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World News Quick Take

■ Hong Kong
Leung won't face charges
Prosecutors said yesterday that they will not file charges against former financial secretary Antony Leung (梁錦松) for buying a luxury car just before he raised taxes, saying they did not have enough evidence to gain a conviction. Leung was investigated for allegedly abusing his office when he saved thousands of dollars by the suspiciously timed auto purchase, but the director of public prosecutions, Grenville Cross, said no case will be brought because "it could not be justified." Leung bought a new Lexus in January then he raised auto taxes in March. The timing saved him HK$190,000 (US$24,359).

■ Malaysia
Soldiers go on rampage
At least sixty Malaysian soldiers went on a rampage, setting off smoke grenades and damaging property at a residential area in the central Malacca state following an earlier scuffle between one of the officers and some locals, it was reported yesterday. The officers, who were dressed in civilian clothing and armed with chains, helmets and sticks, arrived in an army truck at a food stall late Saturday and began to smash windows, damage cars and attack patrons of the stall, the New Straits Times daily said. One of the suspects had been involved in a fight with several men from the residential area on Friday. It was believed the soldier, who received a severe beating, had then rounded up fellow army officers for revenge, the report said.

■ China
Wanted list released
Authorities released a wanted list of Muslim separatist groups and individuals yesterday, accusing them of acts of terror and appealing to foreign governments to ban the groups and track down and hand over the wanted individuals. One day after the US announced the capture of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, China's Ministry of Public Security fingered four groups in the restive northwest and 11 ethnic Uighur suspects -- all of whom remain at large. "They have planned, organized and carried out a series of violent terrorist activities such as bombings, assassinations, arsons, poisonings and attacks," Zhao Yongchen, deputy chief of the ministry's anti-terror bureau, said in a statement.

■ New Zealand
Stranded pilot completes trip
An Australian pilot who became the first to fly over the South Pole in a homemade plane flew back to New Zealand yesterday after being stranded on the ice for six days without fuel. Jon Johanson from Adelaide in South Australia refueled his single-engine plane with supplies donated by a British woman aviator who had abandoned a separate around-the-world attempt to fly over both the North and South Poles. US and New Zealand Antarctic authorities had refused to help him out.

■ The Philippines
Soldiers battle kidnappers
Soldiers hot on the trail of a missing Chinese-Filipino trader clashed with his kidnappers and their alleged allies from the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the southern Philippines, leaving 12 people dead, the military said yesterday. Brigadier-General Agustin Demaala, commander of the army's 301st Brigade, said soldiers recovered the bodies of 10 suspected Pentagon kidnap gang members, while the MILF still holds the bodies of a soldier and government militiaman killed in the fighting.

■ Venezuela
Chavez claims `megafraud'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday dismissed an opposition bid to challenge him with a referendum as a failure, but said he would respect any decision by electoral authorities on a vote on his five-year rule. The opposition says it will soon hand over to the National Electoral Council the 3.6 million signatures it says it collected to petition for a referendum on Chavez's mandate. Chavez has declared the signature campaign a "megafraud" filled with forgeries. But international observers have so far not echoed those allegations. The National Electoral Council has 30 days to verify the signatures.

■ Venezuela
Soup record goes to pot
Venezuela entered the Guinness Book of Records after boiling up the world's biggest pot of soup, Ultimas Noticias reported on Sunday. A giant pot used to prepare the 13,583 liters of liquid to feed some 2,000 villagers from Capaya in Miranda state will remain on show in the northeastern Venezuelan village as a tourist attraction, authorities said. Some 1,500kg of vegetables, 500kg of chicken and beef, 150kg of oil and 20kg of salt were used to prepare the giant repast, with Guinness judges and authorities looking on. Around 5,000kg of gas was needed to heat the pot to cook the meal as it was prepared by 200 people, the newspaper said.

■ Mexico
Teacher offers kidney
A Mexican teacher has offered to sell one of his kidneys for US$55,000 in a desperate bid to raise money to build three classrooms in his elementary school, the Reforma newspaper reported on Sunday. The
41-year-old teacher ran a classified ad for weeks in a national newspaper, offering a kidney in the hope of achieving his dream of teaching grade school. "When I went to take the advertisement, the person stared at me, stunned. I tried to do it on the Internet, but they rejected me because it's illegal," the teacher told the paper. "Although I'm not unemployed, I have been hurt by the economy, and I don't have anything else to sell or pawn," he said.

■ Azerbaijan
Late president mourned
Thousands of Azeris thronged the streets of Baku on Sunday to honor former President Haydar Aliyev, whose body was flown home to lie in state before a funeral to be attended by heads of most neighboring states. The veteran strongman's son Ilham took over in a disputed election in October. Ilham paced behind his father's coffin as it was carried from the plane, draped in the Azeri flag. Mourners lined the hearse's route to the city's main mosque, many crying and clutching black-draped portraits or red carnations -- a symbol of grief in mainly Muslim Azerbaijan.

■ Germany
Sleep aids immune system
People who get a good night's sleep have a better immune system than those with sleep problems, researchers at the University of Luebeck in northern Germany report. An Aerztliche Praxis article studied patients who had received hepatitis-A vaccinations. After four weeks, those patients who slept well had developed twice as many antibodies in their blood system than those who had sleeping problems. The researchers concluded that people who sleep badly have a much more lethargic reaction in the battle against viruses.

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