■ South Korea
More bird flu cases reported
More South Korean farmers reported suspected bird flu among ducks nationwide yesterday as authorities struggled to test and contain the highly contagious disease. The latest cases of avian influenza -- which in rare cases can be deadly to humans -- have been traced to duck-breeding farms in South Cholla province, home to half of South Korea's 8 million ducks. The Agriculture Ministry said about half of the target of 1 million chickens and ducks had been slaughtered and buried. The total includes thousands of chickens who died instantly after contracting the flu. "A total 19 suspected cases are being tested including the newly reported cases," the ministry said in a statement.
■ China
Gas blast kills at least 163
An explosion at a natural gas field in China's southwestern municipality of Chongqing has killed at least 163 people and poisoned scores, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Authorities had evacuated residents within 5km of the disaster site, it said. The blast happened on Tuesday morning at the Chuandongbei gas field in Kaixian county of Chongqing municipality. A well had burst, releasing "a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen," the news agency said. The field belongs to China National Petroleum Corp, parent of oil major PetroChina.
■ North Korea
US to donate more food
The US will give additional food aid to North Korea after UN officials reported fewer obstacles to tracking distribution, the State Department said on Wednesday. The US will donate an additional 60,000 tonnes of agricultural commodities to North Korea through the UN World Food Program, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement. The promise of more aid comes as Chinese and US officials met earlier this week in Beijing to discuss how to move forward on six-way negotiations to curtail North Korea's nuclear arms program.
■ China
Judge jailed for corruption
A high-ranking judge has been jailed for 15 years for pocketing more than 1 million yuan (US$120,800) in bribes, the People's Daily said yesterday. A Beijing court sentenced Mai Chongkai, president of the Supreme People's Court in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, on Wednesday, the Communist Party newspaper said. He was found guilty of taking bribes totalling 1.06 million yuan (US$128,100) from companies with legal problems in exchange for using his influence to intervene on their behalf, it said. Bribery and other forms of corruption remain rampant in China, despite the Communist Party's high-profile attempts to root it out via regular graft-busting campaigns.
■ Singapore
Maid jailed for cutting penis
An Indonesian maid in Singapore was jailed for cutting a 2-year-old boy's penis with a knife, a news report said yesterday. Suharti Sumito, 22, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in jail after a district court ruled she had used a knife to inflict a 2cm wound on the boy under her care in September, the Straits Times newspaper said. Suharti was using the knife to cut chicken when she was asked to check on the boy -- who had just finished bathing and was running around. The paper said she cut the boy when she caught hold of him. She denied that she had intentionally cut the toddler.
■ Tanzania
Wife nags man to death
A Tanzanian man killed himself by drinking a chemical used in cattle dips, leaving a suicide note saying it was to escape a nagging wife, police said. The body of the 32-year-old was found in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam with the suicide note and a glass containing traces of the chemical, used for killing insects on livestock, said regional police commissioner Alfred Tibaigana. "I've decided to end my life," Tibaigana quoted the suicide note as saying. "I am fed up with the constant nagging of my first wife." Police did not have any further details about the man's death in the East African country, where polygamy is common.
■ Germany
Tabloid shock: no bad news
Germany's top-selling newspaper published nothing but good news, dropping its normal fare of crime, violence and scandal for stories about tax cuts, falling petrol prices and accelerating economic growth. "There's only good news today," Bild said in large letters on its cover, where headlines are usually devoted to sex scandals, Germany's cannibal trial, killers, adulterers or dishonest politicians. Skipping its usual "loser of the day" entry, Bild picked two "winners of the day," including rock star Ozzy Osbourne who was released from intensive care after an accident in Britain. Even a story in the paper about a Berlin celebrity who broke up with her boyfriend took a positive approach: "Great news, Djamila Rowe is single again."
■ United States
City duped over flu shots
Faced with nationwide flu shot shortages amid an epidemic, Georgia health officials came across an offer they couldn't refuse -- 100,000 extra flu shots for a hefty US$1.65 million. They wired the money. But the flu shots never came. They never even existed, state officials said on Wednesday. Health division director Kathleen Toomey said on Wednesday that she was told by the FBI that other states may have been similarly defrauded. Georgia has managed to recover all but US$70,000 of its money back with FBI help. The rest of the money is expected to be returned within days.
■ Spain
Police intercept bombs
Police foiled a plot to detonate two powerful bombs aboard a train at a bustling Madrid railway station on Christmas Eve, officials said. Two suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA were arrested. One 25kg bomb was found on the train traveling from the Basque city of San Sebastian to Madrid. Police stopped the train in the northern city of Burgos, evacuated it, removed the bomb and defused it, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. A second device of about the same size was seized in possession of one of the two detainees in San Sebastian before it could be planted on the train, and it was this arrest that led police to the bomb on the train, he said.
■ Haiti
Medical staff protest
Medical students and doctors marched Wednesday to protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government as the death toll rose during anti-government demonstrations that have plagued this impoverished Caribbean country since September. The rising tensions came as the government prepared for celebrations on Jan. 1 marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence from slave-trading France.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS