■VANUATU
Big quake hits remote area
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the island nation yesterday, sparking a tsunami warning that was later canceled. The quake hit at 4:14am at a depth of 36km, 214km northwest of Luganville, the US Geological Survey said. In the six hours after the initial tremor, five aftershocks measuring between magnitude 5 and 6.4 shook the area. A spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Office said the office had not yet received any reports of major damage from remote northern Torba Province, which was closest to the quake’s center.
■SOUTH KOREA
Leftover embryos not alive
The Constitutional Court has ruled that human embryos left over from fertility treatment are not life forms and can be used for research or destroyed, a court spokesman said yesterday. The court’s ruling upheld an existing law allowing the use of leftover embryos for research. The law also allows fertility clinics to dispose of frozen embryos five years after fertilization treatment is completed. “The ruling means that human embryos that are in their early stage and are not implanted into a mother’s womb cannot be seen as human life forms,” spokesman Noh Hui-beom said. The ruling came after a group of 13 people, including pro-life activists filed a petition with the court against the bioethics law.
■CHINA
GOME boss files appeal
GOME founder Huang Guangyu (黃光裕) has appealed his 14-year jail sentence for bribery and insider trading, the Legal Daily reported yesterday. Huang was found guilt earlier this month of bribery, insider trading and illegal business dealings. Huang was fined 600 million yuan US$87.86 million) and had 200 million yuan worth of property confiscated, while his two firms, GOME and Pengrun, were fined 5 million yuan and 1.2 million yuan respectively for paying bribes. The paper said Huang believed the sentence and fines were too heavy, and further disputed the finding that one of his companies, Pengrun, had paid bribes.
■PAKISTAN
Suspect in US plot detained
Another man has been detained in connection with the main suspect in the Times Square attempted car bombing, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to comment on the record. The latest suspect to be questioned is a named Humbal Akhtar. Akhtar’s wife, Rahila, confirmed yesterday in a brief telephone conversation that her husband disappeared a few days ago. She declined to give more details. Intelligence officials have said around 11 people have been detained in the case nationwide.
■AUSTRALIA
Ban on Cat Stevens urged
Conservative Victoria state Parliamentarian Peter Kavanagh yesterday called for the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens to be denied a visa because he once supported a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie. Kavanagh said Yusuf Islam should not be issued a visa until he withdraws support for the 1989 edict issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for Rushdie’s alleged blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses. “Although Yusuf now denies supporting attempts to murder Salman Rushdie, he is on record at the time for stating that he wanted to see Mr. Rushdie himself burn, not just an effigy of him, and he would like to have reported Mr. Rushdie’s whereabouts to those who were trying to murder him,” Kavanagh said. The musician is on an international comeback tour that will take him to Melbourne next month.
■ISRAEL
Highway partially opened
The Israeli military partially opened a West Bank highway to Palestinian drivers yesterday to comply with a ruling of the country’s highest court. The road, known as Highway 443, is a major link between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and is heavily traveled by Israeli commuters. Much of its length runs through the West Bank, one of the territories Palestinians claim for a their hoped-for state and parts of it were paved on land expropriated from Palestinians. The Israeli military, which maintains overall control of the West Bank, banned Palestinian cars in 2002 after a string of Palestinian shooting attacks on the road killed Israeli motorists.
■SWEDEN
Robbers steal jewels
Armed men robbed a Stockholm auction house of more than 1 million euros (US$1.24 million) worth of jewelry in a daylight heist on Thursday, police and Bukowski auctioneers said. Around 50 people were inside the building in an upmarket Stockholm district when three armed masked men entered around midday. “They came out after a moment and ran into a parked car, a grey Skoda,” and fled, police said, adding that the car was later found abandoned.
■EGYPT
Men fed donkeys to lions
An Uzbekistan embassy official and three Egyptians are facing charges in Egypt after allegedly feeding donkey meat to pet lions, judicial officials said. The Uzbek, an embassy media adviser, was charged along with an Egyptian businessman and two guards who worked in two villas near the coastal city of Alexandria where eight lions were kept without permits, the officials said. The men were also accused of endangering public safety by keeping the lions and polluting the environment with donkey heads and remnants.
