■INDONESIA
Failed candidates die
A candidate who failed to win a seat in fiercely contested parliamentary elections committed suicide and at least two others died from heart attacks, police and local news reports said on Wednesday. Thousands of candidates invested their life savings — in some cases their homes — to campaign in the elections. The posts pay around US$1,200 compared with the average monthly wage of less than US$200.
■AUSTRALIA
Plane misses beachgoers
Beachgoers had a lucky escape on Thursday when a small plane crash-landed in the sand then flipped over in the sea. Phil Walters and his co-pilot were flying the single-propeller Piper Cub towing an advertising banner above the tourist town of Caloundra in northeastern Queensland state when the engine stalled. Witnesses said the plane hit the sand, flipped and came down in the shallows. The two pilots walked away with scratches and bruises, after initially shocked beachgoers helped them escape the upside-down plane.
■HONG KONG
Poll condemns Tiananmen
A student poll has found China should be held accountable for its military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananamen Square in 1989 in which hundreds were killed. The University of Hong Kong held a three-day campus-wide referendum on whether China should “rectify” its verdict on the June 4 protests. Only 19 percent of 10,000 undergraduates cast votes in the poll, but 93 percent of them supported the move, the student union said.
■FIJI
Vice president named
Fiji’s self-appointed rulers drew another military ally into their ranks yesterday with the appointment of Epili Nailatikau as vice president. Nailatikau, a former army commander who is credited with guiding interim prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama through his military career, was handpicked by President Josefa Iloilo who last week declared himself head of state. The political shakeup follows a court ruling last week that Bainimarama’s military-led government was illegal. Iloilo sacked the judiciary and abandoned the Constitution. He reappointed Bainimarama as prime minister and declared that his decrees could not be challenged in court.
■HONG KONG
Man awaits Prada verdict
The wealthy German head of a mortgage corporation was yesterday awaiting a verdict after standing trial accused of stealing a US$360 Prada bag from a Hong Kong hotel bar. Timo Woskowiak, 43, from Berlin, Asia-Pacific head of Hypo Real Estate, was arrested in November after allegedly taking the bag, which had been left at the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel where he was staying. Police found the bag in his room and arrested him six days later, the South China Morning Post reported. Woskowiak denied a charge of theft, saying he planned to return the bag to the Prada store.
■AFGHANISTAN
Earthquakes kill 22
Two earthquakes, magnitudes 5.5 and 5.1, killed at least 22 people and destroyed several hundred homes when they struck two hours apart in the east, local authorities said yesterday. The quakes hit overnight the district of Khogyani in Nangarhar Province. “Four villages were seriously damaged by the two earthquakes. Twenty-two people have been killed and 30 injured. More than 200 homes have been destroyed,” the district chief said.
■GERMANY
Guide to safe shaving
Men can avoid nicks and cuts from their razors by shaving before breakfast, said a German-language skin care Web site run by several organizations active in promoting cosmetics and healthcare. As the stomach starts to digest, the heart rate and blood flow increases. As there is more blood flowing through the arteries beneath the skin on the face and neck, there is a greater danger of being cut after eating. In addition, facial hair should be well moistened before shaving. The hair swells almost like a sponge swells when it is moistened and it is easier to cut, the Web site said.
■ZIMBABWE
Bus accident kills 29
Twenty-nine people died and at least 44 were injured in a bus accident on Thursday, media reported. The accident took place when a tire of the bus burst, forcing the vehicle off the Harare-Masvingo road, police spokesman Andrew Phiri said. Air Force helicopters airlifted the injured to Harare. The accident took place on the same road on which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife Susan died last month in a car crash. Tsvangirai survived with head and neck injuries.
■SWEDEN
Hundreds escape fire
More than 200 people were safely evacuated overnight after fire broke out on board a vessel used as sleeping quarters, police said yesterday. There were no reports of injuries among the 238 people ordered to leave the Queen of Scandinavia passenger ferry, docked at the harbor at Oskarshamn. The ferry is used as lodgings for hundreds of workers hired to conduct maintenance work at the nuclear plant at Oskarshamn. Police and emergency services had no immediate explanation as to what caused the fire.
