WORLD IN BRIEF : MALAYSIA : Australian Hanged for Drug Trafficking

A 37-year-old Australian convicted of trafficking in heroin was hanged at dawn after the Malaysian king rejected his appeal for clemency. The parents of Michael Denis McAuliffe visited him for the last time Thursday in Kajang Prison near the capital of Kuala Lumpur. McAuliffe, a bartender, was convicted of carrying 142 grams, about five ounces, of heroin at Penang airport on June 29, 1985. He said at his trial that the white substance was a type of aphrodisiac called “bang-bang powder” that he had gotten from a Thai dance hostess in Bangkok.