■ China
Police seek deadly container
Hundreds of police were searching yesterday for a football-sized container of a potentially deadly radioactive substance which explodes if mixed with water after it was stolen from a construction site. The material, cesium-137, has been missing for five days in Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province, the China Daily reported. The substance can cause birth defects, sterility and blood diseases to those who come into contact with it. It is mainly used in photoelectronic batteries, vacuum valves and as a test tool in metal surveys, the paper said. Police believe it was taken by someone unaware of what was inside.
■ Japan
Beijing upset with Koizumi
China is unhappy about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's justification of his visits to a shrine for Japan's war dead, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. Asked in parliament on Tuesday if he felt reluctant to visit Yasukuni shrine because it enshrines war criminals along with other military dead, Koizumi said: "I have no such feeling." He has visited the shrine each year since taking office in 2001, visits condemned by South Korea and China. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) said Beijing thinks the comments were "extremely regrettable" and it wanted to express its displeasure, the Japanese official said, citing Wang's comments to Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
■ South Korea
Ex-dictator faces questions
Prosecutors planned to summon former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan next week, news reports said yesterday, a day after his son was arrested on tax evasion charges. Chun, an ex-army general, took power in a coup in 1979 and ruled for more than 10 years. He was convicted in 1997 of collecting hundreds of billions of won in bribes from businessmen during his presidency. The court ordered him to repay 220 billion won (US$188 million) he is believed to have stashed away. But he has only repaid 33.3 billion won and claims he has only 290,000 won in savings.
■ Singapore
Man fined for lid littering
This tidy city-state's highest court has ruled a local man must pay a 6,000 Singapore dollar (US$3,550) fine for leaving a water-filled plastic pail lid outside, local media reported yesterday. Watering cans, buckets and other receptacles containing stagnant water are not supposed to be left standing in tropical Singapore to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue fever. The Aedes mosquito, which carries the illness, breeds in still water.
■ Australia
Shark wouldn't give up
A swimmer attacked by a small shark was forced to drive for help with it still gnawing his leg, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported reported yesterday. Luke Tresoglavic was swimming at Caves Beach, about 110km north of Sydney, when a 60cm-long wobbegong shark bit his leg and refused to let go, the report said. "I just instantly grabbed hold of it with both hands as hard as I could to stop it shaking," Tresoglavic said. "I just realized I had to swim in like that, hanging on to it. Once I got on to shore, a couple of people tried to help me but I could not remove it, it was stuck there. So I got up into my car and then drove to the clubhouse." Lifesavers removed the shark by hosing it with fresh water and Tresoglavic had only a small cut and a dose of antibiotics to show for his encounter.
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