Fri, Dec 24, 2010 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  MALAYSIA

  Man arrested for Web page

  Police said yesterday they arrested a man and might charge him with sedition for allegedly creating a Facebook page that mocked the country’s former king Sultan Iskandar Ismail. The suspect is believed to have set up the page to criticize Ismail, a state ruler who was the country’s king for five years in the 1980s, a federal police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements. Sultan Iskandar died at age 77 last January. The 40-year-old suspect is being investigated for sedition, which is punishable by three years in prison, the official said. Under the law, acts that provoke hatred against royal rulers are considered seditious. The page criticized the late sultan’s spending and other activities, saying its aim was “to expose the treachery of the sultan against his race and religion.”

  SOUTH KOREA

  Spy jailed for seven years

  A former spy was sentenced to seven years in jail yesterday for leaking military information to North Korea. The man, identified only as Park, was convicted of handing over documents on military training and operations between September 2003 and August 2005 to a North Korean agent in Beijing in return for payment. “It is confirmed that Park leaked military intelligence to a North Korean agent, an act which could threaten national security and our free democracy,” the Seoul central district court said in a statement. Park allegedly became acquainted with the North Korean spy when both were working in Beijing in the mid-1990s. He and several colleagues were fired by the South’s intelligence agency in 1998 in connection with a botched attempt to frame then-presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung by linking him to North Korean funds.

  AUSTRALIA

  Pilot crashes into garden

  A student pilot practicing maneuvers crashed a light plane into an back garden yesterday, startling a resident who was hanging out the washing. The twin-engined plane came down in the rural community of Kirkham, near Sydney, and ploughed into the neighboring garden before coming to rest. “The initial bang was in my backyard, then it slid 20m into next door,” Julie Watson said, adding that her neighbor was hanging out her washing at the time. “I quite often hear the planes stop and start, because they do training flights over the area, and I just knew it was a little bit louder than usual,” she added. Two men aged 62 and 34 were treated for minor injuries. The student pilot had been practicing stall maneuvers when he lost control of the plane.

  NEW ZEALAND

  La Nina starves seabirds

  Large numbers of penguins and other seabirds are dying of starvation on the country’s beaches because of a La Nina climate pattern affecting the nation this year, the government said. Dead birds have started washing up on the North Island after calmer seas made it harder for them to find food, Department of Conservation vet Kate McInnes said in a statement. There could be thousands of deaths over the summer because of the weather event, the statement said. The bird deaths are the latest natural shocks in the country to be blamed on environmental factors. Scientists said that a bacterial disease that started spreading through kiwifruit orchards last month was likely awakened by weather conditions. Earlier this month, the government said that Pacific oysters in the North Island were being killed by a herpes virus triggered by warmer sea temperatures.

  UNITED KINGDOM

  School project published

  It came with wobbly writing and hand-drawn diagrams, but an elementary-school science project has made it into a peer-reviewed journal from Britain’s prestigious Royal Society. Biology Letters published a report on Wednesday conducted and written by a group of eight-to-10-year-olds from an English elementary school investigating the way bumblebees see colors and patterns. The scientific organization — which is more than three centuries old and includes some of the world’s most eminent scientists — said the children reported findings that were a “genuine advance” in the field of insect color and pattern vision. Working with a neuroscientist from University College London, the children carefully documented their methodology and discussed the data they collected. The group trained bees to go to targets of different colors by giving them a sugar reward, and reported that the insects are able to learn and remember cues based on color and pattern. The study successfully went through peer review — although its presentation was slightly unconventional, peppered with amusing phrases and diagrams in colored pencil.

  SPAIN

  Cathedral closed for Mass

  There will be little cheer at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid this Christmas after authorities decreed the building was not safe enough for Mass to be held there. The huge cathedral was only finished in 1993, but already slivers of stone are beginning to drop off its columns, endangering the lives of the faithful who pass through its doors. As a result the cathedral’s popular Christmas mass has had to be moved to the nearby San Isidro chapel, which served as Madrid’s cathedral for much of the 100 years that it took to build the Almudena. “This is being done for the safety of the faithful,” said Jose Luis Montes, the man in charge of the archbishopric of Madrid’s buildings. The alarm was raised after a shard of stone came off one of the cathedral’s soaring columns during a service to celebrate the Immaculate Conception earlier this month.

