■MYANMAR
Arrest made over blasts
Police said yesterday they had arrested a man in connection with blasts in at a water festival in a Yangon park on April 15 that killed 10 people and wounded dozens. “This brutal act was committed by four terrorist murderers who are members of a group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,” police chief Khin Yi said in a statement. One suspect was arrested while several others fled across the Thai border, police said at a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw.
■MALAYSIA
Liberian loses appeal
A Liberian on death row for drug trafficking has lost his final appeal in the nation’s top court. Prosecutor Nurulhuda Nuraini Mohamed Nor said the Federal Court upheld Nobies Weah Ezike’s 2005 conviction on Wednesday. The judges unanimously found that the prosecution proved its case based on witness statements and documents. Ezike was arrested in 1996 after sending a package containing heroin from Malaysia to the US. A date for his execution hasn’t been set.
■INDIA
Brogues ban sought
Heavy leather brogue shoes worn by millions of schoolchildren could become things of the past if a campaign by former environment minister Maneka Gandhi succeeds. Gandhi has asked national education boards to instruct schools to drop the flat-heeled brogues in favor of canvas shoes. She says the shoes are a legacy of British colonial rule. “Leather shoes are really bad for our children as they are destroying their feet,” she said, adding that the brogue was only suitable for cold climates. “India is a hot country and is the only country in Asia where brogues are used by children,” said Gandhi, who is also a wildlife campaigner.
■ITALY
First divorce fair begins
Milan is holding the country’s its first divorce fair, offering services such as life coaching and beauty advice to a booming number of separating couples in the Catholic country. The organizers said the fair, which will be held tomorrow and Sunday, aims to help divorcing people start a new, happier life. The services include divorce planning, anti-stalking help and “new look” tips, the organizers said. Visitors to the fair will also be able to sign up for “divorce gift lists” at local department stores.
■EGYPT
Writers slam Islamists
Writers’ union head Mohammed Salmawy hit back on Wednesday against Islamists seeking to ban One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights, saying it would file a legal complaint against them for “their stance against heritage.” A group of Islamist lawyers had filed a complaint to the public prosecutor against the publication of the classic because they said it was lewd. “Those who want to destroy our heritage are taking the same path as the Taliban when they destroyed Buddha’s statutes,” Salmawy said. “We will file a complaint, and it is time that we move from a defensive position to attack.” First published in medieval times, the collection of tales, including Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, is told by Sheherazade to put off her execution by a king who wants to bed his country’s virgins before executing them.
■AUSTRALIA
Stamp honors Russell Crowe
Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is to feature on the country’s latest postage stamp, mail officials said yesterday, in a series celebrating his portrayal of folk hero Robin Hood. New Zealand-born Crowe, 46, who holds Australian citizenship, produced and stars in Ridley Scott’s re-imagining of the Sherwood Forest legend, due to open at the Cannes Film Festival next week. Australia Post said the stamps were a celebration of Crowe’s achievements. Crowe, best known for his Academy award-winning role in Gladiator, has been featured on a postage stamp once before, as part of the country’s “Legends of the Screen” series.
■AUSTRALIA
Robber dresses in burqa
A gunman dressed in a head-to-toe black burqa and sunglasses robbed a cash courier in a shopping center parking lot, police said yesterday. The courier had just withdrawn a large amount of cash from a bank on Wednesday when he spotted two men following him, New South Wales state police said in a statement. Growing suspicious, he drove to a shopping center and was parking his car when a man approached wearing a black burqa and sunglasses. The man pointed a pistol, grabbed the cash and fled, police said.
■RUSSIA
‘Meeting with aliens’ queried
A minister of parliament (MP) has asked Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the eccentric leader of the Kalmykia region, to explain his behavior after claiming on state TV that he was visited at home by aliens in a UFO, media reported yesterday. Ilyumzhinov, who is also president of the World Chess Federation, announced without apparent irony on a high-profile chat show he had met the aliens in 1997. Liberal Democratic Party MP Andrei Lebedev has written to President Dmitry Medvedev to ask if Ilyumzhinov filed an official report about his contacts with alien representatives. “Is there an established procedure of informing about such contacts by high ranking people who have access to secret information like Ilyumzhinov?” Lebedev wrote.
■UNITED STATES
Scientist backs Chavez
A US scientist is supporting a theory that has been widely dismissed as a personal obsession of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — that his hero Simon Bolivar might have died from arsenic poisoning. Chavez rejects the traditional account that Bolivar, a brilliant Venezuelan military tactician who liberated much of South America from centuries of Spanish rule, died of tuberculosis in Colombia in 1830. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said Bolivar’s death was most likely caused by arsenic — either from drinking contaminated water or using the naturally occurring poison to try to cure headaches and hemorrhoids. At a medical conference in Maryland last week, Auwaerter said he did not rule out murder but thought it was unlikely.
■UNITED STATES
Carbon emissions down 7%
The nation’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions fell a record 7 percent last year, officials said on Wednesday, citing the economic slump and other factors including increased energy efficiency. The drop of 405 million tonnes was the largest absolute and percentage decline since energy data collection began in 1949, the Department of Energy said in a statement. Officials said that even though some of the decline came from reduced economic activity, the country’s so-called energy intensity also fell. Economic activity measured by GDP fell 2.4 percent last year, but the population increased an estimated 0.9 percent. Total energy consumption fell 4.8 percent, with the industrial sector seeing the largest drop of 9.9 percent.
■MEXICO
Security chief under threat
Authorities on Wednesday tightened security measures for the nation’s top public security official himself after police arrested three men filming his family members and cited “organized crime threats.” Prosecutors issued an order boosting security measures for Genaro Garcia Luna after the arrest of suspects photographing and filming his family, his office said in a statement. The security upgrade came after the suspects arrested “were casing his wife and two children,” a public safety statement said. Violent attacks have spiraled across the country since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime when he took office at the end of 2006.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Eye color genes identified
Scientists have identified three new genes that determine subtle variations in human eye color — clues that could help forensic investigators using DNA left at a crime scene to track down criminal suspects. Researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands used a technique called a genome-wide association study, which scans gene maps, to analyze the eye color of about 6,000 Dutch volunteers. The colors were then digitally quantified and collated using high-resolution photographs of the whole eye, and the scientists found that human eye color varies in many more ways than previously thought. Previous studies on the genetics of human eye color used broad trait information such as “blue,” “green” and “brown,” the researchers, led by Manfred Kayser, wrote in the study. But this study showed that variation in eye color runs in a continuous grading from the lightest blue to the darkest brown. Researchers said the three genes, together with previously identified ones, could explain more than 50 percent of eye color variance.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
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