■ AUSTRALIA
Food crisis warning given
The Murray-Darling river basin where one-third of the nation’s food is grown is in dire straits because upstream farmers are taking too much water for irrigation, scientists warned yesterday. They said parts of the basin would be “beyond the point of recovery” unless the government bought back water allocations and got more water flowing by October. The scientists leaked their report to the press because the government that took delivery of it last month said it would not respond until the end of the year.
■ HONG KONG
Faye is top sexy veggie
Hong Kong singer-actress Faye Wong (王菲) has been voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian female in a survey by an animal rights group yesterday. Bollywood star Amitabh Bachan was voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian male in the poll conducted among members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Runners-up included Taiwanese drama star Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), Hong Kong actress Maggie Q (李美琪) and Cantopop singer and actress Stephy Tang (鄧麗欣). Outside Asia, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, pop star Leona Lewis and camp British TV host Russell Brand were among those who polled most votes as sexiest vegetarians.
■ HONG KONG
Apartment sets sale record
A luxury apartment has sold for HK$225 million (US$28.8 million), the most expensive per square meter ever sold in Asia, a report said yesterday. The 80th floor penthouse with a private swimming pool and spectacular view of Victoria Harbour sold for HK$440,300 per square meter, a report in the Sing Tao Daily said, citing an unnamed real estate source. The 511m² apartment, with its own rooftop terrace, is located in a new complex called The Arch on the Kowloon Peninsula.
■ EQUATORIAL GUINEA
UK mercenary stands trial
British mercenary Simon Mann, one of Africa’s last “dogs of war,” went on trial on Tuesday and the prosecution asked he be jailed for nearly 32 years for his role in a failed 2004 coup plot. Public Prosecutor Jose Olo Obono said Mann plotted to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The defense lawyer for Mann said that while his client was part of the coup plot he was a “mere instrument.” After the prosecution and defense cases were heard for Mann and eight others, including a former Cabinet minister, the trial was adjourned until yesterday.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Amnesty awards journalist
Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday awarded its annual Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat to a Yemeni newspaper editor. Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, the former editor of al-Shora, a political weekly, was jailed last week for six years for his coverage of clashes between government forces and backers of the late Shiite cleric Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi in Yemen.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Radical preacher released
The government will appeal a court ruling that has led to the release from jail of a radical preacher once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe,” it was reported yesterday. Abu Qatada, 47, was freed on bail from a prison in Worcestershire on Tuesday following a court ruling in April banning ministers from extraditing him to Jordan. Qatada, whose release was tied to strict conditions of surveillance while he is at home in London, has been convicted in his absence in the Middle East of involvement with terrorist attacks in 1998.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Minister’s computer stolen
A computer containing “restricted” information was stolen from the office of a Cabinet minister in a break-in, the government said on Tuesday. Police said they were investigating a weekend burglary at the constituency office of Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears in Manchester. “There was a break-in at the constituency office of Hazel Blears,” a government statement said. “A PC was stolen,” it said. “There was some restricted information on the PC, but as we have made clear, there is no secret or top secret information,” it said.
■ ITALY
No cheating for Carabinieri
The country’s highest court has ruled that the Carabinieri paramilitary police may not have extra-marital affairs, in order to avoid sullying the force’s name. The ruling stemmed from one Carabiniere’s appeal against a lower court ruling sentencing him to four months in jail for insulting and threatening to throw a desk at his boss, who had asked the policeman to end an affair with a married woman. The Court of Cassation agreed that any affair is a private matter, but noted that the military police were called to “exemplary conduct and could not bring discredit to the armed forces with extra-marital relationships.”
■ RUSSIA
New charges in murder case
Prosecutors charged three men with a role in the 2006 killing of anti-Kremlin journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A gunman shot Politkovskaya in her Moscow apartment block in October 2006. Prosecutors named the accused as Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Ibragim Makhmudov. Politkovskaya was well known in the West for her human rights reporting in Chechnya.
■ ICELAND
Polar bear sighted
In the second case of its kind in two weeks, a polar bear was sighted in northern Iceland after apparently making a journey of several hundred kilometers atop an ice floe from Greenland, the broadcaster RUV reported on Tuesday. A 12-year-old girl on a farm near the town of Saudarkrokur, on the Skaga fjord, spotted the bear on Monday and alerted the authorities. Two weeks earlier, another polar bear was spotted in Iceland — the first such spotting in 20 years. Authorities permitted police marksmen to kill the polar bear, sparking protests from environmentalists and animal rights’ groups. Authorities are now making plans to capture the second bear and have it shipped in a cage back to Greenland.
■ UNITED STATES
Dancing film star dies
Cyd Charisse, whose elegant dance moves on the silver screen wooed her co-stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, has died at the age of 86 in a Los Angeles hospital of an apparent heart attack, her agent, Scott Stander, told the news media. Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Texas, Charisse began her dancing career with the Ballet Russe, but fame came after the film studio MGM discovered her and cast her in leading roles at the height of the popularity of the Hollywood musical. She had minor roles in movies for nearly a decade before her breakout role came in 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain. A year later, she secured her first leading role in the musical comedy The Band Wagon opposite Astaire.
■ UNITED STATES
Girl chases lemonade thief
A young girl whose lemonade stand was robbed of US$17.50 chased the suspect to a nearby home and called police, who spent nearly an hour trying to coax the man into surrendering. “The guy came up and was, like, ‘Give me your money,’” 12-year-old Dominique Morefield said. “I was shocked. It was just my immediate reaction to chase after him.” Dominique dashed after the man, who ran into a house, and then she called police. Officers eventually persuaded Steve Tryon, 18, to come outside after 45 minutes and arrested him on a preliminary felony charge of robbery. Tyron, currently held in the Vigo County Jail in Indiana, will be formally charged tomorrow, a county prosecutor said.
■ UNITED STATES
Man threatens police
Police in Connecticut say they arrested a man after he ordered his pet to attack two officers. Lucky for them that 2.7m-long pythons are not very obedient. Bridgeport Police Lieutenant James Viadero said 21-year-old Victor Rodriguez was charged with threatening police and disorderly conduct after Monday’s incident. No one was hurt. Officers were called to Rodriguez’s apartment on a report that he was threatening his girlfriend with the pet reptile.
■ UNITED STATES
Man alleges torture
Videotapes alleging torture could become evidence in a federal lawsuit against Sheik Issa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the late United Arab Emirates (UAE) president and brother of Abu Dhabi’s crown prince. Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi, a former adviser to the sheik, is suing for millions he says he is owed for various business deals. He also charges Sheik Issa and other members of the royal family with false imprisonment and with torturing him. The tapes have not been made public, but “ultimately this video, or certainly large portions of it, will be played in court,” said Nabulsi’s lawyer, Anthony Buzbee, on Tuesday.
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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