■NEPAL
Widows slam dowry offer
About 200 women marched through Kathmandu on Monday to denounce a government scheme to pay cash incentives to men for marrying widows, witnesses said. The government announced a plan last month to pay men the equivalent of US$650 for marrying widows. The protesters shouted slogans such as “You can’t sell your mother” and “We don’t want government dowries.” They were stopped by riot police, but there were no arrests or violence. A protest organizer said widows should be given jobs, better health care and education because men would marry them just for the money and then abandon them.
■SINGAPORE
Toddler survives fall
A toddler survived a fall from an open window of a ninth floor apartment, escaping with cuts to his face and body and a fractured ankle. The Straits Times reported yesterday that Park Sihu, 3, landed in bushes. He was found conscious and crying but clearly traumatized, the paper reported. He had been climbing on a bed beside an open window when he fell. His two elder sisters were in the same room with him, but were busy studying.
■CAMBODIA
Thai arrested over artwork
A Thai construction worker was arrested for living illegally in the country for more than 10 years and for drawing an image of Angkor Wat on his bathroom floor, national media reported. Salavout Khamsan, 35, was arrested in Poipet after neighbors saw the drawing and told the authorities. Poipet police chief Nuth Ly said the man had “desecrated the precious temple which is a World Heritage site.” The provincial police chief said the man’s explanation — that he drew the image out of affection for Angkor Wat, not to demean it — was not good enough.
■MALAYSIA
Swine flu death toll rises
The Health Ministry said yesterday that six more people infected with swine flu have died over the past few days, raising the death toll from the virus to 38. There has also been a big increase of 269 new swine flu cases since Monday, it said. The nation has reported 2,252 swine flu cases since May.
■NEW ZEALAND
Drunk gets lost in hotel
A drunk, naked man lost his way at a Queensland hotel and ended up sleeping in the wrong room, forcing its female occupant to hide in the bathroom, the Southland Times reported. The 29 year-old Australian man had gone back to the hotel with a woman, but got up in the night and wandered into a room where a couple were sleeping. “He was a bit surprised that there were two people in his room and he was butt naked,” Sergeant Steve Watt told the newspaper. As the intruder slept, the startled woman took refuge in the bathroom as her husband called hotel staff. The man could not remember whom he had been with or what room he had been in, and had no clothes or wallet.
■PHILIPPINES
Abductee rescued
Police rescued a kidnapped factory owner and fatally shot all seven suspects in Manila, a police official said yesterday. Michelle Tan, 30, was snatched from her garment factory in Navotas on Sunday. The kidnappers demanded an initial ransom of 2 million pesos (US$42,000), the official said. Police traced Tan using information from her relatives and stormed a house where she was held late on Monday, killing two suspects. The other five suspects were tracked down later.
■RUSSIA
No envoy to Ukraine
Moscow is postponing sending a new ambassador to Ukraine because of a crisis in relations, President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday, expressing hope ties would improve under a “new leadership” in Kiev. “I want to inform you that under the current anti-Russian course of the Ukrainian leadership, I have taken a decision to postpone sending a new ambassador to Kiev,” Medvedev said in a letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. “Russia hopes a new political leadership in Ukraine will be ready to create relations between our people that respond to the real hopes of our people,” he said in the letter, the text of which was published by the Kremlin. Ukraine is to hold crucial presidential elections on Jan. 17.
■GERMANY
Ex-Nazi officer convicted
A 90-year-old former army officer was convicted of murder yesterday over the killings of Italian civilians during World War II and sentenced to life in prison. The Munich state court convicted Josef Scheungraber on 10 counts of murder and also found him guilty of attempted murder. Scheungraber was a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant at the time of the June 1944 killings in Falzano di Cortona, near the Tuscan town of Arezzo. Prosecutors said that after partisans killed two German soldiers, Scheungraber commanded his soldiers to shoot three Italian men and one woman. They said he then ordered that another 11 civilians be herded into a barn that was blown up.
