World Briefs

A bald, naked man who said he was a British tourist went swimming in the moat of Japan's Imperial Palace yesterday, climbing the palace wall, throwing rocks and splashing water at police before being taken into custody.

Television footage showed the tall man getting out of the water at one point, chasing police with a rock and a plastic construction site pole. He then went back to the murky water and swam across to the other side of the moat, climbing up the eight-metre stone wall of the palace.

He was caught by two policemen, after a chase media said lasted for an hour and a half.

Television showed passers-by gathering around the moat and watching the chase, giggling and taking photos on mobile phones.

Police said it was unclear what his motives were, although media said he had dropped a bag in the water.

The palace, in the heart of Tokyo and home to Japan's emperor and empress, is surrounded by 12 moats running seven kilometres in all. Tourists can walk freely around the periphery of the palace and go inside on a tour, but in general are not allowed to step within the premises of the 115-hectare palace grounds.

Asteroid burns up before hitting earth

A tiny asteroid discovered on Monday by an Arizona observatory would have hit Earth's atmosphere over Sudan yesterday but it burned up before it could hit the ground or endanger aircraft, astronomers said.

The asteroid created a large fireball at about 0246 GMT yesterday as it burned up, the team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics said.

The asteroid, known as a meteoroid, is between one and five metres in diameter.

Nepal's new 'living goddess' enthroned

Authorities in Nepal enthroned a three-year-old girl as a new Kumari, or the main "living goddess", yesterday, in a centuries-old ritual the country's new Maoist-led coalition has allowed to continue.

Traditionally, different cities in the Kathmandu Valley have separate "living goddesses". But the most powerful one lives in an ornate 15th century temple in an old part of Kathmandu.

Yesterday, Matina Shakya, her eyelashes blackened thick with mascara and wearing a red and gold costume, was installed in the divine role she is expected to keep for the next 7-8 years.

"I am proud of her selection as the Kumari," said Pratapman Shakya, the father of the girl picked by a panel of cultural experts. "I'm also a bit sorry because she will not stay with the family. But that does not matter because she is going to become the goddess. We can visit her whenever we want."

She replaced the 11-year-old Preeti Shakya, who is approaching puberty and must retire.

Giant Anwar cutout dubbed an idol

A huge cutout of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a suburb just outside Kuala Lumpur has drawn fire as idolatrous and a waste of public funds, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The 12.2-metre-high image shows a smiling Mr Anwar waving and bedecked with symbols of his opposition alliance. "It can deviate the Muslim's faith," Asri Zainul Abidin, a Mufti (Islamic scholar) from the northern Malaysian state of Perlis, told the newspaper. "I don't blame Anwar because it was not him who put up the cutout, but his supporters should not idolise (him) too much."

The cutout was put up by the municipal council on September 28 at a cost of 5,000 ringgit (€1,050) to wish people a happy end to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of the council's assemblymen said.

Taiwan suggests Sars was warfare plot

Taiwan legislators wearing surgical masks and displaying skull-and-crossbones banners took over Parliament's floor yesterday after the island's security chief accused China of starting the global Sars epidemic six years ago as part of a biological warfare campaign.

Taiwan National Security Bureau director-general Tsai Chao-ming told a legislative committee that sources in China suspected biological warfare, but that conclusive evidence had not surfaced.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome originated in southern China in 2002 and went on to kill hundreds of people around the world - including about 350 in China - bringing Asian tourism and air industries almost to a halt.