■PAKISTAN
Mentally ill woman freed
The High Court has ordered the release of a mentally ill women accused of blasphemy who has been held without trial for 14 years, a court official and her lawyer said on Thursday. Police arrested Zaibun Nisa, now 55, in 1996 outside Islamabad after a Muslim cleric registered a complaint about the desecration of a copy of the Koran. She has been held in the prison section of a mental hospital in Lahore ever since because no one pursued her case. Nisa will be put in a shelter for homeless people until her family is found, her lawyer said. Human rights activists have long called for the repeal of the blasphemy law, which they say discriminates against non-Muslim religious minorities and is also used to settle personal scores.
■THAILAND
Conductor’s visa canceled
The government has cancelled the visa of Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev, who was accused of child molestation earlier this month. Pletnev, who owns a home in Pattaya, now faces deportation even if charges against him are dropped. “The Thai immigration bureau has blacklisted [Pletnev] on the grounds that his behavior is detrimental to Thailand,” Major General Pansak Kasamsan said. Pletnev has been accused of raping a 14-year-old and could serve up to 20 years in jail. He has denied the charges and is out on bail.
■THAILAND
Culture chief wants letters
Facebook and Twitter are being blamed for students’ poor language skills — and the Culture Ministry is suggesting a return to the bygone tradition of writing letters. A survey by the ministry found that four out of 10 youths think “proper Thai” should only be used at formal occasions. Roughly a third of are not concerned about the misspellings, abbreviations and grammatical mistakes that are common in text messaging and social media conversations. “We must preserve our national language. If nobody sees its importance, then we’re doomed,” Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombut said on Thursday, while announcing the results of the nationwide survey, which polled 6,500 youths over the age of 13.
■SOUTH KOREA
Matchmaking firms eyed
The government will set up a task force to reform the international matchmaking business following the fatal stabbing of a Vietnamese woman by her mentally ill husband, officials said yesterday. The task force will be manned by officials from the ministries of justice, gender equality, culture and foreign affairs. It will discuss measures ranging from changing how international marriage brokerage businesses are run to helping foreign spouses settle in the country. Thach Thi Hoang Ngoc, 20, was beaten and stabbed to death by her 47-year-old husband on July 8, eight days after she arrived in Busan. He had been treated 57 times for schizophrenia since July 2005, police said. Ngoc’s family will receive 30 million won (US$25,000) in compensation, newspaper reports said.
■AUSTRALIA
Bloom marries model Kerr
Actor Orlando Bloom and model Miranda Kerr have married, her employer said yesterday. Upscale department store David Jones, which employs the 27-year-old Kerr as a fashion ambassador, said she will not attend a Spring season launch on Aug. 3 because she was honeymooning with the 33-year-old British star of Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. The statement did not say where or when they had married.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Inequalities still rising
Inequalities in early deaths between different parts of Britain have nearly surpassed those seen shortly before the economic crash of 1929 and the ensuing depression, a new study said yesterday. “Inequalities continued to rise steadily during the first decade of the 21st century ... and could become worse,” said the study, published in the British Medical Journal’s online edition. The study said the divide had “persisted over many years and recent government efforts to reduce them have not had any great impact as yet.” The study found that the poorest people were 1.6 times more likely to die prematurely than the most affluent people in 1990-1991.