  ISRAEL

  No trees, mayor says

  The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative. Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to Nazareth, where Jesus is said to have spent much of his life. It has a sizable Arab Christian minority, as does mostly Muslim Nazareth itself. “The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative,” Mayor Shimon Gapso said. “Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen — not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,” he said of the northern Israeli town. “Nazareth is right next door and they can do what they want there,” he said.

  FRANCE

  Paris may restrict SUVs

  Paris is planning to test restrictions on gas-guzzling vehicles, likely including sport utility vehicles (SUVs), as part of attempts to curb pollution. Denis Baupin, an environmental official in the mayor’s office, said on Wednesday that SUVs and old diesel cars are likely to be targeted in upcoming test restrictions. To any Parisian who drives an SUV, Baupin’s advice is: “Sell it and buy a vehicle that’s compatible with city life.” He told RTL radio: “I’m sorry, but having a sport utility vehicle in a city makes no sense.” Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and Aix-en-Provence are among the cities planning to try restrictions on gas-guzzlers over the next two years.

  UNITED STATES

  Oil, vinegar killed son

  A woman in Fort Wayne, Indiana, told police investigators she fed her three-year-old son olive oil and vinegar until he stopped breathing and died, then wrapped his body in a blanket and hid it for more than a year, according to court documents. Fort Wayne police arrested Latisha Ann Lawson this week after family members reported her and her two children missing. Officers found Lawson and her 10-year-old daughter living in a house that a church had provided for them in recent weeks. They also found a young boy’s remains inside a tote bag at the home, and a coroner on Wednesday ruled strangulation as the child’s cause of death. Police are awaiting DNA test results, but have said the remains are believed to be those of Lawson’s son, Jezaih King. Lawson, 31, told investigators that in November last year she fed Jezaih the olive oil and vinegar because she was frustrated with his temper tantrums, according to Allen County court documents.

  HAITI

  Mobs kill at least 45

  Angry mobs have lynched at least 45 people in recent weeks, accusing them of spreading a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,500 people across the country, officials said on Wednesday. The number included at least 14 suspected sorcerers previously known to have been lynched in the far southwestern region of Grand’Anse as local people feared they were spreading cholera with a magical substance. The area has been largely spared by the outbreak. Five other people were killed in similar circumstances elsewhere in the country. The victims — most of them voodoo priests — were stoned or hacked with machetes before being burned in the street,” added an official, who was presenting the results of an investigation conducted in Grand’Anse earlier this month.

  JAMAICA

  Mayor worked with drug lord

  A leaked US diplomatic cable says a local mayor acknowledged that his administration had worked with an alleged drug baron on crime-fighting initiatives. The document from September last year says Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told an embassy officer his administration collaborated with Christopher “Dudus” Coke to reduce crime. McKenzie also warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington did not drop its extradition request for Coke, a slum boss with ties to the ruling party. McKenzie’s main office phone line went unanswered on Wednesday.

  CHILE

  Miners to lose disability

  Such is the price of fame: The Chilean miners rescued after a 69-day ordeal underground risk losing their disability pay if they continue traveling abroad. Omar Reygadas, one of the 33 rescued miners, told the daily El Mercurio that the insurance office responsible for dealing with injured workers warned him to stop traveling and focus on rehabilitation. The miners became global media stars following the Oct. 13 rescue that gripped the world. Invitations for media appearances and endorsements have flooded in and their exploits are reportedly being considered for a movie. The insurance office “already told us that the trip to England will be the last if we did not want to lose our medical leave payments,” Reygadas said. Twenty-six of the rescued miners traveled to England to watch a Dec. 13 soccer game between Manchester United and Arsenal. Last month, all 33 toured Hollywood and Beverly Hills as guests of CNN. All 33 are scheduled to visit Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on Jan. 26 with four relatives each.
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