■India
Heatwave kills 489
A scorching heat wave sweeping southern India has killed 489 people in the past two weeks, an official said on Wednesday, as the mercury soared as high as 47?C. State Relief Commissioner D.C. Rosaiah said many of the 683 people reported in Andhra Pradesh state suffering from dehydration and sunstroke had died. "Four hundred and eighty-nine have proved fatal so far," he said. Andhra Pradesh is battling its worst drought in four decades. People are being told to stay indoors to avoid the heat which the weather office expects to continue for another two or three days.
■ Singapore
Mom accused of maid abuse
A Malaysian mother of two has been accused of kicking, punching and scorching her Filipino maid and forcing her to eat soap powder, it was reported yesterday. Choong Wai Lan, 27, is alleged to have committed the physical abuses between October and December against Ronaly Asidera, 22, The Straits Times said. The accused, married to a Singaporean, is contesting the charges and is out on bail. The case has been scheduled for a pre-trial conference on June 10. Eleven charges against Choong were read on Tuesday in court, including an allegation that Asidera swallowed detergent after Choong threatened to throw her down a rubbish chute.
■ Hong Kong
SARS lamps cause cancer
Hong Kong consumers who used ultraviolet lamps advertised to kill germs amid the SARS outbreak have been warned to stop using them because they could cause skin cancer. Government officials urged users of the lamps to return them to suppliers for a refund, the South China Morning Post reported. Health officials said that regular use of ultraviolet lamps could cause skin cancer, age the skin and cause eye damage. "These lamps should not have been advertised for household use," said Ho Mang-yee, principal medical and health officer at the department of health.
■ Indonesia
Rare rhino faces extinction
The two-horned Sumatran rhino is moving closer to extinction with only 10 of the rare animals remaining in Sumatra's Kerinci National Park, one of its few remaining natural habitats in Indonesia, news reports said yesterday. "We're pessimistic. We can't promise to stop the extinction of the Sumatran rhino," Listya Kusumawardhani, head of the Kerinci park in Jambi province, about 720km northwest of Jakarta, told the state-run Antara news agency. The Sumatran rhino is an endangered species, with fast disappearing populations in Kerinci, Leuser National Park in Sumatra's Aceh province and in Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, where the animal hasn't been spotted for years.
■ New Zealand
Pot police want pension
Five former New Zealand police officers who became addicted to cannabis while working as undercover agents to help bust drug rings have accepted compensation. But the Police Association, the policemen's labour union, which has fought their case for a decade, said another 19 officers were continuing legal action against the government for bigger pay-outs. All claimed they suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and became addicted to cannabis and other drugs while working undercover. Former association secretary and lawyer Bob Moodie told Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper the officers should be entitled to a war pension, adding, "Every New Zealander has an obligation to them."
■Canada
North Pole trekker rescued
A British adventurer who trekked alone on foot from Canada to the North Pole, then found himself stranded as a result of poor weather, was picked up by a light aircraft Tuesday. Pen Hadow, 41, had spent a week in his tent on floating ice and was down to one day's food reserves. The battery on his satellite phone gave out last week. Hadow completed a 765km walk to the geographic North Pole on May 19, claiming a record for being the first person to reach it unsupported from Canada. His wife Mary said she burst into tears when she managed to speak to her husband after his rescue. "He was just so cheerful when I spoke to him," she said.
■ France
Proust fetches high price
A handwritten copy of French novelist Marcel Proust's famous questionnaire was sold at auction in Paris for more than US$142,800 -- more than four times its estimated value. The list of questions, devised to determine the personality of the respondent, was bound in an album along with 40 pages of answers signed and dated from 1884 to 1887, including those of Proust, written at age 14. The future author of A la recherche du temps perdu was asked to answer the questionnaire -- used as a trendy party game in the Victorian era -- by his friend Antoinette Faure, daughter of former French president Felix Faure.
