Fri, Aug 21, 2009 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■NEW ZEALAND

  ‘Lord of the Ring’ succeeds

  A man who promised his wife he would find his wedding ring after it fell into the capital’s murky harbor has been successful, 16 months later. Ecologist Aleki Taumoepeau was checking Wellington harbor for invasive plant species in March last year when the ring went into 3m of water. “It flew off into the air and everyone on the boat was looking at it and said it was like a scene from ‘Lord of the Rings’ in slow motion,” Rachel Taumoepeau was quoted as saying in Thursday’s Dominion Post newspaper. He tossed an anchor overboard to mark the spot and pledged to Rachel, his wife of three months, that he would find it. She offered to buy a replacement. “I just said ‘No, I’ll find it,’” he said. An initial search three months after the loss failed, but Taumoepeau was determined. He returned again recently for another dive, risking chill midwinter temperatures. He spotted the anchor — with the ring lying just inches away. Friends have taken to calling Taumoepeau “Lord of the Ring.”

  ■HONG KONG

  Cop admits to raping girls

  A detective yesterday admitted raping a teenager and molesting three other teens and young women in the identity parade room of a police station. Leung Lai-chung, 29, used the police computer to contact female victims of crimes and then invited them on false pretenses to the police station, the High Court heard. He called the four victims into the city’s Mongkok police station over a 10-day period in November, raping a 19-year-old woman who had reported a lost purse and sexually assaulting the three others, ages 16 to 21.

  ■THAILAND

  Monkeys getting hernias

  The town of Lopburi has coughed up a special budget to perform hernia operations on its resident monkey population, who have been harming themselves in their greedy pursuit of handouts, veterinarians said on Wednesday. More than 100 macaque monkeys have already undergone surgery on their hernias, but hundreds more are in need of the operation among the town’s 1,700-strong simian colony, said Juthana Supanam, a volunteer veterinarian. The semi-wild monkeys are the main tourist attraction for Lopburi, 100km north of Bangkok. “Macaques like to live up high in tree branches, and here they are constantly jumping down to the ground to grab food from tourists,” she said.

  ■HONG KONG

  Local expats richest

  Hong Kong’s expatriates are the wealthiest in Asia, with more than one in four earning more than US$250,000 a year, a survey published yesterday showed. Thirty-nine percent of expatriates in the city of 7 million earn more than US$200,000, while 27 percent earn more than US$250,000, compared with 16 percent of expats globally. Forty-eight percent of expatriates have monthly disposable income of more than US$4,000 and 89 percent said they had more disposable income than in their home countries.

  ■AUSTRALIA

  Parliament passes green bill

  Parliament passed a law yesterday requiring that 20 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources such as the sun and wind by 2020, matching European standards and up from about 8 percent now. The law would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and provide enough clean electricity to power the households of all 21 million residents.

  ■UNITED KINGDOM

  Two arrested in gem heist

  London police have arrested two men in connection with what is thought to be the UK’s biggest jewelry heist, a spokesman said late on Wednesday. Two gun-toting and smartly dressed men walked into an exclusive Graff store in central London earlier this month and stole jewelry worth £40 million (US$65 million). The Metropolitan Police did not say whether the pair arrested on Wednesday were the same two captured on video pulling off the raid.

  ■GERMANY

  Convert relieved at arrest

  The youngest member of an alleged radical Islamic terrorist cell whose plot to attack US targets in Germany was foiled by authorities testified on Wednesday he would not repeat his actions. Daniel Schneider, a 23-year-old German convert to Islam, told the court he was relieved to have been arrested along with three other alleged cell members in 2007 and said that he now believes such an attack would be harmful to Islam. The four are suspected of operating as a German cell of the radical Islamic Jihad Union.

  ■GERMANY

  Three arrested over art scam

  Police have confiscated hundreds of bronze and plaster statues alleged to be the works of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti and arrested an art dealer and two others on suspicion of selling the fakes across the globe. The trio face charges of collaborating since 2004 to offer and sell the forged artworks, complete with certificates of authentication, for tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors said a 61-year-old man posed as a count offering the statues to potential buyers. His 59-year-old colleague then posed as a friend of Giacometti’s brother, saying he had found the statues in a secret cache after the artist died in 1966. Giacometti is probably best known for his skeletal and elongated human figures depicted on the current 100-Swiss franc bank note along with a portrait of the artist. One piece sold earlier this year for US$7.7 million.

