■JAPAN
Tourists get another chance
The world’s largest fish market plans to reopen its pre-dawn tuna auctions to tourists in Tokyo next week, an official said yesterday, ending a month-long ban imposed over complaints of loutish behavior. Hundreds of people, mostly foreign tourists, usually flock to Tsukiji market every day, but local authorities called an end to the auction visits on Dec. 15. The market now plans to allow visitors back from Jan. 19, according to the local government. Wholesalers had complained about tourists’ behavior at the market, with some sightseers being caught hugging, licking and straddling fish before the market installed a restricted sightseeing area last year, the official said.
■PHILIPPINES
Aide loses club membership
A senior aide to President Gloria Arroyo had his golf club membership suspended for two years over a brawl involving his two sons who are accused of beating up a 14 year-old boy, it was announced yesterday. Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman will not be allowed to set foot on the Valley Golf and Country Club until January 2011 “because of the disorderly conduct of his guests,” Valley Golf and Country Club corporate secretary Teofilo Abejo said.
■AUSTRALIA
Sharks clear beaches
Shark attacks cleared two beaches yesterday but neither victim had life-threatening injuries. The most-serious injuries were to a man who was 100m off Queensland’s Fingal Beach when he was dragged off his surfboard. He was airlifted to hospital with a 30cm gash in his thigh. On Tasmania’s east coast a woman was pulled from the surf after she was bitten by a great white shark. Police said she was likely to be released from hospital.
■PHILIPPINES
Plane crashes into wall
A small passenger plane serving the Philippines resort island of Boracay missed the runway on landing yesterday, leaving at least two passengers seriously injured, officials said. Hospitals in the town of Malay and nearby Kalibo City treated the Zest Airways plane’s 24 passengers and five crew for various injuries after the plane made the hard landing and smashed into a concrete wall. Two of the passengers had sustained serious fractures and cuts, officials in Malay said. The rest were treated for minor injuries and discharged. The cause of the crash, that led to the closure of the airport, the country’s second busiest after Manila, was not immediately known. A Canadian passenger who asked not to be named said the pilot appeared to misjudge the landing because of heavy winds. The plane landed on the grass well short of the runway. Its left wing ploughed into a ditch, preventing the plane from hitting the airport terminal, witnesses said. It instead smashed into an airport wall, narrowly missing the airport restaurant.
■HONG KONG
Toddler thrown from window
Police were investigating a murder-suicide case yesterday in which a 27-year-old man threw his toddler niece to her death from a high-rise apartment block. The two-year-old girl and her uncle were both found dead at the foot of the block of flats in the Sheung Shui district of Hong Kong after falling from a ninth-floor balcony on Saturday morning. The girl’s mother told police that her husband’s brother snatched the girl and threw her from the balcony before jumping to his death. Police believe he may have suffered a mental breakdown. In November, a mother strangled her 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son before jumping to her death in Hong Kong’s Wong Tai Sin district. She had been released from a mental hospital days earlier.
■THAILAND
Sky-diver kills 10-year-old
A 10-year-old girl was killed when a military sky-diving display went awry on Children’s Day in Thailand, police said yesterday. The girl was killed in northeastern Roi Et Province on Saturday when an army sky diver taking part in a demonstration for Thailand’s national day celebrating children was blown off course and landed on the youngster. “The parachutist landed on the crowd because of strong winds that made his approach difficult,” a local police officer said by telephone. Nine people, including seven children, were also killed in a car accident on Saturday in southern Narathiwat Province as they returned from a trip to a waterfall to celebrate Children’s Day. The driver of a pick-up truck carrying the day-trippers tried to overtake another vehicle, but instead veered off the road and smashed into trees on a traffic island, police in the area said.
■PAKISTAN
Militants attack border fort
Hundreds of militants attacked security forces in a restive tribal area on the Afghan border, sparking clashes that left six soldiers and 40 militants dead, military officials said yesterday. The fighting took place late on Saturday in the Mohmand tribal area, a hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda activity, officials from the paramilitary Frontier Corps said. Some of the attackers came from the Afghan side of the border and were joined by local Taliban fighters. The combined force of about 600 militants then attacked the paramilitary fort near the border, the officials said. The attack sparked gun battles that lasted for several hours, a security official said, adding that the attackers eventually fled the scene.
