■ Hong Kong
Lawmaker's office attacked
Pro-democracy lawmaker Emily Lau (劉慧卿), one of the Hong Kong government's most vocal critics, has complained to police after her office door was smeared with faeces in the latest of a string of attacks against her. "I am flabbergasted and very angry. I want to know if there is still a rule of law in Hong Kong if a legislative councillor's office can be attacked like that," the lawmaker said yesterday. A police spokeswoman said the culprit had yet to be found. Lau came under heavy criticism from China's official newspaper, the China Daily, and pro-Beijing figures after she addressed a Taipei seminar last month, hosted by a pro-Taiwan independence think-tank. "My office has been attacked several times in the last few months, and the police could not solve anything, and they said it was nothing orchestrated. But this is going too far," she said.
■ Australia
Foxes get contraception
Foxes feasting on penguins on an island in Australia are to be put on the pill to cut their numbers. Biologist Roger Kirkwood said yesterday the estimated 120 foxes on Phillip Island in Victoria looked set to wipe out the fairy penguin colony there. What's planned is a baiting program with the morning-after contraceptive Cabergoline that would abort the litters of female foxes and eventually wipe out the predators. "Foxes only live for five years," Kirkwood said. "If they can't breed for five years that would help to get foxes off the island."
■ Australia
Gay man wins UN ruling
A Sydney man was celebrating yesterday after a UN human rights body ruled the Australian government was wrong to deny him a pension after the death of his long-term homosexual partner. The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) found Edward Young was entitled to a pension on the death of his partner, a World War II veteran, just like that paid to war widows. Young was refused on the grounds the legislation covering war pensions did not recognize same-sex relationships.
■ Japan
Disabled man climbs Fuji
A paraplegic American college student reached the summit of Japan's highest peak, Mount Fuji, yesterday in what is believed to be the first successful unassisted ascent by a wheelchair user. "It was awesome going up there. It is a great privilege to be there, where most people cannot be," 22-year-old Keegan Reilly said by phone shortly after reaching the 3,776m summit with a group of seven supporters. "A very few people use their legs to go up there. Here I am, just using my arms cranking my way for the first time [on Fuji]," said the computer science student from Oregon State University who lost the use of his legs following a car crash in 1996.
■ China
New fighter jet tested
China has conducted the first test flight of a fighter jet jointly developed with Pakistan with combat capability it says rivals the US F-16, state media said yesterday. China plans to export the Xiao Long, or Valiant Dragon, FC-1 to foreign countries two years from now, the semi-official China News Service said, adding that Pakistan was likely to be the first customer. The FC-1 has a maximum range of 3,000km and a maximum weapons payload of 3,600kg, it said. The relatively light plane underwent two test flights totalling 17 minutes above Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Aug. 25, the news agency said.
■ United States
CIA verifies Saddam tape
The CIA believes that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was probably the speaker on a new audiotape that was broadcast on Arab television on Monday, officials said Wednesday. On the tape, the speaker denies that Saddam or his followers were behind last week's bombing in Najaf, Iraq, which killed a top Shiite Muslim cleric and almost a hundred others. The CIA has completed an analysis of the tape, and has concluded that the voice is likely Saddam's. The fact that the voice on the audiotape discusses last week's incident provides further evidence that Saddam is still alive and in hiding, officials said.
■ Spain
Drink wine, not beer
Spanish officials looking for a way to stamp out binge drinking by young people have decided to warn them that all alcohol is bad except wine, which is good for them. Drinkers will soon encounter strictly worded health warnings on all bottles and cans of alcohol, except wine, telling them that what they are about to consume is a "danger" to their lives. The Spanish government is supporting plans to promote wine as "an important part of the Mediterranean diet." Wine's exclusion from the draft of the new law has enraged beer and cider makers who say that, with their much lower alcohol content, these drinks are less harmful.
■ Venezuela
Chavez defies opposition
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government on Wednesday stepped up its offensive against an opposition bid to hold a referendum on his rule, calling for a criminal investigation into a group that collected pro-vote signatures. This followed comments by left-winger Chavez in Cuba on Tuesday that he would not accept opposition signatures calling for a poll, even if they were approved as legitimate by the country's newly appointed National Electoral Council. The government's verbal and legal offensive against the referendum bid stoked fears of renewed conflict in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, which has been rocked by political feuding between Chavez's followers and foes.
■ France
Depp calls US a `puppy'
Hollywood star Johnny Depp said the US was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed. The 40-year-old actor, who stars in the Pirates of the Caribbean, said he was happier staying in the south of France with his wife, the French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis, and their two children. "America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive," he said. "My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out," he said.
■ United States
Clark says he's a democrat
General Wesley Clark, who has been thinking about running for president as a Democrat, moved a step closer to joining the race on Wednesday by announcing that he is indeed a Democrat. Clark, who was the supreme allied commander of NATO, said he had still not made up his mind about running. But after months of saying he belonged to no political party, he announced in an interview on CNN and later at a forum at New York University that he was a Democrat.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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