News in Brief

Ukraine flag hoisted on Moscow skyscraper
Afp, Moscow

A Ukrainian flag was unfurled on the top of a Moscow skyscraper within sight of the Kremlin yesterday, officials said, as fighting in eastern Ukraine has frayed bilateral ties. The Soviet star crowning the Stalin-era skyscraper, located just a kilometre from the Kremlin, was also painted in the yellow and blue colours of the national flag.

Japanese becomes world's oldest man
Mail Online

A 111-year-old retired Japanese teacher who enjoys poetry has been recognised as the world's oldest man. Sakari Momoi received a certificate from Guinness World Records yesterday after succeeding Alexander Imich of New York, who died in June at the age of 111 years, 164 days. The world's oldest living person is also Japanese: Misao Okawa, a 116-year-old woman from Osaka. Momoi is one of 54,000 centenarians in Japan.

Court stays execution of Indian sisters
Afp, Mumbai

An Indian court yesterday put on hold the execution of two sisters on death row for murdering five children, a lawyer for the women said. Renuka Shinde and her step-sister Seema Gavit will be the first women executed in post-independence India if the punishment goes ahead. The pair were convicted in 2001 of kidnapping 13 children, forcing them to join a gang of thieves, and killing at least five of them.

Five Tibetans die after China cops shooting
Afp, Beijing

Five Tibetans have died in China after police opened fire on unarmed protesters, a rights group said yesterday, the latest report of unrest linked to ethnic minority rights. Police last week opened fire on locals in Kardze, a Tibetan-majority area of China's southwestern Sichuan province, rights groups and US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, citing local sources.