Japan's outspoken justice minister faced calls for his resignation last night for a blunder over the irregular entry of US movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Shozaburo Nakamura (64), a fan of the Hollywood tough guy, told parliament he had inadvertently kept Schwarzenegger's report on the circumstances of his arrival in Japan without a passport.
Schwarzenegger flew into Osaka in a private plane last October to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a theme park. He was reported to have explained that his passport had been stolen when he could not produce a document.
The American actor was allowed to enter Japan with special permission after he wrote the report. But it took nearly six months for the document to reach the justice ministry's department in charge of immigration, giving rise to suspicions that Nakamura had kept it as a keepsake.
A Croatian newspaper reported yesterday that President Franjo Tudjman had received radiation treatment for a brain tumour.
There was no independent confirmation of the front-page story in the Nacional weekly. The story was attributed to sources close to Tudjman's family and medical sources.
The late Chinese "generalissimo" Chiang Kai-shek is about to suffer a fresh loss of face, the stripping of his smiling image from most Taiwan bank-notes.
A total revamp of Taiwan's currency for the next millennium, announced by the central bank yesterday, will focus on modern themes - high technology, sport and education - at the expense of one of this century's most famous leaders.
Chiang presided over the Nationalist republic until its 1949 defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong's communist forces. Chiang led the republic of Taiwan until his death in 1975.
A drummer sacked by the superstar band Oasis yesterday agreed undisclosed compensation for his dismissal. Tony McCarroll's settlement terms are likely to remain confidential but almost certainly run to millions. McCarroll had been seeking 20 per cent of the band's annual earnings - which would net him an estimated total of up to £18 million - for being "unlawfully expelled from the partnership" after a row with singer Liam Gallagher in a Paris bar.