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World News Quick Take

■ Australia
Officials ease up on Hanson
Prosecutors yesterday dropped a further charge against right-wing politician Pauline Hanson who was imprisoned last week for three years on fraud convictions. Prosecutors decided to drop the additional charge -- of dishonest application of funds -- after a police probe, state prosecutor Brendan Campbell told Brisbane Magistrates Court. Hanson, 49, was convicted last Wednesday of illegally registering her One Nation party in Queensland state in 1997 and then fraudulently claiming A$500,000 (US$330,000) in electoral funding to campaign for a state poll in 1998. Hanson is appealing the conviction and the sentence.

■ Singapore
100 moms protest labor laws
A group of 100 mothers from China joined forces yesterday to fight a new law banning them from working in the city-state. "Why is there discrimination against mothers," said Liu Xueqin, 50, a mother of a 15-year-old girl who has been living in Singapore for over a year. "I am educated and I should be allowed to work if there is work." Liu and her compatriots met with several Chinese embassy officials Monday to seek help in overturning the law which bans foreign mothers who accompany their school-going children to Singapore from working.

■ Japan
Koizumi gets political boost
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's chances of winning a ruling party leadership race next month brightened yesterday after a survey showed 60 percent of all voters want him re-elected and a rival decided not to mount a challenge. Despite signs of an economic recovery and robust public support for Koizumi, speculation has been simmering that heavyweights in his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would unite to topple the prime minister, whose reforms are anathema to them. But with a general election looming by mid-next year and probably before the end of this year, the party could be forced to stick with Koizumi in its Sept. 20 presidential poll since other would-be leaders are unlikely to attract broad public support.

■ China
130 suffer food poisoning
More than 130 people invited to a dinner party at a farmer's house in southwest China were struck down with food poisoning and rushed to hospitals, state press reported yesterday. The victims ran fevers and suffered from diarrhea and vomiting after eating cold dishes and drinking water that were contaminated at the home-style banquet Friday in a village in Chisui city, Guizhou Province, the China News Service said. No one died and all the victims were out of danger, the report said, but two of them had temporarily lost consciousness.

■ Malaysia
Muslims force haircut on boy
A Malaysian teenager was given a forced haircut by Muslim authorities who deemed his punk-style "Mohican" un-Islamic. The Star newspaper reported that the unnamed 17-year-old -- described as a high-school dropout -- was nabbed by the Islamic Development Unit of Kota Baru, Kelantan, a northeastern state controlled by a Islamic political party. The newspaper said officials lectured him against emulating "destructive culture" before taking the scissors to his red-dyed Mohican.

■ United Kingdom
Diabetes warning issued
One of Britain's most senior doctors warned Sunday that the world is heading for "one of the biggest health catastrophes" ever seen, as diabetes spreads across the globe. "The financial and social burden of the disease will be intolerable if governments do not sit up and take notice now," said Sir George Alberti, president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). According to figures released yesterday by the IDF, more than 300 million people around the world are believed to have impaired glucose tolerance, a condition which often precedes diabetes.

■ Italy
Online suicide averted
An Italian policeman rushed to the virtual rescue of a woman committing suicide online, gleaning enough personal details to alert emergency services and save her life, news agency Ansa reported. The 41-year-old woman announced in an Internet chat-room that she was going to kill herself and then began swallowing tablets. Fellow chatters could see the suicide attempt unfolding via Web camera. The policeman, Massimo Turbacci, kept talking to her, coaxing out her mobile telephone number, which allowed authorities to track down her home address.

■ Czech Republic
Robot outshines premier
A robot charmed guests at a state dinner in Prague with his wisecracks and dancing, outshining Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and showing up his often-mocked social stiffness. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi unveiled an improved version of the 120cm tall Asimo humanoid on an official visit to the Czech Republic, where the word robot first appeared in author Karel Capek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). Asimo began working the crowd as soon as he arrived, telling jokes, greeting Spidla warmly, and even making a champagne toast.

■ United States
Rubik's cube record set
A San Francisco software developer beat the Guinness world record in speed-solving the Rubik's cube, winning the world championship by solving the puzzle in an average time of 20.2 seconds. Dan Knights, 24, beat dozens of other competitors in the weekend-long competition, which was last held in 1982 in Budapest, where the previous record of 22.95 seconds was set. Jessica Fridrich, a 39-year-old professor who developed the widely used Fridrich method of solving the cube after first mastering the puzzle 22 years ago, won second place. About 100 people competed in different categories, including solving the cube with one hand and blindfolded.

■ United States
E-mail virus attack averted
The fast-spreading SoBig.F e-mail virus slowed on Sunday and failed for a second time to launch a remote data attack using thousands of infected computers, computer security experts said. SoBig.F was programmed by an unknown creator to unleash a data attack at 7pm GMT on Sunday. But with the trigger -- a computer program unwittingly installed on 20 poorly defended computers mostly in the United States and Canada -- deactivated on Friday, Sunday's attempt was a non-event, according to reports from technology security companies. An initial automated barrage planned for Friday was averted after government and security industry experts raced to diffuse the digital trigger that could have taken control of more than 100,000 infected computers and possibly crippled the Internet.

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