■ China
Workers blamed for deaths
China blamed negligent gas well workers on Friday for an accident that spewed toxic fumes over mountain villages and killed 233 people -- an unusually swift finding that highlights the government's increasing public insistence on accountability. State television said in its national evening newscast that investigators had concluded their probe into the Dec. 23 disaster in southwestern China, and that those who were at fault would be punished. In China's worst recent industrial disaster, a poisonous mix of natural gas and hydrogen sulfide erupted from the well and left a 25km2 "death zone" northeast of the city of Chongqing strewn with bodies.
■ China
Boyfriend gets the chop
A lovelorn 21-year-old waiter chopped off three of his fingers outside his ex-girlfriend's house in western China to try to win her back, the South China Morning Post said yesterday. The waiter sliced the fingers off in front of a policeman to prove his love for Xiao Qian, after she called police to remove him from outside her home in Sichuan Province. However, the gesture failed to win her sympathy, and Xiao refused to visit her former lover in hospital afterwards. "Nothing can change my mind," she said.
■ India
Pets eat old lady's corpse
An 85-year-old woman who lived and died alone in a remote cabin surrounded by her pet dogs in the Indian Himalayas had her body half-eaten by her starving pets, police said Friday. Neighbors discovered Sharda Devi's body after they broke into her cabin on Thursday in the township of Nahan in Himachal Pradesh state after they heard only the sound of dogs barking inside the house and no human voice. "An autopsy report showed that Devi, who lived alone with her three dogs, died a few days ago from a massive asthma attack," a police officer said.
■ Japan
Peeling good for the brain
Eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but Japanese scientists have found that peeling one may be good for you too, a newspaper reported yesterday. Experiments by scientists at Japan's National Food Research Institute have shown that cutting the peel from an apple stimulates the most highly evolved section of the brain, the nationally circulated Mainichi newspaper said. According to the report, the team used near infrared spectroscopy analysis to measure changes of blood flow to the frontal brain lobes of 14 adults, ages 23 to 52, while they were peeling apples with a knife. They found blood flow increased "conspicuously" when the subjects actually peeled but did not when they only rubbed the apple with the knife -- leading to the conclusion that a complex task involving the use of a potentially dangerous tool was activating the frontal lobes.
■ Australia
Croc star apologizes
Australia's celebrity crocodile hunter Steve Irwin yesterday apologized for holding his one-month-old son Bob just meters from a feeding crocodile during a show at his zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. "If I could have my time again I would probably do things a little differently," an embarrassed Irwin told reporters at a press conference at which he defended what was slammed as a stupid stunt. "I would be considered a bad parent if I didn't teach my children to be crocodile savvy because they live here, they live in crocodile territory," Irwin said.
■ Colombia
Jailbird elected mayor
The mayor-elect of the town of Quinchia marched from his jail cell to his swearing-in as mayor on Friday -- and returned to lock-up to await action on sedition charges. Colombia's National Prosecutor issued Jorge Uribe a "Get Out of Jail Free" card so he could be inaugurated. Hernando Ramirez, the town notary, said the prosecutor allowed Uribe to swear in -- only after he swore he would return to his cell. Uribe was captured in September along with 89 others suspected of helping rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
■ United States
Corpse surprises embalmer
A New Mexico funeral home owner received the surprise of his career when a man pronounced dead at a hospital came back to life just before he was to be embalmed. Russell Muffley, the owner of Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis, New Mexico, said he noticed Felipe Padilla breathing when the man pronounced dead at a hospital was being transferred to his facility on Wednesday. Padilla, 94, was rushed back to the same hospital, but did not recover. He was declared dead for a second time and was taken back to the funeral home.
