■ Hong Kong
Pub removes Hitler photos
A karaoke pub in Hong Kong which outraged the German and Israeli consul-generals by plastering its walls with pictures of Hitler and his Nazi troops said yesterday it will remove the offending photographs. The display inside Bar Pacific in the city's Hunghom district originally included a print of a terrified prisoner being executed over a pit full of dead bodies along with prints of Hitler delivering speeches and Nazi troops marching through Europe. The bar's owner at first agreed only to remove the photograph of the execution but a spokeswoman for the businessman said yesterday he had decided to take all of the pictures down because of the outcry.
■ New zealand
Farmers think tax stinks
A group of farmers driving about 60 trucks stopped traffic in the heart of the nation's biggest city Auckland yesterday to protest government plans to introduce a "flatulence tax" on sheep and cattle. The demonstration, called the "Fight Against Ridiculous Taxes" (FART), was one of a series being organized throughout the country to protest a government proposal that would require farmers to pay for research into global warming. The government claims that more than half of all New Zealand's greenhouse-gas emissions come from methane gas emitted from the country's 39 million sheep and 10 million cattle. Authorities expect the farmers to share the costs of researching ways to reduce the odorous animal gases. One protest rally in the South Island ended at a local hotel where a farmers' group posted signs reading, "For baked beans and pickled onions -- all welcome."
■ China
Glitch grants degrees
A police computer error has turned more than 100 people in a small village into holders of postgraduate degrees on their residency certificates, a news report said yesterday. The computer glitch in Weinan county, Shaanxi Province, even gave a degree to a 10-year-old boy, according to the South China Morning Post. Police have told villagers they must pay a fee if they want the certificates corrected.
■ Hong Kong
Man gets deadly revenge
A man disfigured by a stabbing in northern China when he was seven years old has hacked to death his attacker 18 years later, a news report said yesterday. The killer, from Changtu, Liaoning Province, was badly scarred in the 1985 attack and his injuries had been a source of acute embarrassment for him as he grew up, according to the South China Morning Post. When he could no longer endure the shame of his injuries, the man decided to seek revenge by tracking down his attacker and hacking him to death, the newspaper said.
■ Cambodia
Student chokes on fish
A 17-year-old Cambodian student choked to death after a small fish he had just caught allegedly jumped from a basket and into his mouth, police said on Tuesday. Lim Vanthon, who lived on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, had returned home after fishing in a nearby lake and was holding the basket, telling his parents about his catch, when the fish leaped into his mouth and wriggled down his throat, police said. Police said the student's father took him to two clinics for treatment before he died, but medical staff at both facilities were on lunch break.
■ Mexico
Clowns rob bus
Two teenagers dressed as clowns climbed aboard a microbus near the Mexican capital's airport, did a song-and-dance routine and then robbed everyone on board, authorities said on Monday. The incident occurred Sunday on a bus in the eastern borough of Venustiano Carranza. Two teens with their faces painted white and wearing goofy costumes hopped on the bus at a stoplight and put on a show. When none of the 20 passengers gave them spare change for their efforts, the pair pulled out knives and demanded money, said a Venustiano Carranza spokesman.
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