■INDIA
‘Beer man’ given life term
A killer nicknamed the “beer man” for reportedly leaving empty beer cans near the bodies of his suspected victims has been sentenced to life in prison, a court said yesterday. Ravindra Kantrole, in his early 30s, was suspected of being behind seven murders in south Mumbai between October 2006 and January 2007. The only link in the cases was a beer can left by each body.
■MALAYSIA
Police swoop on ‘sex party’
Malaysian police arrested a female newsreader, an actress and 24 other revelers at a New Year’s Eve “sex and drugs” party at a downtown Kuala Lumpur hotel, reports said yesterday. The two high-profile women and seven others tested positive for drugs, police said, according to the New Straits Times, which reported that condoms, beer cans and half-eaten pizza were found strewn around the hotel room. “When police arrived, many of the partygoers were already high on drugs,” the Star newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying, adding that various illegal substances, including cocaine, ketamine and amphetamines were seized. Party organizers had reportedly said that male guests were banned from wearing briefs to the event, while women were permitted to wear only G-string underwear which had to be removed after midnight.
■INDIA
Two buses prove deadly
A New Delhi laborer survived getting hit by one bus, only to be struck and killed by a second one 20 minutes later, police said on Thursday. Raj Kumar, 38, was on his way to work on Wednesday morning when a bus hit him from behind. Local residents put Kumar in a three-wheeled taxi to take him to a hospital, but before they got there he said he felt fine and jumped out. Then when he was crossing the road another bus hit him and he died on the spot. Both vehicles were Blueline buses, infamous for running red lights, speeding and barreling erratically through the city’s free-for-all traffic.
■CHINA
Rice to visit on Wednesday
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit on Wednesday and Thursday, the foreign ministry said yesterday, in her last scheduled trip before the Bush administration leaves office. Rice had earlier announced her plans to visit shortly after the New Year but the exact dates had not been released. Beijing and Washington on Thursday marked 30 years of diplomatic relations, with Bush exchanging congratulatory messages with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). However, Rice indicated earlier that little of substance appeared likely to emerge from the visit.
■JAPAN
Emperor voices concerns
Emperor Akihito yesterday voiced concern about the growing impact of the global financial crisis on the nation’s economy as he greeted New Year crowds in the Imperial Palace. Around 10,000 people, mostly elderly, gathered at the palace in central Tokyo to hear the emperor’s traditional New Year’s address and to exchange greetings with members of the imperial family. “I’m worried that many people are having a New Year with a lot of troubles under the severe economic conditions,” Akihito said in a rare New Year’s comment on economic matters.
■AUSTRALIA
Coral decline sparks worries
A sharp slowdown in coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world’s oceans may be imminent, scientists said yesterday. Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the Institute of Marine Science researchers reported. The research shows that corals on the reef have slowed their growth by more than 14 percent since the “tipping point” year of 1990 and on current trends the corals would stop growing altogether by 2050. Coral skeletons form the backbone of reef ecosystems and provide the habitat for tens of thousands of plant and animal species and more acidic oceans will affect many sea creatures, not just coral, a statement on the report said. The findings are based on analyses of annual growth bands — like rings on trees — extending back in time up to 400 years.
■THAILAND
New Year accidents kill 226
Traffic accidents killed 226 people and injured 2,329 others over the New Year’s holiday, one of the most dangerous times to be on Thai roads, the interior ministry said yesterday. The ministry’s road safety center said the number of deaths from Tuesday to Thursday was up more than 20 percent on the same period last year while accidents were up 18 percent, despite a massive campaign against drinking and driving. Almost half of the fatal accidents were caused by driving under the influence, while speeding was also a leading cause of death on the roads.
■NEPAL
Bumper year for tourism
Two years after the end of the brutal civil war, more tourists than ever visited the Himalayan country last year, officials said yesterday. Tourism brings vital foreign currency into the young republic governed by former rebel Maoists who won elections last April with pledges to lift the country out of dire poverty. “With nearly 550,000 tourists in 2008, arrivals have increased by just over four percent compared to the previous year,” said Aditya Baral, Nepal Tourism Board spokesman, adding that 2007 set the previous record for the highest number of tourist arrivals.
