■NEW ZEALAND
Teen courier killed
Police admitted yesterday that they killed an innocent teenage courier driver in a shootout with a gunman who led them on a 40-minute chase through Auckland suburbs at up to 160km an hour. The gunman, who had fired at a police helicopter during the chase, was trying to hijack 17-year-old Halatau Nitoko’s van after crashing his stolen car on a city motorway on Friday. The unidentified 50-year-old gunman was arrested after the shootout. Nitoko had a two-year-old daughter and was awaiting the birth of twin boys next month, news reports said.
■THAILAND
Fog hampers transportation
Poor visibility caused by fog yesterday morning in usually sunny Bangkok led to a boat collision on the Chao Phraya River, the diversion of eight flights to the domestic airport and a railroad death, media reports said. A thick fog that blanketed the capital until 9am was blamed for a collision between a container ship and cement barge on the Chao Phraya River. Two crew members on the barge were slightly injured, the Nation online news service said. Poor visibility was also partly blamed for the death of 88-year-old Nipha Chunhasiri, who was hit in the shoulder by a train and flung to the ground, cracking her skull. Fog is almost unheard of in the low-lying capital.
■CHINA
Hand-foot-mouth kills tyke
A toddler, aged 17 months, died of hand-foot-mouth disease in Anhui Province, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting local health authorities. Dozens of cases of the disease have been reported in the province this month, with at least 15 more children undergoing treatment. It is not to be confused with foot-and-mouth disease, which affects animals.
■MALAYSIA
Three killed in landslide
A Filipino man was killed along with two fellow local workers when they were buried by a massive landslide at a timber camp in the eastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island, official reports said yesterday. Filipino Rinald Agillia, 38, and locals Jeseil Ed and Wilson — all workers in the timber camp were killed when the landslide occurred late on Friday, the official Bernama news agency said. Seven other workers, including three Filipino nationals, one Indonesian man and three Malaysians, were injured in the incident, district police chief Khairul Ridzuan Ahmad said.
■THAILAND
Fireworks caused blaze
An investigation has determined fireworks caused a devastating blaze that ripped through a Bangkok nightclub on New Year’s Day killing 65 people, a top police official said yesterday. Police have charged five people in connection with the fire at the upscale Santika club, which also injured more than 200 revelers, minutes after the New Year countdown. “The fire at Santika pub was caused by fireworks, according to the police investigation,” deputy national police chief General Jongrak Jutanont said. “There will be more arrests.” He would not reveal whether the fire was started by a pyrotechnics display put on by the club or the sparklers handed out to partygoers, saying full details of the investigation would be officially announced tomorrow.
■INDONESIA
Dispute leaves three dead
Three men were killed and two injured in an agricultural land dispute, the police said yesterday. The clash occurred on Friday in Papang village in East Nusa Tenggara as two groups, totaling around two dozen people, fought over the right to use 1 hectare of land, the police said. “There are three people that we have arrested regarding the fight. We are still chasing the others,” Manggarai police chief Hambali, who only uses one name, said. The groups used machetes — which are normally used for farming — during the fight.
■PHILIPPINES
Workers unearth bombs
Construction workers accidentally unearthed about 100 bombs from World War II in the US Embassy compound in Manila, but the explosives posed no immediate danger, police said yesterday. The heavily corroded mortar bombs and artillery shells will be taken to an aerial bombing range in the north for disposal, police Senior Superintendent Pablo Francisco Balagtas said. It was not immediately clear if the ordnance was US or Japanese, Balatagas said. US embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said workers found the bombs on Friday as they were digging the foundations for new visa and veterans’ facilities at the seaside embassy.
■SINGAPORE
Court jails stepfather
The Singapore High Court has jailed a 45-year old stepdad for 30 years and maximum 24 strokes of the cane allowed under the law for raping and intimidating his stepdaughters, a news report yesterday said. In the first case, the man started raping his stepdaughters, then age 11 and 13, just about four months after marrying their mother in 1999. The rape cases were discovered by the mother in August 2007 when one of the girls had an abortion. She reported the assault to police.
■DENMARK
Woman jailed for mutilation
A Sudanese-born woman was convicted on Friday in the country’s first case of genital mutilation. The 41-year-old Danish citizen was found guilty by a suburban Copenhagen court of violating a 2003 law that bans female circumcision and was given a two-year jail sentence. The woman and her husband, who were not publicly identified, were accused of organizing trips to Sudan in 2003 and 2006 to have their two daughters circumcised. The husband claimed he was not of aware of the purpose of the trips. He was acquitted.