  ■ISRAEL

  Dudu dies in prison

  Entertainer Dudu Topaz — whose turbulent struggle to deal with his waning stardom enthralled the country — died yesterday after apparently hanging himself in the shower of his jail cell, prison officials said. He was 62. Topaz, one of Israel’s most famous television stars, had been in jail for several months since the start of his trial for allegedly hiring thugs to assault top media executives he blamed for keeping him off the air. Topaz, a variety show star who earned himself the moniker “the ratings king,” was a household name in Israel. But in recent years, his career has been in a downward spiral — in part due to the dominance of reality shows on prime time TV, a plight he apparently blamed on network executives.

  ■GERMANY

  Pensioner kills three

  A pensioner who went on a shooting rampage that left three people dead did so in order to teach people “not to mess” with him or his family, police said on Wednesday. The 71-year-old on Tuesday shot dead two lawyers, 38 and 70, and a surveyor, 48, who had come to discuss the sale of a house in the town of Schwalmtal as part of a divorce settlement between the gunman’s daughter and her ex-husband. “I think [the victim] was meant to be me,” 44-year-old Hubert K., the pensioner’s former son-in-law, told rolling news channel NTV. The pensioner stuck his tongue out at his wife’s ex-husband and his grandson as he was whisked away by police, news reports said.

  ■UNITED STATES

  No regrets: Yettaw

  American John Yettaw said on Wednesday he had no regrets about taking a secret swim to the home of Myanmar’s detained democracy leader — a decision that landed them both in prison — and indicated that he still believed his bizarre visit somehow saved her from being assassinated. “If I had to do it again, I would do it a hundred times, a hundred times, to save her life,” an exhausted-looking Yettaw said of Aung San Suu Kyi in an interview after arriving in the US on Wednesday. He added: “That they locked her up, it just breaks my heart.” Yettaw, 53, has testified that he swam to the Nobel Laureate’s house in May to warn her that he had a “vision” that she would be assassinated.

  ■BRAZIL

  Silva may run for president

  Former environment minister Marina Silva, a rainforest champion, gave a strong signal on Wednesday of her intention to run for president when she resigned from the ruling party and berated the nation’s leaders for pursuing material wealth at the expense of the natural world. Speculation has been growing for weeks that Silva, who resigned from the government in May after a dispute over the development of the Amazon region, would defect to the Green party in order to contest the presidential elections next year. Speaking at a press conference in Brasilia, Silva, who has been a Workers’ party member for more than 30 years, said politicians had failed to give sufficient attention to the environment.

  ■BRAZIL

  Priest accused of abuse

  An Italian priest who ran an award-winning shelter for homeless children in Brazil has been charged with sexually abusing boys for years and allowing visiting foreigners to exploit the children, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Father Clodoveo Piazza, now working as a missionary in Mozambique, was charged along with another former director of the nonprofit group Fraternal Help Organization, a private group based in Salvador. Lidivaldo Britto, chief prosecutor for Bahia state in Brazil, said at least 10 boys were sexually abused over several years while Piazza ran the group. Roman Catholic Church officials in Brazil confirmed that Piazza was a priest but declined to comment on the case.

  ■UNITED STATES

  Burglar targets cop station

  A brazen burglar picked the wrong place to target: a police station. Police Chief Steve Scibelli said it was pretty embarrassing to have a thief hit his downtown station last week, stealing a radio, two stun guns and a Crown Victoria patrol car. The one saving grace was that police made a quick arrest. “I’m so upset about it, I can’t even find any humor in it,” Scibelli told the Register-Guard newspaper. “It’s pretty embarrassing.” Robert Lloyd Finder, 26, remained in the Coos County Jail on Wednesday, facing multiple charges.

  ■ARGENTINA

  Man gets 20 years for fire

  A music promoter was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday after being found responsible for a 2004 fire that swept through his crowded discotheque, killing 194 people. Omar Chaban, 57, received the heaviest sentence for arson, but lesser prison terms were handed out to four other people implicated in the fire, which broke out when spectators ignited fireworks during a packed concert. Some 3,000 fans had squeezed into Cromagnon Republic nightclub on December 30, 2004, for a performance of the rock group Callejeros, but many were trapped inside because the the main exit doors had been locked.
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