■POLAND
Nazi resister dies at 99
Elzbieta Zawacka, who crisscrossed Nazi-occupied Europe to carry messages between Poland’s exiled government and its resistance forces during World War II, died on Saturday. She was 99. Zawacka died in her hometown of Torun after a long illness, her assistant Izabela Kuczynska told the PAP agency. During the war, Zawacka was a member of the resistance Home Army and repeatedly risked her life crossing the borders of Nazi-occupied Poland on false documents to carry reports about the Nazi atrocities and the resistance to Poland’s government-in-exile in London. On one such trip, in early 1943, she traveled though Germany, France and Spain to Gibraltar, where she was airlifted to London. In September of the same year, she was the first and only woman to be dropped by parachute into Poland, bringing orders and instructions for the Home Army. She also fought in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising against the Germans.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Web scandal hits school
More than two dozen schoolgirls have been suspended for using the Facebook Web site to engage in a hate campaign against their teacher, a school principal said. The 29 girls were suspended from the venerable Grey Coat Hospital School in London for persecuting a member of staff, principal Rachel Allard said on Friday. It was not clear what the girls wrote on the Web site but the Telegraph newspaper says the targeted teacher was forced to seek counseling. The girls were suspended for up to 15 days and are due to return to class tomorrow. The Grey Coat Hospital School for girls aged between 11 and 18 was founded in 1698. Facebook, a popular social networking site, has often landed pupils, and teachers, in trouble for posting unguarded or inappropriate comments.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Man charged with murder
Police have charged a 51-year-old man from east London with the murder of a man whose burning body was found by the M45 motorway in Warwickshire, Scotland Yard said on Saturday. The victim was found on the eastbound embankment of the motorway on Dec. 30 and a post mortem revealed he died from head and neck injuries. Police believe he was killed in east London before his body was driven to Warwickshire to be dumped and set alight. Scotland Yard said it had charged Irshad Mohammed Wali, 51, with the murder. He was arrested on Jan. 7 along with five other men in separate raids in east London. A 46-year-old man has been released on bail until next week and the remaining four have been released and face no further action.
■UNITED KINGDOM
New Pooh to hit shelves
The world’s favorite “silly old bear” is back. Publishers in Britain and the US said on Friday they will publish a new book of Winnie-the-Pooh adventures on Oct. 5. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne’s Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s. It will be published in Britain by Egmont Publishing and in the US by Penguin imprint Dutton Children’s Books, they said in statements. The new book is written by novelist and playwright David Benedictus, who has adapted several Pooh stories for audio CD, and illustrated by British artist Mark Burgess. The beloved “bear of very little brain” first appeared in 1926 in Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, which featured E.H. Shepard’s now-iconic line drawings.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez may expel official
President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he might expel a top US embassy official for allegedly plotting against his government from Puerto Rico. Chavez said he had information that leaders of the political opposition were meeting with US advisers in Puerto Rico to discuss how to prevent a referendum on term limits from passing. “I’m investigating the possible presence of a US embassy official in Caracas at this meeting,” Chavez said, without naming the official. The referendum — which may take place next month — could allow Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said the mission’s charge d’affaires in Caracas, John Caulfield, recently visited Puerto Rico for a wedding.
■UNITED STATES
Lobster granted reprieve
A huge lobster that was destined to adorn a dinner plate is back in the ocean after a New York City restaurant granted him a reprieve. The 9kg crustacean, named George, was returned to the wild on Saturday in a rocky cove in Kennebunkport, Maine, less than 1.6km from the summer home of former president George H.W. Bush. George was transported to Maine by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had beseeched City Crab and Seafood to allow the lobster to go free. The activist group said the lobster may be up to 140 years old.
■UNITED STATES
Madoff sauce for sale
Careful with this hot sauce: It will definitely burn. New York City artist Alex Gardega is selling US$10 bottles of habanero hot sauce dedicated to disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff. He calls it, “Bernie in hell.” But Gardega says he doesn’t really want people to put the condiment on food. He warns on his Web site that it’s “hellishly hot.” Instead, Gardega says he’s making a statement about Madoff, who has been accused of bilking investors out of US$50 billion. He told the New York Post that he got the idea for it while watching TV news about Madoff. The Manhattan painter designed the label, which features Madoff with satanic horns, flames, dollar signs in his eyes and a devilish grin. A chef created the fiery condiment. The text on the bottle reads: “You can take the money but can you take ... the heat?!!!”
■UNITED STATES
Rare joeys born at zoo
Nebraska zookeepers are seeing double and they’re thrilled about it, with the birth of twins to a rare species of tree kangaroo. Twin joeys were born last month at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo to Matschie’s tree kangaroos Milla and her mate Noru. They were found in Milla’s pouch last month. In the wild, the animals live in the rain forest of northeastern Papua New Guinea. The babies were likely the size of a lima bean at birth. They are expected to begin poking out their heads or feet in May.
■UNITED STATES
Couple weds at Taco Bell
Wedding bells meant the Mexican fast food chain Taco Bell for Paul and Caragh Brooks. Customers inside the fast-food restaurant continued to order tacos and burritos as the couple sat on Friday in a Taco Bell booth and exchanged vows. “It’s appropriate,” groom Paul Brooks said. “It’s an offbeat relationship.” Employees displayed hot sauce packets labeled with the words “Will you marry me?” They decorated the restaurant with streamers. Because they like to spend time at the local Taco Bell, the pair decided to wed there.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
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