■ AUSTRALIA
Court orders halt to whaling
The Federal Court yesterday ordered Japan to stop hunting and killing whales anywhere around its coastline or off Australian Antarctic territory. The ruling, in a case brought by the Humane Society International, comes with a Japanese whaling fleet sailing in Antarctic waters, where they plan to kill about 1,000 whales this season. Judge James Allsop found that the Japanese whaling firm, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, had killed Antarctic minke whales and fin whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in contravention of the law.
■ CHINA
Ex-official sentenced to die
A former government official was sentenced to death yesterday for ordering his driver to kill his mistress, a court official and state media said. Xinhua news agency said the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court handed down the sentence to Xu Zhiyuan, a former vice chairman of a government advisory body in Fangshan District for murder and bribe taking. A court official who would identify himself only by his surname Niu confirmed the sentence but would not give any details. Xinhua said Xu, 55, had an affair with a woman from the district government office since 1999, but started arguing with her. In January last year he ordered his driver, Liu Xiaoming, to kill her and burn the body.
■ CHINA
Students banned from finals
A university has banned 440 students from sitting their finals because they owe more than 14 million yuan (US$2 million) in tuition fees, accusing them of using the money to invest, Beijing Times said yesterday. China has sought to bridge a yawning wealth gap between affluent cities and the impoverished countryside by waiving compulsory education fees for rural students, but a college education still remains out of reach for most. But the Hebei University of Technology said some of the students who had not paid their dues were using the tuition money to make investments, the report said.
■ INDIA
Search on for skier
Authorities in Indian Kashmir have intensified the search for a Norwegian skier who has been missing for a week in the region's top ski resort, officials said yesterday. "Helicopters, sniffer dogs and police on snow-scooters are searching Gulmarg and surrounding areas," senior tourism official Sarmad Hafiz said. "We have also sought help from the army." The northern resort of Gulmarg is famed as one of the world's top destinations for extreme and off-piste skiing. Franciska Rogne, 26, left her hotel on Jan. 8 with her skiing gear and has not been seen since.
■ GERMANY
Holocaust denier convicted
The former lawyer for a well-known Holocaust denier was convicted of incitement in Germany on Monday for denying the genocide and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Sylvia Stolz was also banned by the court from practicing law for five years. "Stolz has a basic reflex to make far-right statements," Judge Rolf Glenz said in handing down the sentence. During the trial, Stolz called the Holocaust "the biggest lie in world history." Stolz was also convicted of charges of disparaging the country and its symbols and insulting the court. Stolz represented Ernst Zundel in his first trial in Germany, which collapsed after she was banned from the proceedings on grounds she was trying to sabotage them.
■ GERMANY
Oops, wrong bottle
A man in the northeastern town of Gross Godems was being treated for serious burns on Monday after accidentally setting his apartment ablaze when he mixed up a bottle of gasoline with alcohol, police said. The 56-year-old apparently grabbed the wrong bottle and took a swig from the gasoline flask, then spat it out when he realized his mistake. The gas hit a lit cigarette, sparking the fire, police said. The man's name was not released.
■ GERMANY
Man throws self out window
A man threw himself out of an apartment window along with a Christmas tree during a late-night attempt to dispose of his festive decorations. The man fell 7m after he lost his balance throwing the tree onto the street on Saturday, police in the western city of Moenchengladbach said. The tree did not break the victim's fall. "There's a TV advert showing people having fun throwing their old Christmas trees out the window," police spokesman Willy Thevessen said on Monday. "But you're not supposed to jump with them." The man was taken to hospital in critical condition with severe head injuries after witnesses saw him fall.
■ ISRAEL
Housing project begun
Authorities have started building 60 new housing units in a settlement in east Jerusalem, the Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday, a move likely to raise tensions with the Palestinians just as they begin to tackle the thorniest issues of their conflict. The paper said the homes were being constructed in Maaleh Hazeitim, in the Ras al-Amud area of east Jerusalem, which the country occupied and annexed in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli war. It said 51 Jewish families already live in the neighborhood, built on land bought 15 years ago by US millionaire Irwin Moskowitz.
■ AUSTRIA
Body has rake in its head
The body of a young man was found in an elegant Vienna square with a rake embedded in his head, police said on Saturday. Cleaners on their way to work at Vienna's famous Albertina Museum made the gruesome discovery at a building site on the adjacent square of the same name, a police statement said. A trail of blood indicated that the man had been involved in a fight on the square after midnight on Friday and was dragged to the construction area, where he was repeatedly struck in the head with a rake from the site, it said. Police were examining film from a nearby surveillance camera for any sign of the assailant or assailants.
■ MEXICO
Boy shoots sister
A seven-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his four-year-old sister during a game of cops and robbers in southern Mexico, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office said on Monday. The boy took a loaded gun that belonged to his father, a state police officer, from a table and pointed it at his sister's head, pulling the trigger as part of their game, according to the spokeswoman. Both parents were taken into custody to be investigated for negligence in the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez, she said.
■ UNITED STATES
Catnapping law hits snag
Achieving equality for cats is not as easy as it sounds. Virginia state lawmakers found that out when a legislative panel wrangled over a proposal to make stealing a cat a felony -- the same as for swiping a dog. Unable to find a solution, the panel's chairman chose members to work on the bill. Catnapping is a misdemeanor, punishable by as much as a year in jail. Dognappers can get as many as 10 years.
■ UNITED STATES
Postal plane crashes
Crews searched in rough seas on Monday for the pilot of a twin-engine plane carrying US mail that crashed into the ocean. Debris from the Beechcraft 1900, with only the pilot aboard, was spotted in the water by the crew of a boat from Coast Guard Station Kauai in Hawaii nearly four hours after the plane was last seen on radar, the Coast Guard said. The cause of the crash was being investigated. Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said no distress call was received before the crash. The plane, carrying about 1,900kg of mail. Some of the mail was recovered and will be delivered, Postal Service spokesman Duke Gonzales said.
■ UNITED STATES
Deportations to rise
The US expects to deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are serving time in prisons and jails across the country, the top US immigration enforcement official said. The move to speed the deportation of foreign-born criminals aims to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants, Julie Myers, head of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, told the New York Times. Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most passionate topics in the campaign for the US presidential election. Last year the ICE sent 276,912 immigrants to their home countries, including many who had never been arrested for crimes, but were deported for civil immigration violations, the newspaper reported.
■ UNITED STATES
Clinton prefers dancing
Asked to choose what reality TV program she would prefer to compete on, Hillary Rodham Clinton chose the popular Dancing With the Stars. "In my dreams I would be on America's Next Top Model but in reality I would have to choose my limited talents and of them dancing is better than singing," Clinton said on Monday during a taping of The Tyra Banks Show. "You do not want me to sing." She also suggested a nationwide contest for a title for her husband, former president Bill Clinton, should she win the nomination and be elected the nation's first female president. "Here are some of the things that have been suggested, like `First Mate,'" Hillary Clinton said. "His Scottish friends say `First Laddy,' but we need ideas. I'll just keep calling him Bill.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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