■FRANCE
Politician says he’s gay
Roger Karoutchi, the minister in charge of parliamentary relations, told the country on Friday that he is gay — the first Cabinet member in recent memory to openly declare his homosexuality. “Yes, I have a life ... I say it naturally. I have a companion and I’m happy with him,” he said. His statement came shortly before the Feb. 4 publication of his book Mes quatre verites (My Four Truths) in which he devotes two pages to the subject. Friends say he came out with the revelation because of “attacks by his enemies.”
■NIGERIA
Goat held for robbery
Police are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery. Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323. “The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However, one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said. “We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Kenyan choir wins contract
The Boys Choir of Kenya has earned a recording deal after performing at US President Barack Obama’s inauguration, the Press Association said. The choir signed an agreement with Universal Music record label in the transit lounge at London’s Heathrow Airport on their way home from Washington, the association said. Representatives of the label had seen an Internet video clip of the choir’s performance at Tuesday’s ceremony, the report said. “This is a big honor to us. We feel so excited,” Joseph Muyale, the choir’s founder and musical director, was quoted as saying.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Two detained in drugs case
A security guard and South African Airways crewmember were remanded in custody on Friday after appearing in court Friday over a drugs haul find in London, the Sapa news agency reported. The guard allegedly provided the crewmember with security tags so that she could travel with extra luggage containing illegal substances, the prosecutor told the court. Police were expecting to arrest more people, Sapa reported. The crew of the South African Airways plane were freed on bail in London without charge on Wednesday after a sizeable quantity of cannabis and cocaine were found. The 10 women and five men will have to report back to British police in March after being arrested at London Heathrow Airport on Tuesday.
■BRAZIL
Model clings to life
A model whose feet and hands were amputated because of an infection is clinging to life at an intensive care unit. Mariana Bridi’s condition deteriorated overnight and was changed from “serious” to “very serious” on Friday, the Espirito Santo State Health Secretariat said in a statement. The 20-year-old beauty — who was twice a finalist in the local stage of the Miss World pageant — is suffering a generalized infection that forced the amputation of her hands and feet because the flow of oxygen to her limbs was reduced. Her feet were amputated two weeks ago, and last week doctors were forced to surgically remove her hands.
■ANTIGUA
Australian skipper shot
A gunman shot and killed the Australian skipper of a yacht, police said on Friday, stirring protests in the affluent boating community that has become a target of the Caribbean island’s crime wave. The victim was shot in the chest at close range on Thursday night as he walked through a dockyard area near English Harbor with his girlfriend, Police Commissioner Thomas Bennett said. The motive was unclear and no arrests have been made, Bennett said. The shooting outraged boaters, business owners and local residents, who complained at an impromptu meeting on Friday that the government has not done enough to protect the yacht-packed English Harbor area.
■BAHAMAS
Extotrionists charged
Authorities have charged an island lawmaker and detained two other people in an alleged plot to extort money from actor John Travolta after the death of his son, police said on Friday. Two of the suspects — ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and former tourism minister Obie Wilchcombe — were detained on Friday. Earlier, several tabloids quoted Lightbourne describing efforts to revive the celebrity’s chronically ill son, Jett, who died of a seizure this month at their family vacation home on Grand Bahama. Senator Pleasant Bridgewater, an attorney from Grand Bahama, was arrested on Thursday. She was charged with abetment to extort and conspiracy to extort and released on Friday on US$40,000 bail, Assistant Superintendent of Police Loretta Mackey said.
■CANADA
Peanut oil leads to charges
A man has been charged with assault using peanut oil he allegedly smeared on a car door handle to make his allergic former fiancee ill, police said on Friday. Police in Burlington on the shores of Lake Ontario said the 49-year-old woman became sick after touching her car door handle and was treated for an allergic reaction to nuts at a nearby medical clinic. She suffered no serious lasting effects. The 47-year-old man, whose identity has not been released to protect the victim, has been charged with harassment and administering a noxious substance.
■CANADA
Possible bird flu outbreak
Officials investigated the possibility of an avian influenza outbreak on a commercial turkey farm in British Columbia, authorities said on Friday. Blood samples from birds at E&H Farms tested positive for avian flu antibodies, said Calvin Bruekelman, spokesman for the BC Poultry Association. Food Inspection Agency spokeswoman Monika Mazur said further blood samples from birds in the surrounding farms have been sent to a national lab in Winnipeg to confirm the initial findings.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
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