PAKISTAN
Bin Ladens can’t leave
A commission set up to investigate how Osama bin Laden lived undetected for so long in the country has ordered the government not to repatriate the dead al-Qaeda leader’s family. The government took custody of his Yemeni and two Saudi widows, as well as their children after US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden and flew off with his body on May 2. A security official recently confirmed that the youngest widow, Amal Abdulfattah, could return to Yemen within days. However, the commission said late on Tuesday that no family member could leave without its prior consent.
AUSTRALIA
Aid to China being cut
Canberra yesterday said it would phase out aid to China and India, to focus on Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor as well as Africa and the Middle East. The government this year boosted total aid by almost half a billion dollars to A$4.84 billion (US$5.18 billion), but said China and India would no longer qualify for a share. China currently gets A$35 million in assistance while India’s share runs to A$25 million, according to AusAid. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the Asia-Pacific, particularly the country’s nearest neighbors, would remain its top focus. “It is the region which we believe that we can be most effective in. It is the region where two thirds of the world’s poverty currently lies,” he said. “And it is the region of the world where our most direct, strategic and economic interests lie.”
PHILIPPINES
President sells his Porsche
President Benigno Aquino III says he has sold his Porsche because it has become a security risk — and not because of criticism that it was inappropriate for a leader of a poor country. Critics say the 50-year-old bachelor’s US$102,000 third-hand sports car was a sign of insensitivity. Aquino told reporters on Tuesday he sold the car for the same price he bought it. However, he said that too many news reports and commentaries about the car made it “an advertisement that, ‘Hey, here I am,’” making him feel vulnerable in it.
PHILIPPINES
Bishop donations probed
Lawmakers have begun investigating allegations that some Roman Catholic bishops illegally received donations from the government’s lotto operator in exchange for political favors. The chairman of the state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Margie Juico, says an audit showed that at least 6.9 million pesos (US$158,600) in charity funds were used to buy five vehicles upon the request of several bishops. Juico told senators in a hearing yesterday that one bishop asked former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for a brand new car on his 66th birthday in 2009 and received a 1.7 million pesos sports utility vehicle. Such donations would violate a law prohibiting the use of state funds for religious purposes.
AUSTRALIA
Skeletal remains found
Police yesterday said they had discovered the skeletal remains of a woman in a Sydney house who had been dead for up to eight years. The grim find, at a Surry Hills home long assumed by neighbors to be deserted, followed a call from a sister-in-law — her only family — from whom she had been estranged since a 2003 feud. “The remains have not been formally identified. However, police believe they belong to a woman who would have been 87 next month,” police said. Acting superintendent Zoran Dzevlan said the woman appeared to have died “several years ago without anyone noticing.”
UNITED STATES
Dust storm envelops city
A massive dust storm descended on the Phoenix, Arizona, area on Tuesday night, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds toppled trees and caused power outages for thousands of residents in the valley. A wall of dust that towered over skyscrapers downtown swept across the desert from the south, and KSAZ-TV reported it appeared to be about 80km wide in some spots. The dust cloud briefly blanketed downtown Phoenix at around nightfall. The National Weather Service said strong winds with gusts of more than 100kph rapidly moved the dust cloud northwest through Phoenix, Avondale, Tempe and Scottsdale.
UNITED STATES
Comic hero keeps full title
Captain America will get to keep top billing in most of the world when his superhero adventure hits the big screen. Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios gave distributors around the world the option of shortening the title of Captain America: The First Avenger to simply “The First Avenger,” out of concern about anti-US sentiment, but the only countries that took them up on it were Russia, Ukraine and South Korea. Elsewhere, the movie will go out with the full title, a sign that the brand value of the Marvel Comics hero trumps any potential anti-US feelings in some parts of the world.
UNITED STATES
Prophet in care home
The California radio preacher who predicted the apocalypse on May 21 has been moved to a nursing home, where he is recovering from a stroke he suffered last month. Harold Camping’s daughter confirmed that her father was recently moved from an area hospital to a skilled nursing facility. He is undergoing rehabilitation to regain his strength following the June 9 stroke. Camping’s Family Radio network is working to replace the 89-year-old’s show, Open Forum, with interim programming. The station has been playing repeats since his stroke. It’s unclear if the show will return.
CHILE
Education fund offered
President Sebastian Pinera, beset by mass student protests over education standards and costs seen threatening his legislative agenda, on Tuesday proposed a US$4 billion fund for higher education. “We are proposing the creation of an education fund totaling US$4 billion,” Pinera said in a televised national address, saying it would be funded in part from earnings from the country’s top export, copper. Defying police water canon and tear gas, hundreds of thousands of protesters led by students have marched in the capital and main cities in recent weeks, piling fresh pressure on Pinera’s center-right government.
UNITED STATES
Man arrested over threats
An Oregon man has been detained for a mental-health evaluation after appearing in federal court on Tuesday to face charges that he threatened to kill US President Barack Obama and Obama’s family. The Secret Service arrested Darryl James Swanson, of Portland, on Friday. Prosecutors say Swanson made threats in numerous phone calls to federal prosecutors’ offices in Oregon and Washington, a county government office in Florida and The Associated Press (AP). The day after he called the AP, Swanson told Secret Service agent Ronald Brown he was frustrated that Obama has not sent him a check for US$70 million, which he claims he is owed from a trust fund set up at his birth, court documents show. Brown told him
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
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