AUSTRALIA
Revenge earns seven years
A woman who killed a man by pouring gasoline over him after she was told he had fondled her has been sentenced to seven years in jail. Kerry McNiven pleaded guilty in August to manslaughter in the death of her friend Gary Stewart. Victoria state Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry yesterday said several people witnessed Stewart touching McNiven’s breasts when she was passed out at a party in 2009. McNiven was later told about the incident and poured gasoline over Stewart in retaliation. He caught fire and later died from his burns, but Lasry said it was unclear what ignited the fire.
CHINA
Mystery shrouds plane crash
An unidentified plane crashed to the ground and exploded in Zhejiang Province near Lishui city, state media reported yesterday, but the accident remains shrouded in mystery and potential casualties remain unknown. The crash happened on Monday evening amid heavy fog, China National Radio said, but local residents said police quickly sealed the site off to the public. One official at the scene said the plane was not a civilian aircraft, the report said. The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said soldiers had been seen blocking and clearing the scene.
PHILIPPINES
Quake causes minor damage
A moderate quake that struck the small city of Valencia on Mindanao island on Monday left at least 10 people injured and damaged about two dozen houses and shops, rescuers said yesterday. The quake damaged 23 houses, a hardware shop and a grocery store in the community of about 150,000 people, the local civil defense office said. The casualties were hit by falling objects and structures when the quake struck at 5:43pm, but no one was seriously hurt, a civil defense official said. The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.0, while local seismologists put it at 5.2. Winchell Sevilla, seismologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Manila, said the quake was caused by a movement of a local fault about 1km below the earth’s surface. “It was very shallow, so even though it was only 5.2, the energy it generated can cause a lot of damage,” he said.
CHINA
Mekong patrol ships planned
Beijing will launch armed patrols with its southern neighbors to protect ships along the Mekong River after 13 sailors were murdered on the river on Oct. 5, media reported yesterday. Nine Thai soldiers later turned themselves in over the killing. The government has bought five ships that will be refitted for the patrols, a report on the Web site of the People’s Daily said, citing the general secretary of an association of Chinese ship owners whose vessels use the Mekong.
SOUTH KOREA
Twenty-two N Koreans defect
A North Korean crossed the sea border to the South on a raft late last month in a solo defection bid, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. It quoted a government source as saying that the man appeared to have left South Hwanghae Province in the North. He was spotted aboard a rubber raft by the navy around 3am on Oct. 30 after drifting near Yeonpyeong island, he source was quoted as saying. A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman declined to comment on the report. At about the same time on Oct. 30 a group of 21 North Koreans were found adrift aboard a small wooden boat off Socheong island. They were taken to Incheon for questioning.
UNITED STATES
Agent tied to fast-food death
A federal agent charged with killing a man inside a McDonald’s restaurant in Waikiki was in Hawaii to help with security at this week’s APEC summit, officials said on Monday. State Department special agent Christopher Deedy, 27, is charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Deedy, who was released on Monday after posting US$250,000 bail, is accused of fatally shooting 23-year-old Kollin Elderts during a confrontation early on Saturday at a McDonald’s in the famous tourist Waikiki District. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Deedy was in Honolulu to beef up security ahead of the APEC conference. The agent has been put on paid administrative leave. “This was a tragic incident in Hawaii over the weekend,” Nuland told reporters. She said she could not comment on the ongoing investigation, but said the State Department was cooperating fully with law enforcement. Deedy was assigned to “support protection of dignitaries” at the meeting, Nuland said.
MEXICO
Peacocks, pot found in jail
Authorities say a surprise search at an Acapulco prison has netted two peacocks, 100 fighting cocks, 19 prostitutes and two sacks filled with marijuana. Police in the resort city also found dozens of TVs, several bottles of alcohol and knives. Guerrero state spokesman Arturo Martinez says federal and state police searched the prison before dawn on Monday. Martinez did not say how the women, birds and the other banned objects got into the prison. He referred to the peacocks as “pets.” The resort city has been plagued by crime since last year, when gangs began fighting for control after the arrest of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, also known as “La Barbie.”
UNITED STATES
No E.T. proof: White House
The White House says it has no evidence that extraterrestrial creatures exist. The White House made the unusual declaration in response to a feature on its Web site that allows people to submit petitions that administration officials must respond to if enough people sign. In this case, more than 5,000 people signed a petition demanding that the White House disclose the government’s knowledge of extraterrestrial beings, and more than 12,000 signed another petition seeking formal acknowledgment of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race. In response, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy research assistant Phil Larson wrote that the US government has no evidence life exists outside Earth, or that any extraterrestrial presence has contacted any member of the human race.
UNITED STATES
Soldier charged with spying
The army charged a soldier on Monday with attempted espionage, issuing false statements and other counts. Specialist William Colton Millay, 22, was charged on Monday through the military justice system. Millay’s Oct. 28 arrest at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage stems from an investigation by the army and FBI. Millay’s attorney, Steve Karns, has said his client told him he is innocent. Army officials said no information was ever transmitted by Millay and that the military police officer was being observed before any damage could have occurred. Since his arrest, Millay has been in custody without bail at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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