■ZIMBABWE
Gay activists free on bail
A Zimbabwe court freed two employees of a gay organization after six days in jail on allegations of possessing indecent material and displaying a placard seen as insulting to President Robert Mugabe, an outspoken critic of homosexuality. The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe organization said that the two employees were assaulted by police while in custody. Magistrate Munamate Mutevedzi on Thursday released the two on bail of US$200 each until a trial set for June 10, where they will face penalties of imprisonment or a fine. Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and most African countries.
■PERU
Bodies from ferry found
Five more bodies, including those of three children, were found by divers on Thursday in a sunken ferry in Peru’s Amazon River, bringing the death toll from the accident to 17, authorities said. More than 160 people survived Wednesday’s ferry sinking, which was apparently due to overcrowding, near Santa Rosa village close to the Colombian border. The five bodies were added to 12 people already found drowned, regional civil defense chief Robert Falcon told reporters. “We’re still searching for another 18 missing people,” Navy Rear-Admiral Rodolfo Reategui said. It was unclear how many passengers were aboard the ferry Camila after it left Iquitos on Tuesday, but witnesses said it made two stops to pick up additional passengers, animals and cargo, dangerously overloading the vessel.
■CANADA
Firefighters battle blaze
About 800 firefighters were dispatched on Thursday to combat more than a dozen forest fires raging north of Montreal, a provincial agency announced. Most went to the Haute-Mauricie region 400km north of the Quebec metropolis to douse a dozen of the blazes. Thick smoke swept over the Wemotaci native reservation, forcing more than 1,300 people to evacuate their homes overnight.
■UNITED STATES
Little nun stops thief
A thief turned out to be no match for a little nun with a commanding voice. Sister Lynn Rettinger didn’t even have to break out a ruler for a man who reached into an open car window and stole a wallet on Tuesday. She just needed the tone of voice she’s used for nearly 50 years in Catholic schools. After seeing a man swipe the wallet, the diminutive principal of Sacred Heart Elementary School went outside and firmly told him “You need to give me what you have.” The thief turned over the wallet, apologized and walked away.
■UNITED STATES
Kiss singer not charged
Prosecutors will not charge Kiss rocker Gene Simmons over an alleged attack on a couple at an upscale outdoor mall the district attorney’s office stated on Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence. The 60-year-old musician allegedly threatened Nathan Marlowe and his wife, Cynthia Manzo, at The Grove mall in Los Angeles last December. A civil lawsuit filed in December against Simmons is still pending. The couple are seeking more than US$25,000 in damages for claims of assault, battery and emotional distress, including damage to their sex life.
■MEXICO
McCartney broadcasts free
Paul McCartney is allowing his concert in Mexico City to be viewed for free on a giant movie screen. Culture Secretary Elena Zepeda says the screen was due to be set up last night at a plaza in the capital’s Chapultapec park. She says it’s the former Beatle’s gift to Mexico City residents. Zepeda says the plaza can hold 10,000 people. McCartney scheduled Mexico City performances on Thursday and last night as part of his “Up and Coming Tour.”
■GUATEMALA
Pacaya volcano erupts
Pacaya volcano erupted on Thursday, covering the capital with a cloud of black ash that closed the airport, forcing villagers to evacuate and reportedly killing one person. Vulcanologists measured plumes of ash reaching almost 1,500m above the volcano’s peak. Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said a local television journalist who had been reporting from the volcano died when it erupted and he was crushed by falling rocks.
■CANADA
Family billed for pet’s death
A car insurer has asked a family to pay for a broken bumper after their dog was struck by the vehicle and died, local media said on Thursday. The accident occurred in March while Jake, a 12-year-old yellow Labrador, was out for his daily walk around a quiet neighborhood in Aurora, Ontario. Kim Flemming let the dog out when she arrived home from work. Moments later, a man knocked on the door to say a car had run over Jake. “I got to the road and he was dying,” Flemming told the Toronto Star. “He died in my arms.” Two months later, the family received a bill in the mail for C$1,732.80 (US$1,648.95) from State Farm Insurance.
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
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
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