■AUSTRIA
Woman taken for a ride
A woman and her two small daughters got more than their expected scenic tour through downtown Vienna on Thursday when a team of unruly horses took them on a wild ride — leaving the drunken coachman behind. Police said the two horses pulling the Fiaker — a traditional Viennese carriage — broke away, throwing the coachman to the ground as he was about to open the door for his passengers to let them disembark. Police said the passengers — an unidentified 39-year-old woman from an undisclosed country and her two daughters, 10 and 7 — were unhurt. The horses suffered slight injuries.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Lovelorn beaver on the lose
There’s a gnawing problem in the British countryside — a giant beaver on the loose, wreaking havoc in southwest England. And his owner reckons there’s only one thing that can lure the lovelorn rodent back into captivity: the scent of female beaver. The 38kg animal escaped from the Upcott Grange Farm in the county of Devon back in October, along with two females who were recovered soon after from a nearby lake. But the one beaver still on the run is thought to be the culprit felling trees some 32km down the River Tamar at Gunnislake. Conservationist Derek Gow, who owns 24 of the animals under license, reckons the runaway is hunting for female beaver. He is planning to catch the escapee using honey traps: boxes that smell of females. Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain in the 16th century. However, in a controversial project, four families of beavers have been shipped in from Norway and will be released in western Scotland early this year.
■DENMARK
One charged for shooting
Police on Thursday arrested a 27-year-old man of Palestinian origin on suspicion of shooting and wounding two Israeli citizens at a shopping mall in central Denmark and charged him with attempted murder. A city court remanded the man in custody for four weeks. The Danish citizen, born in Lebanon, pleaded innocent but admitted to possession of a firearm before the judge ordered the rest of the hearing to be held behind closed doors. A gunman on Wednesday fired several shots at two Israeli youths who worked at a hair salon in the Odense shopping mall, wounding one in the leg and the other in the arm.
■FRANCE
Sarkozy slams car burners
French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to crack down on car burning after more than 1,100 vehicles went up in flames overnight on New Year’s Eve. Sarkozy said he had asked authorities to be “uncompromising” with vehicle arsonists and said those caught burning other people’s cars should lose their own licenses until the damage had been paid for. “There is no reason why honest people should have to pay the consequences of the behavior of delinquents,” he said. Car burnings are regular occurrences in France, where some 36,700 were recorded last year to Nov. 30, interior ministry figures showed. Authorities said 1,147 cars were burned on Dec. 31, up from 878 the year before.
■SOMALIA
‘Blue Star’ seized by pirates
An Egyptian ship with a crew of 28 carrying fertilizer was seized off the Somali Coast, the latest victim of piracy, an Egyptian official said on Thursday. Some 15 heavily armed pirates captured the ‘Blue Star’, which is now on its way to the Somalian coast, Ahmed Rizk, assistant to Egypt’s Foreign Minister said in a statement. The crew were all Egyptian, he said.
■UNITED STATES
Muslims ordered off plane
Airline officials ordered nine traditionally dressed Muslims, including three children, off an AirTran flight that was to have left Reagan National Airport in Washington on Thursday, the Washington Post reported. Two passengers apparently complained to flight staff after overhearing a suspicious remark among the Muslim travelers, the paper reported yesterday. All but one of the group were US-born citizens, and they were headed to Orlando, Florida, for a religious retreat. The group included an anesthesiologist and a lawyer. Airport officials later cleared the group to travel, an airport official said. Kashif Irfan told the Post that the problem unfolded after his brother, Atif, and the brother’s wife discussed the safest place to sit on an airplane. Fellow passengers apparently felt threatened and complained to the pilot, and two federal air marshals on board then reported the matter to airport police.
■MEXICO
Drug war claims 12 more
Twelve people were killed close to the US border, including eight in Ciudad Juarez, in the latest violence attributed to the country’s drug war. In Ciudad Juarez, a shooting on Wednesday between policemen and gunmen attacking a soda delivery truck killed two people — an attacker and a deliveryman, police said. In another part of the city, hitmen killed a 35-year-old man after chasing him down several streets. The other victims were shot on Wednesday in other parts of Chihuahua State.
■UNITED STATES
Four caught over gang rape
Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said on Thursday. Humberto Hernandez Salvador was arrested on Wednesday night, police in Richmond, California, said. The 31-year-old is being held on gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges. Police also arrested a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy. The incident happened in a gritty area of the San Francisco Bay area. Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked on Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker.
■CANADA
Snowboarder found alive
A snowboarder who was lost for three days on a snowy mountain said on Thursday it was wonderful to be alive. James Martin was found on Wednesday on Mount Seymour in North Vancouver, British Columbia, after he lost his bearings on Sunday while snowboarding the hills. He spent the next three days trudging through deep snow. He could see helicopters flying overhead, but they could not see him through the trees, Martin told CTV News from his hospital bed in Vancouver where he is recovering from frostbite. Rescuers spotted his tracks in the snow, which led them to him on Wednesday afternoon.
■UNITED STATES
Neighbor sues over balls
An 89-year-old Cincinnati-area woman arrested for confiscating a child’s football is now suing the boy’s parents. Edna Jester filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court claiming she has suffered emotional distress because toys belonging to her neighbors keep landing in her yard, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. In October, Jester refused to return a football, was taken to the Blue Ash police station and charged with petty theft. The prosecutor later dropped the case. The lawsuit against parents Paul and Kelly Tanis seeks unspecified damages.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
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
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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