■INDONESIA
Praying in wrong direction
People in the world’s most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa — not Mecca — while praying. The nation’s highest Islamic body acknowledged on Monday it made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country’s west. It has since asked followers to shift direction slightly northward during their daily prayers. “After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they’ve been facing southern Somalia and Kenya,” said Maruf Amin, acting head of the Indonesian Ulema Council.
■INDONESIA
‘Fatwa’ on coffee mulled
The Indonesian Ulema Council says it may forbid followers from drinking the world’s most expensive coffee — extracted from the dung of a civet cat — over concerns it is unclean. Kopi Luwak is made from hard beans that have been eaten by the nocturnal critters and then fermented in their stomachs before being pooped out and roasted. It’s highly prized for its smooth flavor and bitterless aftertaste, sometimes fetching well over US$440 per kilogram online. Maruf Amin said the key issue is whether or not the coffee is clean. “If the farmers clean the beans before they are grinded, they are halal, or legitimate, and there won’t be a problem,” Amin said.
■CHINA
Kitchen waste oil targeted
Authorities have ordered food safety officials nationwide to step up the fight against “gutter oil” that is illegally skimmed from kitchen waste and resold. The State Council said the black market trade in waste oil posed “serious potential food safety risks” to the public. The China Daily newspaper reported yesterday that reused oil could contain dangerous substances such as aflatoxin, a mold that can cause cancer.
■CHINA
Alleged poisoner detained
Police have detained a man suspected of murdering seven family members with rat poison since 2002, state press said yesterday. Police in Guangdong Province detained Huang Zhenqiu (黃振秋) on Monday, following the deaths last week of his younger brother and sister-in-law, the China Daily reported. The two died after apparently eating rice porridge laced with rat poison — and after they telephoned relatives to plead for help, the report said. During the investigation, police found traces of the rat poison in the porridge. Five members of Huang’s family have died since 2002 after exhibiting symptoms of poisoning: his wife, daughter, the son of another brother and the offspring of two other brothers, the report said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Churchill’s teeth up for sale
A partial set of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill’s gold-mounted dentures, specially designed to disguise his natural lisp, go up for sale this month. The partial dentures, which Keys Auctioneers have catalogued with an estimated value of US$7,600, are being sold by the son of the technician who was commissioned to make them. A duplicate is on show at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a third set was buried with Churchill in 1965. Documents written by the college show the dentures were carefully designed to ensure that Churchill retained his characteristically slurred diction — a deliberate affectation designed to overcome a childhood lisp.
■DUBAI
Al-Zawahri mocks Obama
Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader mocked US President Barack Obama for voicing confidence over victory in Afghanistan, in an Internet message posted on Monday. Ayman al-Zawahri also said Arab government leaders allied to the West were more harmful to the Palestinians than Israel. “Poor Obama comes to Kabul and he promises that the Taliban shall not return to power ... You poor man, can you promise that your hordes will return safely to America?” a speaker who sounded like Zawahri said in an audio recording posted on Islamist Web sites often used by al-Qaeda.
■FRANCE
Flights reduced for strike
A strike by air traffic controllers starting last night was expected to disrupt flights in and out of the country. The civil aviation authority said it asked airlines to cancel 20 percent of flights today at Charles de Gaulle airport and 50 percent at the smaller Orly airport. Unions say the strike is to end early tomorrow. Air traffic controller unions are striking over a plan to unify European airspace. The Single European Sky concept is meant to ensure greater efficiency and deal with a projected increase in traffic, but French air traffic controllers are worried about how it will affect them.
■ISRAEL
Anti-missile system plan set
The defense ministry will deploy its anti-missile system designed to combat threats from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in November. “The Iron Dome interceptor, in conjunction with air force and anti-aircraft systems, successfully downed a large number of threats in fully operational mode,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday. The system is expected to be first deployed along the border of Hamas-run Gaza. It will then be deployed on the border with Lebanon. Defense Minister Ehud Barak praised the developers for the short timeframe in which they had managed to make the system operational.
■UNITED STATES
Parental leave trends mixed
Germany and the Nordic countries have topped a list of 21 high-income nations when it comes to generosity of paid parental leave, with Australia and the US tying in last place. Researchers associated with the US-based Center for Economic and Policy Research examined the parental leave policies of 21 countries with their study published in the peer-reviewed social science Journal of European Social Policy. They found Sweden ranked highest for gender equality in parental leave practices, while Germany and Sweden were the most generous with paid parental leave, both offering 47 weeks.
■UNITED STATES
Man arrested for espionage
A 45-year-old man accused of illegally sending trade secrets to China may be granted bail. Prosecutors said on Monday in federal court in Worcester, Massechusetts, that Kexue Huang passed on insecticide information valued at more than US$100 million to Hunan Normal University while he worked for Dow Chemical in Indiana from January 2003 to February 2008. Huang faces a dozen counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign government. His lawyer, James Duggan, said in court the allegations stem from an article Huang published in a Chinese academic journal. Huang, who now works at a Marlborough biofuels company, was arrested yesterday.
■CANADA
Toddler undergoes surgery
A two-year-old boy who was born with a rare lymphatic disorder underwent a second operation on Monday to repair his severely disfigured face, doctors said. “He looks very, very good right now,” said Milton Waner, who performed the four-hour surgery at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. “I don’t think his parents recognized him.” The boy, Maddox Flynn, of Edmonton, suffers from lymphatic cystic hygroma, which caused severe swelling around his left eye and on the lower part of his face. Waner operated on Maddox in May to repair the swelling around his eye. He performed the second procedure on Monday.
■AUSTRALIA
Doctor’s sentence appealed
The Queensland state attorney general has appealed the seven-year prison sentence given to a US surgeon convicted of killing three patients, arguing the punishment isn’t tough enough. Indian-born US citizen Jayant Patel, 60, was convicted last month of three counts of manslaughter and one of causing grievous bodily harm while he a surgeon at a state-run hospital in Bundaberg, a sugar industry town 370km north of Brisbane in Queensland. He had faced a maximum of life in prison for manslaughter. Patel will be eligible for parole in three and a half years. Queensland Attorney General Cameron Dick filed an appeal against the sentence on Monday.
■UNITED NATIONS
UN recognizes gay group
The UN on Monday accredited a major gay and lesbian organization that Egypt, Russia, China and others had tried to keep out as a group permitted to lobby at the world body. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), a US-based advocacy group, had applied for “consultative status” at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three years ago. Last month a committee that accredits nongovernmental groups rejected the application. The US, Britain and other Western delegations then urged the full 54-nation ECOSOC to vote on IGLHRC’s application, which it did on Monday.
■UNITED STATES
Nations join Arizona lawsuit
Seven other Latin American countries want to join Mexico in supporting a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru filed separate, nearly identical motions to join Mexico’s legal brief supporting the lawsuit filed by US civil rights and other advocacy groups. A federal judge formally accepted Mexico’s filing on July 1 but did not immediately rule on the latest motions filed late last week. Mexico says the law would lead to racial profiling and hinder trade, tourism and the fight against drug trafficking.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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