■France
Army acts against al-Qaeda
The government said yesterday it had taken part in a military operation against al-Qaeda’s north African wing with Mauritanian troops after receiving no signs of life of one of its citizens held by the group. “The terrorist group targeted by the Mauritanian army is the one that executed a British hostage a year ago and has refused to give a proof of life or engage in negotiations to release our compatriot Michel Germaneau,” a statement from the Ministry of Defense said. Germaneau was taken hostage in April and a deadline set by the Islamic group for killing the 78-year-old expires next week.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Queen takes back invitation
Buckingham Palace has revoked a party invitation to far-right leader Nick Griffin, saying he had politicized the event. Griffin leads the British National Party, a far-right, anti-immigrant group. Because he was elected to the European Parliament last year, Griffin is automatically eligible to attend one of the three annual garden parties held at Buckingham Palace. The prospect of Griffin meeting the queen over cucumber sandwiches outraged many Britons, who called on the monarch to revoke the invite. The palace says Griffin’s invitation was canceled because he tried to “blatantly politicize” his attendance by boasting about it in the media.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Stiffer penalties endorsed
Conservationists are pressing for tougher laws to combat wildlife crime on Scottish grouse moors after a rise in poisoning cases against birds of prey such as golden eagles and red kites last year. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland said ministers should make grouse moor owners legally responsible for attacks on birds of prey on their estates because existing laws and voluntary codes had failed. The conservation charity said the latest official figures showed there were 46 proven poisoning incidents targeting birds of prey last year, the most in two decades. Some gamekeepers target birds of prey because they eat game birds kept for commercial and private shooting.
■Kenya
Guards defect to Shabab
Somali officials acknowledged on Thursday that members of the presidential guard had defected to the Shabab, the radical Islamist insurgent group that claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in Uganda that killed more than 70 people watching the final game of the World Cup. The defection of some of the president’s best-trained men is the latest setback for the country’s beleaguered transitional government, which has lost important pieces of territory in the past few days. Insurgents are now 274m — a rifle shot away — from the presidential palace.
■SURINAME
Former dictator elected
A former dictator and convicted drug trafficker who has been elected president of Suriname has promised not to interfere in his trial for allegedly murdering opponents during his military rule. Desi Bouterse, a one-time pariah who has made a remarkable political comeback, said he would respect democratic norms and judicial independence. Parliament elected him president earlier this week after months of negotiations. Bouterse’s coalition, called the Mega Combination, needed a small party’s backing to clinch his return to power. Bouterse seized power in 1980 soon after independence from the Netherlands. He was accused of human rights violations, notably the December 1982 massacre of 15 politicians, journalists and other regime critics.
■UNITED STATES
Crane rigger acquitted
The lone person criminally charged in a construction crane collapse in Manhattan that killed seven people was acquitted on Thursday after challenging the conclusion prosecutors, federal regulators and city officials had all reached about what caused the accident. Crane rigger William Rapetti’s acquittal shifts the debate over responsibility for the March 2008 collapse into civil court, where some of the roster of lawsuits against Rapetti and others are scheduled to start going to trial next month. His criminal trial — which offered competing accounts of bad crane parts and poor judgment — is likely to help shape the civil cases, attorneys said. A red-eyed Rapetti hugged his sobbing wife, Audrey, after Manhattan State Supreme Court Judge Roger Hayes cleared him and his company of manslaughter and other charges that could have sent him to prison for up to 15 years.
■MEXICO
Eight die in gun battle
Eight suspected drug gang gunmen died in a battle with Mexican soldiers in the remote mountains of northern Chihuahua State, the federal Public Safety Department said on Thursday. The department cited an internal army report saying the clash occurred near the rural town of Madera, about 230km south of the US border. The gunmen apparently opened fire on an army patrol, but the Defense Department did not offer any information on the attack. The area is frequently used by gangs to produce and traffic drugs.
■UNITED STATES
Thief steals wrong iPhone
A man accused of swiping an Apple iPhone out of a woman’s hand in San Francisco may have been shocked when police found him only nine minutes later. It turns out the phone had been tracking his every move. The iPhone was being used to test a new, real-time GPS tracking application and the woman holding it was an intern for the software’s maker, Mountain View-based Covia Labs. Covia chief executive David Kahn had sent the intern into the street to demonstrate the software. Police said Horatio Toure snatched it and sped away on a bicycle.
■UNITED STATES
Family sues to void marriage
The family of a southeast Texas firefighter killed in a July 4 blaze is suing to void his marriage to his transgender widow. The family of Thomas Araguz III wants to prevent his widow, Nikki Araguz, from collecting any of his death benefits because she was born a man and Texas doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, but the widow said on Thursday her marriage was not a fraud. The Wharton Volunteer Fire Department captain died while fighting a blaze at an egg farm southwest of Houston.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
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