Thu, May 14, 2009 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  ■JAPAN

  Junior minister resigns

  A Japanese junior minister resigned yesterday after a magazine reported that he had used a free train pass issued to lawmakers for a trip to meet his mistress, the government’s top spokesman said. The resignation of Deputy Chief Cabinet Minister Yoshitada Konoike could be a blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso ahead of a looming election, even as the main opposition party searches for a new leader in the wake of a funding scandal. Both ruling and opposition camps are struggling to woo voters ahead of the election, which must be held by October. The main opposition Democratic Party had a clear lead in opinion polls until a funding scandal erupted and threatened its chances of ending more than a half-century of almost unbroken rule by Aso’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

  ■MALAYSIA

  Shame thieves, cop says

  If they’re not scared of getting whipped by a cane, maybe snatch thieves in Malaysia will fear the shame of public humiliation. A top police official says the thieves should be made to wear T-shirts that read “I am a snatch thief” and sweep the country’s streets. Criminal Investigation Department Director Mohamad Bakri Zinin said the prospect of jail did not seem to be deterring the thieves, who prey on pedestrians using quick, forceful robberies. Theft carries a prison term of up to seven years and caning in Malaysia. He said yesterday that “it’s much better” to make them do social work while wearing T-shirts with their printed confession. “At least that will shame them in public. Maybe this can change their attitude,” he said.

  ■PHILIPPINES

  Five wounded in blast

  Three police officers and two security aides of a governor were wounded yesterday in a bomb attack in the south, a regional police chief said. Chief Superintendent Bensali Jarabani said the explosion occurred a few kilometers from provincial capitol of Sulu Province on Jolo island. Jarabani said the explosion hit a convoy of vehicles belonging to Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan, who was on his way home. Investigators were still trying to determine who was behind the attack and the make of bomb that was placed on a parked motorcycle. Tan was unharmed in the attack.

  ■HONG KONG

  Jail for Chen photo thief

  A computer technician was jailed yesterday for eight-and-a-half months for stealing more than 1,000 sexually explicit photos of singer Edison Chen (陳冠希) with a string of starlets. The photos spread across the Internet last year, causing a huge scandal in the celebrity-obsessed city and ruining the careers of some of the actresses and singers involved. Sze Ho-chun (史可雋), an employee of computer shop Elite Multimedia, had copied 1,300 sex photos from Chen’s laptop when the Canadian-born singer-actor took it in for repairs in 2006.

  ■AUSTRALIA

  Murder suspect arrested

  An American man was arrested yesterday on charges of murdering his wife during a honeymoon scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef more than five years ago. David Gabriel “Gabe” Watson, 32, from Alabama, was taken into custody on arrival at Brisbane airport after he voluntarily returned from the US to face trial, the national AAP news agency reported. Watson’s lawyers had earlier indicated he was likely to fight extradition after an Australian coroner issued a murder warrant last June over the 2003 death of diving novice Christina Watson, also from US.

  ■KENYA

  Thieves scuttle oil barge

  A barge carrying thousands of tonnes of stolen oil has been scuttled off the coast of Nigeria, a military official said. Lieutenant Colonel Rabe Abubakar told the BBC that the crew of the ship had been tipped off the military was on their tail, so they scuttled the boat on Tuesday and swam to safety. It was not clear what environmental damage had been caused by the oil. Crude oil theft costs Nigeria an estimated US$5 billion each year.

  ■ISRAEL

  Baptism at Jordan risky

  An environmental group on Tuesday said Catholic pilgrims looking to be baptized in the Jordan might as well swim in a cesspool. “This is a place of great significance for both Christians and Jews — but the water quality is very close to that of raw sewage,” Ezer Fishler of the environmental group Zalul was quoted as saying by the Ynet news service. In honor of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit as pontiff to the Holy Land the Israeli government opened a baptismal pool at Qasr al-Yehud along the southern reaches of the river near the Dead Sea. Thousands of pilgrims who have journeyed to Israel for the pope are expected to visit the spot where Christian tradition holds that John the Baptist baptized Jesus. But environmentalists say those who immerse themselves would be possibly risking their health.

  ■CHECHNYA

  Bomb kills three

  The Russian interior ministry’s branch in Chechnya said two police officers and a civilian were killed by an explosive device planted by rebels. It said in a statement that the explosion occurred yesterday near the village of Belgatoi in the Vedeno region in southern Chechnya’s mountains. Investigators believe the explosive device was attached to a vehicle the victims were riding in. The Kremlin last month formally ended a federal counterterrorism operation in Chechnya, which has seen two bloody separatist wars in the past 15 years.

  ■SPAIN

  Sick woman wins jackpot

  A 25-year-old woman who won a record 126 million euros in the Euro Millions lottery only learned of her good luck days later after spending the weekend bed-ridden with the flu, lottery officials said on Tuesday. The unnamed woman from the island of Mallorca only discovered that she had won the jackpot awarded on Friday when lottery officials finally tracked her down on Monday, online lottery seller Serviapuestas said in a statement. “I was still sick on Monday so I decided to go to work out of fear of losing my job given the economic crisis we are going through,” she was quoted as saying in the statement.

  ■FRANCE

  Discrimination rises: poll

  More than one in four workers in the private sector says he or she has been the victim of discrimination in the workplace, a survey published yesterday in the daily La Tribune said. The survey, which was carried out in March by the government’s anti-racism authority Halde and the International Labor Organization, said 28 percent — up from 25 percent last year — of private-sector employees said they had been discriminated against in getting a promotion, a pay raise or some other professional benefit. The figure for public-sector employees, who were polled for the first time, was 22 percent. In the private sector, ethnic origin was seen as the main reason for discrimination, while public-sector employees cited age as the primary cause (38 percent).

  ■MEXICO

  Crystal meth seized

  The army says it seized almost 8 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine at a clandestine drug lab in the western state of Michoacan. The Defense Department said in a statement on Tuesday that soldiers found the drugs in a raid on an apparently abandoned building near the town of Ziracuaretiro on Monday. Soldiers also found barrels, pots and beakers apparently used to process the drug.

  ■UNITED STATES

  Beauty keeps crown

  Miss California USA Carrie Prejean can retain her crown after questions arose about semi-nude photographs taken of her as a teenager and her association with an anti-gay marriage group, pageant owner Donald Trump said Tuesday. “We’ve reviewed the pictures carefully,” Trump said at a packed news conference at Trump Plaza in New York City. “We’ve made a determination that the pictures taken were acceptable. Some were risque, but we are in the 21st century.” Before competing in the Miss California USA competition, all prospective contestants are required to sign a detailed 12-page contract prohibiting Miss California USA from making personal appearances, giving interviews or making commercials without permission from pageant officials and asking if they have ever been photographed nude or partially nude.

  ■MEXICO

  Police defend conviction

  Police said on Tuesday that a suspected kidnapper told them French citizen Florence Cassez not only participated in abductions, but helped lead the gang that carried them out. Cassez is serving a 60-year term for kidnapping. She was convicted largely on testimony from victims, but police said they captured David Orozco Hernandez on Monday, and that he confessed to having participated in kidnappings along with Cassez and her Mexican boyfriend, Israel Vallarta. Cassez, 34, has acknowledged that she lived at the ranch outside Mexico City where three of the kidnap victims were held. But she said she was simply dating a Mexican arrested in the case and did not know the people at the ranch had been kidnapped.

  ■UNITED STATES

  Clean-up clears office

  A California office worker cleaning a refrigerator full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in San Jose on Tuesday after the fumes led someone to call emergency services. A hazardous materials team was called in. Authorities say an enterprising office worker had decided to clean the fridge out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess. The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea. The worker who cleaned the fridge didn’t need treatment — she can’t smell because of allergies.

  ■PERU

  Protesters block supplies

  Protesters upset over oil and natural gas developments in the resource-rich Amazon are threatening to choke energy supplies in the north of the country, Environmental Minister Antonio Brack said on Tuesday. Some communities in the central regions of Loreto, Amazonas, Ucayali and Cuzco have been demonstrating for weeks, demanding the government revoke decrees aligning national laws with a recently signed free-trade pact with the US. Protesters fear the new rules make it easier for foreign companies to control land, especially in the Amazon rain forest.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    TSMC to start building four new plants

  • 2

    Taiwan attack would unleash China: Rudd

  • 3

    US House passes US$500m Taiwan aid

  • 4

    Moya withdraws from All-Star Game after wife’s death

  • 5

    US House passes ‘Honest Maps’ bill