■ United Kingdom
Princess almost quit
The British government drew up crisis plans in case Queen Elizabeth's sister Princess Margaret decided to renounce her claim to the throne to pursue a love marriage with a divorced war hero, archived documents show. The documents -- unsealed on Friday at Britain's National Archive after nearly 50 years -- include several versions of a letter drafted by officials on behalf of a young Princess Margaret to her sister the queen. In her letter nearly half a century ago, Margaret would have asked permission to marry the dashing Air Group Captain Peter Townsend, renouncing any claim to the throne. Her decision to give up love for duty was widely admired in the press.
■ Haiti
President under pressure
South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Haitian opposition leaders on Friday as they stepped up demands for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign amid growing unrest. The meeting came a day after bloody clashes broke out between police and protesters on the 200th anniversary of Haitian independence from France and the founding of the first free black republic. At least eight anti-government protesters were injured on Thursday in the clashes, and on Friday Aristide's opponents issued a declaration calling for a transitional government to replace him. Mbeki called the Haitian revolution an inspiration and said Africans on both sides of the Atlantic face common challenges of poverty and conflict.
■ Ivory Coast
Soldier caught with cash
A French soldier supposed to be guarding a bank from fighting in Ivory Coast has been sent back to Paris to face criminal charges after being found carrying a large amount of cash, a military spokesman said on Friday. Authorities believe the money belongs to a branch of the West African central bank in the rebel base of Bouake, where a bloody battle for spoils between bands of rebels and looters left at least 25 dead in September. The cash has been returned to the bank's headquarters in Abidjan.
■ Iraq
US helicopter shot down
Insurgents shot down a US military helicopter west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier, and attackers posing as journalists fired assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at US paratroopers guarding the burning aircraft, US Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said. Enemy fire likely brought down the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior that crashed near Fallujah, he said. Elsewhere, Arab gunmen shot and killed a Kurd amid rising ethnic tensions in Kirkuk, and a minor Baath party official was assassinated. A US tanker was set ablaze in a rebel attack, and coalition forces raiding a Sunni Muslim mosque arrested 32 suspected non-Iraqi Arab insurgents.
■ United States
Bridesmaid sisters killed
Three sisters on their way to be bridesmaids at their brother's wedding were killed in a head-on collision with a minivan near where the ceremony was to take place. The sisters were trying to pass another vehicle on a highway near Willmar in west-central Minnesota when the crash occurred on Thursday night, the State Patrol said. The wedding was to proceed as scheduled yesterday, the family said. "They would totally want this wedding to go on," Debbie Mayer said on Friday of her daughters, aged 19, 17 and 12. The driver of the minivan, a 15-year-old girl with a learner's permit, suffered a broken ankle. Her mother and 12-year-old brother were in the vehicle but were not seriously hurt.
■ United States
Detroit named fattest city
Houston, judged the US' fattest city for the past three years, is starting to look thinner -- but only when it's measured against Detroit. Houston is now the second-fattest city among 25 that were compared by Men's Fitness magazine in its February issue, due out this month. The scales tipped Detroit's way because of a jump in TV viewing, a worsening commute time and a scarcity of gyms, the magazine said. Houston officials were pleased, although the sixth annual survey made it clear their city still could stand to lose more than a few kilograms.
■ United States
More cows quarantined
Authorities quarantined a third herd of cattle in Washington state in a widening investigation of mad cow disease after they located another cow from the same Canadian herd as the infected cow. At least some cows quarantined since the discovery last month of a Holstein with the brain-wasting disease will be destroyed, either because of possible exposure to the infection or to quell public fear, Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said on Friday. "It would be safe to assume that ... some or all those animals will need to be sacrificed," DeHaven said of the quarantined cattle.
■ Canada
Meat ban hurts dog race
US beef, pork and chicken products destined for dogs in an international sled-dog race in Canada will not be allowed across the border because of fears about mad cow disease. Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race organizers this week notified mushers that any dog food containing proscribed meat products could not cross the border because of health concerns. The notice came as many mushers were working to meet a Jan. 23 deadline for having food ready to be delivered to drop points along the 1,600km course from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in