■AUSTRALIA
Thief trapped in vehicle
A bungling car thief was nabbed after accidentally locking himself in the vehicle he was trying to steal, police said on Wednesday. Police were called to a house in Adelaide after two thieves were heard trying to steal a car. On arrival the officers were surprised to find a 53-year-old man hiding inside the vehicle.
■AUSTRALIA
Flooding likely in northwest
The Bureau of Meteorology said yesterday it anticipated “significant flooding” in the country’s mineral-rich northwest as a developing tropical cyclone made landfall. The system had already prompted two oil field operators, Apache Energy and Santos Ltd, to shut production from some fields, while other operators in Australia’s “cyclone alley” were on alert. “Widespread heavy rain is likely in the Pilbara … as the system approaches the Pilbara coast, and significant flooding may result,” the bureau said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.
■PHILIPPINES
Hostage makes contact
One of three Red Cross workers being held by militants in the south has re-established contact more than a week after the group was last heard from, a report said yesterday. Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, 37, said life in captivity was tough for her and colleagues Eugenio Vagni of Italy and Andreas Notter of Switzerland and called on government negotiators to step up efforts to secure their release. The three have been held in captivity in the jungle on southern Jolo island for 44 days. They were seized by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf gunmen on Jan. 15 while on a humanitarian mission. “Please tell them, if possible, if they can, to quicken the process,” Lacaba told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, referring to negotiators. “It has become very hard and truly painful. Physically and emotionally, it’s really very, very hard.” The Inquirer said Lacaba’s voice was “low and trembling” when she was allowed by her captors to speak with one of their reporters on Thursday. She said she and Vagni, 62, were also having bouts of diarrhea. The kidnappers have not publicly demanded ransom in exchange for the release of the three hostages but have made certain political demands known, a crisis team on Jolo said. Previous abductions by the Abu Sayyaf have, however, involved millions of dollars in ransom payments. International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations for Asia Alain Aeschlimann on Friday said the organization made contact with the hostages the previous week and was concerned about their health.
■THAILAND
ASEAN anthem debuts
Southeast Asia now has an official anthem and its own cartoon characters. The 60-second anthem titled The ASEAN Way was to make its debut at the opening ceremony of the 10-nation ASEAN summit yesterday, the summit’s Web site said. A choir, accompanied by the Royal Thai Navy Symphony Orchestra, were to sing the song for Southeast Asian leaders gathered for the first summit since the group signed a landmark charter in December. Composed by Thai musicians, the tune beat 99 other entries from the region to become ASEAN’s first official song in its 42-year history. “Together for ASEAN, we dare to dream; We care to share, for it’s the ASEAN way,” the lyrics state. The animated book, ASEAN Discovery is available in Thailand, which holds the bloc’s rotating membership. Sponsored by the Thai Foreign Ministry, the book’s main character is an alien named Blue who has 10 friends from each of the ASEAN countries, the Bangkok Post reported.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Man sets himself on fire
A man apparently set himself on fire opposite the Houses of Parliament on Friday and he was taken to a hospital with superficial burns, authorities said. Police said the man was on fire “for a short time” in Parliament Square in the heart of London. Without saying specifically that the man attempted self-immolation, police said they did not believe anyone else was involved. “The man suffered superficial burns. He is currently in hospital and is in a stable condition,” a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with force policy. Police said the man was 43. Peace campaigner Brian Haw, 60, who lives on the square, said the man acted without warning at about 4pm. Haw and other demonstrators raced over to him, pushing him down to roll him on the ground and beating back the flames with a leather jacket. “His head was burning away,” Haw said. “It was quite shocking.” There was no immediate word on who the man was or why he would set himself on fire.
■CYPRUS
Conflict over asparagus
UN peacekeepers have upset traditional wild asparagus harvesters on the ethnically divided island by preventing them from entering a buffer zone to gather the tasty shoots. UN soldiers, restricting access to the buffer zone which splits the island from east to west after Cyprus was divided in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a Greek-inspired coup, said they were only doing their job, but residents were livid.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Scientists studying spit
Bacteria found in people’s spit does not vary much around the world, a surprising finding that could provide insights into how diet and cultural factors affect human health, researchers said on Thursday. Because the human body harbors 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells, scientists are trying to understand more about the bacteria we carry.
