■ Hong Kong
CNN sacks news staff
Global TV news channel CNN International has axed almost a fifth of the staff at its Asian news hub in Hong Kong as part of a shake-up in the way it gathers news, sources said yesterday. Sources said at least nine of the TV news company's 50 staff in Hong Kong had been laid off on Thursday. A spokeswoman said jobs had been lost, adding that they were mostly from the production side and not editorial, but declined to give the number involved. CNN International has reorganized its newsgathering operations to make more use of staff in CNN International's other news hubs.
■ South Korea
Stone Age footprints found
Fossilized footprints from Stone Age men have been discovered for the first time in Asia in South Korea, cultural authorities said yesterday. Some 100 detailed footprints from the Paleolithic Age, which dates back 50,000 years, were found on the southern coast of the southern island of Jeju last October, the Cultural Properties Administration said. This is first discovery of Paleolithic men's fossilized footprints in Asia and the world's seventh, according to officials of the Cultural Properties Administration. The six other countries where they were found are Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Italy, France and Chile.
■ China
Fat dogs get diet training
It gives a whole new meaning to capitalist running dogs. An increasing number of pet pooches in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen are in training to reduce weight, the China Daily said yesterday. Shenzhen, among the first of China's special economic zones, has grown from a small village bordering Hong Kong to a metropolis boasting one of China's two stock exchanges. "The dogs are fed diet food, encouraged to exercise more and washed with fat-reducing shampoo," the China Daily said. "Rich food and a lack of exercise in the city are the main reasons for the dogs being overweight."
■ The Philippines
Peace talks to resume
The government said yesterday that peace talks aimed at ending a 35-year-old Marxist insurgency will resume as scheduled next week despite a recent surge in rebel attacks. The Feb. 10 to Feb. 13 meeting between government negotiators and exiled communist leaders will be hosted and mediated by the Norwegian government, which brokered the last round of failed negotiations three years ago. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who's running in May 10 elections, appears eager to move the peace process forward and capitalize on a possible deal. But the rebels have threatened to step up attacks to reduce her election chances, saying an opposition victory would boost peace prospects.
■ Thailand
Local porn to be curbed
Thailand's Culture Ministry has vowed to crack down on the local production of pornographic films, which it blames for a spate of gang rapes committed by teenagers, news reports said yesterday. Vice Minister for Culture Veerasak Khawsurat was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying the ministry plans to seize the assets of porn producers and ban actors and actresses in the films from the entertainment industry for five years. The plans would be implemented under a proposal for the Culture Ministry to take over the role of censorship from the police department. He said particular attention would be paid to pornographic VCDs and DVDs.
■ United Kingdom
Bodies recovered from sea
At least eight bodies have been found by rescue teams searching for missing cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay, a police spokesman said yesterday. The rescue services earlier said they were seeking 16 men, some thought to be Chinese, who they feared could have drowned after becoming trapped while looking for cockles on mudflats off the northwest coast of England. A massive security operation was launched late Thursday with several helicopters and coast guard lifeboats. Ten men were quickly found, eight of whom were being questioned at Lancaster police station. One -- a Chinese man -- was suffering from hypothermia.
■ Cuba
Visas for Grammys denied
Cuba expressed anger Thursday at the US' denial of entry visas for Cuban performers nominated for Grammy Awards, including the high-profile Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social Club fame. The artists want to attend the Grammy ceremonies in Los Angeles tomorrow. In an official statement, the Cuban government said it was an outrage that visas were denied to the Cubans based on an article of US immigration law applied to terrorists, assassins, drug traffickers and anyone who constitutes a threat to the security of the US.
