■ Singapore
Cat cull draws protests
Animal-protection groups and pet lovers yesterday protested the government's drive to kill stray cats estimated to number 80,000. Lynn Yee, president of the Cat Welfare Society, appealed for reconsideration of "such extreme measures." The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said Friday that a campaign to cull stray cats is being mounted island-wide as part of a program "to clean up the environment and improve public hygiene" in the wake of the outbreak of SARS. AVA said it is concentrating on housing estates, food centers, markets and areas "affected by cat nuisance problems."
■ Thailand
Teen condoms criticized
A new brand of scented condoms aimed at teenagers is raising a stink in Thailand, a report said on yesterday. The Sweet Teen condoms, which come in lime, cola and mixed fruit varieties and are being advertised with the slogan "teen confidence," are a symbol of moral decay, a sociologist was quoted as saying. "Our society has decayed to the very core," Sompong Jitradab, a social scientist at Chulalongkorn University told The Nation newspaper. "When there's nothing we can do to stop teens from having sex, we produce condoms for them." "The demand is already there. We're helping to solve social problems," the suppliers' spokesman said.
■ New zealand
How to use a chainsaw
High school students are earning qualifications in how to use chainsaws, gamble at casinos and handle guns, a newspaper reported yesterday. More than 100 students passed qualifications in the use of chainsaws last year, and one passed in the rules and procedures for craps, a dice game popular in casinos, Wellington's Dominion Post reported. It said the qualifications were awarded as part of a new National Certificate of Educational Achievement, under which schools can teach a wide range of subjects designed to help students get jobs when they leave.
■ Vietnam
Lightning strike injures 51
Lightning struck a house in northern Vietnam, injuring 51 people who were inside watching a popular television show. The victims, mostly students aged 8 to 17, were taken to local hospitals in Lang Son province following Thursday's incident. Four adults suffered burns, while 10 children were treated for dizziness and headaches, said Hoang Van Thinh of the People's Committee of Binh Trung village, 170km northeast of Hanoi. The village is not wired for electricity, but one house is powered by a 0.5-kilowatt power generator run by stream water. The lightning struck the generator and ran in on the 14-inch television set everyone was gathered around, Thinh said.
■ Singapore
Marshals keep planes safe
Armed marshals will be deployed on Singapore Airlines and Silkair flights in the next few months to thwart would-be hijackers. With suicide attacks deemed more likely, security experts told The Straits Times that undercover agents need to be trained in unarmed combat and need to carry stun guns that fire darts to immobilize terrorists or fire special bullets that fragment on impact and wouldn't puncture a plane's fuselage. The special agents are likely to be deployed only on selected flights because SIA and its subsidiary, SilkAir, operate more than 400 a week.
■ Canada
More farms quarantined
Investigators placed four more farms under quarantine, including three involving feed production, in a widening search for the cause of North America's first case of mad cow disease in a decade. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said 13 farms were now under quarantine -- eight in Alberta, where the recent case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was found; two in Saskatchewan to the east; and three in British Columbia to the west. The farms quarantined in British Colombia were feed suppliers, said Brian Evans, the agency's chief veterinary officer.
■ United States,
Bear 1, man zero
A North Jersey man tangled with a bear Friday afternoon and wound up in the hospital, the West Milford Police Department said. Rob Skrypek, 35, was bitten on the hand, forearm, upper arm and head and was scratched on the back as he tried to defend his Labrador retriever from a bear that had wandered into his yard with her cub, the police said. "He jumped on the bear's back and gave it a chokehold," a police dispatcher said. The bear then threw Skrypek off, bit and scratched him and ran into the woods. Skrypek was in good condition Friday night at a local hospital.
■ Venezuela
Chavez agrees to accord
After six months of bitter negotiations, President Hugo Chavez and his adversaries have agreed to sign an accord that would lead to a referendum on his rule, officials on both sides said Friday. The agreement, brokered late Thursday by the Organization of American States in Caracas, calls on both sides to spurn violence. It is likely to lead to a referendum this year after a new electoral board is chosen to oversee the vote. The pact, to be signed Wednesday, does not provide a complete framework for how a referendum would be held.
■ United States
Jackson near bankruptcy
Michael Jackson, who amassed a half-billion-dollar fortune over the past 20 years, is saddled with debt and teetering near bankruptcy, his former financial advisers say in a lawsuit. The lawsuit claims Jackson's extravagant spending has created "a ticking financial time bomb waiting to explode at any moment." Union Finance and Investment of South Korea filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming Jackson owes the firm US$12 million in fees and expenses, plus interest. However, Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, said he does not believe the singer is near bankruptcy.
■ Sweden
Police arrest `Jackass'
A star of the MTV television show Jackass was arrested in Sweden after admitting he swallowed a condom filled with marijuana, police said Friday. Stephen Glover -- known as Steve-O on the now defunct series on the American cable channel -- was arrested Thursday after police raided his hotel room in Stockholm. Glover's lawyer, Jason Berk, said the arrest was the result of a misunderstanding "and a failure to differentiate between the person and his art."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not