■ PHILIPPINES
Woman sues runaway groom
A would-be bride is suing her former fiance after he ran off with another woman before the wedding ceremony had finished, the Philippine Star newspaper reported on Saturday. The couple had nearly finished saying their vows when a woman appeared at the back of the church and shouted that the wedding should stop, the report said. The groom -- who had been about to say "I do" -- hesitated before walking to the woman and hugging her, and the pair fled in a taxi. The jilted bride says she suffered "irreparable damages" and is reportedly seeking 549,630 pesos (US$13,520) in damages.
■ JAPAN
Oldest person dies, age 113
The oldest person in the country died on Saturday at age 113 of natural causes, her nursing home said. Tsuneyo Toyonaga died in a hospital in Kochi city in the south, said an official at the nursing home. She was transferred there a week ago after feeling sick. According to media reports, Toyonaga was cheery and had a sense of humor that was widely appreciated at the facility. Toyonaga is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren, media reports said. Kaku Yamanaka from Aichi Prefecture has now become the nation's oldest person at 113 years and two months.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Rare male rape conviction
A court in Kandahar on Saturday convicted three policemen of raping and sexually abusing a man and his 13-year-old son. Each of the officers received 10-year jail terms. The case was unusual. Rape is under-reported in the country and rape of men is believed to be rare. The 50-year-old laborer said before the start of the one-day trial that he and his son were raped and sexually abused last month by four policemen in a government building. The boy said he was raped by three men. Police were searching for a fourth suspect, a prosecutor said.
■ CHINA
No shame in snoozing
An official in Yunnan Province has resigned from his post after he was caught falling asleep on the job, but he has gotten some support for his plight online, state media reported on Saturday. Jiang Wenhui (蔣文輝) stepped down as deputy director of the Chenggong County Investment Promotion Bureau on Friday following his snooze during an investment lecture on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency said. The official, who sat in the first row, was told to wake up by a provincial leader. On Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp, people discussed Jiang's situation. "Maybe the lecture was too dull," one wrote. "Speakers at many meetings just say big and empty words. It is no wonder that listeners sleep," another said.
■ INDIA
Mob kills murder suspect
An angry mob near the eastern city of Patna dragged a murder suspect from his hospital bed and beat him unconscious, while police stood by and watched in an incident caught on video and broadcast yesterday. In footage broadcast on several TV channels, a mob dragged the man along the ground by a rope tied to one of his hands while others repeatedly kicked and hit him until he stopped moving. At least one policeman was clearly visible watching the incident without intervening. The attack occurred on Saturday after the man, Ravi Kumar, was arrested and taken to a hospital. Kumar allegedly killed another man in a knife fight before his arrest.
■ MOROCO
Engineer jailed over page
A court has jailed a computer engineer for three years for joining the social networking site Facebook by setting up a false profile of King Mohammed VI's younger brother. The court in Casablanca sentenced Fouad Mourtada to three years in prison on Friday and fined him 10,000 dinar (US$1,300) for "the use of false information and usurping the identity of the prince." Asked why he had set up a Facebook profile under the name of Prince Moulay Rachid, Mourtada replied: "I admire him, I like him a lot and I have never caused him any wrong, it was just a joke. I am innocent."
