■Singapore
SARS-rap CD released
A high-pitched voice calls out over the thumping bass line and hip hop melody, "SARS is the virus that I just want to minus." Eminem, watch out. Singapore has enlisted its most famous television character, Phua Chu Kang, in the fight against SARS with SAR-vivor Rap, a CD released this week by the state broadcaster and supported by the Health Ministry. The rap urges Singaporeans to maintain good hygiene to prevent a resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed 32 of 206 people infected with the disease in the city-state. "Don't kak-pui all over the place, you might as well kak-pui on my face," sings Phua. Kak-pui is Singapore slang for spitting.
■ Cambodia
Pol Pot's wife cremated
The once-powerful wife of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was cremated yesterday amid chanting Buddhist monks and religious rituals that the ultra-communist revolutionaries had tried to eradicate during their reign of terror. Khieu Ponnary, the first wife of Pol Pot, died on Tuesday at age 83 in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin in northwestern Cambodia. She struggled with mental illness for more than two decades, and more recently suffered from cancer. The cremation, attended by more than 500 monks, mourners and schoolchildren, took place at a Buddhist temple where her coffin was carried in a procession led by police.
■ Indonesia
Muslims trained for terror
Dozens of Muslim militants have crisscrossed Asia visiting terror-training camps and learning how to use guns and make bombs, a member of an al-Qaeda-linked regional Islamic group testified yesterday. The militants were being trained to wage a campaign of violence across Southeast Asia in an effort to topple the democratic government of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, and establish an Islamic state, said Ahmad Sajuli bin Abdurrahman. He was testifying via video link from Malaysia.
■ South Korea
Thousands stage walkout
Tens of thousands of South Korean auto and metal workers staged a half-day walkout for a second day yesterday to demand a 40-hour workweek and better working conditions, officials said. Roughly 7,000 unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest carmaker, put down their tools for four hours, union spokesman Jang Kyu-ho said. Another 30,000 metal workers also joined the walkout, said Sohn Nak-koo, a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an umbrella labor group. Thursday's walkouts were organized by separate company unions, which will decide independently whether to continue their strikes, Sohn said.
■ Singapore
Sisters risk operation
Two Iranian sisters joined at the head are ignoring their doctors' advice and risking an unprecedented and highly risky operation this weekend in Singapore to separate them. Law graduates Ladan and Laleh Bijani, 29, from Shiraz, are by far the oldest people joined at the head to undergo the complicated surgery, which experts say carries a high risk of at least one not surviving. "Both of us have started on this journey together and we hope that the operation will bring us to the end of this difficult path, and we may begin our new and wonderful lives as two separate persons," the women said.
■Santa Fe
Herbie Mann dies at 73
Herbie Mann, the versatile jazz flutist who combined a variety of musical styles and deeply influenced genres such as world music and fusion, has died. He was 73. Mann, who had battled prostate cancer since 1997, died late on Tuesday. A funeral home in Santa Fe said it was making arrangements with Mann's family. Mann had moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s after spending most of his life in his native New York City. Mann always performed different styles, then combined them. Family of Mann, formed in 1973, played world music before it was called that. His best-selling Memphis Underground was a founding recording of fusion.
■ Athens
Licensing brothels gets flak
The city council in Athens was on Wednesday embroiled in a row with the Greek Orthodox church over plans to license brothels to cope with an expected influx of tourists during next year's Olympic Games. The Greek capital's new mayor, Dora Bakoyianni, has come against the fierce opposition of leading clerics in her attempt to bring "law and order" to the profession. Her campaign to register 230 brothels was denounced by the church's Holy Synod, which said the proposal was nothing short of "an insult". With just 13 months to go before the Olympics come home, the problem of unregistered prostitutes has turned into a headache for officials now keen to clean up Athens' act.
■ Switzerland
Teacher nude on Internet
A Swiss teacher who posted nude photographs of herself on the Internet has chosen to resign rather than remove the photos, the education authorities said on Wednesday. Although posing nude on the Internet is not a crime in Switzerland, the country's laws ban teachers from activites deemed to undermine their profession. The woman posed in her free time as a nude model and wanted to use the Web photos to find artists to employ her. Instead the photos were discovered by pupils at her school, whose parents lodged a complaint. The education authorities said the pictures were "good nude photos" but some of them could be considered shocking.
■ United States
Bush names AIDS fighter
On the eve of a presidential visit to Africa, President Bush on Wednesday nominated Randall Tobias, a former chairman and chief executive of Eli Lilly & Co, to run a US$15 billion program to fight AIDS worldwide. Tobias, a major donor to Bush and the Republican Party and a resident of Indianapolis, has little experience with AIDS issues or with Africa, where most of the program's money will be directed. If confirmed by the Senate, Tobias, 61, will have the rank of ambassador and will report directly to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
■ Chile
Blob puzzles scientists
Call it the blob, or the creature from the deep. An enigmatic lump of gelatinous flesh washed ashore on the coast of Chile is puzzling marine scientists. "We have never seen such a strange creature before," said Elsa Cabrera, a marine biologist and director of the center for cetacean conservation in Santiago. "We don't know if it might be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts, or maybe it is a new species." The blob is a lump of decomposing grey flesh the size of a small bus. It measures at least 12m and lies on the beach like a large and disgusting blanket. It was first reported as a beached whale, but it was not a whale's skin.
Agencies
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