■ AFGHANISTAN
Police arrest Taliban leader
Police arrested a senior Taliban commander who has escaped from prisons twice, nabbing him during a clash in the south that left three insurgents dead, an official said yesterday. The militants, led by Taliban chief Mullah Naqibullah, ambushed a police convoy on Monday north of the Helmand Province capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said. The ensuing gunbattle left three militants dead, and wounded two policemen and Naqibullah, Andiwal said.
■ THAILAND
Prime minister hospitalized
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was hospitalized yesterday in Bangkok after suffering food poisoning during a summit in Laos, a spokesman said. Samak became sick on Monday after visiting a market in Vientiane, where he attended a summit of five Mekong River nations, government spokesman Wichianchot Sukchotrat said. He was taken to the private Bumrungrad Hospital, and would not attend his weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, the spokesman said.
■ JAPAN
Opposition steps up attacks
The main opposition party stepped up attacks on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's government yesterday, deciding to present a censure motion against the minister of health to parliament's upper house. The Democratic Party, which with its allies controls the upper house, has already blocked a gasoline tax from being extended beyond its March 31 expiry and has vetoed two nominations for a new central bank governor. Fukuda is struggling with the deadlock in parliament, leading to speculation that his party might replace him ahead of a general election that could come this year.
■ MALAYSIA
Lingerie for the dead
The dead need lingerie too -- at least that's what some people think. Ethnic Chinese have bought huge quantities of mock bras and panties, some with leopard prints, to burn as offerings for the deceased during the Tombsweeping Festival on Friday, the Star newspaper reported. Offering of clothes have generally been limited to outerwear and the lingerie trend appears to be a new. "Most customers find them cute and would usually add a few sets [of underwear] to go with other paper clothing ... for their female family members to use in the other world," Tay Lay Nah, a shop owner in Penang island, was quoted as saying.
■ AUSTRALIA
Paintings stolen, returned
Seven historic Aboriginal paintings were stolen yesterday from a museum then recovered hours later after the thief apparently changed his mind and dumped them in a park, police said. The paintings, valued at more than US$460,000 by officials at the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery, were undamaged. The thief broke into the museum in Darwin before dawn and took six paintings from the early days of the Papunya Tula movement -- a collective in the central part of the country credited with creating a modern Aboriginal style -- that is now world renowned.
■ AUSTRALIA
Ironing record flattened
A group of 72 scuba divers has flattened the world record for ironing under water, taking the plunge off a pier near Melbourne with ironing boards and irons, and their linen. So-called "extreme ironing" has spawned a cult following in recent years. The Web site espouses it as being the "latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt." The group, who pipped the previous mark of 70, are seeking entry to the Guinness Book of World Records after taking their linen into murky, 3m-deep water on Saturday.
■ PHILIPPINES
Aquino responding well
Former president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino has responded well to her first week of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with colon cancer, her family said in comments published yesterday. "Her appetite is better and she is not as weak as the first few days of her chemotherapy," daughter Pinky Aquino Abellada told the Philippine Star daily, adding that her mother had not let out "a word of complaint." Aquino's family announced last week that the 75-year-old stateswoman was battling colon cancer, prompting Roman Catholic leaders to mobilize nationwide prayers for her recovery.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Dig begins at Stonehenge
Archaeologists set out on Monday to investigate when the first standing stones were placed at Stonehenge. Academics Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright will use modern carbon dating techniques and analysis of soil pollen and sea shells to work out when the stones were set up, in the first archaeological dig at the site since 1964. "If you want to find out why Stonehenge was built, you need to look 250 kilometers away to the Presili Hills in north Pembrokeshire, where the first bluestones that built Stonehenge come from," Wainwright said as the two-week dig began.
■ FINLAND
Foreign minister steps down
Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva has been forced to resign from his job after he bombarded an erotic dancer with mobile phone text messages, a source in Kanerva's party said yesterday. Asked whether Kanerva had been fired by his party, the source replied: "Kanerva has not resigned himself. You can draw your own conclusions." Kanerva, 60, has been embroiled in a scandal after he sent around 200 messages to a 29-year-old erotic dancer he met at the end of January. The gossip magazine Hymy yesterday published 24 of his messages, some of which contained flirtatious and sexually suggestive content.
