Israel has condemned a ”repulsive” vote by Britain’s main university lecturers’ union to boycott colleges and academics unless they publicly oppose government policy in the Palestinian territories. Education Minister Yuli Tamir said on Monday that the decision would only serve to undermine academic independence.
An earthquake measuring 6,0 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province on Tuesday, causing panic among residents but no reported casualties, meteorologists said. The temblor came just days after a powerful quake left more than 5 400 dead on the central Java island.
President Robert Mugabe’s government is heightening repression against Zimbabwe’s opposition and critics of the veteran leader’s long rule, analysts say. Last week, the government published proposed legislation that would give it the authority to monitor phones and mail — both conventional and electronic.
The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected a second appeal against the death sentence of a doomsday cult guru convicted over the deadly 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The decision brought Aum Supreme Truth founder Shoko Asahara closer to the gallows, more than 10 years after his sect stunned the nation.
Senior Zimbabwean opposition member Roy Bennett fears persecution from Zimbabwean state agents even while in South Africa waiting to appeal against his asylum rejection, he said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The former Movement for Democratic Change MP fled to South Africa in March after being implicated in an arms find in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
The South African cricket team could win a massive -million (about R32,4-million) in an International Twenty20 match in November, Die Burger reported on Tuesday. Captain Graeme Smith and his teammates will take on a West Indies X1 in Antigua with -million going to the winners.
Malaysia is exploring plans to build the first Disney theme park in Southeast Asia, a government minister said on Tuesday. Effendi Norwawi, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of economic affairs, said the government is in talks with Disneyland operators to establish a theme park in the southern state of Johor, near Singapore.
All Black flanker Chris Masoe took a financial hit on Tuesday to add to his embarrassment after a scuffle in which reportedly he burst into tears when team-mate Tana Umaga hit him with a woman’s handbag. The New Zealand Rugby Union fined Masoe 910 and found him guilty of hitting a man in a Christchurch bar early on Sunday morning.
United States President George Bush rallied on Monday to the victory of his closest ally in Latin America, the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, after he won a landslide second election on Sunday. Bush called Uribe to congratulate him on a victory that gives the US some relief from a political tilt to the left in South America that has brought a string of anti-American leaders to power.
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Asia is buzzing with World Cup fever and nowhere more than in pubs and clubs, which are poised for a bonanza from hordes of football fans watching the games, drink in hand, on big screen TVs. The excitement has not escaped staid Singapore, where nightlife venues in the tiny island-state are extending opening hours and ramping up promotions.