■ Nigeria
Scam lands five in court
Five alleged perpetrators of the world's biggest advance-fee fraud scam were taken before a Nigerian High Court Thursday charged with 86 counts of duping a Brazilian bank out of US$242 million. Emmanuel Nwude, former director of Union Bank, a top-rated bank in Nigeria, led the accused, who all pleaded not guilty. The prosecution alleged that Nwude and two accomplices swindled the Brazilian bank while claiming to have won a contract for the construction of Nigeria's international airport in Abuja. The two other accused were lawyers who allegedly attempted to bribe the chairman of Nigeria's anti-crime agency, Nuhu Ribadu, to effect the release of the first three.
■ Bolivia
Woman, 81, put in prison
Inmates of a women's prison in Bolivia angrily protested the detention of an ill 81-year-old woman accused of using fake documents to acquire property, the media reported Thursday. Her fellow prisoners at the Cochabamba detention center were so infuriated that they forced guards to open the woman's cell. "It's really bad to see an elderly woman in a prison. It's not the kind of place for an 81-year-old woman and less so with the health problems she has," one inmate was quoted as saying.
■ United States
Clown noses for Valentine's
The Circus World Museum isn't clowning around with its offer of the perfect Valentine's Day gift: a bouquet of bright red, long-stem noses. Yes, noses -- as in the red rubber devices clowns like to wear. "It's saying, `I love saying I love you in a funny, fun way,'" said Ed Taylor, spokesman for the museum, quoting from a recent "noses bouquet" customer. Valentine's Day fall on Feb. 14. The state-supported museum, located where the Ringling Brothers Circus once had its winter quarters, began selling the bouquets last year and found a big demand. "We are shooting to beat last year's 400 dozen we sold out with," Taylor said.";
■ France
Deal reached on scarf law
France's ruling conservatives and left-wing opposition on Thursday struck an accord over a draft law banning Muslim headscarves and other religious insignia in state schools. The deal paves the way for the controversial draft legislation to be approved during a formal vote by the National Assembly on Tuesday. The opposition Socialists had said their backing depended on an amendment requiring the law to be reviewed after a year, and on the understanding that it would not be wielded in a way that would alienate religious communities. French public opinion backs the idea of a ban on conspicuous religious insignia in state schools, as does President Jacques Chirac and some key ministers.
■ Haiti
Police station attacked
Four people were killed and at least 20 injured on Thursday when armed anti-government militants torched a police station and staged a huge jailbreak in the Haitian town of Gonaives, opponents of the president said. "Four neighborhood civilians were killed in the shootout," said Buteur Metayer, a leader with the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front. Metayer's group seized the police station and freed 100 prisoners believed to have been held in the adjacent jail earlier Thursday. They then torched the station and spread through the city, later torching the home of Gonaives' mayor. Witnesses said they saw police officers emerging from the besieged police station with their hands in the air.
■ South Africa
Rock art ages overnight
Rock paintings at uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, one of the world's prime locations for this kind of art, have been found to be much older than previously believed, archeologists said on Thursday. Through the use of new radio carbon dating technology, the paintings in red, black, white and orange pigment at the site in eastern South Africa were found to be 3000 years old, Claire Jordan of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom said. The findings had major implications for the understanding of how the artists -- the San hunter-gatherers who settled there some 8000 years ago -- lived.
■ United States
Mother allowed child abuse
A mother was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison on Thursday for letting an Illinois man molest her daughter in their St. Louis home in exchange for cash. The woman was convicted of conspiring with the man and of aiding him in crossing state lines to have sex with the girl. Joseph Champion, 55, of Granite City, Illinois, pleaded guilty in July to molesting the girl in 1997, when she was under the age of 12. Champion was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he agreed to testify against the mother, who was convicted in November.
■ United Kingdom
Death told of 18 months late
Police are investigating the case of an elderly man who apparently didn't discover that his brother had died in until 18 months later. On Dec. 3, Herbert Silver, 72, called police to tell them of the "sudden death" of his 75-year-old brother, George. When authorities visited the scene, they found a decomposing body. George's cadaver was found in his bedroom in the home in the southern English town of Fordingbridge. Police declined to comment about what might have happened, saying an inquest would be held about how Silver could not have noticed for so long that his brother was dead.";
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