■ NORWAY
Thieves take crocodile
A dwarf crocodile has been snatched from the Bergen Aquarium by thieves who broke into its cage and walked out with the 70cm reptile named Taggen, the aquarium director said on Monday. "This one comes over when you open the cage, so capturing it was no big feat," said Kees Oscar Ekeli, a marine biologist and head of the aquarium. The missing four-year-old is a Paleosuchus Trigonatus, also known by the name Schneider's dwarf caiman. The aquarium has offered a 25,000 kroner (US$4,900) reward for its return. Ekeli said he was concerned for the reptile's life. But as to the thieves, he said they don't need to fear for their lives. But, he said, "they might lose a few fingers."
■ UGANDA
LRA chief delays peace pact
The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has delayed signing a peace deal, officials and sources involved in talks said yesterday. Fugitive LRA chief Joseph Kony was due to sign a final accord tomorrow near his hideout on the Sudan-Congo border, but was reported to be ill. President Yoweri Museveni was to sign the document in South Sudan two days later. Many people doubted Kony would emerge from the bush to sign the deal for fear of arrest over an International Criminal Court indictment for war crimes. "I don't know why he [Kony] postponed it. The story is he's got diarrhoea," a source involved in the negotiations said.
■ EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Two Chinese killed
Two Chinese were killed and four injured when striking Chinese construction workers clashed with security forces in a labor dispute, Chinese authorities said on Monday. A senior government official in Equatorial Guinea said the clash occurred last week during what he called a "riot" by some 200 laborers working at Mongomo. "We don't want this kind of revolt in the country," the official said, asking not to be named. But he said he could not confirm the deaths, which were reported by the China Daily on Monday, citing a posting on the Chinese Foreign Ministry Web site.
■ EGYPT
Butchers sell fake beef
Two Cairo butchers have been arrested for allegedly passing off donkey, cat and dog carcasses as beef, a security official said on Monday. Mohammed Mahmud Khalifa, 35, was caught butchering a donkey he had found by the roadside, the official said. He confessed to collecting carcasses and selling their meat to Wasfi Sawiris, 53, for 5 Egyptian pounds (US$0.92)) a kilogram, 10 percent of the normal price for beef. Sawiris allegedly ground the meat up with spices before selling it to local restaurants.
■ MEXICO
Kidnappers sentenced
Several kidnappers accused of preying on members of the entertainment industry have been sentenced to 50 years in prison. The attorney general's office says eight of 17 members of a gang accused of kidnapping Vicente Fernandez Jr, the son of legendary singer Vicente Fernandez, were sentenced to 50 years in prison. The rest each face 13 years or less in jail. The kidnappers cut off two of the son's fingers in 1997. The family paid a reported US$2.5 million ransom.
■ UNITED STATES
Parents charged in death
Two followers of a fundamentalist Christian church that favors faith healing over conventional medicine are to be prosecuted for manslaughter after their daughter died of a treatable infection. Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted by a grand jury in Oregon's Clackamas County following the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava last month. The toddler died of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection, the state medical examiner's office said -- both conditions that could have been treated with antibiotics.
■ ECUADOR
Colombia spray goes to court
Quito has asked the International Court of Justice to force Colombia to halt spraying herbicides on coca fields along its border, Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said. Salvador told a news conference Ecuador has "overwhelming evidence" that the aerial spray has crossed the border "and as a result the health and economics of numerous Ecuadoreans have been seriously affected." The country says crops and livestock have been harmed. Ecuador is asking the world court to rule that Colombia has violated its sovereignty. It wants the court to order Colombia to halt spraying within 10km of the border and pay for damages it has caused.
■ MEXICO
Old lady killer sentenced
The "Little Old Lady Killer," a female ex-wrestler who strangled and beat to death 11 elderly women in their homes after offering them domestic help, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday. Juana Barraza murdered at least 11 people in the capital since 2000 and may have killed close to 40 in total, making her one of the worst serial killers in the country's recent history. The muscular, ginger-haired former wrestler, who is in her 50s, would cruise the streets of Mexico City, sometimes dressed up as a nurse and win the confidence of frail old women by offering to wash their clothes or help with other household chores. Once in their homes, she would strangle her victims with items like women's tights, a curtain cord or a phone cable or bludgeon them to death with household objects. She told police she killed to get revenge on older women after her mother gave her away to a man who sexually abused her when she was a child.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
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