■SINGAPORE
Woman convicted of abuse
A court has convicted a woman of abusing her Indonesian maid by scalding the helper’s genitals with boiling water, helping to pull out her teeth, hitting her with a metal rod and threatening to kill her, the Straits Times reported yesterday. Maselly Ab Aziz, 38, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday, the paper said. Her two children and lover had already been jailed for their part in abusing the 30-year-old maid Badingah in 2007. Maselly told the court that she would appeal her conviction. She claimed Badingah’s injuries were self-inflicted.
■SINGAPORE
Protesters jailed over fire
A court convicted seven protesters on Wednesday for throwing firebombs at police, sparking a blaze that killed six people, including a policeman. Two were sentenced to six years in prison, five were given five-year terms and two others received suspended jail sentences. They were found guilty of staging violent protests with firebombs in January when police raided a Seoul building scheduled for demolition but occupied by dozens of protesters. Opposition lawmakers and other critics accused police of using excessive force in the raid. But prosecutors concluded the police were not directly responsible for the fire.
■NEW ZEALAND
Minister sculpted in dung
Artist Sam Mahon has sculpted the head of Environment Minister Nick Smith out of cow dung as part of a conservation protest. The Canterbury sculptor filled a cast with cow dung and then gave it a bronze-like finish. Mahon said yesterday he was upset about plans to dam a local river and the pollution of waterways by effluent from dairy farms. Smith described the protest as “a bit of a laugh ... Though I’d also say, excuse the pun, I’d call it ‘crap art.’”
■SPAIN
Doctor saves woman on bus
A woman yesterday found her “guardian angel” — the stranger who saved her life after approaching her on a bus to say she was probably suffering from a rare disease. Montse Ventura, 55, said a woman sitting opposite her on a Barcelona bus nine months ago saved her life by telling her to have tests for acromegaly — a disorder resulting from an excess of growth hormone. She had no idea what the woman was talking about, but accepted a piece of paper where the woman had written down the names of two clinical tests. “She wrote something down and said ‘Have the analysis done as soon as possible,’” Ventura said. The test results rang alarm bells. “I had more tests done and they ended up operating on a tumor.” The operation was successful. On Tuesday, a 60-year-old endocrinologist rang La Vanguardia newspaper to say she had made the diagnosis after seeing Ventura’s unusually shaped hands. Ventura and her guardian angel have spoken by phone and will meet when the media fuss in Spain dies down.
■INDIA
Body found at police station
The corpse of a man has been found on the roof of a police station, where it was placed more than two years ago during an inquiry, a report said on Wednesday. The body of Chukkan Nishad, a 22-year-old who went missing in 2007, was meant to be sent for DNA testing but was instead put in a body bag and placed on the roof, the Mail Today newspaper said. The newspaper said the family kept requesting the body but were told there was an investigation under way. “I admit it is a horrible case, possibly the first of its kind,” said Ram Sabad Ram, the new station master in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. The body was placed there after authorities refused to release funds for the DNA test on Nishad.
■SPAIN
Mass grave exhumed
Forensic experts have begun exhuming a mass unmarked grave near Granada that may hold poet Federico Garcia Lorca. The victims in the grave were killed by a militia loyal to general Francisco Franco. The grave is being opened at the request of relatives of the men who are believed to be buried there. Garcia Lorca’s family has opposed the exhumation, saying they prefer his remains stay untouched.
■SWITZERLAND
‘Death tourism’ not wanted
The government is considering restricting or banning organized assisted suicide to reduce “death tourism.” Authorities want to ensure euthanasia is a last resort for the terminally ill. A study last year suggested more and more people seeking help to die did not have a terminal illness. “We have no interest, as a country, in being attractive for suicide tourism,” Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said, adding that more foreigners were coming to die.
■FRANCE
Exhibit celebrates Asterix
For half a century they have been fending off Roman attacks from their village, but now Asterix and his band of indomitable Gauls are invading Lutetia — modern-day Paris. Fifty years after Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny unveiled their comic stars on the pages of Pilote magazine, an exhibition of original plates opened among the Gallo-Roman baths upon which the Musee de Cluny is partially built. Since it first appeared in October 1959, The Adventures of Asterix has sold 325 million copies and been translated into 107 languages.
■BRAZIL
Statue to get makeover
The Catholic Church announced plans to raise US$3.5 million for a major upgrade of Christ the Redeemer, the iconic statue of Jesus with outstretched arms that overlooks Rio de Janeiro. Cleaning and repairing the 78 year-old statue will take four to six months, Rio de Janeiro Archbishop Ornani Tempesta told reporters on Wednesday. Some of the money will be raised by selling small metal brooches of the statue, available for US$4.30 at any of Rio’s 252 parishes, Tempesta said. Mining giant Vale will also pay for part of the project. The 30m tall stone and cement Christ the Redeemer stands on an 8m pedestal on top of Mount Corcovado, overlooking the metropolis of about 10 million people.
■UNITED STATES
Flu prompts school closings
Schools are closing by the dozens as officials say they are being hit so hard and so fast by the A(H1N1) virus that they feel shutting down for a few days is the only feasible option. The number of closures this year appears on target to surpass the roughly 700 schools closed last spring when the swine flu outbreak first hit. At least 351 schools were closed last week alone — affecting 126,000 students in 19 states, the Education Department said. So far this school year, about 600 schools have temporarily shut their doors. The federal government has urged schools to close because of the swine flu only as a last resort. Many school officials said they were afraid the virus would spread faster if they stayed open.
■MEXICO
Soldiers find border tunnel
Soldiers discovered a sophisticated but incomplete tunnel running under the border into the US and arrested six people in the process of digging, the army said. The tunnel was 2m high and 1m wide, and was well lit and had a ventilation system. It was 90m long and had not yet reached its destination in San Diego, California, an army spokesman said. Soldiers also found tools, including shovels and wheelbarrows, in the tunnel. The tunnel entrance was located inside an empty warehouse about 100m from the metal fence marking the border between the two countries.
■UNITED STATES
Man charged for sex cards
A man in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was sentenced to two years of probation for sending sexually explicit Christmas cards of his ex-girlfriend to her relatives. The Daily News Journal reports 57-year-old David Simmons was accused of surreptitiously taking pictures of his ex-girlfriend while she performed sexual acts on him. After a bad break up, Simmons sent one of the pictures to the woman’s relatives as Christmas cards. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of unlawful photography and criminal impersonation. In exchange for the plea he was given a suspended sentence.
■CANADA
Gang slayings on the rise
Gangland slayings pushed up the otherwise declining murder rate by 2 percent last year, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The government agency said police reported 611 homicides last year, 17 more than the previous year. The rise was “due almost entirely” to murders in western British Columbia and Alberta provinces, “much of which was gang-related,” said the government agency. After peaking in the mid-1970s, the murder rate generally declined until 1999. Since then it has been relatively stable.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
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