■SLOVAKIA
Six dead after mine blast
Six Slovaks have died and another 14 are believed to have been killed by a fire and explosion in a coal mine. Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek says rescue workers have found six bodies of a total of 20 workers who were trapped underground after a fire and explosion hit the coal mine in central Slovakia on Monday. He says it is unlikely anybody else survived. The trapped workers include nine miners who were initially sent to battle the blaze, and 11 sent as reinforcements as the fire grew.
■FRANCE
‘Mona Lisa’ attacked
The Mona Lisa still smiles, a day after the famous painting was attacked in the Louvre in Paris — with a teacup. A Russia tourist aimed an empty tea cup at Leonardo da Vinci’s celebrated work a week ago, Le Parisien newspaper reported yesterday. The artwork, which is kept behind bulletproof glass and is heavily guarded, was unscathed. The woman was promptly arrested and sent for psychological observation. The museum filed a complaint. The woman is suspected of having Sendhal Syndrome, where the sufferer is compelled to act irrationally when moved by a work of art.
■ISRAEL
Don’t brush with baldness
A study by an Israeli dermatologist has found that too much combing of the coiffure leads to hair loss, the daily Haaretz reported on Monday. During a test 14 women recorded their daily hair loss and combing habits, with those combing more losing more hair, the research found. “The women who combed twice a day lost three times more hair than those who combed once a day,” the head of the study, Alexander Kirdman of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was quoted as saying. “I was surprised by the results, as in medical circles the comb is believed to improve blood circulation and reduce hair loss,” said Kirdman, whose study was recently published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment.
■UNITED STATES
Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of slain US president John F. Kennedy and founder of the Special Olympics, died yesterday in Massachusetts, her family said in a statement. She was 88. “The amazing Eunice Kennedy Shriver went home to God this morning at 2am,” the statement said. Members of Shriver’s politically powerful family, including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, bade farewell earlier on Monday in visits to Cape Cod Hospital in the northeastern state.
■UNITED STATES
Charities fight for fortune
Leona Helmsley’s dog, Trouble, may be living quietly enough in Florida, but back in New York there’s a lot of barking about the way the late hotel queen’s millions are being given away. Three animal welfare groups filed court papers on Monday accusing Helmsley’s trustees of a “scheme to deprive dog welfare charities” of their share of her fortune. The groups say Helmsley, who died in 2007, primarily intended to give her fortune to dog causes. They say a judge’s February decision giving the trustees sole authority to decide what to do with her fortune should be thrown out. The trustees say Helmsley did not intend for the charitable trust to focus on dogs. Helmsley’s will named her dog as a beneficiary. The Maltese is living in Florida on a US$2 million trust fund.
■UNITED STATES
Bear killed animal feeder
An autopsy has confirmed that a bear killed a 74-year-old southwestern Colorado woman known for leaving food outside her home, despite wildlife officers’ repeated warnings not to. The body of Donna Munson of Ouray County had been partially eaten by a bear or bears when it was found outside her home on Friday. State Division of Wildlife officials didn’t immediately know if Munson was killed by the bears or if she was already dead when the animals fed on her. Ouray County Sheriff Dominic Mattivi said on Monday an autopsy showed Munson was killed in the bear attack.
■UNITED STATES
Man accused of biting guard
A former UN employee who was upset about being passed over for a job has been accused of biting a security guard outside his boss’ office. Nicola Baroncini appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday to face an assault charge. The Italian turned down a plea bargain and is due back in court on Oct. 28. Baroncini was working for the UN Development Program on June 22, when he claimed he lost out on a job because a UN envoy to Congo lobbied for his daughter to get it. Baroncini went to a superior’s office to complain. He says he was pepper-sprayed and assaulted by UN security.
■UNITED STATES
NASA promotes space taxis
NASA plans to use US$50 million of federal economic stimulus funds to seed development of commercial passenger transportation service to space, agency officials said on Monday. Aspiring spaceship operators will have 45 days to submit proposals, which will be competitively evaluated. Awards for the Commercial Crew Development program are expected to be announced before the end of September. The US is retiring its fleet of space shuttles next year after seven more missions to complete construction of the US$100 billion International Space Station. After that, the US plans to buy rides for astronauts to and from the station from Russia, one of the 16 nations involved in the station program.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS