THAILAND
Monk dies in drive-by
Police say suspected Muslim militants have fatally shot a Buddhist monk in a drive-by motorcycle attack in insurgency-plagued southern Thailand. Police Major General Rapeepong Sukpaiboon said two militants carried out the attack on Saturday in the Kok Pho district of Pattani Province. Two people were wounded, including another monk. In a separate attack in nearby Kapo district, police said insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a military truck passed by, wounding three soldiers.
PHILIPPINES
Survey ship under guard
The coast guard says it has deployed three vessels to secure a government oil survey ship that reported being harassed by two Chinese patrol boats near a disputed area of the South China Sea. Coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said on Saturday that two vessels with divers and medics on board and a surveillance vessel have been sent to patrol waters off the southwestern province of Palawan and assist the government-contracted ship on a seismic survey in the strategic area. The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with China and demanded an explanation for the incident on Wednesday near the disputed Spratly Islands that are claimed by the Philippines, China and other nations.
SAMOA
Vote counting starts
Vote counting has begun in the South Pacific island nation after a general election that is expected to keep the long-ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) in power. The party, led by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, fielded 70 candidates in the mainly village-based electorates, while its main opposition, the Tautua Samoa Party, had 40 candidates.
NEW ZEALAND
Thieves break into prison
A prison suffered a reversal of the norm when it became the victim of a break-in. Police said yesterday that thieves had broken into the prison at New Plymouth, on the west coast of the North Island, just before midnight and stolen a large plasma television. “If any members of the public saw anyone carrying a big TV at that time of night, or heard or saw anything in the area of the prison, let police know,” Sergeant Thomas McIntyre said. The New Plymouth Prison is the oldest operating jail in the country, having been in continuous use since the 1860s, when it was converted from an army hospital. The old jailhouse is surrounded by a large stone wall topped with razor wire, while a newer unit is surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire.
INDIA
‘Slumdog’ star loses home
Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali says her home has burned down in a fire that raged through a crowded slum in Mumbai. Rubina says most of the awards that she received for her role as a poverty-stricken child in the Oscar-winning film have been destroyed in the blaze that erupted in the Garib Nagar slum late on Friday. The 12-year-old star said yesterday that she and other members of her family were watching television when they heard shouts of a fire and ran out of their tin-roofed shanty. Rubina said the family was yet to move into a new apartment paid for by a trust set up by the film’s director, Danny Boyle.
UNITED STATES
Dog eats owner’s sick toes
A dog ate three of his owner’s toes as the diabetic man slept in Roseburg, Oregon, most likely out of instinct to help remove diseased flesh, animal experts say. James Little, 61, made an emergency call on Tuesday to say his dog had eaten the body parts while he was sleeping. He told reporters on Friday that he was “doing fine.” Little suffers from diabetes, of which one symptom is numbness in the hands or feet. The dog, a Shiba Inu, was acting on its instinct to remove diseased flesh and does not appear to be dangerous, Douglas County Animal Control Deputy Lee Bartholomew said. Little has given up ownership of his dog, putting it up for adoption pending an examination and a standard 10-day quarantine to determine it does not have rabies, Bartholomew said. The dog was taken to Roseburg’s Saving Grace Pet Adoption Center, where executive director Wendy Kang said the animal was healthy, but appeared anxious. Little was in fair condition at a hospital and expected to be released later Friday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Ex-sex shop nanny jailed
A judge on Friday jailed the ex-nanny of a sex-shop tycoon for spiking her employer’s asparagus soup with windshield washer fluid in an attempt to get the household’s chef in trouble. Allison Cox, 33, had pleaded guilty to one charge of administering poison to Jacqueline Gold last October “with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy.” She was employed to look after Gold’s daughter, Scarlett, when the poisoning took place. Prosecutors dropped two other charges of attempted poisoning with sugar and salt. Judge Christopher Critchlow of Guildford Crown Court sentenced Cox to a year in jail, saying her “calculated and deceitful behavior” was a “gross breach of trust.” He also called the actions “totally bizarre.” The plot unraveled after Gold criticized the cook about the odd-tasting food and the chef removed the broth from the trash to investigate.
CANADA
Alleged smuggler under knife
A 31-year-old Toronto resident has been charged with drug trafficking after showing up at a hospital with stomach cramps from ingesting 45 cocaine capsules, police said on Friday. Marlon Rhooms was admitted to hospital after returning from Jamaica, where he had ingested the packages in January. He passed 11 capsules. An additional 34 had to be “surgically removed from the man’s stomach and intestinal tract,” the Toronto police service said in a statement. It could not estimate the value of the drugs. Rhooms, who is also a Jamaican citizen, was charged with importing a controlled substance, cocaine possession and violating his probation.
UNITED STATES
Child in oven died from heat
A coroner says a toddler in Mississippi whose body was found in an oven died from heat injuries. Washington County Coroner Methel Johnson said on Friday that the pathologist is still trying to determine if three-year-old Tristan Robinson was conscious when he was put inside the electric oven. He also appeared to have suffered trauma to his head. Police found the boy’s body at his mother’s apartment on Wednesday. Preliminary autopsy results show he died from “thermal injuries” from being in the hot oven. Greenville police have charged the boy’s 24-year-old mother, Terrie A. Robinson, with murder. She is being held on a US$5 million bond.
UNITED STATES
Thief hitches ride from police
A car theft suspect who took off on foot in Salem, Oregon, was able to flag down a motorist for a ride. The only problem: the helpful driver was an undercover police officer. The Statesman Journal reports the officer had been looking for the suspect on Thursday and recognized the 31-year-old from previous contacts for other crimes. When the suspect knocked on the window of the unmarked car and asked for a lift, he got one — straight to jail.
CANADA
BSE found in dairy cow
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Friday confirmed it has found bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a six-year-old dairy cow from the province of Alberta. No part of the carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems, spokeswoman Alice D’Anjou said. “We had a confirmed case in a 77-month dairy cow in Alberta, found as part of our BSE surveillance program,” she said. “We sent out an industry notice and informed some of our international trading partners.” “We do not expect it will affect our trade relations,” she added. It is the country’s 18th case of mad cow disease.
UNITED STATES
Pedophile chooses castration
A convicted child molester in Louisiana has undergone surgical castration in order to be released from prison on parole. Francis Phillip Tullier, who had faced hundreds of molestation counts involving young girls, pleaded guilty to three counts in 1999 and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. He is now 78. His lawyer, Nathan Fisher, said the deal stipulated that Tullier would only be eligible for parole once he underwent castration at his own expense. A sheriff’s investigator said the surgery was done on Thursday after being delayed several years while Tullier was treated for various medical issues. The Advocate newspaper reports that Tullier is due for release next week. He will live in Iberville Parish and has to register as a sex offender.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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