■UNITED KINGDOM
MP ‘threatened by police’
An opposition member of parliament said on Thursday that he was threatened with life behind bars by police who arrested him last year over suspected leaks of government information. His comments, made to BBC Television, came as the government’s case against him collapsed and as it grapples with a separate scandal over an adviser caught proposing a campaign of slurs against opposition politicians. Earlier on Thursday, the director of public prosecutions said the leaked information was not damaging enough for charges to be brought against Conservative Party immigration spokesman Damian Green, or against the Home Office civil servant behind the leaks. Green was arrested in November at his home in Kent by London police who said they were acting on a complaint from the government department charged with enforcing rules governing the conduct of all government employees and ministers.
■FRANCE
Deleted pipe causes hype
Activists, defenders of the arts and even a government minister were up in arms over a Paris ad campaign they call too politically correct. The Paris public transportation authority decided to doctor a photo of French actor and director Jacques Tati, removing an iconic pipe from his lips for a poster advertising a Tati film festival. They deemed the touch-up necessary to conform with a law prohibiting the promotion of tobacco products. The altered image substitutes a yellow pinwheel for the pipe. “It’s absurd,” said Serge Toubiana, director of the Cinematheque Francaise, which is hosting the festival. “It’s part of the character,” he said, “part of the legend.”
■CANADA
Man jumps from aircraft
A passenger aboard a charter flight forced open the aircraft’s door and leapt to his death, police said on Thursday. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant Harold Trupish said the incident took place while the aircraft was at 7,000m on Wednesday night during a flight to Cambridge Bay in western Nunavut. At the time, the Adlair Aviation King Air 200 twin-engined turboprop was about 180km from the Cambridge Bay airport. Trupish said the aircraft’s pilots reported the 20-year-old passenger had become unruly and that they were unable to prevent him from jumping. Police are continuing to search for the body of the man, whose name not been released. No one else was injured.
■GERMANY
US soldier gets life in jail
A US Army soldier convicted of murder in the 2007 killings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqis was on Thursday sentenced to life in prison. Master Sergeant John Hatley, 40, will also have his rank reduced to private, forfeit all pay and receive a dishonorable discharge, a jury of eight Army officers and noncommissioned officers decided.
■UNITED STATES
Three die in shooting
A hospital worker killed his boss and another manager at the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, and then turned the gun on himself, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. Another man was wounded in the shooting, which occurred at the Atlantic Avenue hospital around noon on Thursday. The gunman was identified as Mario Ramirez, 50, who had been a pharmacy technician at the hospital, a police spokeswoman said. The LA Times reported that friends and co-workers of the shooter, who described Ramirez as a congenial man with a wife and children, said he had become aware of pending layoffs.
■BRAZIL
Wild monkeys targeted
Health officials in the central city of Goiania plan to perform vasectomies on 25 wild, urban-dwelling monkeys to keep their population in check and control disease. They’re looking to catch male Capuchin monkeys in three city parks, each of which has about eight female mates. The animals will be netted, snipped and released.
■UNITED STATES
Boy accused of robbing bank
A 13-year-old boy was accused on Tuesday of robbing a bank in Peoria, Illinois. Police say he was caught red-handed a block away. The unidentified boy was charged with felony armed robbery in juvenile court, accused of threatening a teller with a gun and demanding cash.
■UNITED STATES
Teen admits killing man
A 16-year-old admitted on Thursday that he was the sniper who gunned down a neighbor outside the victim’s home in January, but offered no explanation for the crime. Shawn Rhines pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Onondaga County Court for killing 47-year-old Casimir Snyder. Rhines and a friend, Ja-Le Johnson, told investigators they would often hang out in the attic of the house where Johnson’s brother lived and shoot target practice with rifles. Rhines admitted under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle that he intentionally shot at Snyder. “They didn’t have any kind of beef with Mr Snyder. He just happened to walk out of his house at the same time Rhines happened to pull the trigger,” McGunnigle said.
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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