■ China
Gas death toll up to 243
The death toll from a gas drilling accident that spewed toxic fumes over villages in southwestern China has risen to 243 after 10 injured people died in hospitals, the government said yesterday. An additional 396 people were still being treated following the Dec. 23 disaster northeast of the city of Chongqing, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said 27 were in critical condition. The government on Friday blamed negligence among gas-drilling workers for the accident in which a well blew out and spewed a toxic mix of natural gas and hydrogen sulfide over the mountainous area.
■ Malaysia
Muslims target tight jeans
Authorities in a conservative Malaysian state want Muslim women to completely cover their hair while at work and non-Muslim women to refrain from wearing tight jeans or short skirts, in a crackdown on what they deem as "obscenity." Preachers from the fundamentalist Islamic party that rules Terengganu state will soon accompany officials to businesses and offices to enforce a statewide dress code introduced last year, local government officials said yesterday. Non-Muslim women in tight jeans, short skirts or blouses with ``plunging necklines that show their busts'' would be admonished, said Sulaiman Abdullah, the head of the municipal council of Kuala Terengganu, the state capital. "We don't encourage obscenity here," Sulaiman said. Employers face fines or having their premises closed if workers are found repeatedly flouting the dress code.
■ Australia
Girl takes long road home
An 18-month-old girl who wandered away from her family ended up covering 5km searching for them, police in Australia said yesterday. The toddler vanished into bushland on a farm near Albany in Western Australia. Police spokesman Mark Fairclough said searchers could barely believe she had covered such a distance. "It just goes to show you that that's all it takes," Fairclough told Australia's ABC Radio. "You turn your back on mobile children for a couple of moments and they can take off."
■ Hong Kong
Women groped on subway
Two out of three Hong Kong women say they have been groped or touched by men while travelling on buses and underground trains, a news report said yesterday. Forty-two per cent of victims were targeted on the city's crowded Mass Transit Railway (MTR) underground system, while 38 percent were assaulted on buses, according to the Hong Kong Standard. The survey by a group called Gutsy Women found that nearly one in three would pretend nothing had happened, while half would just stare angrily at their attackers. Women who did complain about the assaults said that they found staff indifferent, researchers said.
■ Hong Kong
Crocodile person of the year
An escaped crocodile that has been on the loose on the Hong Kong-China border for more than two months was yesterday named Hong Kong's Person of the Year. The evasive 1.5m reptile, first spotted in early November and believed to be an escaped pet, beat a host of politicians and celebrities to win the poll, run by government radio station RTHK. The crocodile, not sighted since mid-December, won nearly 32 percent of votes in the online vote, far ahead of second-placed Hong Kong collective hospital workers with 19 percent. Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), got less than five per cent of votes.
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