intoxicated, approached the arresting officer and asked if he could speak with his brother, who was in the back of a patrol car. After five minutes, Ginnis asked if he could join his brother in jail if he assaulted the officer.
■UNITED STATES
New view at Sears Tower
Visitors to the top of the tallest occupied building in North America soon won’t be able to avoid looking straight down. The Sears Tower plans this summer to add four enclosed glass-bottomed balconies jutting out from the building’s 103rd floor Skydeck — offering a view of 412m down. Each of the balconies — all on the tower’s west side — will be able to hold about five tonnes and the glass will be 1.27cm thick. Randy Stancik, Skydeck general manager, said he was inspired by glass-floored thrills at the Grand Canyon and Toronto’s CN Tower. The balconies will extend about 1.20m from the observation deck, part of a multimillion dollar renovation plan coinciding with a renaming to Willis Tower.
■UNITED STATES
Caves, mines to be closed
The Forest Service is preparing to close thousands of caves and former mines across the east in an effort to control a bat-killing fungus. Forest Service biologist Becky Ewing said the emergency order was issued last week for caves from New England to West Virginia. A second order for southeastern states will be issued soon. Ewing said the order would close the caves for a year as wildlife biologists try to get a handle on a fungus that has been linked to the deaths of 500,000 bats. White-nose syndrome gets its name from a white powdery substance on the bat’s face and wings. Ewing said the decision to close the caves came after the fungus was reported near large populations of endangered bats.
■UNITED STATES
Stay of removal denied
A federal court on Friday denied former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk’s latest bid to block his extradition to Germany to face charges of aiding in the wartime murder of thousands of Jews. “Based on the medical information before the court ... the court cannot find that the petitioner’s removal to Germany is likely to cause irreparable harm sufficient to warrant a stay of removal,” the appeals court ruled. “His motion for a stay of removal pending review is denied.” Demjanjuk’s son said the family was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court and has also filed a lawsuit in Germany seeking an emergency stay.
■CANADA
Brush fire forces evacuation
Some 1,200 Halifax residents were forced to evacuate after a massive brush fire raged outside the port city off the Atlantic Coast, firefighters said on Friday. High winds drove the fire to burn some 800 hectares, destroying eight homes and causing damage to seven others, but no victims have yet been confirmed, Halifax, Nova Scotia, fire service executive officer Lloyd Currie said. TV footage showed a heavy cloud of smoke above Halifax. More than 300 residents have been evacuated since Thursday.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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