■ India
Fire kills at least 45
An apparent electrical short circuit ignited a fire yesterday in a marriage hall in southern India which killed the groom and 44 others and injured about 60, including the bride, officials said. Some of the victims were burned in the flames, while others were crushed in a stampede down a narrow staircase, the officials said. "Forty-five bodies have been recovered from the marriage hall," said K. Manivasan, the top administrator for Tiruchi district in southern Tamil Nadu state, where the fire broke out at 8:45am. "About 60 have been admitted to various hospitals, some with burn injuries and others with injuries sustained in the stampede," he said. The bride, Jaishree Ramanathan, a schoolteacher, was in serious condition with burns, Manivasan said. The groom, Guru Raghavender, worked at an insurance company, he said.
■ New Zealand
Elephant escapes from zoo
An Auckland Zoo elephant named Burma disrupted rush-hour traffic when it staged a breakout yesterday, dropping a large log on an electric fence before marching out to munch leaves and grass at a nearby park, zoo officials said. Burma spent 25 minutes on the loose in Western Springs Park next to the zoo while police and fire fighters closed nearby roads and onramps to the city's busy northwestern highway as a precaution. The breakout began when the 21-year-old, 2.5-tonne Asian elephant broke the electric fence's circuits by dropping the large log, zoo director Glen Holland said. Burma then climbed into a moat and walked along the zoo fence. Next, she lifted a large gate from its hinges and walked into the adjacent park.
■ The Philippines
WHO issues sex warning
Asia's adolescents are turning increasingly to risky sexual behavior, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, urging governments to do more to promote the sexual health of younger people. WHO regional chief Shigeru Omi said that while "social norms regarding sexual activity and sexual behavior have changed ... [the] environment to support the adolescents to face these changes has not." The organization's studies showed adolescents were uninformed about how best to avoid risky behavior that leads to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, pregnancy-related complications and sexually transmitted diseases, it said. Acceptable, affordable and appropriate sexual health information and services were also lacking, while poverty and unemployment put adolescents in a vulnerable position, it added.
■ Hong Kong
Number portends better year
Last year's ceremony to predict Hong Kong's prospects yielded an unlucky number, and the following months saw SARS ravage the territory. This year, a Hong Kong official picked a better number. Lau Yong-fat, a top rural official, chose number 76 for the Year of the Monkey, from 100 numbered slips in a round bamboo container at the famous Che Kung Taoist temple in Shatin district. The number 76, according to tradition, augurs a mixed year of difficulty and opportunity for Hong Kong. It also means that unity can overcome any problem and pave the way for a better future. That number is certainly better than the No. 83 that Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho picked last year. That number, which means "nothing will be good" and portends a very difficult time, matched by what Hong Kong experienced last year.
■ United States
Priest growing marijuana
A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested for allegedly growing marijuana in his church living quarters. The Reverend Richard A. Arko, 40, was charged Wednesday with illegal cultivation of marijuana. He remained jailed Thursday on US$3,000 bail. Police said they found a marijuana growing system in a spare bedroom and confiscated about 35 potted marijuana plants ranging from 15cm to 1.2m tall, along with grow lights, electric transformers, air purifiers and instruction books for growing marijuana. They also seized two small plastic bags with marijuana.
■ United States
J-Lo and Ben split up
Hollywood's hottest couple, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, have split up, four months after calling off their wedding amid a media frenzy, J-Lo's spokesman said Thursday. "I am confirming the reports that Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck," Lopez's New York based publicist Rob Shuter said. "At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy," he added. Another source close to the US actress and diva said: "I can tell you that Jennifer and Ben have ended their engagement and that there are no plans for a reconciliation." Affleck's publicist however declined to comment on the break-up.
■ United States
Biblical nude camp to open
The first nudist resort created primarily for Christians in the US is due to open in Florida and its co-founder claims that he can provide passages in the Bible where nudity is prominently mentioned. "Depending on the version of the Bible you use, there are as many as 40 passages that refer to nudity," said Bill Martin, co-founder of Natura, which will be the first Christianity-themed nudist colony in the country when it opens in a Tampa suburb in April. "In Isaiah 20.2, God tells Isaiah to go into the wilderness naked for three years. So there's historical basis for a Christian nudist lifestyle," continued Martin, who is a Quaker.
■ Italy
Berlusconi reappears
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made his first public appearance in a month looking trim and tanned after weeks of media speculation he had had plastic surgery. But Berlusconi laughed off the reports, saying: "I spent three hours every morning to get back in shape. I didn't go on a Tibetan diet. Actually I had fun reading all of the fantasies that have come out in the newspapers." Berlusconi's vanishing act had been hot gossip in Italy's squares and cafes with media reports saying the 67-year-old had had a nip and tuck at a private Swiss clinic and undertaken a gruelling training regime. On Thursday evening he was stopped by journalists as he headed out for a shopping spree in central Rome.
■ Israel
Success gets police high
Israeli police had to close an entire floor of their station because the pungent scent of tonnes of confiscated marijuana was making them high, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday. The drugs, smuggled from Egypt, are kept in a storeroom of a police station in the southern town of Dimona. Police have confiscated so much, that the room is filled up almost immediately after its contents are sent to be incinerated. "Every time I came to work I felt ... like I was high," the Maariv newspaper quoted one officer as saying.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of