NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

US/ OBAMA LEADS MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTES: President Barack Obama led tributes today to the US forces at a ceremony at the military cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Memorial Day. He addressed an audience of serving soldiers, veterans and families of those killed in combat. Obama said: "The grief of mourning you carry in your hearts is a grief I cannot fully know. This day is about you and the fallen heroes that you loved and it's a day that has meaning for all Americans". Earlier, he met relatives of soldiers who died and he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Ceremonies and tributes are also being held today around the nation in honor of the Memorial Day holiday.

WORLD/ WATERSPOUTS FORM OFF SYDNEY: At least 4 waterspouts swirled around off the coast of Sydney today amid heavy thunderstorms that moved thru the region. The gigantic twisters created when tornadoes form above the water, occurred near Avoca Beach, which lies just to the N of Australia’s capital. The natural phenomena caused a huge stir with locals, some of whom had lived in the area for over 50 years and never seen one before. The waterspouts were each filmed from a helicopter, as they dropped down over a period of just a few hours.

WORLD/ REMNANTS OF TYPHOON HIT JAPAN'S DEVASTATED NORTHEAST: Heavy rains pelted Japan's northeast region today, which was devastated in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, adding to radioactive contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. A low-pressure system, the remnants of Typhoon Songda, hung over the Pacific coast and dumped up to 6 inches of rain in the hard region in less than 24 hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. They also warned of possible mudslides and floods. The level of water in the basement of 1 of the atomic plant's 6 reactor buildings rose 8 inches by early this morning, the facility's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said. There are now fears that more radioactive material from the Fukushima plant, pictured today, could drain into the land and sea. Also today, 2 TEPCO employees working at the Fukushima Daiichi plant may have been exposed to radiation exceeding the ultimate limit of 250 millisieverts, but no health problems have so far been reported, the company and the government said in a statement.

WORLD/ BANGLADESH WOMAN CUTS OFF RAPIST'S PENIS: A 40 year old Bangladeshi woman cut off a man's penis during an alleged attempted rape and took it to a police station as evidence, police said today. The man attacked the married mother of 3 while she was sleeping in her shanty in Jhalakathi district, some 200km S of Dhaka, on Saturday night. "As he tried to rape her, the lady cut his penis off with a knife. She then wrapped up the penis in a piece of polythene and brought it to the Jhalakathi police station as evidence of the crime," the local police chief said. The woman has filed a case accusing the 40 year old man, and a married father of 5, of attempted rape, saying that he had been harassing her for 6 months. The man denied the allegations. "We were having an affair and recently she suggested that both of us can go and settle down in Dhaka," he said in an interview from his hospital bed. "I refused and told her that I cannot leave my wife and children, so she took revenge on me". The severed penis has been kept at the police station and the rape suspect was undergoing treatment in hospital. "We shall arrest him once his condition gets better," the police chief said.