■ China
Mother poisoned food
A mother pining for her son's attention was behind a mass food poisoning in central China that killed 10 and left 23 others seriously ill. The mother, Chen Xiaomei, poured rat poison into rice served at a lunch in Huaping village, Hubei province, which took place Tuesday after her own husband's funeral. The guests soon started vomiting and shivering violently, and could not be given immediate medical care because of the remote location of the village, with fatal consequences. Chen merely wanted her son and daughter-in-law to get sick enough to ask her for money for medical treatment, she said.
■ Cambodia
New Zealander charged
A provincial court has charged a 53-year-old New Zealander with raping over a half-dozen underage Cambodian girls in the northern town of Siem Reap. Robert Graham Cleghorn, 53, a resident of the town since the early 1990s and a private tourist guide, was arrested on Thursday after a nearly six-month investigation into his alleged rape of three girls, aged from 15 to 17. Authorities who arrested Cleghorn found five more underage girls at the home, and suspected that the girls were his latest victims.
■ Hong Kong
China hopes to get a lift
In an apparent bid to boost Hong Kong's tepid patriotism toward China, the country's first astronaut will visit the former British colony next week. Yang Liwei (楊利偉) has been hailed a hero in China after he orbited the Earth 14 times in China's first manned space flight. But reaction in Hong Kong has been more muted. A celebratory parade didn't attract much notice, and some here have said China's money would be better spent on reducing poverty.
■ Australia
Sharks getting smaller
The great white sharks of today aren't a patch on their ancestors, Australian and New Zealand scientists said yesterday. A massive tooth from a shark species that swam in the Tasman Sea between three and 25 million years ago is proof that the great whites of yesteryear were twice the size of those swimming there now. The tooth was found by marine research scientist Alan Williams, who headed a joint Australia-New Zealand expedition to the Tasman Sea earlier this year as part of the global marine life census. He said the tooth's owner would have been about 15m long.
■ Zimbabwe
Food shortages strike
Serious shortages of food in parts of Zimbabwe have forced some families to resort to prostitution and child labor, a UN report said on Thursday. The monthly humanitarian situation report said many households were relying on "negative coping mechanisms such as child labor and prostitution as food shortages worsen across the country." Others raised money to buy food through the sale of livestock, illegal gold panning or selling traditional beer brewed from wild fruit, it said. According to the UN food agency, the World Food Programme, an increasing number of children have been dropping out of school because of hunger.
■ Eritrea
Australian sheep reach land
After months at sea and unwanted by dozens of nations on health grounds, the African nation of Eritrea has agreed to take a shipment of 52,000 Australian sheep, the Australian government said yesterday. The sheep were being unloaded at the Eritrean port of Massawa yesterday after the Dutch-owned ship carrying the sheep, the Cormo Express, was secretly turned around in recent days during a trip back to Australia. "It's all signed, sealed and delivered," a spokesman for Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said yesterday. "It's a huge relief." The unloading ends an 80-day sea voyage that began on Aug. 6 and has been a huge embarrassment for the Australian government.
■ Kyrgyztan
Russia opens air base
In an attempt to shore up influence in a region it once ruled, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday opened Russia's first airbase in central Asia since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Putin and the Kyrgyz president, Askar Akayev, opened the Kant airbase, close to the capital, Bishkek, where 500 Russian military personnel and 10 Su-27 and Su-25 jets will be based. The Russian base is just a few dozen kilometers from the Manas military base where 2,000 American troops are stationed, much to the concern of Russian nationalists and some of the Russian government.
■ Italy
Strike over pensions
Trains, planes, schools, even opera houses faced disruption yesterday as millions of Italians went on strike to protest reforms of the pensions system. More than 100 demonstrations were set to gridlock towns across the country and travellers faced chaos as morning trains were cancelled and some 150 afternoon flights axed as part of the staggered four-hour strike. From 2008 they will be allowed to stop working only if they have paid into the system for 40 years or reached a minimum age of 65 for men and 60 for women.
■ France
British madame jailed
A British woman accused of running a high-class prostitution ring across Europe was found guilty on Thursday by a Paris court, sentenced to four years in prison and handed a 150,000 euros (US$177,000) fine. Margaret MacDonald, who turned 44 yesterday, was given no chance to comment on the sentence which convicted her of "aggravated procuring for the purposes of prostitution." The prosecution alleged that MacDonald had recruited 538 women and 56 men to work for her successful agency by the time she was arrested in a Paris hotel last year. Meetings were arranged in smart hotels, private homes and occasionally yachts across Europe and clients were charged about 1,000 euros an hour, of which MacDonald took a 40 percent cut.
■ United states
New sea creature discovered
The creature, as viewed from the submarine moving about the ocean depths between Iceland and the Azores, was like nothing the marine biologists had seen before. It had a purple, lotus flower-shaped head perched atop a sinuous green stalk of a body measuring several centimeters long. Months later, the scientists are still not entirely sure if the animal was a fish since the specimen discovered disintegrated when it came to the surface. But its discovery is part of a billion-dollar, 10-year marine project. During the past three years, more than 300 scientists from 53 countries have identified three new species of fish each week. By the time the project is finished, the scientists hope to have established a marine life "base line" from which they will be able to predict change.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was