■MALAYSIA
Policeman dies in sex raid
An off-duty policeman trying to flee religious police carrying out a raid on illicit sex died after falling from a hotel room in northern Kelantan state, police confirmed yesterday. “The 33-year-old lance-corporal climbed out of his hotel room window when religious affairs department officials raided his room in the early hours of Saturday,” a senior police official, who declined to be named, said. He said the man was believed to have jumped or fallen from the third-story window. Under Islamic law, which operates alongside the civil code, khalwat — close proximity between a man and a woman who are not married — is forbidden. Teams from the state religious departments routinely carry out raids in the country’s hotels, entertainment facilities and parks in a bid to catch unmarried couples canoodling or having casual sex.
■AUSTRALIA
Uluru striptease condemned
A woman who performed a striptease on top of the iconic giant red rock Uluru yesterday prompted renewed calls for people to be banned from climbing the important indigenous site, a report said. Alizee Sery, 25, stripped down to a white bikini after climbing the monolith, formerly known as Ayers Rock, in what she described as a tribute to Aboriginal culture. “What we need to remember is that traditionally, the Aboriginal people were living naked. So stripping down was a return to what it was like,” she said. Her comments failed to impress David Ross, director of the Central Land Council which covers Uluru, who said it was an indication of how many people ignored traditional owners’ requests not to climb the monumental rock. Ross said the 346m high climb should be closed.
■INDONESIA
Temblor hits off Sumatra
A moderate 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra yesterday, the country’s seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued. The quake struck 152km southwest of Bengkulu city at a depth of 16km at 3:47pm, the national geophysics and meteorological agency said. The US Geological Survey gave a slightly higher measurement of 5.8. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
■CHINA
Bus crash kills 11 mourners
An overloaded bus taking mourners to a funeral veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in the northof the country, killing 11 people and injuring 31, state media reported yesterday. Forty-two people were on the private 19-seat bus heading to the funeral when it careened off the road on Saturday morning in the remote Ningxia region, Xinhua news agency reported. Thirteen seriously injured people were in a critical condition while 18 others were in stable condition yesterday, Huang Luning, head of the People’s Hospital in Haiyuan County, where the accident happened, told Xinhua. The county’s top traffic official was fired after the accident and three other officials were suspended, the report said, without explaining why. The youngest of those injured was seven months old and the oldest 77 years old, Huang said.
■THAILAND
Boat crash injures tourists
Two speedboats carrying Thai and Western tourists collided in the Gulf of Thailand, injuring at least 33 people, while two were thought to be missing, hospital staff and media said yesterday. The accident happened late on Saturday night as the boats were ferrying people to and from a full moon party on a beach on Koh Phangan, a monthly event on the island that is particularly popular with thousands of Western backpackers. Two local hospitals said they had treated 33 tourists between them, with nine still in their care including five Australians, two British, one Irish and one Singaporean.
■PHILIPPINES
Communist guerrillas killed
Troops killed at least two communist guerrillas yesterday in the south and captured a rebel camp containing bunkers, bombs and assault rifles, the military said. The country’s 41-year communist rebellion — one of Asia’s longest-running — has raged on despite a deadline set by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the military to crush the rebels by the end of her term on Wednesday. Army troops searching for two abducted soldiers discovered a key New People’s Army camp near Cateel town in Davao Oriental province. The troops clashed with about 50 guerrillas, killing two rebels, army spokesman Captain Emmanuel Garcia said.
■CHINA
Water defenses repaired
Beijing scrambled yesterday to repair water defenses shattered by relentless rain, state media said, after flood-related disasters claimed the lives of 235 people this month. Jiangxi Province flood control officials said a major dyke that broke last week as the river running through Fuzhou burst its banks is exected to be fixed by today after 1.3 million people were evacuated, Xinhua said. More than 400 workers in the eastern province, backed by heavy equipment, were battling to shore up the dyke yesterday, the report said.
■UNITED STATES
Falling branch kills baby
A six-month-old baby was killed on Saturday and her mother injured by a falling tree branch at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Police said the 33-year-old New Jersey woman was posing with her baby in front of the sea lion exhibit and her husband was taking their picture when the branch fell. The woman and infant were taken to a local hospital, where the baby was pronounced dead. The mother was listed in stable condition. Police identified the baby as Gianna Ricciutti of Union City, New Jersey. It’s the second fatality caused by a tree branch this year in Central Park.
■BRAZIL
Pilot drops pants, detained
A United Airlines pilot was briefly detained at the international airport in Rio de Janeiro after lowering his pants during a security screening, police said on Saturday. Pilot Michael Slynn was asked to remove his belt and shoes as part of a routine security screening on Friday afternoon. In response, Slynn laughed at security guards and lowered his pants to his ankles, said a police spokesman who was prohibited by departmental rules from giving his name. Slynn was detained but released shortly afterward and allowed to fly back to Washington after signing a document promising to appear before a judge the next time he is in the country, the spokesman said.
■UNITED STATES
Girl bitten by coyotes
Police say a six-year-old girl was scratched and bitten by a pair of coyotes who charged her as she played with friends in the front yard of her suburban New York City home. The Journal News reports that the girl was treated and released from the hospital. She had bites on her shoulder, thigh and possibly on one ear. Her back had been scratched. Police in the Westchester County city of Rye, about 50km northeast of Manhattan, said on Saturday that they were searching for the coyotes. Police Commissioner William Connors says they believe the animals may be rabid.
■UNITED STATES
Glove fetches US$190,000
Bidders from around the world bought up Michael Jackson memorabilia worth nearly US$1 million at an auction on the anniversary of his death, including US$190,000 for the Swarovski-crystal-studded glove he wore on his 1984 Victory Tour. The bidding that began on Friday on more than 200 items was “unlike anything we’ve ever experienced,” said Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions, which ran the auction at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. Some items, like the glove, brought 10 times more than their estimated value, he said. “It just shows you Michael Jackson is the most sought after and most collectible celebrity of all time. It was just phenomenal,” Julien told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “People flew in from Asia, Russia, all over. Now that he’s gone, we now realize the true legend we lost,” Julien said. He predicted the sales would easily top US$1 million by the time the auction wrapped up yesterday.
■GEORGIA
Stalin statue torn down
Authorities have torn down another monument to Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin. The monument in the town of Tkibuli was taken down two days after authorities tore down a bigger and more famous monument to Stalin in his hometown of Gori. Both statues were brought down in the middle of the night in an apparent bid to avoid protests and media attention. The government says the younger generation favors the dismantling of Stalin’s monuments.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
STOPOVERS: As organized crime groups in Asia and the Americas move drugs via places such as Tonga, methamphetamine use has reached levels called ‘epidemic’ A surge of drugs is engulfing the South Pacific as cartels and triads use far-flung island nations to channel narcotics across the globe, top police and UN officials told reporters. Pacific island nations such as Fiji and Tonga sit at the crossroads of largely unpatrolled ocean trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America, and methamphetamine and opioids from Asia. This illicit cargo is increasingly spilling over into local hands, feeding drug addiction in communities where serious crime had been rare. “We’re a victim of our geographical location. An ideal transit point for vessels crossing the Pacific,” Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan
RSS