■ SAUDI ARABIA
Police arrest 57 for flirting
Police began interrogating 57 men on Saturday who were arrested for flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported. The religious police arrested the men on Thursday night for behavior that also allegedly included dancing to pop music blaring from their vehicles and wearing improper clothing, the Okaz newspaper reported. The paper is deemed to be close to the government.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Gambler wins on £0.50 bet
A gambler has won £1 million (US$1.96 million) from a £0.50 bet to defy odds of 2 million to one, a spokesman for bookmaker William Hill said on Saturday. The gambler, who placed his bet in Thirsk in Yorkshire on Friday, was unaware of his new-found wealth until he walked into a betting shop in Bedale and staff told him of his success after he placed five more £0.50 bets for Saturday's racing. "When they told him he had 1 million pounds to come but would have to collect it from the Thirsk shop he went visibly pale before saying that he would have to go and tell his wife," a William Hill spokesman said. The man's winning bet on eight horses -- the first of which was called "Isn't That Lucky" and the last "A Dream Come True" -- was the first ever betting shop £1 million payout, the spokesman said.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Minister opposes protocols
Traditional medicines used by African healers should not be exposed to Western-style clinical trials, controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was reported as saying on Saturday. "We cannot use Western models of protocols for research and development," she said in a speech to a working group set up by President Thabo Mbeki to regulate the ancient craft, according to SAPA news agency. "We should guard against being bogged down with clinical trials," she said, adding that "some of the medicines have been used by traditional healers for thousands of years."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Tiny theater closes doors
Kenneth Branagh marked the closure of one of the nation's most unusual cinemas with an equally unorthodox movie premiere on Saturday. The actor and director was on hand at La Charette, a 23-seat railway wagon-turned-movie theater in Wales, for the first screening of Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle. The unassuming theater has been offering intimate movie screenings to inhabitants of the village of Gorseinon, about 300km west of London, since 1953. But the theater is closing because its aging structure is too expensive to maintain.
■ IRAQ
Bikes banned in Baghdad
The military on Saturday indefinitely banned all motorcycles, bicycles and hand-pushed and horse-drawn carts from the streets of Baghdad, a military spokesman said. Although the reason for the motorcycle and bicycle ban was unclear, the decision for the carts came after a bomb hidden under a horse-drawn cart exploded in downtown Baghdad on Friday, killing three civilians. The ban on motorcycles and bicycles went into effect at dawn yesterday while the one on carts went into effect just after noon, said Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad.
■ UNITED STATES
Attorney blames bank
A defense attorney in New York City says her client believed he was rightfully entitled to the US$2 million he's accused of stealing from a bank account managed by someone with the same name. Attorney Julie Fry says Benjamin Lovell "didn't intend to steal from anyone." She says he'll explain in court what the bank told him that led him to believe the US$5.8 million account was his. The 48-year-old Brooklyn salesman has been arrested on grand larceny charges. Authorities say Lovell spent the money on jewelry, cash gifts to friends and failed investments.
■ UNITED STATES
IRS tells boy he owes
Police in a Chicago suburb say the Internal Revenue Service has told a seven-year-old boy he owes back taxes on US$60,000 because someone else has been using the youngster's identity to collect wages and unemployment benefits. Officers in suburban Carpentersville said on Friday the second-grader's identity has been in use by someone else since 2001. Detectives have filed a felony identity theft charge against 29-year-old Cirilo Centeno of Streamwood, Illinois. They accuse Centeno of using the boy's personal information to collect more than $60,000 in pay and services while working three jobs.
■ UNITED STATES
Washington's hair sold
It might not even really be George Washington's hair -- but it still sold for US$17,000. Four strands reportedly clipped from the first president were sold at auction on Friday night to a buyer who declined to give his name. Colorado resident Christa Allen said her father, a Philadelphia attorney, had given her the hair, which was pressed under glass in a locket and accompanied by a watch. Allen told potential buyers that the hair had been handed down since it was clipped from Washington's head. The Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, inspected Allen's evidence and gave her its backing.
■ UNITED STATES
Hot dog finds new home
A trademark treat from New York City's Coney Island will soon be available as a kosher snack at the touch of a button. Officials from both companies say Nathan's Famous hot dogs will be sold in vending machines run by Valley Cottage, New York-based Kosher Vending Industries. Nathan's chief executive Eric Gatoff says the machines will help the company reach a growing audience of kosher customers. All Nathan's franks are beef, but relatively few are produced and served under a rabbi's oversight. They have been available only in certain restaurants. Kosher Vending Industries chief executive Alan Cohnen says the machines will get the dogs grilled and the buns warmed within 34 seconds.
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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