■FRANCE
Sarkozy slams minaret ban
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday warned against religious “ostentation and provocation” after Switzerland voted to ban Muslims from building minarets. “Christians, Jews, Muslims, all believers regardless of their faith, must refrain from ostentation and provocation and ... practice their religion in humble discretion,” wrote Sarkozy in an opinion piece in Le Monde daily. Sarkozy pledged to French Muslims to do “everything” to combat discrimination and ensure they can feel like full-fledged citizens of France. But he cautioned that “anything that could appear as a challenge” to France’s Christian roots and republican values would lead to the “failure” in the drive to promote a form of moderate Islam in France.
■SOMALIA
Clashes leave seven dead
At least seven people died in Mogadishu, in clashes between government forces and Islamist insurgents, witnesses said. The fighting, which took place in the south of the city, involved mortar fire, Ali Muse Sheikh, a paramedic who works for Lifeline Africa, said yesterday. At least 21 people were wounded. Most of the victims were children and the wounded people mostly have serious injuries, he said. Somalia’s government has been battling Islamist insurgents for the past two years.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Cops lend Charles cash
Prince Charles borrowed £2,744.34 (US$4,461) from his protection officers after he found himself short of cash and needing to fork out for “travel expenses,” a report said yesterday. The heir to the throne repaid the officers after they stumped up the money, thought to be for flights abroad, the Independent newspaper said. The money was paid back by Clarence House in December 2007 and Scotland Yard cashed the check days later, the newspaper said. A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said officers occasionally lend money to VIPs they protect, although she did not confirm the 2007 incident. British government and taxpayer funds given to the prince reached £3 million last year, Clarence House said. Charles’ private income from the Duchy of Cornwall was £16.46 million last year.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Hepburn dress auctioned
The black cocktail dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in How to Steal a Million has sold for nearly US$100,000 at auction. Kerry Taylor Auctions says the Chantilly lace dress sold to an anonymous bidder for £60,000 (US$97,700). It was one of 40 items from Hepburn’s wardrobe sold off by her friend Tanja Star-Busmann. Tuesday’s sale made a total of £268,320. Half of the net proceeds will go to The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.
■MALAYSIA
Cabbies compared to toilets
A top minister slammed taxi drivers yesterday, saying they were more of a problem for the tourism industry than the nation’s notoriously filthy toilets. “The complaints by tourists about the taxi drivers’ behavior are more than toilets now, so in that context the taxi drivers are worse than dirty toilets,” Cabinet minister Nazri Aziz said. “People are complaining about the taxi drivers overcharging, being impolite and not using their meters, forcing the tourists to bargain with them,” he said. “This is the third-world taxi driver mentality. Even in China now, taxi drivers can no longer [haggle], they just have to take the passengers, no questions asked. It’s not that all taxi drivers behave like that, it’s just a small group of them but that is already giving Malaysia a bad name,” Nazri said.
■UNITED STATES
Green jobs growing
Green jobs in California are growing at a faster pace than jobs overall in the environmentally friendly state, but they still account for only a tiny fraction of the economy, a study said on Tuesday. The number of such jobs grew 2.4 percent annually between 1995 and last year compared with 1 percent overall job growth statewide, said the study sponsored by environmental and budget public policy group Next 10. California, with the most aggressive climate change regulations in the US, had 159,000 green jobs out of an economy with more than 18 million jobs at the start of last year, the report said. “This is the foundation for the green economy going forward in California,” said Next 10 founder Noel Perry. There were fewer green jobs than he had expected, Perry said, but “it is a conservative report.”
■PERU
Army testing Chinese tanks
The country’s military is close to a deal to buy tanks from China, the defense minister said on Tuesday. Rafael Rey said that the army is testing MBT-2000 tanks brought from China, but wants a better-equipped model of the tank. Peru showed the tanks in a parade on Tuesday. Rey didn’t say how many tanks Peru would buy. Newspaper La Republica reported that it plans to buy 80 to 120 tanks and has evaluated Chinese, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish models. The defense minister said Peru is also planning to look at navy and air force purchases.
■MEXICO
Dinosaur goes missing
Organizers of the tour of the Walking With Dinosaurs show say someone has walked off with a robotic baby Plateosaurus. Spokeswoman Karla Arrollo says the 1.5m, remote-controlled dinosaur worth US$25,000 disappeared after Friday’s performance. Police say they are investigating the alleged theft. Arrollo says the show — which features 10 species of large, mechanized dinosaurs lumbering across an arena stage — will continue touring. But organizers had to redesign the first scene, which originally involved a larger dinosaur devouring the baby.
■UNITED STATES
Makeup hides swastika
A neo-Nazi gang member went on trial for murder on Monday with his swastika and other tattoos covered by makeup on the order of a Florida judge who thought they could prejudice jurors. The judge ordered the state to pay for a cosmetologist to apply makeup before trial each day to cover up the tattoos on John Ditullio’s face and neck, which include a swastika, barbed wire and an obscene word. Ditullio, 23, is charged with stabbing to death 17-year-old Kristofer King. His lawyer argued in a pretrial motion that the tattoos, which Ditullio acquired after his arrest, could prejudice a jury. The judge agreed but ruled that any tattoos Ditullio had before his arrest should not be covered.
■UNITED STATES
Police arrested ‘healer’
FBI agents and police officers have arrested a British motivational speaker suspected of killing a Las Vegas woman, ransacking her home and fleeing to California. Las Vegas police said on Tuesday that they tracked Michael Lane, a British citizen who also goes by the name “Chae Saville,” to a motel in Ventura, California, and arrested him. Authorities say Lane is a suspect in the slaying of 44-year-old Ginger Candela, who was found dead in her garage on Nov. 30. Detectives say Lane is involved in “spiritual healing’’ and may have befriended women to defraud them.
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
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
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