■ AUSTRALIA
Rudd rejects holiday call
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday rejected calls from Aboriginal rights activist Mick Dodson, named this year’s Australian of the Year on Sunday, for the national holiday to be moved out of respect for his people. National Day is celebrated on Jan. 26 to mark the arrival of white settlers in 1788. But Rudd refused to entertain the notion. “To our indigenous leaders and those who call for a change to our national day let me say a simple, respectful, but straightforward no,” said Rudd, speaking at an Australia Day function. “There have always been controversies about national days, but this is not the point. The central point is then what we resolve to fashion as a nation ... and whether the nation we fashion through our resolve, our energies and our efforts is a nation which includes all, not just some ... That is why I support this, our national day.”
■NEW ZEALAND
Old tuatara becomes dad
A captive reptile has unexpectedly become a father at the ripe old age of 111 after receiving treatment for a cancer that made him hostile toward prospective mates. The centenarian tuatara, named Henry, was thought well past the mating game until he was caught canoodling with a female named Mildred last March — a consummation that resulted in 11 babies being hatched yesterday. An endangered species, the hatchlings born at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery will provide a badly needed boost to the tuatara’s genetic diversity, said Lindsay Hazley, the tuatara curator.
■PAKISTAN
Bicycle bomb kills five
A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded near a women’s hostel in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan yesterday, killing five people and wounding several, police said. “It was a cycle bomb. Five people died on the spot while the wounded were shifted to hospitals,” police officer Bashir Khan said by telephone from the scene. Khan declined to say if the women’s hostel was the target. A hospital and a press club are also in the vicinity.
■INDONESIA
Muslims banned from yoga
Muslims in the country are now banned from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, but will continue to be allowed to perform it for purely health reasons, the chairman of the country’s top Islamic body said yesterday. Cleric Maruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued the non-binding ruling following weekend talks attended by hundreds of theological experts in Padang Panjang, a village in West Sumatra province. Although the ruling is not legally binding, most devout Muslims are likely to adhere to it — as they consider it sinful to ignore a fatwa.
■CAMBODIA
Pact reached on border row
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said yesterday he and visiting Thai Minister Kasit Piromya had agreed they must end a land dispute near an ancient temple, where troops from both nations clashed on Oct. 15, leaving four soldiers dead. “The demarcation of the border at Preah Vihear temple and discussions over troops is an urgent priority,” he told a joint press conference after the meeting. “Both sides — Cambodia and Thailand — agreed to set up a date from Feb. 2 to 4 in which the joint border commission will start to demarcate territory.” Thailand’s defense minister will visit Cambodia on Feb. 6 to discuss withdrawing troops from disputed territory around the 11th century Khmer temple, he said.
■UNITED STATES
Governor turns to media
Although Illinois lawmakers set to launch impeachment hearings against Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday, Blagojevich has refused to appear before the Senate to defend himself against a host of abuse of power charges. Instead, he was trying to influence public opinion with TV appearances. The Democratic governor is refusing to take part in his own trial, arguing the rules are so biased that he can’t get a fair hearing. “You can conceivably bring in 15 angels and 20 saints led by Mother Teresa to come in to testify to my good character, to my integrity and all the rest. It wouldn’t matter,” he told the Today show in an interview scheduled to air yesterday. He was also to appear live on Good Morning, America, The View and Larry King Live.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown’s support slides: poll
Public support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government has plunged, according to a poll published yesterday that shows it trailing the main opposition Conservatives by 15 points. A ComRes survey for the Independent newspaper puts the Conservatives on 43 percent (up four points on last month), Labour on 28 percent (down six) and the third opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, unchanged on 16 percent. It is the first time Labour have fallen below 30 percent in any poll since September. ComRes telephoned 1,012 adults in Britain last Wednesday and Thursday.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Coffee, hallucinations linked
A study conducted on 200 university students has linked high caffeine consumption to a higher tendency to hallucinate. The study, carried out at Durham University and reported in a German magazine for physicians, asked students to outline the amount of coffee, tea, caffeine tablets and energy drinks they consumed. Their stress levels and tendency to hallucinate were then recorded. The study showed that students who drank more than seven cups of caffeine in instant coffee were three times more likely to hear voices than students with very low caffeine consumption.
■UNITED STATES
Police boy patrols Chicago
A 14-year-old aspiring police officer donned a uniform, walked into a Chicago police station and managed to get an assignment — patrolling in a squad car for five hours before he was detected, police said on Sunday. The boy did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn’t drive the squad car, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Dugan said. Assistant Superintendent James Jackson said the ruse was discovered only after the boy’s patrol with an actual officer ended on Saturday. Dugan said the boy looks older than 14 and was motivated by a desire to be an officer, not malice or “ill intent.”
■MEXICO
Cheesecake record set
The nation has long been known for tacos and tequila — but cheesecake? Chef Miguel Angel Quezada says 55 cooks spent 60 hours making the world’s biggest cheesecake — a 2-tonne calorie bomb topped with strawberries. The monster cake used nearly a tonne of cream cheese, the same amount of yogurt, 350kg of pastry, 250kg of sugar and 150kg of butter. Carlos Martinez of Guinness World Records declared the cheesecake the world’s largest on Sunday at an event sponsored by Kraft Foods, maker of Philadelphia cream cheese. There wasn’t much competition. Guinness had no previous record for cheesecakes. Organizers gave out 20,000 slices around Mexico City.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
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