■ United States
Suspected killer nabbed
A nationwide manhunt late Tuesday led to the capture of a suspected serial killer who disappeared after providing a tissue sample that police say connects him to the killings. Truck driver Derrick Todd Lee, 34, is wanted in the murders of five women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police said. He was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia. Police mounted a controversial drive to collect skin-tissue samples from more than 1,000 men to compare their DNA to that found at the crime scenes. Lee's sample was taken on May 5, reports said. By the time the test results came through, the suspect had left his home north of Baton Rouge. He was charged on Monday with the March rape and murder of student Carrie Lynn Yoder, 26.
■ United States
83-year old runs over wife
Bungling a daily parking routine he had carried out for decades, a New York City man ran over his wife in their driveway on Tuesday, killing her. As they arrived at their house about 12:20pm on Tuesday, Walter Yackel, 83, left his wife, Mary, 82, at the entrance to the driveway so he could park their car farther along in the driveway. Yackel said that as he waited for his wife to clear the front of the car, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and ran her down. "He came to me shaking like a leaf," said Dr. Jeff Ahing, 55, a neighbor.
■ Russia
Murder acquittal overruled
The Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled the acquittal verdict in the murder of a prominent reporter, calling for a new investigation into the death of Dmitry Kholodov, a reporter who had been probing corruption and arms trafficking in Russia's military. The court ruled that the verdict clearing six Russian officers of murder "was not based on all available evidence." Kholodov, 27, was killed when he opened a booby-trapped briefcase that he received from one of his army sources in October 1994.
■United States
Surgery for Siamese twins
Two young Guatemalan girls born joined at the head who were surgically separated last summer in Los Angeles have shown constant improvement since returning last week after concerns developed about their health. The girls, Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quiej Alvarez, are likely to return to Guatemala within three weeks if there are no setbacks, said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, the lead neurosurgeon on the twins' medical team at UCLA's Mattel Childrens Hospital. In fact, he said, Maria de Jesus is ready for release.
Surgery is planned for tomorrow to replace a valve that drains fluid off Maria Teresa's brain to relieve pressure.
■ Italy
Intellectuals taste better
The brain of a professional wine expert uses both hemispheres, unlike those of others which use only one when tasting the grape, according to results of a scientific experiment. Seven wine experts, all men of approximately similar age, and seven other men of the same generation not versed in the wine-tasting arts, took part in the unprecedented research. The test, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, demonstrated that the professionals used both brain hemispheres during tasting, while the amateurs used only the right hemisphere. The researchers say the intellectual knowledge of professionals enables them to appreciate wine better than laymen.
■ Macedonia
Reward for missing people
Macedonian police on Tuesday offered a US$25,000 reward for information about the fate of 19 people who went missing in the ethnic Albanian insurgency two years ago, the interior ministry said. The reward may be collected by any one who leads the investigative team to the missing people or their gravesites, it said. Macedonian officials said earlier that 12 Macedonians, six Albanians and a Bulgarian have been missing since the 1991 insurgency. The reward was offered after the recent unsuccessful search for the bodies of 12 Macedonians near the western town of Tetovo.
■ United States
Police raid kills woman
The New York City medical examiner has ruled that a
57-year-old Harlem woman who had a heart attack
after the police mistakenly raided her apartment, threw a concussion grenade inside and handcuffed her, died from the stress and fear of the raid. The office of Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch formally concluded that the death of the woman, Alberta Spruill, a 29-year city employee, was a homicide, citing the unusual circum-stance of "sudden death following police raid," said Ellen Borakove, a spokes-woman for the office. The homicide ruling did not place blame nor ascribe civil liability to the police.
■ Greece
Anti-semites get educated
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which hunts down Nazi war criminals throughout the world, Tuesday criticized anti-semitism in Greece and offered to help with education programs ahead of the Athens Olympic Games next year. "Greece will be at the center of attention with the 2004 Olympics and we don't want to see a climate created by stereotypes dating from the Nazi era against Jews in a country more affected by this problem than any other in the EU," said Shimon Samuels, head of the Center's European branch.
Agencies
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