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World News Quick Take

■ Hong Kong
China issues warning
A senior Chinese official has warned that Hong Kong could become a "city of turmoil" if stability is not maintained amid the territory's political crisis, a report said. Zou Zhekai, deputy director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, said late Wednesday "maintaining stability is most important to Hong Kong." "Otherwise, the `city of life' may become a `city of turmoil," he said, referring to the territory's publicity logo, at a gathering to launch preparations to celebrate Chinese National Day. In the absence of stability, he said the government would not be able to carry out its policies efficiently and businessmen would be unable to benefit from the closer economic partnership arrangement with the mainland signed in late June.

■ Australia
Happy cows taste better
Scientists are using electronic sensors to single out happy cows in an attempt to produce better-tasting steaks. Researchers from the government's scientific body, Csiro, have found that tense cattle produce tough meat. Beef cows with a (perhaps justifiable) fear of humans exact revenge by producing tougher, scrawnier steaks. The scientists have come up with a device that measures an animal's state of mind by working out how long it takes them to run away after being weighed. "When we release cattle from the weighing scale we measure how long it takes them to cover two meters," said Csiro livestock expert Heather Burrow. "Those that are scared of humans move faster, because they're putting a lot of their nutrition into nervous energy and less into building bulk."

■ Japan
Team to hunt for snowman
A Japanese expedition equipped with sensor-activated cameras and led by an amateur cryptozoologist is heading to the Himalayas hoping to track down the abominable snowman. Seven climbers will spend six weeks in Nepal trying to capture images of the legendary humanlike creature also known as the yeti, several thousand meters up the world's seventh-tallest mountain, the expedition's leader, Yoshiteru Takahashi, said yesterday. Takahashi, a 60-year-old construction company employee who climbs as a hobby, is on his second yeti hunt.

■ China
Nightclub owner in hot water
A Chinese nightclub owner has come under fire for using saucy waitresses dressed in the uniform of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), a news report said yesterday. The girls were told to crack rude jokes to customers while serving drinks dressed in the uniform. The South China Morning Post said the owner of the club in Nanjing, Jiangsu, said the stunt had been arranged to celebrate the Aug. 1 anniversary of the founding of the PLA.

■ Cambodia
Authorities evict scavengers
Police yesterday evicted hundreds of scavengers from a Phnom Penh rubbish dump and smashed up the shacks they had built in a permanent camp at the site, witnesses said. District police chief Um Mareth said the order was given after scavengers began constructing houses on the Mean Chey Stung rubbish dump about a month ago. "Local authorities evicted 217 illegal settlers who had grabbed land belonging to Phnom Penh authorities which has been used for holding garbage for the last 10 years," he said. "This is a place for garbage, not human beings," he added.

■ United Nations
New prosecutor sought
Rwanda has endorsed the UN chief's bid to add a second top war crimes prosecutor, saying it has long maintained the responsibilities are too vast for just one person. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants a prosecutor to oversee cases from the Balkan wars of the early 1990s and another to handle cases stemming from Rwanda's genocidal civil war in 1994. Carla Del Ponte is in charge of both tribunals. Last week, Annan recommended that Del Ponte concentrate on Yugoslav prosecutions, with a new prosecutor named for Rwanda.

■ United states
Pet shop proves gruesome
When the police in Mount Vernon, New York, investigated claims and counterclaims by the owners of a pet shop and its landlord, they thought they might find evidence of a burglary. What they found was far more gruesome: about 200 animals -- rabbits, lizards, hamsters, guinea pigs, and mice -- were either dead or emaciated in their cages. Some of the mice and hamsters had even begun feeding off the ones that had died. Police said investigators still had to determine if the animals had been abandoned and died of neglect or had been poisoned by vandals.

■ Colombia
Drug-war effort praised
The government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has "turned the corner" in battles to eradicate coca crops and to combat guerrilla groups, the US military commander for the region said on Wednesday. Coca production is down 15 percent and hundreds of fighters have deserted rebel groups in the last year but Colombia still has big strides to take in its US-backed wars against drug trafficking and guerrillas, General James Hill told reporters. Home to the world's largest cocaine industry, Colombia is working to stabilize its economy and kill off its vast coca crops in the shadow of a guerrilla war that claims thousands of lives each year.

■ United states
Springer won't run
Talk-show host Jerry Springer, who brings foul-mouthed prostitutes, homewreckers and skinheads into living rooms every day, said Wednesday he will not run for the US Senate next year. Springer, a Democrat, had said he would quit his show should he run for the Senate seat held by Republican George Voinovich since 1998. Springer, 59, had crisscrossed Ohio the last six months, speaking at Democratic dinners and gauging support for a Senate bid.

■ Iceland
Whale hunt back on
Iceland is to resume whaling next month, after a break of 14 years, in what it claims is a scientific survey to discover how many fish whales eat. Iceland proposed resuming "scientific" whaling at the June meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC voted 21-16 for it to reconsider the plans. Whaling is officially banned worldwide while stocks recover. Apart from tiny numbers taken by indigenous peoples, only Japan and Norway have continued to kill whales. A loophole in the IWC rules which allows whaling for research purposes means that they can do so, and Iceland now plans to exploit it as well.
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