PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Hundreds rescued from ship
About 100 people are feared trapped inside a ferry that sank in rough weather on Thursday off the country’s northeast coast with about 350 people on board, a rescue official said yesterday. Rescuers plucked 246 people from the sea after the MV Rabaul Queen was hit by three large waves and quickly sank, Rony Naigu, a rescue official from the maritime safety authority, said yesterday. He said about 100 people were thought to have been trapped inside. Naigu, who spent Thursday at the scene, said survivors told how the ferry rolled and sank in deep water after it was hit by waves.
JAPAN
Chinese skipper sentenced
The skipper of a Chinese fishing boat, arrested and tried in Nagasaki for operating illegally in Japanese waters, has been given a suspended six-month jail term, a local official said yesterday. Nagasaki District Court sentenced Zhong Jinyin (鍾進音), 39, to six months imprisonment, suspended for three years, and ordered him to pay a fine of ￥1 million (US$13,000) in the ruling given on Tuesday, the official said. Zhong paid the fine on the day of the ruling, the official said. It was not not immediately clear whether Zhong remained in Japan or returned to China. The fisherman was arrested on Dec. 20 near islands off southwest Japan.
INDIA
Train hits bulldozer, derails
A railway official said a train hit a bulldozer and derailed in Assam State, killing three passengers. S. Hajong said at least 16 people were injured when nine coaches of the train derailed after the crash at an unmanned crossing. The bulldozer got stuck while crossing the track, Hajong said yesterday. Local villagers and police pulled all the passengers from the derailed cars. The injured were taken to hospitals in nearby Gauhati, Assam’s capital.
NEW ZEALAND
Megaupload appeal fails
A court refused an appeal by the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be freed on bail yesterday, agreeing with prosecutors there was a risk he would attempt to flee before an extradition hearing. Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was returned to custody until Feb. 22 ahead of a hearing on an extradition application by the US. Prosecutors say Dotcom was the leader of a group that has netted US$175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization. Dotcom’s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he strenuously denies the charges and will fight extradition.
PHILIPPINES
Jolo battle continues
Troops battled Muslim extremists on a remote southern island yesterday where a day earlier three of Southeast Asia’s top terror suspects were killed in a US-backed air strike, the army said. Soldiers who approached the bombed area on the outskirts of a small village on Jolo island after the raid faced dogged resistance from surviving militants, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang said. “There is intermittent fire, the area is not yet secured,” Cabangbang told GMA television in a telephone interview. The troops had moved into the scene of the strike in an effort to retrieve the bodies of the three senior militants who were killed, as well as to take on the others who survived Thursday’s aerial assault.
UNITED STATES
Investigation nears end
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Department of Justice is preparing to close investigations into the deaths of two detainees while in CIA custody. It would mark the final chapter in a controversial review by the administration of President Barack Obama into treatment of terrorism suspects during the administration of former US president George W. Bush. Federal prosecutor John Durham has been looking at the deaths of Gul Rahman and Manadel al-Jamadi. Rahman died after being shackled to a concrete wall in a secret CIA prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, while al-Jamadi died in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
CANADA
Child porn charges laid
Sixty people in Ontario province have been charged with child pornography offenses involving at least 22 boys and girls, police said on Thursday. The accused, who include three minors, appeared to be acting alone mostly through Internet “game and social networking sites,” and not as part of an organized child pornography ring, police said. The accused face a total of 213 charges for sexual assault, child luring, making child pornography, possession and distribution of child pornography and accessing the illicit videos.
UNITED STATES
Police link murder cases
A former Marine charged with killing four homeless men in Southern California has been linked to the stabbing deaths of a woman and her son, Anaheim police said on Thursday. Investigators determined there is an association between the former Marine, Itzcoatl Ocampo, and Eder Herrera, who is charged in the deaths of his mother and his brother, and remains in custody, police Lieutenant Julian Harvey said. Raquel Estrada and her son, Juan Herrera, were killed in October in Yorba Linda, less than 3.2km from Ocampo’s home. Eder Herrera, 24, is charged with stabbing his mother and brother to death before fleeing to a friend’s house. He was arrested the next day as he drove from the house, where he claimed he spent the night. Detectives said on Wednesday that they saw similarities in the cases of the Yorba Linda deaths and the stabbings of four homeless men in December and last month.
UNITED STATES
Fake Facebook stock sold
An Oshkosh, Wisconsin, woman has been charged with theft over accusations she tried to profit from Facebook’s much-anticipated plans to go public by selling fake stock in the social media giant. In a criminal complaint on Thursday, prosecutors said Marianne Oleson told acquaintances she obtained US$1 million in stock because her daughter was an acquaintance of Facebook’s founder and persuaded several people to buy fictitious Facebook stock over a four-month period. The woman was charged with 31 counts of theft, forgery and making misleading statements. Facebook unveiled plans on Wednesday for the biggest-ever Internet initial public offering.
UNITED STATES
Military trial delayed
The military trial of a former army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at a Texas military base will be postponed until June 12, a judge ruled on Thursday. Major Nidal Hasan, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted, is accused of opening fire at the Fort Hood army base on Nov. 5, 2009, in an attack that killed 12 soldiers and a civilian, and wounded 32 others. His trial was set for March 5, but defense attorneys said they needed more time.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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