■SOMALIA
Thieves use cat as ruse
Thieves caused chaos outside a Somaliland mosque late on Thursday when they took advantage of a power cut to throw a stray cat into the crowd, triggering a stampede so they could rob worshippers. Large screens had been set up outside Hargeisa’s packed Ali Matan Mosque so thousands of people could watch a sermon by Sheikh Moustafa Hagi Ismael Hassan, one of the country’s most senior Muslim clerics. But when a short circuit cast the downtown area into darkness, the sheikh said gangsters hurled a feral cat into the center of the crowd, causing a commotion. During the stampede, the robbers grabbed mobile phones and money. “A number of people were wounded, most of them beggars,” Hassan said. “I’ve sent them to hospital for treatment.”
■EGYPT
American tourist stabbed
A US citizen was stabbed and wounded in a popular Cairo tourist area on Friday in front of his wife in the second attack on foreigners in the capital in less than a week, security sources said. They said the American, a teacher in an English-language school in the coastal city of Alexandria, had been visiting the Khan el-Khalili market, when he was stabbed. Police arrested a 21-year-old Egyptian over the attack, and security sources said he was mentally ill and had also attacked a policeman. They said the stabbing had no connection to a bombing earlier this week that killed a French tourist nearby.
■UNITED STATES
Good Samaritan not fined
The Colorado State Patrol has withdrawn the US$22 jaywalking ticket issued to a good Samaritan who was seriously injured by a pickup after he pushed three people out of its path. Bus driver Jim Moffett of Denver and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit on Feb. 20. Moffett, 58, suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He remained hospitalized in serious condition on Friday.
■UNITED STATES
Employee sets self on fire
Police in a Chicago suburb say a Wal-Mart employee has died after setting himself on fire outside the store where he worked. Police watch commander Randy Sater said 58-year-old Larry Graziano set himself ablaze late on Thursday outside the store. It was not immediately clear how he caught on fire, but Sater said lighter fluid was involved. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said Graziano was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead early on Friday. Sater said Graziano told police he “couldn’t take it anymore.” Police say bystanders tried to help, but Graziano fought them off. Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman says Graziano had been with the company for seven years and that he had no reported personnel issues.
■UNITED STATES
‘Superman’ auctioned off
Superman fans were able to bid for the first comic to show the red caped hero on Friday — only not at the US$0.10 price they would have paid back in 1938. Bids quickly reached US$200,200 when the rare and unrestored copy of the first issue of Action Comics began selling on Internet site Comic Connect. Bidding remains open for another two weeks, until March 13. The book’s cover shows Superman, in his familiar blue suit emblazoned with a red “S” and topped with a cape, hurling a green car past terrified onlookers. “Some books seem to go in and out of fashion. Action Comics Number One will never be one of those books,” the auctioneers said.
■UNITED STATES
Soldier convicted of murder
An Army officer who shot and killed an Iraqi detainee during an interrogation was convicted of murder on Friday night by a military jury. First Lieutenant Michael Behenna avoided conviction on the more serious charge of premeditated murder in the death of the detainee he took aside for questioning in May. A military panel of seven officers at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, also found him guilty of assault but acquitted him of making a false statement. Behenna has testified that he was trying to defend himself when he shot Ali Mansour Mohammed and that the detainee reached for his gun in a secluded railroad culvert near Beiji, Iraq. Behenna said he hadn’t intended to kill him.
■PERU
Ancient cranium unearthed
The 10-million-year-old fossil cranium of a large, toothed seabird was found in southern Ica region, a spokesman for the Museum of Natural History said on Friday. “The skull of the giant bird with teeth, measuring 40cm” was found a few months ago by paleontologist Mario Urbina in a rock strata, said Rodolfo Salas, adding that it is 10 million years old. The fossil is of the prehistoric seabird Pelagornithidae, which had wing spans of up to 6m and a large bill with tooth-like projections. It lived between the mid-Paleocene and Pliocene periods 60 million to 3 million years ago.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
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
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