■HONG KONG
Tsang angers lawmakers
A group of lawmakers walked out of a legislature session on Thursday after Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) said many people thought China had made great progress since the 1989 crackdown on democracy. Tsang said he understood that Hong Kong people would have their own views and feelings on the anniversary of the June 4 incident. “After 20 years the country has seen remarkable development in various aspects and I believe that Hong Kong will formulate an objective view of the development of the nation,” he said, adding that his views represented those of Hong Kongers in general. That comment prompted more than 20 pro-democracy legislators to walk out. Democratic Party Deputy Chairwoman Emily Lau (劉慧卿) said the group felt “very offended and angered … We are asking him to retract the statement and apologize. He has made a big mistake, this is a really raw nerve,” she said. “We don’t think many Hong Kong people feel that way. Yes, there is economic development, but it doesn’t mean you can forget about the massacre.” Tsang later added that he had misspoken when he said his views were those of Hong Kong people, and apologized for any misunderstanding.
■PHILIPPINES
Ex-governor survives attack
Former Maguindanao Province governor Andal Ampatuan survived a roadside bomb attack that killed one of his security escorts yesterday and wounded two others, the military and police said. An army spokesman blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but the rebels denied involvement. Three homemade bombs fashioned from mortar shells exploded seconds apart as Ampatuan’s convoy made its way to his farm in Shariff Aguak township, a military spokesman said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Airline to help lonely hearts
Air New Zealand said yesterday it would offer a lonely-hearts trip for US singles in what it is billing as the world’s first matchmaking flight. Singles are being offered the chance to fly from Los Angeles in October to “get amongst it” at the “Great Matchmaking Ball” in Auckland. Passengers will attend a pre-flight gate party at Los Angeles Airport, and themed food, drink, entertainment and games will be offered during the flight, airline spokesman Steve Bayliss said.
■BANGLADESH
Sexual harassment banned
The High Court moved on Thursday to plug a gaping hole in the country’s laws by introducing a first-ever ban on sexual harassment, an official said. The decision was immediately hailed by activists as a major step forward for the protection of women. Deputy Attorney-General Rajik Al Jalil said the new guidelines covered verbal abuse and physical attacks, including suggestive text messages. He said the ban was an interim measure until new legislation could be passed in parliament. No punishment had been finalized and each offence would be considered on a case-by-case basis, he said.
■INDIA
Gandhi ordered released
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that charges be dropped against the grandson of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi for inciting communal hatred during a campaign event in Uttar Pradesh. Varun Gandhi, a candidate of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has been on parole since April after his arrest under the National Security Act by the state government.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Village finds buyer
The leafy English village of Linkenholt with its 21 cottages and a manor house has found a buyer. Real estate agent Tim Sherston said on Thursday that the village, which had a £23 million (US$35 million) asking price and was for sale as a whole, is off the market. But he could not say who the buyer was nor how much was paid because of a confidentiality agreement. Linkenholt is about 110km west of London. The village is made up of 21 cottages, a manor house, plus a cricket pitch and accompanying pavilion. There are also 600 hectares of farmland and 170 hectares of woods. The only part of the village that was not for sale was St Peter’s Church.
■BOSNIA
Croatian to be extradited
The state court said on Wednesday that it would set a legal precedent and extradite to Croatia a parliamentary deputy who fled to the country shortly before being sentenced to jail for war crimes against Serbs. Branimir Glavas is the first senior Croatian official to be convicted of war crimes during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He also holds local citizenship. The two countries do not have an extradition agreement. A court spokeswoman said Glavas would be kept in detention for up to 40 days pending extradition. His lawyer Nikica Grzic said Glavas would appeal against the decision.
■TURKEY
Loving worker reinstated
A court has ordered an employer to reinstate a woman who was fired after she kissed her boyfriend at work, ruling it was just a stolen kiss and that no customers saw it, the state-run Anatolian said on Wednesday. The woman was confronted by her boss after she was caught kissing on tape on the business’s closed circuit TV, Anatolian said. The business in the capital was not identified.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Expense scandal claims two
The growing scandal over the misuse of parliamentary expenses claimed its first victims on Thursday when a former Labour Party minister was suspended and a top Conservative lost his job as adviser to party leader David Cameron. Elliot Morley, a former agriculture minister under former prime minister Tony Blair, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party after it was revealed that he continued to claim expenses on a mortgage on a second home that had long been paid off.
■IRAN
Warship to combat pirates
State TV says the country will send two warships to join an international flotilla protecting cargo ships from pirates off the Somali coast. Thursday’s report says the ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaei, made the commitment in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The report appeared on the Web site of Press TV. In the letter sent on Wednesday, Khazaei said the warships would leave for the Gulf of Aden within the next two days for a five-month assignment. The ships will join vessels from the US, Denmark, Italy, Russia, China and other countries.
■GERMANY
Cash flies out of convertible
A man lost 23,000 euros (US$31,180) to the wind when an envelope with the money he had stuck in the passenger seat pocket of his convertible blew away during a test drive in northern Germany. The cash — in 500, 200s and 100 euro notes — fluttered across the motorway in the midst of speeding traffic near the city of Hanover, police said.
■UNITED STATES
Court sentences pilot dad
A pilot who landed his four-seat airplane on an Illinois golf course so his 14-year-old son wouldn’t be late for a tennis lesson has been sentenced to 18 months of court supervision. Lake Villa resident Robert Kadera pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Lake County Associate Judge Charles Johnson also ordered the 66-year-old to pay a US$500 fine and perform 60 hours of community service.
■BRAZIL
Alleged killer’s trial starts
A man accused of murdering and chopping up his British girlfriend in July last year went on trial on Thursday. Mohammed D’Ali Carvalho dos Santos, 21, was led into the courtroom in the city of Goiania in handcuffs and escorted by six police officers. He is charged with murdering Cara Marie Burke, 17, whose body parts were found in a suitcase and a bag in rivers near the apartment they shared. The accusation states that Santos confessed to stabbing Burke to death on July 26 when she threatened to reveal his drug addiction to family and police. He then allegedly took a photo of her corpse with his cellphone before heading out to a party.
■UNITED STATES
Obama dog beanie babied
The presidential popularity of the Obamas’ new puppy Bo is complete. The company that makes Beanie Babies has released a shaggy black and white version of the dog named “Bo” — and he’s selling fast. The company has previously run into trouble taking inspiration from the Obama family. The company released two dolls resembling the Obama children as part of its Ty Girlz collection but retired the names “Marvelous Malia” and “Sweet Sasha” after Michelle Obama said using her daughters’ names was inappropriate.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez denies vulgarity
President Hugo Chavez used a televised speech to rebut a Guardian report earlier this week that some Venezuelans had been offended by the name of his mobile phone, which is derived from a slang word for penis. The government-made subsidized telephone — at US$15, one of the world’s cheapest handsets — went on sale this week, the latest pro-poor initiative from Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution. In a televised address to ministers at Caracas’s Miraflores palace, Chavez distanced vergatario from verga, slang for penis. He cited the Spanish language reference dictionary, the Real Academia Espanola, which defined vergatario as an adjective signifying quality and value. The Guardian said the word denoted excellence but that some locals considered it vulgar. Part of the Real Academia’s definition — “adj. vulg. Ven” — acknowledges the connotation. Residents of Maracaibo are renowned for constructing swear words derived from verga.
■UNITED STATES
Park fires geyser urinator
Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live Web cam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser. Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined US$750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years. The second employee’s case is pending. The park’s dispatch center was called after someone watching a Web cam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4. The geyser was not erupting at the time.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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