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.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
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